With veteran broadcast team, ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco prepared to call history in women’s Final Four
PHOENIX — Whatever call puts a bow on this basketball season and the Women’s NCAA Tournament champion, rest assured, those words have been knocking around in Ryan Ruocco’s mind for a while.
Whether it’s South Carolina getting a third title in five years, Texas winning its first one in 40, UCLA claiming its first in the modern era or UConn securing its 13th, ESPN’s lead play-by-play announcer knows the history he could capture.
He’ll follow where Sunday’s national championship leads, but he’s ready for the impactful call.
“I think I know where I want to go with it,” Ruocco said, declining to share any of what he’s got under consideration. “It’s like a musician with their lyrics until they get to the actual song.
“You kind of come up with concepts and then you try and come up with actual words or combinations of words to make it sticky.”
That stickiness has been part of how the ESPN crew of Ruocco, analyst Rebecca Lobo and reporter Holly Rowe have elevated women’s basketball as it has enjoyed rapid and overdue growth in recent years. The veteran crew will call their sixth Final Four together and have formed friendships and a chemistry as a team over the past 13 WNBA seasons.
“In a silo, they are each incredible at their jobs,” Ruocco said. “And then I think the way we all work together, it feels like the ball moving. Like Holly always says, ‘The ball never sticks with us.’ And so I think you can feel our rhythm and chemistry on air, and there’s something about that that’s warm and inviting to the viewer.”
It’s come in each excelling in their roles.
In 30 years reporting, Rowe has collected an Emmy among numerous national awards. But Ruocco quips that no one has more phone numbers of players’ mothers than Rowe, whose connections across the sport help her tell player stories that resonate with an audience.
With more than 20 years at ESPN, Lobo brings her Hall of Fame playing career and game prep, from studying film to chatting with coaches and players, to deliver concise insights that bring everyone from the casual fan to the die hard into the game.
And Ruocco has leveraged his word play, extensive stats scribbled on manila office folders and signature “You Bet!” tag line to convey the excitement of a sport that has seen record viewership in recent years.
“We’re just going to call the game even. I’m going to say what I see and try to explain it the best I can. Ryan, there’s no one better for a big moment with a big call and to try to translate the energy of the building through the screens,” Lobo said. “Holly’s going to tell the player stories. No one does that better than she does, but I think all of us just kind of feel like we want to do right by these women.”
Leveraging momentum
Doing right means expanding the reach for the tournament, which ESPN has owned the rights for since 1996. And it means leveraging the momentum behind the sport in the past five years.
While the record 18.9 million viewers for the 2024 championship between South Carolina and Iowa, led by star Caitlin Clark, might be a ceiling they don’t touch again soon, the run of top teams and compelling stars have elevated the game.
From the First Four through the Elite Eight, ESPN saw increased interest. The first and second rounds averaged 401,000 and 1 million viewers, respectively, both with single-digit percentage increases year over year. The Sweet 16 (averaging 1.6 million viewers) and the Elite 8 (averaging 2.7 million viewers) were the third most-watched ever.
Ruocco’s “You Bet!” call has been embraced by the sport and its fans. He trademarked it last year and released a hoodie emblazoned with the phrase. Released at the start of the tournament, it sold out in the first day. Texas players Madison Booker and Jordan Lee told him they repeat that in calling out shots in the gym.
After using it frequently early in his career, Ruocco took the advice of Tim Corrigan, ESPN’s SVP of sports production, and went to it more sparingly.
“It ended up getting associated with bigger moments. And then also Caitlin helped it a ton too,” he said. “I had the remarkable fortune of getting to be a huge part of the soundtrack to her runs in college. And she hits a lot of deep threes. That means there’s a lot of ‘You Bets!’”
There surely will be more to come this weekend. With the four No. 1 seeds contending for a title and expecting closer outcomes than the routs that have gotten them here, Ruocco knows these games could become instant classics and further accelerate the sport’s growth.
“He has a great vocabulary. He says words every game that I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s hilarious,’” Rowe said. “He works at his craft. He’s already planning out if this team wins, what will my signature call be? So I think that’s really, really beautiful.”
Ruocco might be tight-lipped on his word choice now, but he’ll run his ideas past Lobo and his wife, Andrea, for the go or no-go. And come Sunday evening, he and the veteran team will be ready for the history that awaits.
