FILE – Brooklyn Nets broadcaster Ian Eagle, center, waves to the crowd as Nets’ CEO Brett Yormark, left, applauds during a ceremony honoring Eagle’s 25-year broadcast career at an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, in New York. Eagle’s wife Amy is at right. Even though Eagle is stepping into a new role as the lead announcer for CBS and TNT Sports coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, there will be plenty of things that make it feel familiar. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, FIle)
Even though Ian Eagle is stepping into a new role as the lead announcer for CBS and TNT Sports’ coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament, plenty of things will make it familiar.
One of Eagle’s partners is Bill Raftery, the analyst for Nets games when Eagle moved to the television side in 1995 after one year doing radio.
The location where Eagle, Raftery and Grant Hill will call the first weekend of the tournament is also one that he knows very well. The Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, has been the Nets’ home since 2012.
Eagle takes over from Jim Nantz, who called 32 Final Fours beginning in 1991. Last year’s Final Four was the perfect stepping-off point for Nantz, as it took place in his adopted hometown of Houston.
“In normal circumstances, it might feel like this is going to be a completely different role. But in many ways, it doesn’t feel like that at all because of all of the shared experiences with Bill and Grant and (sideline reporter) Tracy (Wolfson),” Eagle said.
Eagle — who has been with CBS since 1998 — had taken on an increased schedule of college basketball games on CBS even before Nantz announced in October 2022 that he was stepping away from the tournament. Eagle has called many of the network’s top regular-season matchups for the past five seasons and said this season’s workload was similar to past years.
Even though Eagle will have a…
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