Longtime New York area college basketball fixture Fran Fraschilla will be back working in a New York City gym in just a few weeks. However it won’t be evaluating talent or coaching a summer league team, it will be as an announcer, with a cool $1 Million on the line.
The popular TV analyst, recently hailed as ESPN’s expert on European talent after calling a majority of Big 12 games on the network in recent years, will provide the color analysis for the Semifinals and Championship games of “The Basketball Tournament” on Aug 1 and 2 from Fordham University’s Rose Hill Gym alongside Mark Jones and Jeff Goodman live on “The Worldwide Leader.”
Fraschilla, no stranger to Rose Hill from when his Manhattan and St. John’s teams often terrorized the home standing Rams, should have some interesting matchups to call when the event, which is having regionals in both Chicago and Philadelphia this weekend before moving on to their “Super 17” in “The Windy City” next weekend.
Among those in the original 97 team field still standing are the defending champion Notre Dame alumni as well as “Boeheim’s Army” a team of Syracuse alumni led by former number one draft pick Hakim Warrick. Several former Knicks are also in the field this weekend, including former top pick Michael Sweetney who is part of a Baltimore-based “City of Gods” team playing at the University of Philadelphia. Other locals in the field still include former St. John’s standout D.J. Kennedy, ex Fordham star Bryant Dunston (playing for SLAM Magazine’s entry) and former Seton Hall star Donald Copeland among many others.
The winning team in the four week single elimination event takes home all of the $1 Million prize, with a portion going to charity. The full schedule to date can be seen at thetournament.com.