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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Michael Potter
Voice of the Antelopes in 4th Year of Double Duty
2/10/2013 8:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball
PacWest Men’s Race Tightening Up
Voice of the Antelopes in 4th Year of Double Duty
OAKLAND, Calif. – GCU’s Michael Potter calls almost as many basketball games as the Phoenix Suns’ Al McCoy, but only the most dedicated followers of the Antelopes would know that.
Potter, 44, is in his fourth season as the play-by-play voice of the Antelope men’s and women’s teams. A 30-game regular season for each team, home and away, puts him courtside for a solid four and a half months, describing the action for online listeners at www.gculopes.com.
Unlike McCoy, it’s not even his regular gig. By day, he’s a sales rep, currently for Hanover Insurance. He’s a family guy, too; he and his wife, Lori, have four children age 12 and younger, including 10-year-old twins.
“I love to do this,” said Potter, a 1990 graduate of Grand Canyon, after calling Saturday’s two games at Holy Names University in Oakland.
“Calling both the men’s and women’s games is kind of unique because most (college) broadcasters do one or the other. I’ve gotten better at the turnaround – the men’s game is so much faster. I think I’ve also gotten better at knowing the players and describing the action.”
This isn’t Potter’s first tour of duty announcing Grand Canyon athletics. In the 1990s, when the Antelopes briefly were part of the Western Athletic Conference in baseball, he called those games while working as sports director for now-defunct KHEP (1280 AM) radio.
He had returned to Phoenix after trying to make a go of an acting career in Los Angeles, which he said resulted in a part on an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” but not much else. As a student at Grand Canyon, he majored in theatre and was involved in more than a dozen Ethington Theatre productions over four years.
“Claude Pensis is the best director ever,” Potter said of the dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production. “He’s the reason I came to Grand Canyon.”
Potter’s uncle, Don Browning, was on the school’s board of trustees at the time that Potter was looking to leave his native Kansas City for college. Plans to walk on to the Antelope baseball team were scrapped when “I saw how good they were,” Potter said.
In his second year as a Grand Canyon student, the basketball team won the NAIA championship under Head Coach Paul Westphal. That team will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its title later this month as Westphal is inducted into the GCU Hall of Fame.
“I was at the national championship game at Kemper Arena in Kansas City and we stormed the court,” Potter said.
Asked to describe his play-by-play style, he said the announcers he admires most are the ones who let the game do some of its own talking.
“I try to paint the picture and let the listener fill in the gaps,” Potter said. “You try to give them a feeling for what’s happening in the gym, things like the officiating. I wouldn’t say I’m a ‘homer,’ but you know where my loyalties lie.”
He acknowledged he’d like the opportunity to call GCU’s first season of NCAA Division I basketball in the WAC in 2013-14.
“(Assistant Athletic Director) Mike McNally tells me that I’m a game-to-game decision,” he joked. “It’s out of my hands. But I really enjoy this.”
PacWest Men’s Race Tightening Up
The team to watch in the Pacific West Conference men’s race might be red-hot Chaminade, which has won 10 of its last 11 games and has a favorable schedule the rest of the way. The Silverswords, averaging 82.2 points per game in the conference, play four of their remaining five games at home.
After Saturday’s games, Dixie State (11-1) is in first place, Chaminade (10-3) in second and GCU (9-3) in third. The first- and second-place teams will receive byes into the second round of the six-team PacWest tournament, which will be played March 7-9 at Azusa Pacific in suburban Los Angeles.
Fresno Pacific, California Baptist and Azusa Pacific would be in contention for the PacWest tournament field but aren’t eligible while transitioning to Division II from NAIA.
The winner of the PacWest tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II West Region tournament. A second bid in the eight-team regional probably would go to the PacWest regular-season champion, if different from the tournament winner.
The West Region, which encompasses three conferences, is loaded. Teams from the region currently ranked in the national Top 10 are defending national champion Western Washington (No. 2, 22-0), Cal Poly Pomona (No. 4, 19-1) and Seattle Pacific (No. 6, 17-3).
