Mike Dodd - color commentator for Olympic volleyball was really good

[gristy]

Much better than what's his name who used to do both indoor and outdoor but was only doing outdoor this year. Dodd was knowledgeable, made relevant comments, and didn't talk too much. He even called them games (5 games in a match, NOT 5 sets in a match). Folks who call them sets I keep thinking they're confusing volleyball with tennis. I guess they both have nets, anyways.

Camera work was really good, too. They didn't try to follow the ball and they showed the entire defensive court BEFORE the ball was hit. Basically they showed most of both sides of the court. If they were panning back and forth I didn't even notice it. In the past they'd be way too close, you couldn't see the defense, and you'd get dizzy from all the panning.

They could have used the cameras from the end of the courts a bit more.

But it really was good stuff. Way to go NBC!

p.s. Men are playing (Russia?) for the bronze tomorrow, having lost to Brazil (#1 ranked) in 3 today.

[GalleryGod]

1. Nice guy,Too! Knew him during the late 80's Miami Beach

At the dawn of Pro Beach Volleyball!
:toast:

[Awsi Dooger]

2. The glory days of Hovland and Dodd

One of my favorite beach volleyball duos ever, crude and outlandish Tim Hovland paired with steady, classy Mike Dodd.

Dodd's commentary is excellent. He doesn't try to be as flashy as the other guy, Chris Marlowe, the captain of the '84 gold medal squad even though he barely played. When I was in college, Marlowe tried to hit on my hot date, Suzy, when I took her to a USC/UCLA volleyball match at Pauley. So I was never exactly thrilled with him myself.

Damn, this Brazilian team is loaded with explosive talent, straight down kills from behind the 10 foot line.

I'm still a volleyball purist who prefers side-out scoring to rally scoring and calls them games and not sets. There is no way a team should be able to close out a game or match with a routine side-out and earn a point for it. In the side-out days, it was hardly uncommon for a team to overcome a 14-9 deficit. Now that's virtually impossible, although the USA made a rare comeback from 20-12 down to Greece the other night.

Tonight on ESPN the scroll lists the volleyball scores as 3 sets to 0, not 3 games to 0. I have no idea how that odd terminology started, or why it has become accepted.