The WNBA version of Chicago-Indiana might not have the animosity of the NBA version back in the day, but Ryan Ruocco believes it’s a rivalry nonetheless.
“We saw last year, every single one of those Indiana-Chicago games felt bigger,” said Ruocco, ESPN’s lead play-by-play voice for the WNBA. “And that was with two teams that were battling just to make it into the playoffs, never mind contend.”
“And the games were amazing. If you go back and look, they were incredibly well-played, highly competitive games with a lot of dramatic moments.”
As happens in sports, the rivalry began naturally with two competing stars: the Sky’s Angel Reese and the Fever’s Caitlin Clark. With both teams looking to take the next step, the stakes figure to be higher when they meet. Appropriately, all five Sky-Fever games this season will air on national broadcast television.
The first such game is the teams’ season opener at 2 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis, where Ruocco, analyst Rebecca Lobo and sideline reporter Holly Rowe will call the action on ABC. Ruocco and Lobo begin their 13th season as ESPN’s top WNBA tandem. It’s a role Ruocco never saw coming, but one he has immersed himself in with a sense of ownership and responsibility.
“It’s an incredible honor to be seen that way,” Ruocco, 38, said. “It doesn’t happen by that being a goal. Those kind of things just happen by you trying to do great work and give whatever product you’re covering all of your heart and soul to do right by the people that you’re covering.”
Said Lobo: “I am delighted every time I get to sit next to Ryan. It just makes my job fun. I know I can be my best even if audio is a mess, if we are having technical difficulties. If I’ve got Ryan sitting to my left, all is good in the world.”
In 2013, Ruocco was calling Nets games for YES Network and co-hosting with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio New York. When ESPN was looking for a lead WNBA broadcaster, Smith was among those who advocated for Ruocco, having watched Nets games while covering the NBA.
Ruocco joined ESPN Radio in 2008, not long after graduating from Fordham, where he won the prestigious Marty Glickman Award, named for the legendary New York play-by-play announcer. After starting as an update anchor, Ruocco worked his way to hosting his own morning show.
“I was asked, ‘Do you want to do your own show at 5 a.m.?’ ” Ruocco said. “I was like, ‘I’ll do anything.’ So I was getting up at 3 a.m. while I was also working night games at Yankee Stadium hosting. I was sleeping in two separate three-hour shifts. But it was instrumental in my growth and the opportunities that I got.”
Those include calling the NBA and women’s college basketball for ESPN. He’s still calling Nets games for YES and has added Yankees play-by-play. But his focus right now is the WNBA, which has experienced a meteoric rise in attention since Reese and Clark arrived last season.
“We used to feel like we had this hidden gem and anybody who was a part of it knew how awesome it was,” Ruocco said. “But we were waiting for the world to know. Now I’ll be at my dad’s golf club or my nephew’s baseball game or my daughter’s school, there are so many people who the first thing they’re mentioning to me is the WNBA.”
Sensing that, ESPN is putting more resources toward its coverage, adding a second “WNBA Countdown” desk from its Los Angeles studio led by NBA studio host Malika Andrews in addition to its desk at network headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. There even will be crossover coverage on Andrews’ “NBA Today” show over the summer.
“The games are the thing, but all programming we’re going to do around them is going to be elevated,” said Tim Corrigan, ESPN senior vice president of sports production. “We need to elevate our presentation as this sport grows. It’s clearly an ascending property.”
Ruocco thinks the Sky are ascending, as well. He’s scheduled to call several of their games.
“I think the Sky are going to be really, really good,” Ruocco said. “They’ve probably been underrated this offseason. They have a lot of strong talent, and Ariel [Atkins] and [Courtney] Vandersloot are perfect additions to play the style Tyler [Marsh] wants to play. I won’t be surprised at all if they’re pushing for a 6-seed versus just scraping their way into the playoffs.”
Remote patrol
Weigel Broadcasting’s The U (WCIU-Channel 26) is the Sky’s local TV home. It will air 30 regular-season games, starting with the home opener May 22 against the Liberty. Play-by-play voices Lisa Byington and Jason Ross Jr. and analyst Shimmy Miller return to call the action, and the station added Kalia Butler as sideline reporter.
• The Score will air seven Sky games this season, with Kylen Mills on play-by-play, Leila Rahimi on color and Alyssa Bergamini hosting the pregame, halftime and postgame shows. The station’s first broadcast is the home opener.
• The Sky are scheduled for 14 appearances on national broadcast TV – five on ION, four on ABC, three on CBS and two on ESPN. Some games also will be available on Prime Video (four), NBA TV (four) and CBS Sports Network (one).