Former college basketball coaches Bruce Pearl and Seth Greenberg have joined ESPN as men's college basketball analysts. ESPN's Jalen Rose also will be added to the college basketball commentator team. Pearl and Greenberg will each serve as studio analysts throughout the season and will call select games for various conferences. Rose will be a featured analyst on the weekly "College GameDay" as well as other college basketball studio programming (ESPN). Greenberg said, "It's going to be a different lifestyle, but it keeps me involved in the game." In Virginia, Mark Berman notes earlier this month, Greenberg and his family "moved from Blacksburg to Avon, Conn., near ESPN's Bristol, Conn., studios" (ROANOKE TIMES, 7/31).
EYE BALL: CBS Sports has signed ESPN's Doug Gottlieb to a multiyear deal. Gottlieb will contribute across CBS Sports Properties, including the newly-created CBS Sports Radio, where he will host a three-hour afternoon show beginning Jan. 2. Gottlieb will also serve as a studio analyst on CBS for regular-season college basketball, as as well the net's joint coverage with Turner Sports of the NCAA D-I Men's Basketball Championship. CBS Sports Network will also launch a new weekday show hosted by Gottlieb beginning this fall (CBS). The BIG LEAD's Jason McIntyre cited sources who said that part of the reason Gottlieb "took the job is to return home -- he'll relocate from Connecticut to Orange, California where he has family." For Gottlieb, it is also possible that "announcing the Final 4 could be in play" (THEBIGLEAD.com, 7/30).
QUIET PLEASE: In N.Y., Bob Raissman notes during Sunday's Red Sox-Yankees game, ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" crew, led by former Red Sox manager Terry Francona, "ripped into the lack of natural, fan-produced, audio dynamite inside" Yankee Stadium. Raissman writes, "You didn't have to read between the lines to get Francona's ultimate message: The fans in the old Stadium made it a living hell for the opposing team. They affected the game." Yankees execs "don't take kindly to discouraging words about their Stadium." If they are aware of what Francona and play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman said, "they couldn't be thrilled." Francona said, "This ballpark is beautiful, don't get me wrong. But it just doesn't seem like it has the atmosphere of the old one" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/31).
EMPTY AIRWAVES: In South Carolina, Otis Taylor Jr. notes Columbia's "local radio landscape changed dramatically over the weekend." Lake Murray Communications "rebranded" WZMJ-FM as a "variety hits station," which "knocked ESPN Radio out of the market." The change is a "result of a complex maze of radio deals." An ESPN Communications rep said, "The station was sold to an operator who decided to move to a music format. We are looking at all options in the market" (Columbia STATE, 7/31).
