Mike Tirico rides the subway from Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. (ESPN)

The plan all along for Mike Tirico’s two-games-in-one-day perfecta was for the veteran ESPN play-by-play man to take public transit from Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

When “Winter Storm Nemo” blanketed much of the Northeast, “Mike Tirico’s Excellent Adventure” made all the more sense.

So, after calling New York’s 102-88 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers alongside color analyst Hubie Brown, Tirico (and other ESPN colleagues, including long-time stats man, Marty Aronoff) got on the train and were courtside for New Jersey’s 111-86 loss to San Antonio (with Jon Barry as color analyst). Also pulling double duty on Sunday was director Mike Schwab, who filled in on the Nets game for Ken Dennis, who was ill in North Carolina. continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, NBAOnESPN

Samantha Ponder interviews Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey after the Irish defeated Louisville in five overtimes on Saturday. (ESPN)

ESPN was able to capture another historic night on the hardwood when the host, No. 25 Notre Dame topped No. 11 Louisville, 104-101 in five overtimes this past Saturday.

The game ended in regulation tied at 60 before both teams powered through the extra sessions making for 3 hours and 40 minutes of riveting television. ESPN’s Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale and Samantha Ponder had the call of the Top 25 matchup and the College GameDay presented by State Farm crew of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps were also on hand to witness the excitement.

Veteran ESPN producer Phil Dean was in the truck making the critical calls to get the viewers the best possible view from Purcell Pavilion. While Dean was not on-hand for the unforgettable 6 overtime game between Connecticut and Syracuse during the Big East Championship in 2009, he did produce the seven-overtime Arkansas football win over Ole Miss in 2001. So, five overtimes is nothing to him – well, almost nothing!

When a game goes into OT, what normal procedures have to be executed regarding air time, commercials, etc.? What communications are made?
The associate director works with Bristol on commercial breaks but we are very flexible. At the end of this regulation, we made the decision to stay and show a highlight of ND’s Jerian Grant, who scored 12 points in 45 seconds to lead the Irish comeback. The first called timeout of each overtime is a media timeout. Again, we can choose on-site whether or not we want to stay or go based on what had happened in the telecast.

As each additional OT took place, what other concerns come to the forefront? How is your “game plan” altered? continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes

Front Row knows you have better things to do all weekend than check your social media feeds, so we do it for you.

Here, from the ESPN PR universe, are some of the Tweets, posts and other commentary you may have missed.

You can thank us later!

continue reading…

Filed in: Weekend Tweetback

ESPN NFL analyst Darren Woodson’s nephew, senior cornerback Cole Luke, signs with Notre Dame.
(Photo courtesy of Darren Woodson)

When ESPN NFL analyst Darren Woodson was recruited to play college football in 1987, he didn’t have a cell phone, let alone a Twitter or Facebook account. So when his nephew, senior cornerback Cole Luke (a 2013 Notre Dame signee) went through the process this season — more than 25 years later — Woodson was exposed to a whole new world of recruiting.

ESPN’s Darren Woodson

The former three-year starter at Arizona State who won three Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys as a pro discusses his eye-opening experience with Front Row:

Your nephew Cole Luke is a four-star defensive back prospect from Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz. How did you help him prepare for the recruiting process?
I don’t know if it was so much me preparing my nephew for the recruiting process or him preparing me. I haven’t gone through this since ’87, so it had been a long time and the rules have changed — when there’s dead time, and when the coach can call you, and now with social media. So he had to educate me on the process first.

I basically numbered the teams that he had interest in, or the schools that he had interest in. And that was one of the mistakes at first — I’m thinking NFL, hey, let’s list the teams. And then I thought about it, let’s list the schools and the education.

What part does social media play in today’s recruiting process?
It’s huge. I cannot imagine the pressure that would be placed on me at the age of 17-18 and having Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and all these different social media outlets to go through and get recruited off of. Back when in ’87, the coaches called the house and they called your head coach. You went through that process of meeting with your head coach and your head coach setting up the meetings at the same time.

Now it’s totally different. There’s so much more pressure on these young kids to make a decision. There’s so much access to those players at the same time that you really have to be focused on making the right decision and not being overwhelmed with too much information.

Speaking of social media, you have a cameo in a recent commercial for AT&T that has a recruiting theme. What feedback have you received?
A ton of feedback. My nephew Cole is always on me joking about that little two-second blurb I got — “Hello!” — I mean, that’s all I hear. I hear from everyone. Even Herm Edwards the other day, who was the king of that word: “Hello.” He got on me about, “Why didn’t they come recruit me instead of you?” So, I’ve heard it from everyone.

For a complete recap of the college football recruiting season and rankings of the top classes, visit ESPN’s Recruiting Central