Linear basketball - in person! - for the first time

Besides working the Women's Euros, a real positive of this year for me, professionally, has been the opportunity to call games on linear TV (aka you can just flip on the TV and find the channel, not deal with a streaming app) in sports other than soccer.

I'll always be a soccer person and proud of it. But I'm a baseball person and a football person and a hockey person and a basketball person, too! I have ties to each of these that go beyond broadcasting ambition, and each one challenges me and captivates me and piques my interest in a different way. I'm very proud to cover all of those sports, and softball and volleyball as well, when given the opportunity, but it often feels like some other sports write me off for bigger games because I am "a soccer guy."

So the chance to call the 13-year-old Little League World Series this summer, including the world championship game on ESPN2, was a thrill and an important professional step.

Similarly, the chance to call the Georgia-Bucknell men's basketball game for the SEC Network on November 18, in person no less, was a real highlight of the year. I have done lots of college basketball for ESPN and the Big East, and I have done lots of NBA work in virtual reality, but I'd only called one previous basketball game on linear TV, and that was a pandemic-enforced home broadcast. Not quite the same energy!

So I tried to soak up the atmosphere at venerable Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia, and enjoy every minute of the game, one that wound up finishing a close call. Partner Mark Wise and I had a fun post-game interview as well, with Georgia's Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who at some point said he "wants to be a TV personality," and he confirmed that he's coming for our jobs as soon as his playing days are finished.

Here's a look at some of the highlights:

The best news is there's at least one more linear basketball game still to come (December 17, LSU-Winthrop men's), even if that one will be called from home. So stay tuned.

Friday Night Hoops: Wake rallies to beat Longwood

I started my college basketball season Friday night with the ACC Network call of Wake Forest vs. Longwood, and here's how it looked and sounded:

Condensed game (8:45)

Highlights (2:45)

On the move, on the job for the next week

When your work is free-lance, it's good to be busy, and I'm fortunate enough to start one of my busiest weeks of the year today.

I'm flying to Pittsburgh Wednesday evening to start a stretch that will see me call four games in six days (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday) and fly five different segments before returning to an airport for a second time. It's going to be intense, and it's going to be fun!

Our own Friday Night Lights on gorgeous evening at @wvuwomenssoccer vs @TexasTechSoccer! cc @catwhitehill4 pic.twitter.com/67t5LNxhmU

— Jonathan Yardley (@jtyardley) October 14, 2016

I start in my current season, college soccer, returning to the scene of the above vista to see the same game I called a year ago, West Virginia against Texas Tech on ESPNU, although I'm working with Kate Markgraf this year instead of Cat Whitehill. One ridiculously good defender and partner for another!

From there, I'll keep moving for the next week, possibly the longest I've ever been away from my daughter in her young life, to cover this set of games:

Upcoming broadcasts
Date	Game	Media	Partner
Oct. 19 5 pm ET	West Virginia vs. Texas Tech (NCAA women's soccer)	ESPNU	Kate Markgraf
Oct. 21 8 pm ET	Houston Rockets vs. Dallas Mavericks (NBA)	NBA League Pass VR	Viani / Rogondino
Oct. 22 6 pm ET	Auburn vs. LSU (NCAA women's soccer)	ESPNU	Cat Whitehill
Oct. 24 7:30 pm ET	Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks (NBA)	NBA League Pass VR	Viani / Rogondino

It's a lot to prepare for, a lot of phone calls to squeeze in, and a lot of clothes to pack into one trip! But I intend to manage with a smile on my face, so check it out when you can.

Looking back to top photos, moments from 1st NBA season in virtual reality

Clearly, I've been putting this off for far too long. No posts from the NBA League Pass Virtual Reality opener on Oct. 27 until late May. There's a lot to tell.

In brief, the NBA season was an awesome, exciting, fun, challenging, and lengthy experience. We called one game a week for the entire season for NextVR productions of NBA League Pass VR, finally totaling 26 regular-season games broadcast in virtual reality. While we feel like we always put on a good show, the improvement from No. 1 to No. 26 was substantial and something I was really proud to be part of.

I wrote a whole lot more about the season, and you can scroll all the way down to read it, but pictures are a lot more powerful, aren't they? I can't really do justice to the entire year, but here are a few pictures that I hope capture how much fun it was to cover the NBA in virtual reality!

This is meta: Kevin Durant watching our footage right next to our camera. (via NextVR)

Working my 1st game at Madison Square Garden with Antoine Walker filling in.

NBA opener in photos

Well, our opening NBA League Pass VR broadcast, produced by NextVR, is in the books, and we've definitely turned our focus to Tuesday's Pacers-Lakers game as our shows move to Tuesday nights for most of the season.

But I did find time to grab a few pictures / screenshots from Thursday's opener, one our entire crew and the basketball fans of Sacramento will not soon forget:

Hello, NBA! Coming your way in 2016-17

I am proud to announce that I will call play-by-play on the first full season of live virtual-reality sports this winter when the NBA and NextVR partner to produce at least 25 regular-season games in VR via NBA League Pass!

Official announcement from NBA
Official announcement from NextVR
How to get access to NextVR

On my end, this has been a few months in the works, and as we've gone through discussions and test games and everything, I've been so excited but unable to talk about it beyond my immediate family. So I can't wait to start the season Thursday with the Sacramento Kings-San Antonio Spurs game, the regular-season opener at the new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento! Tip is at 7:30 Pacific Time on Thursday, 10:30 Eastern Time, and fans can watch for free with the right VR headset. (Don't worry: If that sounds a little narrow, the availability is only going to get more widespread as the season goes on!)

