For the first time in over three decades, the NCAA Men’s Final Four and National Championship Game will have a new play-by-play voice delivering the call of the thrilling action. As NC State, Purdue, Alabama and UConn battle for a chance to cut down the nets victorious as champions on Monday night, Ian Eagle will be behind the microphone calling the action, succeeding Jim Nantz in the role he held for 32 editions of the tournament.
Eagle, who also serves as a play-by-play voice for the NFL on CBS, NBA on TNT and Brooklyn Nets on YES Network, understands the honor and distinction associated with the coveted play-by-play announcing role. Leading up to the Final Four on Saturday night though, he is continuing to work his regular broadcast schedule, preparing to call the Brooklyn Nets game against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Eagle has been a sports play-by-play announcer for several years and is a graduate of the prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Leading up to the assignment to close out the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament though, he is trying to keep everything in perspective and approach his job in a similar manner. When asked by Ken Carman of 92.3 The Fan how it feels to be the lead play-by-play voice of the tournament, Eagle replied that it “feels the same” and explained how he is going about preparing for the matchups in the same way.
“I think once I get there, obviously it’s going to be a little different; how people react to you is different, but how I compartmentalize and approach it is basically the same,” Eagle said. “I’m not going to do much different than I would do in any other basketball game, other than I may end up laying out a little more. Let the pictures take over; let the sounds take over.”
The Final Four and National Championship games are going to take place from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., which hosted last year’s Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Since the venue is able to hold over 63,000 fans, Eagle is cognizant of the acoustics and how it may sound different both in person and on television. Although he largely perceives the preparation as the same, he does not discount the fact that he will realize the inherent sublimity of March Madness as a whole and his role in the proceedings on the way to the stadium.
With ratings for the tournament continuing to rise both for the men’s and women’s brackets, Eagle believes there has been momentum that has carried over from the opening week. Having worked and followed the tournament for several years, Eagle recognizes that when upsets occur in the first round but do not continue in the second round, the viewership numbers seem to sustain itself. This year’s Men’s Final Four consists of UConn, Purdue, Alabama and NC State, all of which have various storylines that can be extrapolated on the broadcast and are drawing interest.
“I just don’t know if the ratings have ever shown that teams [from a smaller conference] necessarily deliver in the second weekend of the tournament,” Eagle said, “so it’s one of those strange blips that we can sometimes dismiss because the NCAA Tournament’s all about upsets and a little school that could.”
Eagle will be working alongside color commentators Bill Rafferty and Grant Hill and reporter Tracy Wolfson on the Final Four and National Championship broadcasts. Anthony Lima, morning co-host on 92.3 The Fan, asked Eagle how he will go about establishing chemistry with his colleagues and ensuring that the sound of the game meets the moment. Eagle does not generally work in a three-person broadcasting booth in his other commentary roles, and he is making sure that he will do his job to effectively tell the story of the game and set up his colleagues for success.
“It’s a lot more of a traffic cop mentality I think as a play-by-play guy,” Eagle said. “If you go into this thinking, ‘Hey, I’m just going to do what I do and then let everything fall into place,’ it’s not going to work. Everybody’s got to touch the ball; everybody’s got to feel like they’re contributing, and it really is incumbent upon you to make sure that’s happening, and that’s something that you have to gauge throughout the broadcast.”
Whenever he is commentating a game, Eagle keeps the viewer in mind by thinking to himself if he would find the coverage they are providing as being interesting. Beginning with the first game of the Final Four on Saturday night between NC State and Purdue at 6:09 p.m. EST, he will showcase his comprehensive basketball knowledge and commentating abilities en masse. Both Final Four games will air on TBS, TNT and truTV on Saturday, the second of which will begin at approximately 8:49 p.m. EST between Alabama and UConn. The National Championship Game will take place on Monday, April 8 and air on TBS, TNT and truTV beginning at 9 p.m. EST.
