The brackets are set and March Madness is officially here.
And ESPN, as it has every year since 1996, will be airing the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament across its family of networks. With 16 first and second round sites on college campuses across the country, the network has named 16 broadcast teams for the first two rounds of the tournament, and four additional teams to take us all the way from the Sweet 16 to the National Championship game.
Below are the ESPN broadcast teams for the first and second rounds:
- Dave O’Brien, Christy Winters-Scott and Holly Rowe (Los Angeles – UCLA)
- Courtney Lyle and Carolyn Peck (Columbia, S.C.)
- Tiffany Greene and Steffi Sorensen (Austin, Texas)
- Eric Frede, Christy Thomaskutty and Holly Rowe (Los Angeles – USC)
- Beth Mowins and Rebecca Lobo (Storrs, Conn.)
- Brenda VanLengen and Andrea Lloyd (Fort Worth, Texas)
- Jenn Hildreth and Kelly Gramlich (Durham, N.C.)
- Wes Durham and Angela Taylor (Raleigh, N.C.)
- Pam Ward and Stephanie White (South Bend, Ind.)
- Roy Philpott and Jimmy Dykes (Baton Rouge, La.)
- Kevin Fitzgerald and Kim Adams (Norman, Okla.)
- Angel Gray and Aja Ellison (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
- Sam Gore and Tamika Catchings (Lexington, Ky.)
- Kirsta Blunk and Mary Murphy (Waco, Texas)
- Matt Schumacker and Brooke Weisbrod (Columbus, Ohio)
- Jay Alter and Helen Williams (College Park, Md.)
Only three of those pairings called games together during last year’s tournament: Courtney Lyle and Carolyn Peck, Kevin Fitzgerald and Kim Adams, and Sam Gore and Tamika Catchings. The rest of the teams have been shaken up.
New to ESPN’s announcing lineup this year are play-by-play commentators Jenn Hildreth, Wes Durham, and Krista Blunk, while analyst Angela Taylor is also a fresh face to the network’s coverage this year.
Unchanged, however, is ESPN’s commentating teams in the later rounds Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe remain the network’s lead women’s college basketball team and will call games beginning in the Sweet 16 all the way through the National Championship. Below are all four of ESPN’s late-round booths:
- Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and Holly Rowe (Spokane, Wash.)
- Pam Ward, Stephanie White and Holly Rowe (Spokane, Wash.)
- Courtney Lyle, Carolyn Peck and Kris Budden (Birmingham, Ala.)
- Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli and Angel Gray (Birmingham, Ala.)
Also returning is ESPN’s acclaimed women’s basketball studio of host Elle Duncan alongside analysts Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike.
All 67 games of this year’s tournament will air across ESPN’s family of linear networks including ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNEWS.
