Connecticut and Michigan State to Meet in Sears Armed Forces Classic at Ramstein Air Base in Germany

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Connecticut and Michigan State to Meet in Sears Armed Forces Classic at Ramstein Air Base in Germany

Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter November 7, 2012

First Regular-Season Men’s College Game Overseas

Downloadable Photos

Connecticut and No. 14 Michigan State will take part in the first regular-season men’s college basketball game held overseas – in the Sears Armed Forces Classic at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, on Friday, Nov. 9. The inaugural location – in a C-5 transport airplane hangar on the base – will be televised on ESPN with coverage starting at 5:30 p.m. ET. The game is the centerpiece of ESPN’s fourth annual America’s Heroes: A Salute to Our Veterans, a five-day initiative that honors veterans and troops in programming across the network’s U.S. media platforms from Wednesday, Nov. 7 through Sunday, Nov. 11.

Live studio coverage from Germany begins on ESPNU at 5 p.m. and continues with a full pregame show at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN. The game will tipoff on ESPN at 6 p.m.

Studio

  • Hannah Storm and Kevin Negandhi will anchor SportsCenter from Hangar 3, telecasting before a live audience of servicemen and women Thursday night (6 p.m.; ESPN) and Friday (9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; ESPN, ESPNEWS).
  • Host Matt Schick and analyst Bruce Pearl will be live from ESPNU’s Charlotte, N.C. studios at 5 p.m.
  • ESPN’s 30-minute pregame show will come live from Hangar 5 with anchor John Anderson and college basketball analyst Jay Williams.
  • Postgame coverage will be a combination of Anderson and Williams from Germany and a transition to the crew at the Barclays Center Classic presented by Sheets in Brooklyn, N.Y., featuring Maryland vs. defending national Champion No. 3 Kentucky.

Game

  • Play-by-play veteran Dan Shulman will have the call of the game with analyst Jay Bilas and on-court reporter Andy Katz.
  • Vignettes on the three UConn players that hail from Germany – Leon Tolksdorf (Berlin), Niels Giffey (Berlin) and Enosch Wolf (Goettingen) and select Michigan State players – will be be weaved throughout the coverage.
  • Head coaches Kevin Ollie (UConn) and Tom Izzo (MSU) will be mic’ed during practice and will also visit the SportsCenter set on Friday.
  • Footage of the team’s practicing, visiting the Wounded Warrior Hospital, taking flight in a C-130, doing a tour of the base and participating in a basketball clinic with children of the servicemen and women.

Additional Content and Vignettes

  • The importance of the control tower at the U.S. Air Forces headquarters in Europe.
  • The injured spend 24-48 hours in the CASF (Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility) as they transition from combat back to the United States.
  • Inside a C130, a military transport plane during a training mission.
  • Sights and sounds from around Ramstein Air Base, including Retreat for the lowering of the flag.
  • An interview with Brigadier General C.K. Hyde about the Air Base and its role as host to the game.

The Sears Armed Forces Classic is a series of Division I college men’s basketball games to be played on military bases around the world, owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN. Future teams and sites will be announced at a later date.

For more information on the Armed Forces Classic, visit the official web site at or follow on Facebook and Twitter.

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Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal Rachel Margolis Siegal Follow on Twitter November 7, 2012
Photo of Rachel Margolis Siegal

Rachel Margolis Siegal

A part of the Internal Communications team at ESPN, I began with the network in 2010 as part of the College Sports PR team. Always an avid sports fan and not an athlete – I grew up a huge fan of the Hartford Whalers, while also watching my brother compete at different levels. I became the manager of several high school sports teams and continued that hobby into college. While at Quinnipiac, I worked in the Sports Information Department, which led me to a summer internship at the New Haven Ravens, a AA baseball team, and an eventual job with the Athletic Communications Department at the University of Connecticut. After my five-year stint at Connecticut, I spent six years as Director of Communications at the BIG EAST Conference in Providence, R.I. before joining ESPN.
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