YES Network To Present A Special College Basketball Telecast -- Fordham vs. St. John’s Saturday

Dec. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- NEW YORK -- The YES Network will televise a special men’s college basketball presentation on Saturday night, December 11, featuring the Atlantic 10's Fordham University Rams vs. the Big East’s St. John’s University Red Storm live from Fordham’s Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx. Airtime on YES is 7 p.m.  Ryan Ruocco will deliver the play-by-play and Jim Spanarkel will handle the color commentary.

The game matches a pair of successful coaches in their first year at the helm of the two Big Apple universities: Fordham’s Tom Pecora and St. John’s Steve Lavin. The match up of New York City rivals is already a complete sellout.

About the Broadcasters…

Twenty four-year-old Ruocco is a 2008 Fordham alum who honed his skills at WFUV Radio, where he received the prestigious Marty Glickman Award for play by play excellence as a senior. The Fishkill, NY native hosts two hour long programs – The Lead Off Spot (5:00 am) and The Second Verse, (10:00 am) weekdays on 1050 AM ESPN Radio in New York. He has handled the radio play-by-play for the National Invitation Tournament basketball games and for the CBS College Sports Network. During the Major League Baseball season, Ruocco is an in-booth statistician for YES’ telecasts of New York Yankees home games, and also hosts in-stadium video presentations for the Yankees. Ruocco is another in the long line of Fordham/WFUV products in sports broadcasting which starts with the legendary Voice of the Dodgers Vin Scully, YES Network’s Yankees voice Michael Kay, and play-by-players Mike Breen (Knicks), Bob Papa (Giants), Chris Carrino (Nets), Spero Dedes (Lakers) and Charlie Slowes (Nationals).

Spanarkel, originally from Jersey City, NJ, has been the Nets television color analyst for 19 seasons.   He is also a CBS Sports analyst on the network’s men’s basketball regular season and NCAA tournament coverage. While playing basketball at Duke, he earned All-American honors in 1979, was team MVP his final three seasons, and was team captain his last two seasons.  He was named East Regional Most Outstanding Player in the 1978 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and graduated from Duke in 1979.  He played professionally for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks.