2018 NCAA Tournament announcer pairings announced

As you are to know by now, we’ve done a post on the NCAA Tournament announcer pairings for each of the last few years. With Monday’s release of the pairings, it’s time to do it again.

Before we start, let’s take a look at last year’s pairings, and then compare them to this year’s:

2017 PAIRINGS

• Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson
• Brian Anderson/Chris Webber or Clark Kellogg/Lewis Johnson
• Verne Lundquist/Jim Spanarkel/Allie LaForce
• Kevin Harlan/Reggie Miller/Dan Bonner/Dana Jacobson
• Ian Eagle/Steve Lavin/Evan Washburn
• Spero Dedes/Steve Smith/Len Elmore/Ros Gold-Onwude
• Andrew Catalon/Steve Lappas/Jamie Erdahl
• Carter Blackburn/Mike Gminski/Debbie Antonelli/Lisa Byington

2018 PAIRINGS

• Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson
• Brian Anderson/Chris Webber/Lisa Byington
• Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel/Allie LaForce
• Kevin Harlan/Reggie Miller/Dan Bonner/Dana Jacobson
• Brad Nessler/Steve Lavin/Evan Washburn
• Spero Dedes/Steve Smith/Len Elmore/Ros Gold-Onwude
• Andrew Catalon/Steve Lappas/Jamie Erdahl
• Carter Blackburn/Debbie Antonelli/John Schriffen

So, on the whole, there aren’t a lot of cosmetic changes here. As it pertains to last year’s pairings, half of them remain the same with nothing different about them. However, there are some differences in here.

First thing’s first: Ian Eagle is finally doing a Regional. It took a while for this to happen, due to Eagle’s commitments to Westwood One Radio, but evidently the time has come for him to call a Sweet 16 and Elite Eight for CBS. Eagle is one of the best play-by-play men in the business and to say he deserves this would be underselling and understating it. He will no doubt do a terrific job, and I think that on the whole, along with Spanarkel and sideline reporter Allie LaForce, this is one of the best crews of the tournament. If not the best, beyond, for me, the top crew of Nantz/Raft/Hill/Wolfson.

Next... with the arrival of Eagle comes the departure of Verne Lundquist. Verne had been a part of every NCAA Tournament since the year 1999, as well as many years before that too. So things will feel a little different. With no sight of him here, and obviously him stepping away from the booth for college football, it’s fair to wonder if we have seen the last of Lundquist in the booth in general. If that is indeed the case, Godspeed, and thanks for a wonderful career.

Shifting gears, we have the first sighting of Brad Nessler. This will be Nessler’s first NCAA Tournament since all the way back in 1992. That year, he called first and second round games in Tempe, Arizona with Ann Meyers. This year, he will be calling games with Steve Lavin, a familiar face to Big East fans, with sideline reporter Evan Washburn. It’s not shocking that Nessler rose to the fifth crew in his first spot, given that CBS is probably paying him quite a bit of coin and he wasn’t part of last year’s Tourney.

Additionally, Lisa Byington has risen all the way up from being the SLR on the eighth crew to being the SLR for the #2 crew. A big move for Byington, who of course was seen on Big Ten Network and FOX this year, covering a few Big East games. Byington’s arrival into that has signaled the departure of Lewis Johnson. Johnson had been a sideline reporter in each of the last few years as part of Turner’s merging with CBS on this whole event. She joins the great Brian Anderson and color commentator Chris Webber.

Another new face to the NCAA Tournament this year is sideline reporter John Schriffen. Schriffen’s arrival isn’t too surprising if you’ve followed CBS’ events over the last few years. He’s done sideline duties for a few CBS college football games as well as some college basketball games on big CBS and the CBS Sports Network. He will join Carter Blackburn and Debbie Antonelli, who were solid last year as well. They will be without Mike Gminiski, who was brought in last year but taken back out this year.

All in all, these are some great crews here. The biggest news of course is Eagle’s arrival to a Regional and Verne’s subsequent departure. Everything else has shaken out the way you’d expect it to. We are inching closer to the Madness, folks. This was just another step forward.