Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will play doubles as Fox Sports 1 opens its Big East intraconference slate with a quintet of basketball games on New Year's Eve.
Fox Sports' lead hoops on-air team will call the first game on Dec. 31, St. John's visiting Xavier in Cincinnati at noon (ET), before sending in No. 8 Villanova at Butler at 7:30 p.m. from historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Johnson and Raftery then will bus from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, accompanied by Nick C. (@vuwildcat07), the winner of FS1’s New Year’s Eve Road Trip Twitter contest, and a guest, both of whome will net VIP status and courtside seats.
At 2:30, the distaff duo of Tiffany Greene and LaChina Robinson will chronicle Seton Hall at Providence, followed by Dick Stockton and Bob Wenzel on DePaul at Georgetown at 5 p.m. Justin Kutcher and Donny Marshall wrap up the opening day marathon with Marquette at Creighton tipping off at 10 p.m.
Fox Sports, the primary rights-holder to Big East ball, will deploy Above the Rim, Phantom and X-Mo cameras and other production enhancements on the five-game set.
Pregame coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. with host Rob Stone, analysts Austin Croshere and Tarik Turner, plus college basketball insider Reid Forgrave, who are in studio all day to provide analysis at halftimes and between games. Studio features throughout the day include behind-the-scenes access from earlier practices this season and Raftery’s sit-down interview with conference player of the year candidate, Creighton's Doug McDermott. In addition, Johnson and Raftery check in with the studio team on the road from Cincy to Indy.
