CBS and Turner Sports’ NCAA Tournament coverage has seen active coaches tabbed as commentators for the past few years, with South Carolina’s Frank Martin and Illinois’ Brad Underwood added for the first weekend this year. They’ve now announced a new commentator for the Sweet 16, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall. Here’s more from the joint CBS/Turner release sent out Thursday:
Turner Sports and CBS Sports have added Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall as a guest studio analyst for coverage of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Regional Semifinals on CBS and TBS. Marshall will join the Atlanta studio team – host Ernie Johnson and analysts Brendan Haywood, Candace Parker and Seth Davis – tonight, Thursday, March 22, and tomorrow, Friday, March 23.
Marshall has spent the last 11 seasons of his 20-year head coaching career at Wichita State, where he has led the Shockers to a 286-98 (.745) record and seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by a trip to the Final Four in 2013.
The Shockers entered this tournament as a four seed, but lost to 13-seed Marshall (ironic indeed) in the first round. So that’s made Marshall available for TV commentary earlier than he might have hoped or expected. But he’s often been a pretty interesting interview, and his long coaching career should let him bring some good insight to viewers. It’s also interesting to see CBS and Turner tab a coach from outside the Power Five conferences here, as it’s often those coaches who get these gigs.
Marshall should bring a valuable perspective from that side, especially with non-P5 schools Villanova, Gonzaga, Nevada and Loyola Chicago in the Sweet 16. And he’s done well on TV before, including in a bracket prediction segment on CBS Sports Network (seen above) after his team was knocked out last year:
The Sweet 16 tips off Thursday night with Loyola Chicago facing Nevada at 7:07 p.m. Eastern on CBS and Texas A&M taking on Michigan at 7:37 p.m. Eastern on TBS. The full broadcast and announcing schedule can be found here.