For the NextVR team, this has been more than a year in the making, and seeing their reaction to the expansion and fine-tuning of the product has been awesome. It's a great group to work with, one I first met when working their first fully produced soccer game in the International Champions Cup in August, and I'm excited for the season.

USA Today article

Personally, this is certainly a bit of a departure from pro soccer and college sports. I've called plenty of basketball, but it's been entirely in the college ranks, so I look forward to learning some of the intricacies of the NBA, its storylines, and its players throughout this season.

One of my partners on the broadcasts this year will be Julianne Viani, who I've worked with a lot as a college basketball analyst in the New York area, and I know she's going to help make our shows analytical, fun, and successful! Fellow soccer vet Mark Rogondino will also be among those contributing, as various schedules allow, and he brings an awesome perspective and energy that are hard to match.

Upload VR article

The test broadcasts have been exhilarating and illuminating. I've learned some things about how to prepare and how to approach these broadcasts (slightly differently than a normal game), and I've learned a lot about how the NBA operates. As broadcasters and as a production group, we've definitely gotten a better idea of what works and what doesn't, and we've come up with ideas we think can be implemented as the season goes on. We may not have every bell and whistle on Opening Night, but you'll be impressed and enjoy the show!

The VR camera angles work really well for basketball, with the most often used cameras stationed underneath the basket. That means dunks and anything at the rim come right at you, and it also provides a more true look of how teams approach the game in terms of Xs and Os, since you get the same vertical vantage point as the players. Our scorer's-table camera, pictured here, brings some sideline access to coaches and players that you don't see on a normal broadcast. It's absolutey fascinating to watch a game this way.

I don't know how many of you have the ability to watch VR broadcasts just yet, but as somebody who was skeptical before trying the technology out, I can highly recommend that you give it a chance! Basketball is definitely the ideal sport to provide a starting point for sports in virtual reality, and I'm incredibly excited for all the new experiences this winter will bring.

So find a Samsung phone or Playstation and a VR headset and check out our Game of the Week all NBA season!

Again, here's how to get access to NextVR.

From Buffalo to the Big Apple

I finished up my MAAC basketball slate with two trips to Buffalo in the last week, calling Canisius-Marist men on Feb. 20 and Canisius-Niagara women on Feb. 25 (open with one of my favorite analysts, Julianne Viani, pictured at right).

It was great to get a little more time in Buffalo and get good time with both local coaches - men's coach Jim Baron at the airport and women's coach Terry Zeh providing a clutch lunch recommendation.

On Friday morning, I had the ol' pre-dawn wake-up call and drive to the airport amid minor snow, which allowed for a great view of New York (and a common site for my work, Kaiser Stadium and Belson Stadium at St. John's) on the morning flight to La Guardia.

Plenty busy in the broadcasting and personal departments over the next month!

Wonderfully busy start to 2016

I can assure you, fewer than 40 days in, that 2016 is a year I will never forget.

But if my year's signature moment already happened (I've been on my version of paternity leave since the NWSL College Draft on Jan. 15), that still leaves another 11 months to try and maintain a solid body of work.

Thankfully, I've set my plans for most of the next two months with a schedule that will be fun but will also challenge me.

That's not my pom-pom, I promise.

It starts this week, with two basketball games as part of my five-game stint covering the MAAC for ESPN3. One of those five is already in the books, although the game we were attempting to broadcast was curtailed by a leaky ceiling.

So on Thursday, it's up to the Bronx to see Manhattan play Quinnipiac (8 p.m. ET, ESPN3), while Friday will see me taking the PATH train back out to Jersey City to give the Yanitelli Center a second chance as St. Peter's hosts Niagara (7 p.m. ET, ESPN3). To complete my MAAC stint, I'll be up in Buffalo at Canisius for a men's game on Feb. 20 and a women's game on Feb. 25.

The MAAC is pretty much a one-bid league, but it's a really exciting one. While Monmouth is one of the most talked-about mid-majors in the country this year, Manhattan is the two-time defending tournament champion, and all the schools I've researched have either a great scorer, a great story, or both. Since moving to New York in the fall of 2013, I've been hoping to do some broader basketball coverage, and I'm excited to get this chance.

• Current 2016 broadcast schedule

Once March rolls around, though, it will be back to my bread and butter. While I won't be a regular part of Red Bulls radio broadcasts this year, I've got five televised MLS games and a US women's national team game already lined up, and that's more in-person TV work than I get in some MLS seasons. I'll work FC Dallas-Philadelphia Union for opening day on March 6, and then I'll call play-by-play for at least three Red Bulls games on the MSG Networks while lead voice Steve Cangialosi is on Devils duty. I've actually never called a TV game at Red Bull Arena (my MSG work last year came on the road), so I'm looking forward to that first.

These games really get me excited to start what I hope is going to be a terrific year of broadcast work (while I simultaneously figure out how to raise a child, cook for my wife, study for those games, and, y'know, sleep). I hope you'll enjoy any portion of it that you might catch!

Broadcasting in pictures, 2013

The most important things that happened to me in 2013 had nothing to do with broadcasting. A really special day in the summer kind of made the year, and there were a lot of great things sprinkled in throughout. Big changes, too.

Looking back on the broadcasting side, as I always say, I could have been busier, but it was still a good year and one that took me all over the place. I worked with more partners, producers, and crews than I can really keep track of, and I had a blast doing it.

Here's a look back at my broadcasting year in pictures:
 

Tucson, Arizona - February 2013

Grand Prairie, Texas - May 2013

Major League Soccer - Summer 2013

Major League Soccer - Fall 2013

NCAA basketball - Fall 2013