Wildcats to play 17 times on national TV

Special to the Green Valley News

TUCSON—National exposure goes hand-in-hand with being one of the nation’s elite programs as every regular-season University of Arizona men’s basketball game potentially could be televised live in 2007-08.

For more than 30 years Wildcat basketball has been regularly featured on television, and 2007-08 is no different as all 31 regular-season games and one exhibition is slated for broadcast. The schedule features 17 national appearances with eight games offered on Fox Sports Net, six on the ESPN family, one on CBS-TV, one on ABC-TV and one on College Sports Television (CSTV).

Additionally, FSN Arizona will produce 13 games to be shown in the Arizona market, including one exhibition game.

Longtime Tucson sports personality Dave Sitton (play-by-play) and Arizona Sports Hall of Famer Bob Elliott (color commentary) will call the action for FSN Arizona.

The 2007-08 broadcast schedule tips off with a local broadcast, Concordia University (Nov. 4), on FSN Arizona. The Cats open the regular season on Nov. 13 against Northern Arizona, also an FSN Arizona broadcast.

Arizona’s first national appearance of the season will take place Nov. 17 versus Virginia on Fox Sports Net.

FSN will televise the Texas A&M game, Dec. 2, as part of the Pac-10/Big 12 Hardwood Series, as well as six Pacific-10 Conference games.

Included in that figure are road games at Stanford (Jan. 17), USC (Jan. 31) and Washington State (Feb. 23).

Of the Wildcats’ six appearances on the ESPN family, five will be road tilts: Kansas (Nov. 25/ESPN), Illinois (Dec. 8/ESPN), Memphis (Dec. 29/ESPN2), Houston (Jan. 12/ESPN2) and UCLA (Feb. 2/ESPN).

The lone McKale Center appearance comes Feb. 28 versus USC on ESPN.

UA will make one regular-season appearance on CBS-TV, as the contest against UCLA (March 2) will be shown nationally. That game will be played in McKale Center.

Arizona’s lone appearance on ABC-TV is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 16, with a key Pac-10 home game against Stanford. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. MST.

The Cats will also appear on CSTV on Wednesday, Dec. 19, in a non-conference game at UNLV. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST in Las Vegas.

For the seventh consecutive season, the Pac-10 will converge on the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament, March 12-15.

First round, quarterfinal and semifinal action will be shown live by Fox Sports Net, while the championship game will be televised by CBS-TV on Saturday, March 15, at 3 p.m. PST.

Two games remain tentative at this point. The March 6 and 8 games are under consideration for broadcast as a Pac-10 wildcard selection.

Broadcast information for those dates will be announced 12 days prior to tip-off.

The remaining information will be released as soon as it becomes available.

Information from press releases was used in this report.

2007-08 Wildcats' Basketball Schedule

Day Date Opponent TV Location Time

Tue. Oct. 30 Pepsi Red-Blue Game NONE Tucson 7 p.m. PDT

Sun. Nov. 4 Concordia (EX) FSNA Tucson 2:30 p.m. MST

Thurs. Nov. 8 Team Georgia (EX) NONE Tucson 7 p.m. MST

Tue. Nov. 13 ^NAU FSNA Tucson 7:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Nov. 17 Virginia FSN Tucson 8:30 p.m. MST

Mon. Nov. 19 ^UMKC FSNA Tucson 7:30 p.m. MST

Wed. Nov. 21 ^Adams State FSNA Tucson 7:30 p.m. MST

Sun. Nov. 25 ^at Kansas ESPN Lawrence, Kan. 6 p.m. MST

Wed. Nov. 28 Cal State Fullerton FSNA Tucson 7:30 p.m. MST

Sun. Dec. 2 #Texas A&M FSN Tucson 4 p.m. MST

Sat. Dec. 8 !vs. Illinois ESPN Chicago 10 a.m. MST

Sun. Dec. 16 Fresno State FSNA Tucson 1 p.m. MST

Wed. Dec. 19 at UNLV CSTV Las Vegas 8 p.m. MST

Sat. Dec. 22 %San Diego State FSNA Tucson 1 p.m. MST

Sat. Dec. 29 at Memphis ESPN2 Memphis 8 p.m. MST

Thurs. Jan. 3 *Oregon State FSNA Tucson 6:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Jan. 5 *Oregon FSN Tucson Noon MST

Wed. Jan. 9 *at Arizona State FSNA Tempe 7:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Jan. 12 at Houston ESPN2 Houston 1 p.m. MST

Thurs. Jan. 17 *at Stanford FSN Palo Alto, Calif. 9 p.m. MST

Sat. Jan. 19 *at California FSNA Berkeley, Calif. 6 p.m. MST

Thurs. Jan. 24 *Washington State FSNA Tucson 6:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Jan. 26 *Washington FSN Tucson 1 p.m. MST

Thurs. Jan. 31 *at USC FSN Los Angeles 8:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Feb. 2 *at UCLA ESPN Los Angeles 7 p.m. MST

Sun. Feb. 10 *Arizona State FSN Tucson 12:30 p.m. MST

Thurs. Feb. 14 *California FSNA Tucson 6:30 p.m. MST

Sat. Feb. 16 *Stanford ABC Tucson 1:30 p.m. MST

Thurs. Feb. 21 *at Washington FSNA Seattle 10 p.m. MST

Sat. Feb. 23 *at Washington State FSN Pullman, Wash. 8 p.m. MST

Thurs. Feb. 28 *USC ESPN Tucson 7 p.m. MST

Sun. March 2 *UCLA CBS Tucson 2 p.m. MST

Thurs. March 6 *at Oregon State TBA Corvallis, Ore. 8:30 p.m. MST

Sat. March 8 *at Oregon TBA Eugene, Ore. TBA

Pac-10 Conference Tournament

Day Date TV Location

Wed.-Sat. March 12-15 FSN/CBS Los Angeles

NCAA TOURNAMENT

Thurs.-Sun. March 20-23 2008 First/Second Rounds CBS TBA

Thurs.-Sun. March 27-30 2008 NCAA Regionals CBS TBA

Sat.-Mon. April 5 & 7 2008 NCAA Final Four CBS San Antonio

* Pac-10 Conference Game

^ Jayhawk Invitational (Multi-team event)

# Pac-10/Big 12 Hardwood Series

! United Center, Chicago, Ill.

% Fiesta Bowl Classic presented by Chase, Tucson, Ariz.

$ at Staples Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

& Wildcard games to be selected by FSN 12 days in advance

Game times and television carriers are subject to change.