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2016-17 Men’s Basketball Schedule on ESPN Networks
Dakich, Fraschilla & Williams Sign Multi-Year Deals
- College GameDay Returns for 13th Season
- Musburger the new Tuesday Voice of SEC Telecasts; Bob Wischusen to Call Big 12 Games
- Dan Shulman, Dave Flemming & Molly McGrath Join Big Ten Telecasts
- Jay Bilas, Doris Burke & Dick Vitale to Share ACC Big Monday Telecasts
- Maria Taylor Added as Sideline Reporter to Saturday Primetime Game
ESPN networks – the home of men’s college hoops – will once again feature a deep and experienced roster of commentators, many of whom have new roles, on more than 1,100 exclusive games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network and Longhorn Network. The roster includes former Division I and NBA coaches, former NBA, WNBA and collegiate players, along with versatile and veteran play-by-play voices and reporters.
The 2016-17 season begins from Honolulu on Friday, Nov. 11, with the fifth annual State Farm Armed Forces Classic, just under a month before the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. ESPN’s Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV crew of Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will be on hand for the doubleheader – pitting pre-season ranked No. 13 Arizona against No. 10 Michigan State (7 p.m. ET) and No. 12 Indiana vs. No. 3 Kansas (9 p.m.) on ESPN. Reporters Andy Katz and Molly McGrath will also be on hand from the Stan Sheriff Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii with surrounding events at the U.S. Navy Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Host Rece Davis with analysts Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams return for the 13th season of College GameDay Covered by State Farm. The crew will visit many early-season games, beginning with the State Farm Armed Forces Classic in Honolulu, and will follow the top storylines as the season develops with a schedule that features several options to choose from each week.
Commentator Highlights
- Brent Musburger joins ESPN’s Super Tuesday SEC telecasts with Sean Farnham and Kaylee Hartung. Farnham will again be paired with Joe Tessitore on Thursday SEC games, and will also spend time in ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios.
- Bob Wischusen will call Big 12 games with Fran Fraschilla as part of Big Monday and also on Saturdays, as released yesterday. Reporter Holly Rowe returns for the Monday night telecast.
- Announced yesterday, Dan Shulman and Dave Flemming will join analyst Dan Dakich on most Super Tuesday Big Ten telecasts, along with reporter McGrath, also new to the package. Flemming and Dakich will also call a Saturday Big Ten game.
- Bilas, Doris Burke and Dick Vitale will rotate to call ACC Big Monday games with Sean McDonough. On the marquee ACC Saturday telecasts, Dave O’Brien will mostly be joined by Burke, who is also part of the network’s season-long NBA coverage, or Vitale, who enters his 38th season calling games for ESPN. Allison Williams will be the sideline reporter on both Monday and Saturday.
- Reporter Maria Taylor adds sideline duties to her already busy studio schedule on the Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV game with Shulman and Bilas.
- Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun will be part of a Big Ten Thursday night game, and will start the season partnered with Jason Benetti, and eventually Davis, once the college football season is complete.
- Analyst Kara Lawson is mainly paired with Tom Hart on the Saturday SEC window, in addition to her women’s basketball role and a weekly appearance in ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios on Thursday nights.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton will rotate on the call of Pac-12 games on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday with Dave Pasch.
- ACC games will also be covered by Karl Ravech and mostly LaPhonso Ellis (Wednesday/Thursday), Rich Hollenberg and Dino Gaudio (Tuesday), Mike Couzens and Cory Alexander (Saturday) and Anish Shroff with Alexander on the ESPNU ACC Sunday Night Basketball
- Additional Big 12 contests will be called by Miles Simon, with Jon Sciambi (Tuesday) and Hollenberg (Saturday). Also, newcomer and former Villanova standout Mark Plansky will pair Mark Neely, also on Saturdays.
- American games welcome Adam Amin, with Len Elmore (Thursday) and Allen Bestwick and Tim Welsh (Saturday).
- Additional pairings include Beth Mowins, who also works ESPN’s women’s college basketball coverage, and newcomer Dalen Cuff on SEC games, Mitch Holthus and Mark Adams on Missouri Valley telecasts, Mike Corey and Jason Capel working Atlantic 10 games and Eric Rothman and Adrian Branch for West Coast Conference games.
- The play-by-play roster on ESPNU includes Benetti, Couzens and Holthus, plus Jordan Bernfield, Roxy Bernstein, John Brickley, Ted Emrich, Alex Faust, Sam Farber, Drew Fellios, Kevin Fitzgerald, Clay Matvick, Roy Philpott and Doug Sherman, in addition to analysts Adams, Daugherty and Welsh, plus Adrian Branch, Reid Gettys, Sean Harrington, Malcolm Huckaby, Bryndon Manzer, Richie Schueler, Chris Spatola, Julianne Viani, Brooke Weisbrod, Corey Williams and Mark Wise.
- SEC Network will present more than 120 SEC games exclusively, and will include analysts Pat Bradley, Dane Bradshaw, Barry Booker, Tony Delk, Daymeon Fishback, Jarvis Hayes, Kyle Macy, Jon Sundvold and Antoine Walker, as well as play-by-play commentators Amin and Hart, plus Richard Cross, Mike Morgan and Dave Neal.
