ESPN, Versus Earn Season-High College Hoops Viewer Numbers

Saturday night was a big TV night for college basketball on ESPN, which recorded a season high 3.291 million viewers for its Big East Tournament final between Connecticut and Louisville and 2.351 million viewers for its Big 12 Tournament final between Kansas and Texas. The Big East final was up 14.6% from the West Virginia-Georgetown matchup last year, while the Big 12 final was down 17.3% from the Kansas-Kansas State matchup. On Sunday afternoon, ESPN averaged 2.076 million viewers for the Duke-North Carolina ACC Tournament final, up 59.4% from the Duke-Georgia Tech matchup last year.

Versus also pulled in a season high viewership on Saturday night with its coverage of the Mountain West final, though its viewer numbers were a fraction of ESPN's. Saturday night's Mountain West final between top 10 teams San Diego State and BYU pulled 656,000 viewers, a record high for college basketball on Versus. That figure is also up 470.4% from last year's San Diego State-UNLV final, which averaged 115,000 viewers on the net. For the entire season, Versus has averaged 211,000 viewers for its Mountain West games.