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Tuesday night’s First Four game between the Texas Longhorns and NC State Wolfpack was a milestone moment for two of the most iconic broadcasters to ever step in front of a microphone. It was the first NCAA Tournament game called by Dick Vitale and Charles Barkley. And it was unlike any NCAA Tournament broadcast that you will likely ever see… for better and for worse.
Barkley and Vitale have long shared an admiration for each other and have dreamed for years of working together. Those wishes were finally granted when ESPN licensed Inside the NBA and entered into a working relationship with TNT for the 2025-2026 NBA season. The pair called their first game together in December for an Indiana-Kentucky game on ESPN, where they worked alongside Dave O’Brien. They called the First Four game alongside Brian Anderson on truTV.
The introduction to the broadcast focused plenty of attention on the announcers. And it was certainly worth celebrating as this was the 86-year-old Vitale’s first NCAA Tournament game on American television. As the face of college basketball for decades while at ESPN, it’s incredibly deserving. And to do so alongside Charles Barkley (who himself was returning to TNT Sports after appearing on loan at ESPN this season) made it a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that rarely happens in the industry.
But as for the broadcast itself… well… it probably depends on what you were watching the game for as a viewer and fan.
Barkley and Vitale spent much of the game broadcast, especially in the first half, talking nonstop about broader issues in college athletics, such as NIL and the transfer portal. In fact, at one point in the first half, the pair went on for so long talking about the sport’s macro issues that it was up to Vitale himself to try to bring the focus back to the action on the floor.
That’s right, Dick Vitale was trying to get a college basketball broadcast back on track.
The pair traded stories and shout-outs throughout much of the telecast as well, whether it was various people that they knew, Charles Barkley’s love of hockey, or Vitale’s work for cancer research with The V Foundation. Meanwhile, Brian Anderson was trying to call the game on the floor while obviously battling some gnarly vocal issues.
All of it combined to make the broadcast one of the more bizarre that you will ever see. With a minute left in the game during a timeout, the pairing was caught up in giving props to NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan and family as the Wolfpack were trying to stage a furious comeback. That’s just one example of what took place throughout the entire telecast.
If you were a fan of Texas or NC State, you were likely less than pleased with the TruTV broadcast. There was so little attention spent on the game itself that it sounded like you were listening to a Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale podcast rather than an actual NCAA Tournament broadcast. Although you would expect Vitale to be familiar with both teams, the depth of Barkley’s college basketball knowledge has been subject to debate since CBS and TNT joined forces to broadcast March Madness. Before the final inbounds play, he asked his colleagues whether NC State could advance the ball to the frontcourt, as in the NBA. They could not.
That may work for a regular-season game in December, but is that really the best broadcasting decision for a real, live NCAA Tournament game? Most of the social media comments about the broadcast trended in a critical direction as viewers thought it was just way too much of the follically challenged duo and way too little of the action. And with a World Baseball Classic thriller playing out on Fox Sports as Venezuela defeated the USA in the final, there were opportunities to check out of the First Four game.
Of course, there was likely a decent share of fans who tuned in to see Barkley and Vitale finally work together in tournament action. It’s not like the First Four is The Masters when it comes to sacred ground for sports media. For casual fans, they may have loved all of the banter and discussion between Vitale and Barkley, but it was clear that they were the main attraction instead of the First Four game itself. It was like a two-hour Lifetime Appreciation Award given to both of them, rather than the pair calling an NCAA Tournament game as analysts.
Both Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale are deserving of receiving all those plaudits, awards, and accommodations. It was a great sight to see them finally get to work together for a tournament game, and it was clear how much it meant to both. They are true legends in the field and beloved for the humor, entertainment, and insights they have delivered throughout the years.
If ESPN and TNT wanted to give them a weekly studio show throughout March Madness, they could give them all the time and space they need to express themselves. Let them do a podcast, a documentary, whatever they want. But calling a tournament game together? Sometimes those dream scenarios are better in our minds than they are in real life.
About Matt Yoder