Have your pencil & scorecards ready. ESPN/ABC have announced their NCAA Basketball crews for the upcoming season. With the NBA lockout still very much going on, the "Worldwide Leader" has added some crews that normally would be calling pro games on Wednesday & Friday nights, as well as Sunday afternoons.
RETURNING TEAMS: *Dan Shulman & Dick Vitale (Saturday PrimeTime Presented by DIRECTV) *Brent Musburger, Bob Knight & Holly Rowe (Big Monday-Big 12 Games) *Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery & Jay Bilas (Big Monday-Big East Games/Saturday PrimeTime) *Mike Patrick & Len Elmore (ACC Saturdays) *Brad Nessler & Jimmy Dykes (SEC Super Tuesday & Saturday Games) *Carter Blackburn & LaPhonso Ellis (Wednesday Big East Games on ESPNU) Other analysts that will be calling games at courtside this season include Fran Fraschilla describing Big 12 & Big East games, Stephen Bardo & Sean Farnham describing Big 12 & West Coast games on ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU respectively.
NEW on ESPN/ABC's NCAA: With the NBA lockout still very much going on, ESPN/ABC will have NBA voices Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy & Mike Tirico working college games this season to keep them busy. Tirico will be working Big Ten basketball games with second year analyst Dan Dakich Tuesday nights as part of "Super Tuesday". Also, a new "Sunday Night ACC" package launches with ESPN Radio's MLB voice Jon Sciambi calling the games this winter with Hubert Davis & sideline reporter Allison Williams. Got all that?
Additionally, Davis, Bilas, Digger Phelps and host Rece Davis return for a new season of "College GameDay". The basketball version, like its football counterpart, tips off on ESPNU first. It's a little different for hoops, where ESPNU starts "GameDay" at 9a, compared to 8a on the ABC/Disney-owned college sports network for pigskin. Rece, Hubert, Jay & Digger then take over at 10a, live from the arena of ESPN's prime college basketball game starting in January. A one hour primetime version of "GameDay" airs at 7p Saturday nights before the big college game that Shulman & Vitale will call that night. In total, a whopping 1,450 games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, including games ESPN produces for the Big East Network, the ACC & SEC Networks via syndication. The 1,450 games are an ESPN record for basketball.
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