#TWITBE Ep. 9.9 - Guests Val Ackerman, Ed Cooley and Bill Raftery

This Week In The BIG EAST Radio Show, distributed by Westwood
One, continues its ninth season with guests BIG EAST Commissioner
Val Ackerman, Providence head coach Ed Cooley and CBS and FOX
Sports analyst Bill Raftery.


The ninth episode of TWITBE reviews the past week of BIG EAST
basketball, taking a deep dive into the Marquette Golden Eagles
regular season crown. Picked ninth in the preseason poll,
Marquette earned the program’s first outright BIG EAST regular
season title following a win at Butler on Tuesday and will enter
the tournament as the top overall seed. In addition, Villanova is
scorching at the right time, winning six of its last seven games
and will enter the BIG EAST Tournament as the No. 6 seed.


The BIG EAST Spotlight is on BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman,
who gives her thoughts on the state of the conference. In a
decade since realignment, Ackerman provides insight into the
success of the conference and the teams who comprise it. From
consistently rising attendance figures, to multiple teams in the
national polls, the BIG EAST is poised for March Madness.  


The BIG EAST Focus shines on Providence head coach Ed Cooley.
Cooley won BIG EAST Coach of the Year Honors and Naismith Coach
of the Year honors last season as Providence made a run to the
Sweet 16. After an offseason of activity in the transfer portal,
the Friars are back near the top of the BIG EAST standings and
poised to make noise not just in the BIG EAST Tournament, but the
NCAA Tournament as well.


CBS and FOX Sports Analyst Bill Raftery gives a view on the
national perspective. Raftery discusses his excitement about the
prospects of a wide-open tournament that any number of teams
could win. 


The episode’s “Who’s Hot” segment features the return of “Blast
from the Past”, rewinding the tape to 2013. Marquette clinched
the BIG EAST regular season title on Tuesday with a win at Butler
almost ten years to the day after clinching a share of the
regular season conference crown with Louisville and Georgetown.
The Golden Eagles wound up advancing to the East Regional Final
that season.


The returning hosts for This Week In The BIG EAST (#TWITBE) are
John Rooke, a longtime BIG EAST play-by-play voice, and Kevin
McNamara, BIG EAST radio host, columnist and author. Rooke and
McNamara give a comprehensive look at the teams, coaches, players
and storied tradition of the top basketball conference in America
in each episode.


To join the conversation and send questions to Rooke
(@JRbroadcaster) and McNamara (@KevinMcNamara33), use #TWITBE on
Twitter. Fans may submit questions to be featured on the
show. 


Please subscribe, rate and review to keep #TWITBE top of the
podcast charts.


This will air Saturday, March 4 at 11 a.m. ET on Sirius 134 XM
201 Online 964.