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NCAA Tournament Broadcasting Notes and Thoughts

A rising star, notable absences and a legend’s legendary performance have highlighted CBS’s and Turner’s coverage.
Jimmy Traina|
Robbie Hummel has shown why CBS gave him a promotion for this year’s men’s NCAA Tourament
Robbie Hummel has shown why CBS gave him a promotion for this year’s men’s NCAA Tourament | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. CBS and Turner Sports made a big switch in their tournament broadcast teams this year by elevating Robbie Hummel to work with Kevin Harlan and Stan Van Gundy.

Hummel has been an outstanding listen during the first two rounds and this broadcast crew is clearly the second best behind Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery and Grant Hill.

A three-person booth in basketball is not ideal, but Hummel and Van Gundy have worked well together, with each managing to make a mark on the telecast. What has impressed me the most about Hummel is that he has been able to balance X’s and O’s with humor and lightheartedness.

Harlan, Van Gundy and Hummel have had the perfect tone during the games. They were especially outstanding at the end of the St. John’s-Kansas game on Sunday.

With Hummel working with Harlan and Van Gundy, Dan Bonner was moved out of that crew and paired with Tom McCarthy and Candace Parker.

On Sunday, though, it was just McCarthy and Bonner working the Iowa-Florida and Texas Tech-Alabama games. This was notable because a lot of people ended up on the Iowa-Florida game once it seemed an upset was in the making. So, where was Parker, who was not listed on the broadcaster assignments that CBS and Turner had sent out Saturday?

A spokesperson told us, “It was a known personal obligation that Candace had that we knew about prior to the tournament.”

In addition to Parker’s absence, we hope Kenny Smith isn’t dealing with anything too serious. He was missing from studio coverage on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A spokeperson told us Smith plans on returning to the desk Thursday when the tournament picks up again.

Lastly, Bill Raftery turns 83 next month. He is as good as ever on these games. There hasn’t even been on hint of slippage in his performance. He makes each and every game he does more enjoyable simply for being himself. He is a national treasure.

2. Not surprisingly, the NCAA men’s tournament experienced ratings growth over the first two days of the event on Thursday and Friday. With Nielsen’s new measuring system in place for the first time during the tournament, Thursday’s and Friday’s game averaged 9.3 million viewers, up 5% from last season.

3. If you like sports media feuds, this one is as nasty as it gets.

In summary: Brandon Tierney, who used to work at WFAN, was a guest on the Evan and Tiki midday show on Friday and called Gregg Giannotti, who hosts the morning show a “bad teammate” because Giannotti played a prank on Tierney in which he called Tierney last year (as a fake caller) and accused him of drinking with St. John’s players. (Tierney calls St. John’s games on radio.)

Giannotti then fired back Monday morning and it was ugly and personal.

4. It’s been a ho-hum tournament when it comes to buzzer beaters and upsets. We got High Point beating Wisconsin on Thursday and Iowa knocking out No. 1 Florida on Sunday.

Here’s how the Hawkeyes’ upset sounded on radio.

5. I hate commercials/advertisements/paid partnerships, but Yankees first baseman Ben Rice promoting Uncle Ben’s Rice just makes sense.

6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with NBC college basketball broadcaster John Fanta about the NCAA tournament and much more.

Fanta talks about wanting to be a versatile broadcaster who does it all, why he left Fox for NBC, using social media to help build his career, hearing from big names in sports media about his work, the difference between calling a college basketball game and NBA game and his work on NBC’s college football coverage.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I will have a bonus episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina for you on Tuesday with the Mets booth of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez. During the interview, Hernandez revaled how much he makes per year in Seinfeld residuals and also discusses his recent encounter with Jerry Seinfeld, which was detailed on last week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina. So to commemorate the occasion, I had to post this.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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