This year, Ian Eagle is taking over as March Madness’s lead TV play-by-play voice for the Final Four and national championship game. Based on his work in the Big Ten Tournament, the CBS Sports announcer is already in rare form.
Fans were already raving about Eagle’s call of Saturday’s wild overtime ending to Purdue vs. Wisconsin. However, he kicked things up a notch on Sunday while calling the conference championship between Wisconsin and Illinois.
Eagle and analyst Bill Raftery remain an iconic college basketball announcing pair and their repartee was on display early on.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1769452592629944774
Eagle also made sure to give Raferty some guff over one his pre-game prep routine.
Bill Raftery: "I think it was the game prep last night: a spotted cow, to relax …"
Ian Eagle: "Wait, your game prep or Greg's game prep?" pic.twitter.com/fQlVP8vp42
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) March 17, 2024
Eagle was also right there later to cheekily take Raftery’s Abe Lincoln quip to task.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1769474685601976647
And when it came down to it and the Illini wrapped up their Big Ten title, Eagle was ready with the great “Pop the Champagne/Champaign” call.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1769483879663247610
While it’s no surprise that Eagle would excel in this position, his calls this past week have only excited college basketball fans even more about what lies ahead in the NCAA Tournament.
Ian Eagle is going to be great as the lead announcer. https://t.co/jalGbNORjW
— https://linktr.ee/thispersonstinks (@tracytran) March 17, 2024
We can’t wait to hear what Eagle has in store for us when March Madness truly gets underway this week.