The pinnacle of the college basketball season will have a distinctly NBA feel in the broadcast booth and in the studio.
Turner Sports NBA broadcasters Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Marv Albert, Steve Kerr, Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Craig Sager, David Aldridge, Marty Snider and Matt Winer will cover the 2011 NCAA Tournament for CBS and Turner Sports, it was announced Thursday.
Kerr will call the Final Four alongside CBS broadcasters Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg, in addition to early round games with Albert.
Harlan, the only member of the TNT NBA crew who also regularly works for CBS, will call games with NBA partner Miller and CBS’ Dan Bonner.
In the studio, Johnson will alternate hosting coverage with Greg Gumbel from CBS studios in New York. Smith, Barkley and Greg Anthony will serve as analysts. Anthony works for CBS full time, but also has a guest analyst role on Turner’s NBA TV.
Matt Winer will host coverage from Turner’s Atlanta studios with CBS’ Seth Davis and NBA TV’s Steve Smith.
On the sidelines, Sager, Aldridge and Snider will be joined by CBS’ Lesley Visser, Sam Ryan and Tracy Wolfson. Wolfson will be part of the broadcast team for the Final Four.
ESPN announcer Jay Bilas will no longer be part of CBS NCAA Tournament coverage. Fellow ESPN colleague Len Elmore, however, will call games alongside popular play-by-play voice Gus Johnson.
Other broadcast teams include Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery, Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel, Tim Brando and Mike Gminski, and Spero Dedes and Bob Wenzel.
The use of broadcasters so associated with the NBA could cause some consternation for college basketball viewers. While there is some overlap, the NBA and NCAA attract significantly different audiences.
