Wally Szczerbiak ready for his NCAA Tournament studio close-up
Wally Szczerbiak poses for a photo prior to the ceremonies to be inducted into the Nassau County High School Sports Hall of Fame at the Crest Hollow Country Club on Sept. 30, 2015 in Woodbury, N.Y. Credit: Mike Stobe
Wally Szczerbiak has analyzed NCAA Tournaments from a TV studio before, working for CBS Sports Network. But this year the Cold Spring Harbor High alum will take a huge step up in visibility when he joins the CBS / Turner studio panel in Atlanta as it alternates with the New York studio for coverage through the regional semifinals.
“I’m ecstatic,” Szczerbiak said Tuesday at a breakfast in Manhattan to promote CBS/Turner’s coverage of the NCAAs. “It’s national TV exposure. It’s sharing time with Charles [Barkley] and company in the New York studio.”
Szczerbiak, who also is an MSG Knicks studio analyst, will miss about 10 Knicks games during the tournament. Missing Knicks games provided a very appealing break last season, when the team was out of playoff contention early.
This season they have been far more relevant. Still, their recent slide out of realistic playoff contention makes it easier for Szczerbiak to leave that job for a couple of weeks.
“The Knicks have a chance to make the playoffs, but it’s going to be tough, so to kind of shift gears and change into the excitement of March Madness, I’m lucky that it’s fairly good timing,” Szczerbiak said.
“But they made a huge jump from last year. I think there is a bright future for this team.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
