How the Charles Barkley–Dick Vitale Pairing Came Together The broadcast will mark the first time Dick Vitale has called an NCAA tournament game. Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale will be on the call together alongside Brian Anderson for truTV’s coverage of Texas–NC State in the First Four round of the NCAA tournament on Tuesday night. It didn’t take much effort to pair the legendary analysts. After the news broke in late 2024 that ESPN would license the iconic Inside the NBA studio show from TNT, Barkley and Vitale were talking with each other and came up with the idea of working together on some games. “It was pretty easy on both sides. It came together pretty quickly because we all looked at each other and thought this is a really good idea and we should take advantage of this,” ESPN’s SVP of production Tim Corrigan, who oversees the network’s NBA coverage, told Front Office Sports. “When you have two legends and they’re synonymous with the sport of basketball, pro and college, there’s always going to be an intrigue and an interest on both sides.” CBS was also looped into the discussions, as Warner Bros. Discovery Sports partners with the network on the NCAA tournament. The two might be a combined entity by next year’s March Madness, as Paramount is set to purchase WBD pending regulatory approval. Tuesday night’s First Four matchup will be the second game Barkley and Vitale have worked together after they previously called Indiana-Kentucky alongside Dave O’Brien on ESPN in December. Notably, it will also be the first NCAA tournament game that the 86-year-old Vitale has called in his storied broadcasting career. CBS had explored the possibility of adding the former Detroit coach to its coverage in the past, but it never came to fruition.#paramount #ncaa_tournament #charles_barkley #dick_vitale #tim_corrigan
