YES Network To Present Special College Basketball Telecast of Fordham Vs. Villanova on Dec. 19

Dec. 10, 2009 - PRLog -- The YES Network will present a special men’s college basketball telecast on Saturday afternoon, December 19, featuring the Atlantic 10’s Fordham University Rams vs. the 2009 NCAA Final Four participant Villanova University Wildcats from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  Airtime on YES is 2:00 PM.  

Fordham-Villanova will be the first game of YES’ unique day-night college-NBA basketball doubleheader, as the network will televise the New Jersey Nets game against the world champion Los Angeles Lakers at 8:00 PM, also from the Izod Center, in the nightcap.

Twenty-three year old Ryan Ruocco, a 2008 Fordham graduate, will deliver the play-by-play of the Villanova-Fordham game while Jim Spanarkel, YES’ Nets analyst, will handle the color commentary.  Ruocco also handles in-booth statistics for YES’ telecasts of New York Yankees home games and joins current Yankees voice Michael Kay and former Nets voice and current Lakers voice Spero Dedes as Fordham alumni who have handled play-by-play duties on YES.  

About the teams…

Fordham will be led into the fray by interim head coach Jared Grasso, who took over the helm of the Rams when Dereck Whittenburg was released from his contract after a 1-4 start. Fordham scored a convincing 93-77 home win against Stony Brook on Tuesday.  The Rams were buoyed by the outstanding performance of Palisades Park, N.J. product Chris Gaston’s 25 points and 11 rebounds -- his fifth straight double-double – which helped Grasso, a Syosset, N.Y. native, secure his first head coaching victory.

Big East power Villanova, ranked #3 in the country, will provide a formidable foe for Fordham. The Wildcats are 8-0 this season under head coach Jay Wright, including wins against Dayton, LaSalle, Penn and Maryland. Villanova is led by senior guard Scottie Reynolds, who poured in 25 points in the team’s most recent victory against Maryland on Sunday.

About the Broadcasters…

Ruocco honed his skills at Fordham’s WFUV Radio, where he received the prestigious Marty Glickman Award for play-by-play excellence as a senior. The Fishkill, N.Y. native is now an update anchor for 1050 AM ESPN Radio in New York, and has handled the radio play-by-play for National Invitation Tournament basketball games and for the CBS College Sports Network. In addition to his statistics work for YES during the Major League Baseball season, Ruocco also hosts in-stadium video features at Yankee Stadium. 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, and also includes YES Network’s Yankees voice Michael Kay, play-by-players Mike Breen (Knicks), Bob Papa (Giants), Chris Carrino (Nets), Spero Dedes (Lakers) and Charlie Slowes (Nationals).

Spanarkel, originally from Jersey City, N.J, has been a Nets television color analyst for 19 seasons.   He is also an analyst on CBS Sports’ 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.