On Friday, the tap for college basketball can begin and Midnight Madness at various locations will start the 2010-11 season. ESPNU will have a live program starting at 9 p.m. East on Friday. It’ll hosted by the abrasive ESPNews host Bram Weinstein and feature college basketball analysts Jay Bilas and Hubert Davis. ESPN.com college basketball reporter Andy Katz will also be on hand. You can’t have a Midnight Madness event without Dick Vitale and he’ll make appearances as well. Let’s look at what ESPNU has in store for Midnight Madness on Friday night.
ESPNU Names Commentators for Midnight Madness Special on Oct. 15ESPNU has announced the commentator lineup for the four-hour ESPNU Midnight Madness special set for Friday, Oct. 15, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU HD. The special will feature extensive whip-around coverage from top college basketball programs around the nation. ESPNEWS anchor Bram Weinstein will host this year’s telecast. He will be joined in studio by ESPN analysts Jay Bilas and Hubert Davis and ESPN.com senior college basketball writer Andy Katz. The studio team will provide analysis between look-ins at each Midnight Madness event. ESPN’s Dick Vitale will also join in the season-opening hoopla via satellite.As previously announced, coverage will focus on several men’s programs including defending national champion Duke, and NCAA Championship participants Kentucky, Memphis, Gonzaga and Kansas State. The Connecticut women’s program – the two-time defending national champion, which is riding a 78-game winning streak, 10 short of the UCLA men’s record for consecutive victories in NCAA Division I basketball – will also be featured. The Huskies will be the first women’s team to be showcased during Midnight Madness coverage on ESPN’s networks. Also, the St. John’s men’s basketball program, behind new head coach and former ESPN analyst Steve Lavin, is a recent addition to the ESPNU Midnight Madness lineup.ESPN.com’s Katz has five of the men’s programs featured during ESPNU Midnight Madness ranked in his early men’s preseason top 25 poll – No. 1 Duke, No. 5 Kansas State, No. 9 Gonzaga, No. 13 Kentucky and No. 19 Memphis. The Connecticut women are expected to be ranked in the top five nationally heading into the 2010-11 season.Each site will feature some of ESPN’s top college basketball analysts – Fran Fraschilla (Kansas State), Jay Williams (Duke), Doug Gottlieb (St. John’s), Jimmy Dykes (Kentucky), Stephen Bardo (Memphis) and Kara Lawson (Connecticut), as well as Sean Farnham (Gonzaga), who will join the ESPN family this season.The on-site commentators will provide coverage of various elements including scrimmages, interactive games with fans, player introductions, skill and dunk contests, team skits and season previews. Interviews will be conducted with both reigning national championship head coaches Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) and Geno Auriemma (UConn), along with John Calipari (Kentucky), Lavin (St. John’s) and others.The four-hour special will visit Midnight Madness events throughout the country with ESPNU Campus Connection, allowing students to contribute their personal perspective. Coverage on SportsCenter will begin at 3 p.m. and will run through the evening, adding exposure to the Midnight Madness events.ESPNU will open the season with a two-hour college basketball Schedule Release Show on Tuesday, Oct. 19 beginning at 10 p.m. In addition, three Media Day Specials will air on Wednesday, Oct. 20, Thursday, Oct. 21 and Thursday, Oct. 28, from 1-4 p.m., tapping into the top men’s and women’s basketball conferences in the nation including interviews with more than 60 head coaches. Live action begins Monday, Nov. 8, with two matchups from the 2K Sports Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer. Tipping off the season is NIT semifinalist Rhode Island at Pittsburgh at 7 p.m., followed by Navy at Texas at 9 p.m. ESPNU will air more than 300 men’s and women’s basketball games combined, including action from more than 25 NCAA Division I conferences.ESPNU Midnight Madness (Schedule subject to change)
I want to see how long it takes for someone at St. John’s to verbally assault the perpetually angry Doug Gottlieb. I have another college basketball release outlining the Big Ten Network’s plans for Saturday after the jump.
Not to be outdone, Big Ten Network has a “Hoops Hysteria” special that will air late night Saturday and have reports from several conference schools.
‘Big Ten Hoops Hysteria’ to Tip-Off Basketball Season on Big Ten NetworkCoverage includes hour-long special set for Saturday plus five entire events streamed liveCHICAGO – The Big Ten Network will present Big Ten Hoops Hysteria at 11 PM ET on Saturday, featuring the pageantry and excitement associated with the ceremonial tip-off to the basketball season.The hour-long Big Ten Hoops Hysteria will include whip-around coverage from each of the events at Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Wisconsin taking place Friday and earlier Saturday. On-site reporters will talk to special guests, selected players and head coaches Bruce Weber, Tom Crean, Tom Izzo, Tubby Smith, Bill Carmody and Bo Ryan.Five of the events will be streamed live at www.bigtennetwork.com. The schedule is as follows: Indiana (8:15 PM ET, Friday), Michigan State (10 PM ET, Friday), Illinois (11 PM ET, Friday), Minnesota (11 PM ET, Friday) and Wisconsin (3:30 PM CT, Saturday).The Big Ten Network is the premiere destination for hoops fans this winter with 105 regular season men’s basketball games, including 60 conference match-ups and three Big Ten Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament games. Once again, every telecast will be produced in high definition.The network’s televised non-conference slate tips off on Friday, Nov. 12, with a doubleheader involving Indiana and Michigan State.During the conference season, the network will typically air games on Tuesdays as well as doubleheaders on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
And I’m not quite ready for college basketball, but I always look forward to watching the games.
