truTV’s Syracuse Team Stream was exactly what Turner wanted

If you happened upon truTV’s telecast of the North Carolina-Syracuse NCAA Men’s Final Four on Saturday, you may have noticed some extreme bias for the Orange. But if you’ve been watching the NCAA Tournament from the First Four this year, you know about the Team Stream concept which features announcers who ties to each school. For Syracuse, it was Tom Werme who is known to ACC fans as an announcer on the ACC Network and the ACC Digital Network, 1970’s Orange legend Roosevelt Bouie and former Orange quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Of all of this year’s Team Streams, the Syracuse homer call was probably the closest to what Turner Sports has been looking for in the three years since it started the homer calls on the Final Four. Werme who has called games straight down the middle, let his inner homer out and bled Syracuse throughout the telecast. He claimed every Syracuse shooter was fouled by North Carolina.

There was even a camera positioned to show Werme’s reactions to plays:

This @Cuse_MBB run has the Cuse announcers pumped on #truTV #FinalFour pic.twitter.com/j5h5DVQDIK

— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) April 3, 2016

During a brief second half comeback, Werme saw a North Carolina fan, named him Mr. Tar Heel and came up with this gem:

https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/716455803818012672

Werme also said, “The road will not end for the Orange tonight. The comeback is coming!” That did not come true as North Carolina ended up winning by double digits to advance to Monday’s National Championship.

But even though Syracuse’s season is over, that doesn’t mean the end of the Team Stream. With TBS airing the National Championship game for the first time, TNT and truTV will once again be home to the homer calls for North Carolina and Villanova:

And unlike Werme, North Carolina’s voice of Wes Durham and Villanova’s play-by-play man Scott Graham won’t be going over the top on Monday as Werme did on Saturday.