ESPN formally announced their official commentator lineup for the upcoming college basketball season. You’ll continue to see the usual suspects, but also for the time being, an influx of ESPN’s NBA talent to the mix.
In particular, Mike Tirico will be partnering with Dan Dakich to do the Big Ten’s weekly Super Tuesday game while Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy have been given some early season one off assignments.
Breen, who told us a couple weeks back he was on call to do some college games in light of an extended lockout, will work with Doris Burke who will be doing both men’s and women’s games.
Most of these guys have done college games in the past and I’d imagine given that they’re not focused on NBA action right now, there should be ample time to get acclimated and prepared for the individual games they’re calling.
It will be interesting to see how they perform and mesh with the college game as TNT’s NBA basketball talent had somewhat of a mixed first year covering the NCAA tournament as Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Steve Kerr were utilized in conjunction with CBS’s NCAA talent.
This group of mainly NBA announcers join not only TNT’s talent but also Gus Johnson as announcing talent that have moved over to the college ranks due to various changing media dynamics in the past year.
