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ESPN Features Deep Roster For College Hoops Coverage

Jason Barrett

Published

8 years ago

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ESPN’s 2015-16 men’s college basketball telecasts – more than 1,900 exclusive games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN3, ESPN College Extra, SEC Network, SEC Digital Network and Longhorn Network – will showcase a deep roster of commentators. The wealth of experience working games on ESPN networks include former Division I coaches and NBA, WNBA and collegiate players, along with versatile and veteran play-by-play voices.

Non-conference coverage of more than 750 contests get underway in world-wide fashion on Friday, Nov. 13, with the fourth annual Armed Forces Classic – this year staged from Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan and showcasing Pittsburgh vs. No. 9 Gonzaga at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

College GameDay Covered by State Farm will make an early-season appearance on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the fifth annual State Farm Champions Classic, the neutral-site, early-season men’s doubleheader on ESPN that matches four of the winningest programs against each other: No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 5 Duke at 7:30 p.m. and No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 13 Michigan State at 10 p.m.

ESPN will provide fans with live coverage of at least one game on an ESPN television linear network every day but eight from November 13 to March 6 (November 14, 18 and 28; December 11, 14, 24 and 26; and January 11).

Commentator Highlights

  • A new pairing this season is play-by-play veteran Sean McDonough and analyst Doris Burke on the ACC Big Monday
  • The trio of Brent Musburger, Fran Fraschilla and Holly Rowe return to work Big 12Big Monday
  • Analyst Jay Bilas, entering his 22nd season at ESPN, will be paired with Dan Shulmanand reporter Shannon Spake on the Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV game that host’s that day’s College GameDay Driven by State Farm.
  • College GameDay returns for its 12th season as host Rece Davis, Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams will follow the top storylines as the season develops with a schedule that features several options each week to choose from each Saturday, beginning January 23.
  • Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Vitale, who enters his 37th season calling games for the network, will join with Dave O’Brien and reporter Allison Williams each Saturday mainly for the marquee ACC matchup.
  • Davis will pair with Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun on a Big Ten Thursday Night Showcase
  • Mike Tirico, the voice of Monday Night Football, pairs again with analyst Dan Dakich,in addition to Williams for the weekly Big Ten Super Tuesday Dakich will also call a Saturday Big Ten contest with Bob Wischusen.
  • ESPN’s weekly Super Tuesday SEC telecast will see the return of Brad Nessler, Sean Farnham and Spake. Farnham will also join Joe Tessitore on the Thursday SEC telecast.
  • Analyst Kara Lawson and Mark Jones will call the Saturday SEC window, plus Lawson will make a weekly appearance in ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios on Thursday nights.
  • Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton will again have the call of Pac-12 games on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday with Dave Pasch.
  • ACC games will also be covered by Wischusen and LaPhonso Ellis(Wednesday/Thursday) and on Saturdays by Mike Couzens and Cory Alexander.
  • Big 12 Tuesday and Saturday games will be called by Dave Flemming and Miles Simon, in addition to a Saturday contest called by Jon Sciambi and Fraschilla.
  • American games will see Mike Patrick and Len Elmore on Thursday nights and Allen Bestwick and Tim Welsh on Saturdays.
  • Additional Saturday pairings include Rich Hollenberg and Mark Adams on Missouri Valley telecasts, Adam Amin and Craig Robinson working Atlantic-10 games and Beth Mowins and Brad Dougherty paired for West Coast Conference games.
  • The ESPNU ACC Sunday Night Basketball series will be called by Anish Shroff and Cory Alexander.
  • New to ESPNU, Ted Emrich, Alex Faust, Kevin Fitzgerald and Jenn Hildreth bring a depth of play-by-play experience, in addition to analysts Jason Capel, Antwan Jamisonand Chris Spatola joining the 24-hour college sports network.
  • SEC Network will present more than 120 SEC games exclusively, and will include analysts Dane Bradshaw, Barry Booker, Joe Dean, Jr., Tony Delk, Andrew DeClerq, Daymeon Fishback, John Pelphrey and Jon Sundvold, as well as play-by-play commentators Dave Baker, Tom Hart, Mike Morgan, Dave Neal and John Saunders.
  • Longhorn Network will surround the network’s nine exclusive Texas men’s basketball games with studio programming that includes Game Plan with head coach Shaka Smart, as well as a simulcast of his weekly radio show. Texas GameDay will air from non-conference home games against North Carolina and UConn, in addition to select conferences games. Lowell Galindo will call play-by-play for the network with analystLance Blanks.

Studio Coverage
In addition to Greenberg, Lawson and Williams, ESPN and ESPN2 studio programming from Bristol will also include Dakich, Ellis, Farnham, Fraschilla, Jeff Goodman, Andy Katz and Simon.

ESPNU will rotate its studio coverage including analysts Cory Alexander, Adrian Branch andDino Gaudio, as well as newcomers Jason Capel, Antawn Jamison and Chris Spatola. Studio hosts include Brendan Fitzgerald, Matt Schick and Anish Shroff.

ESPN Buzzer Beater
Analyst Tim McCormick will be seen on the sixth season of ESPN Buzzer Beater – which offers live cut-ins and highlights from numerous top college basketball games Saturdays from noon to 11 p.m. and Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., beginning Wednesday, Jan. 6.

