Iconic Voices Highlight FOX Sports’ Exciting Lineup of College Hoops Broadcasters
New York – As the 2016-17 college basketball season tips off this week, FOX Sports President, Production & Executive Producer John Entz announces a loaded roster of game and studio broadcasters for the upcoming season, featuring an impressive list of familiar faces and network newcomers.
Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery return for their fourth season as FOX Sports’ lead college basketball game announcers, while Shannon Spake serves as lead sideline reporter. Broadcast veteran and former player Len Elmore is a new addition to the network’s game coverage, bringing more than two decades of college and professional basketball television experience to FOX Sports, most recently with ESPN and CBS, where has called games during the NCAA Championship.
“We are looking forward to another great college basketball season and are excited to once again have several of the nation’s top broadcasters calling games and in studio,” Entz said. “After Villanova’s incredible run to the NCAA title last season, we’re all eager to see what’s next and watch some of the best teams, coaches and players on the FOX Sports family of networks and digital platforms.”
In the studio, Rob Stone returns as FOX Sports’ lead college basketball host, joined by analysts Steve Lavin, Jim Jackson, Donny Marshall and Casey Jacobsen, who also call select games throughout the season. Kevin Burkhardt, Mike Hill and Greg Wolf also serve as studio hosts for select college basketball studio programming, while Evan Daniels joins FOX Sports as the network’s college basketball insider, and FOXSports.com senior writer Stewart Mandel reprises his role as FOX Sports’ bracketologist.
In addition to pregame, halftime and postgame coverage, FOX Sports’ college basketball studio programming is enhanced with INSIDE THE BIG EAST, FS1’s weekly show dedicated to the latest news and stories in the conference, which returns with the start of league play in January. FOX Sports takes its college basketball studio on the road multiple times this season, beginning with the Wisconsin at Creighton matchup during the Gavitt Tipoff Games on Tuesday, Nov. 15. FOX Sports also has a live studio presence in Hawaii for the Pearl Harbor Invitational and at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the entire BIG EAST Tournament, March 8-11.
FOX Sports welcomes back several familiar and iconic voices to call game action this season. Led by Johnson and Raftery as well as Elmore, game broadcasters Joe Davis, Tim Brando, Justin Kutcher, Brian Custer and Brian Anderson return to the play-by-play seat this season, while Jackson, Marshall, Stephen Bardo, Nick Bahe, Dickey Simpkins and Tarik Turner handle game analysis for the BIG EAST, and Burkhardt, Jacobsen, Lavin and Aaron Goldsmith return to lead FOX Sports’ Pac-12 game coverage.
College basketball on the FOX Sports family of networks tips off Friday, Nov. 11 (6:30 PM ET), as defending NCAA Champion No. 4 Villanova hosts Lafayette on FS2. Also that night, Seton Hall hosts Fairleigh Dickinson (7:00 PM ET, FSN), No. 22 Creighton welcomes UMKC (9:00 PM ET, FSN), St. John’s faces Bethune Cookman (9:00 PM ET, FSN) and No. 7 Xavier hosts Lehigh (7:00 PM ET, FCS).
Once conference play gets underway, FS1 showcases all 10 BIG EAST teams in one day with its annual BIG EAST Marathon, this year held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 16. The action tips off at 12:00 PM ET with Marquette at Butler, followed by Creighton at Xavier at 2:00 PM ET, and DePaul at St. John’s 4:30 PM ET. In prime time, at 6:30 PM ET, FS1 presents a rematch of last season’s BIG EAST Tournament championship game as Villanova hosts Seton Hall, followed by Providence at Georgetown at 9:00 PM ET to wrap up the full day of games.
FOX Sports televises some of the best college basketball in the country once again this season, featuring BIG EAST men’s and women’s, Pac-12 men’s and Big 12 women’s games, as well as several early season tournaments, including the Under Armour Reunion, Gavitt Tipoff Games between the BIG EAST and Big Ten conferences, Pearl Harbor Invitational, Las Vegas Invitational, Las Vegas Classic and Orange Bowl Basketball Classic. The FOX broadcast network is also home to the BIG EAST men’s championship game for the second consecutive year.
College basketball games on the FOX broadcast network, FS1, FS2, FOX Sports Regional Networks and FOX College Sports are also available via the FOX Sports GO app and online at FOXSportsGO.com.
For more information on FOX Sports’ college basketball coverage, including schedules, photography, biographical information and more, visit FOX Sports Press Pass.