- 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. Texas GameDay will air from non-conference home games against Oklahoma State (Jan. 4), TCU (Jan. 11) and Kansas State (Feb. 18). Lowell Galindo will call play-by-play for the network alongside Longhorn Legend, analyst Lance Blanks.
Studio Coverage
In addition to Greenberg, Farnham, Lawson and Williams, ESPN and ESPN2 studio programming from Bristol will also include appearances from Dakich, Ellis, Fraschilla, Katz and Jeff Goodman.
ESPNU will rotate its studio coverage to include analysts Alexander, Capel, Gaudio, Spatola, plus Debbie Antonelli and Paul Biancardi. Studio hosts include Shroff, Brendan Fitzgerald and Matt Schick.
ESPN Buzzer Beater
Analyst Tim McCormick will be seen on the seventh season of ESPN Buzzer Beater – which offers live cut-ins and highlights from numerous top college basketball games Saturdays from 1-11 p.m. and Thursdays from 8-11 p.m., beginning Saturday, Jan. 7.
ESPN.com
Katz and Goodman, plus Eamonn Brennan, Myron Medcalf, Dana O’Neil, C.L Brown, John Gasaway and Jeff Borzello will provide reporting, analysis and original video on the action on and away from the floor as well as along the recruiting trail for ESPN.com throughout the season. Also, each and every week throughout the season, Bracketologist Joe Lunardi will keep an eye on what the NCAA tournament field might look like come March with a weekly look at what 68 teams will hear their names called on Selection Sunday.
Greenberg and Katz join together for the popular Courtside with Katz & Coach G, a weekly podcast that covers the hottest topics in the sport with the top guests in college basketball.
Season Overview
Announcers across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN3, SEC Network and Longhorn Network will call games involving approximately 300 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, 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.
ESPN will provide fans with live regular-season coverage of at least one game on an ESPN television network every day but nine from November 11 to March 5 (November 12, 16, 19 and 26; December 9, 16 and 26; and January 9 and 20).
| Day | Conference | Network | Commentators |
| Monday | ACC | ESPN | Sean McDonough & Jay Bilas, Doris Burke or Dick Vitale, Allison Williams |
| Big 12 | ESPN | Bob Wischusen, Fran Fraschilla, Holly Rowe | |
| Tuesday | Big Ten | ESPN | Dave Flemming or Dan Shulman & Dan Dakich, Molly McGrath |
| SEC | ESPN | Brent Musburger, Sean Farnham, Kaylee Hartung | |
| Big 12 | ESPN2 | Jon Sciambi, Miles Simon | |
| ACC | ESPNU | Rich Hollenberg, Dino Gaudio | |
| SEC | ESPNU | Mike Couzens, Brooke Weisbrod | |
| Wednesday | American | ESPNU | Ted Emrich, Malcolm Huckaby |
| Big 12 | ESPNU | Clay Matvick, Tim Welsh | |
| Pac-12 | ESPNU | Roy Philpott, Brad Daugherty | |
| Wednesday & Thursday | ACC | ESPN2 | Karl Ravech, LaPhonso Ellis |
| SEC | ESPN/ESPN2 | Joe Tessitore, Sean Farnham | |
| Thursday | American | ESPN/ESPN2 | Adam Amin, Len Elmore |
| Big Ten | ESPN/ESPN2 | Jason Benetti or Rece Davis, Jim Calhoun | |
| West Coast | ESPNU | John Brickley or Drew Fellios, Sean Harrington | |
| Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday | Pac-12 | ESPN/ESPN2 | Dave Pasch, Bill Walton |
| Friday | Atlantic 10 | ESPN2 | Mike Corey, Jason Capel |
| Horizon | ESPNU | Jordan Bernfield, Brooke Weisbrod | |
| MAAC | ESPNU | Doug Sherman, Julianne Viani | |
| Saturday | Saturday Primetime | ESPN | Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas, Maria Taylor |
| ACC | ESPN | Dave O’Brien, Doris Burke or Dick Vitale, Allison Williams | |
| Big Ten | ESPN | Dave Flemming, Dan Dakich | |
| Big 12 | ESPN | Bob Wischusen, Fran Fraschilla | |
| SEC | ESPN | Tom Hart, Kara Lawson | |
| American | ESPN2 | Allen Bestwick, Tim Welsh | |
| ACC | ESPN2 | Mike Couzens, Corey Alexander | |
| Big 12 | ESPN2 | Rich Hollenberg, Miles Simon | |
| Big 12 | ESPN2 | Mark Neely, Mark Plansky | |
| MVC | ESPN2 | Mitch Holthus, Mark Adams | |
| SEC | ESPN2 | Beth Mowins, Dalen Cuff | |
| WCC | ESPN2 | Eric Rothman, Adrian Branch | |
| American | ESPNU | Alex Faust, Mark Wise | |
| Big West | ESPNU | Sam Farber, Richie Schueler | |
| Big Ten | ESPNU | Clay Matvick, Sean Harrington | |
| Big 12 | ESPNU | Jason Benetti, Reid Gettys | |
| SEC | ESPNU | Kevin Fitzgerald, Chris Spatola | |
| Sunday | ACC | ESPNU | Anish Shroff, Cory Alexander |
| MVC | ESPNU | Mitch Holthus, Mark Adams | |
| Pac-12 | ESPNU | Roxy Bernstein, Corey Williams |
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