Thursday, Creighton announced that the season (and home) opener against Alcorn State had been picked up by Fox and would be televised regionally on FSN. That means that, for the first time in CU history, every single home game will be on TV.
Only two total games for the entire season remain without television, though according to a tweet from Creighton SID Rob Anderson, the contest at St. Joseph’s is expected to be picked up by one network or another. The game at Long Beach State is, as of this writing, not slated for broadcast, but if it were to be picked up, every minute of the 2013-14 season would be televised.
Previously, it had been announced that all 18 conference games will be televised on either Fox Sports 1 (1078 on Cox in Omaha), CBS Sports Network (1234 on Cox in Omaha) or FSN National (1047 on Cox in Omaha, though that one’s familiar from the Jays’ Valley days). Additionally, it was announced that FS1 will show four non-conference games (UMKC, Nebraska, Cal, Chicago State), FS2 gets the Arkansas Pine-Bluff game, and FSN National will show the Tulsa game. The Wooden Legacy is on the ESPN family of networks, with games either on ESPN2 or streamed on ESPN3.
In other TV news, Fox’s Bill Raftery visited Omaha on Wednesday to scout the Jays. Raftery and Gus Johnson will be the “A” team on Fox’s Big East telecasts this fall/winter, and the analyst is on a tour of all ten Big East teams to prepare.
Fox’s Bill Raftery visited practice on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy @BluejayMBB Twitter)
The former Seton Hall coach (he piloted the Pirates from 1970 to 1981) has been a color analyst for CBS and ESPN since stepping down as Seton Hall’s coach in the fall of ’81, coining phrases like “Onions!,” “The Kiss” and “Send it in, Jerome!” that are now part of the college basketball vernacular. During his visit, he revealed that he’ll work “a bunch” of Creighton games, according to a tweet from Anderson — but notably, NOT the December 31 game against Marquette. Chatter on message boards and social media had hopeful Jays fans wishing Fox would turn that 9pm game into the marquee matchup of the day, replete with their “A” team courtside, but alas, it’s not to be.
A legendary partaker of the nightlife, Raftery went out to dinner at the Drover with Coach Greg McDermott, after which a photo with Doug McDermott led to a hilarious exchange with Jay Bilas on Twitter.
It’s going to be an exciting 2013-14 season, and with (nearly) every minute of it televised — some of which with Bill Raftery courtside — it’ll be even better.