ESPN.com
Katz, Goodman, Eamonn Brennan, Myron Medcalf, Dana O’Neil, C.L Brown and John Gasaway will provide reporting, analysis and original video on ESPN.com throughout the season, while Paul Biancardi, Jeff Borzello, Adam Finkelstein and Reggie Rankin will contribute to college basketball recruiting coverage. Also, Bracketologist Joe Lunardi will keep an eye on what the NCAA Championship field might look like come March.

Season Overview
Announcers across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN3, SEC Network and Longhorn Network will call games involving more than 400 teams from all 32 Division I conferences.

Commentators can also be seen during ESPN’s popular weekly series’ beginning in January –Big Monday, Super Tuesday presented by Hotels.com, Wednesday Night Hoops, Thursday Night Showcase, College GameDay Covered by State Farm, Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV and ESPNU ACC Sunday Night Basketball – plus a full slate of games throughout the season.

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Chris Evert: Athletes in Individual Sports Have to Learn to be on a Team in Broadcasting

“It’s been growth for me to be on a team. Tennis, you’ve got to be selfish and so self-absorbed and think about yourself.”
Ricky Keeler

Published

12 hours ago

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May 26, 2023

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It is never too late to re-learn something or adjust to a new way of doing things. For Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert, she did not have success in her eyes when she first started calling matches. 

Evert was a guest on the Fowler Who You Got? Podcast with Chris Fowler and she said that when she first called matches for NBC along with Jimmy Connors, she did not feel she was at her best.

“It was so circus and we got no training, nobody kind of guided us. I think right after you retire, maybe I needed a breather, but I was really bad. I was awful.”

Evert ended up going to ESPN in 2011 as an analyst and she said that having the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida helped her learn the changes in the game of tennis compared to when she played and allowed her to go more inside the lines. 

“I watched the kids play tournaments. I see the pros would come in and I watched them train. I was getting an education by going to my tennis academy and I think that kind of made my commentating a little deeper and a little more informative. I feel like I can talk about the mental side with my eyes closed, but the physical shotmaking was what was different. I had to re-learn the game.”

When a tennis player goes from the court to the broadcast space, they go from being in a highly individual sport to being a part of the team. Evert mentioned that she used to worry about what assignments the other analysts were getting, but now that she feels comfortable, she wants the team to succeed.

“It’s been growth for me to be on a team. Tennis, you’ve got to be selfish and so self-absorbed and think about yourself. In this team aspect, you stand out like a sore thumb and everyone knows if you think about yourself. We have a great team. We have so many different personalities. Everybody is so different and I think that adds to the color and the commentating.” 

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Domonique Foxworth: First Take is ‘Us Against the Audience’

“When you do first take with Stephen A, you learn that he understands that we are on the same team.”
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Published

15 hours ago

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May 26, 2023

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There is an art to the debate shows on ESPN. Domonique Foxworth is a frequent presence on many of them. On Friday, he said that he had to learn that in that format, opponents are actually teammates.

“I think the First Take thing is always an interesting one, and I’ve mentioned this before. People forget when you’re on First Take, we on the same team,” he told Bomani Jones on the latest edition of The Right Time. “When you do first take with Stephen A, you learn that he understands that we are on the same team.”

Both Foxworth and Jones admitted that they are fierce debaters and like to win. Stephen A. Smith made sure that Foxworth understood the reality of television. Even if things seem adversarial to the audience, two people debating on a show like First Take have to come in with the same goal.

“It’s us against the audience. Like, we try to keep you from changing the channel.”

First Take is not your standard debate. Foxworth said that Smith made sure he understood that there is no score. Wanting to win the argument is good, but it is important to understand what “winning” means in that setting.

“My inclination was, I’m here for blood, I want to win. And while wanting to win is important, to make the show entertaining, cutting people off and yelling and preemptively defeating their points? That shit ain’t entertaining,” he said. “You know what’s entertaining? Having a conversation where I make a point, you make a point, we build on it, and we grow to a point that we get better information. That’s not how First Take is built. So what’s entertaining there is I shoot a jab, you shoot a jab.”

This isn’t the first time that Domonique Foxworth has talked about the learning experience he has had on the First Take set. On an episode of The Right Time last year, he told Jones that he has come into debates with Chris Russo with the goal of triggering one of Mad Dog’s infamous rants, because that is what the audience wants to see.

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Jimmy Pitaro: ESPN Priority is Expanding Our Audience & Pat McAfee Does That

“I have a son and a daughter, both of whom not just know who Pat is but they like him, and I have a father who also happens to really like Pat.”
Jordan Bondurant

Published

1 day ago

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May 26, 2023

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The announcement of Pat McAfee joining forces with ESPN raised a lot of questions as to whether McAfee’s daily brand of sports talk can sustain itself for the long-term on cable.

But ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro has no doubts that Pat can be wildly successful for years to come. He spoke with The Big Lead recently and said bringing McAfee’s show to the daily lineup allows the network to tap into a different audience.

“When we talk about our priorities at ESPN, one of the things we always mention is audience expansion,” Pitaro said. “That means a lot of things, but it especially means attracting a younger audience. We feel like Pat really helps us in that regard.”

“I have a son and a daughter, both of whom not just know who Pat is but they like him, and I have a father who also happens to really like Pat,” he added. “That’ll tell you a lot about his appeal.”

Also expanding the relationship between The Worldwide Leader and McAfee made sense in Pitaro’s eyes. The two sides already have a history.

“We’ve been in business with Pat for some time by now,” he said. “He’s done a fantastic job for us on College GameDay, he’s done some alternate broadcasts that have really resonated with our audience, so we feel like his show is a natural extension of what we’re already doing.”

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