Email Doug Carroll at doug.carroll@gcu.edu.
OAKLAND, Calif. – GCU’s Michael Potter calls almost as many basketball games as the Phoenix Suns’ Al McCoy, but only the most dedicated followers of the Antelopes would know that.
Potter, 44, is in his fourth season as the play-by-play voice of the Antelope men’s and women’s teams. A 30-game regular season for each team, home and away, puts him courtside for a solid four and a half months, describing the action for online listeners at www.gculopes.com.
Unlike McCoy, it’s not even his regular gig. By day, he’s a sales rep, currently for Hanover Insurance. He’s a family guy, too; he and his wife, Lori, have four children age 12 and younger, including 10-year-old twins.
“I love to do this,” said Potter, a 1990 graduate of Grand Canyon, after calling Saturday’s two games at Holy Names University in Oakland.
“Calling both the men’s and women’s games is kind of unique because most (college) broadcasters do one or the other. I’ve gotten better at the turnaround – the men’s game is so much faster. I think I’ve also gotten better at knowing the players and describing the action.”
This isn’t Potter’s first tour of duty announcing Grand Canyon athletics. In the 1990s, when the Antelopes briefly were part of the Western Athletic Conference in baseball, he called those games while working as sports director for now-defunct KHEP (1280 AM) radio.
He had returned to Phoenix after trying to make a go of an acting career in Los Angeles, which he said resulted in a part on an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” but not much else. As a student at Grand Canyon, he majored in theatre and was involved in more than a dozen Ethington Theatre productions over four years.
“Claude Pensis is the best director ever,” Potter said of the dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production. “He’s the reason I came to Grand Canyon.”
Potter’s uncle, Don Browning, was on the school’s board of trustees at the time that Potter was looking to leave his native Kansas City for college. Plans to walk on to the Antelope baseball team were scrapped when “I saw how good they were,” Potter said.
In his second year as a Grand Canyon student, the basketball team won the NAIA championship under Head Coach Paul Westphal. That team will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its title later this month as Westphal is inducted into the GCU Hall of Fame.
“I was at the national championship game at Kemper Arena in Kansas City and we stormed the court,” Potter said.
Asked to describe his play-by-play style, he said the announcers he admires most are the ones who let the game do some of its own talking.
“I try to paint the picture and let the listener fill in the gaps,” Potter said. “You try to give them a feeling for what’s happening in the gym, things like the officiating. I wouldn’t say I’m a ‘homer,’ but you know where my loyalties lie.”
He acknowledged he’d like the opportunity to call GCU’s first season of NCAA Division I basketball in the WAC in 2013-14.
“(Assistant Athletic Director) Mike McNally tells me that I’m a game-to-game decision,” he joked. “It’s out of my hands. But I really enjoy this.”
PacWest Men’s Race Tightening Up
The team to watch in the Pacific West Conference men’s race might be red-hot Chaminade, which has won 10 of its last 11 games and has a favorable schedule the rest of the way. The Silverswords, averaging 82.2 points per game in the conference, play four of their remaining five games at home.
After Saturday’s games, Dixie State (11-1) is in first place, Chaminade (10-3) in second and GCU (9-3) in third. The first- and second-place teams will receive byes into the second round of the six-team PacWest tournament, which will be played March 7-9 at Azusa Pacific in suburban Los Angeles.
Fresno Pacific, California Baptist and Azusa Pacific would be in contention for the PacWest tournament field but aren’t eligible while transitioning to Division II from NAIA.
The winner of the PacWest tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II West Region tournament. A second bid in the eight-team regional probably would go to the PacWest regular-season champion, if different from the tournament winner.
The West Region, which encompasses three conferences, is loaded. Teams from the region currently ranked in the national Top 10 are defending national champion Western Washington (No. 2, 22-0), Cal Poly Pomona (No. 4, 19-1) and Seattle Pacific (No. 6, 17-3).
Email Doug Carroll at doug.carroll@gcu.edu.
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