The NCAA tournament is upon us, starting with last night's opening games in Dayton. The expanded CBS coverage of the tournament that started last season requires more bodies in the studio to provide analysis of the action, so as was the case a year ago, CBS and Turner Broadcasting have added some notables to the studio team.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright will be one of those notables, and he has flown to Atlanta to appear on the air for tonight's broadcast. He will be joined by Steve Smith, Seth Davis and Matt Winer and will continue to provide analysis for the Thursday and Friday games this week.
St. John's head coach, Steve Lavin, who is still working his way back from prostate cancer, will also join the CBS/Turner team, providing insights from their New York studios on Saturday and Sunday. Lavin will be joined with Charles Barkley, Greg Anthony and Kenny Smith and hosts Greg Gumbel and Ernie Johnson at the weekend.
CBS will also add four more current head coaches and one former head coach to its coverage on the CBS Sports Network cable channel. The additions include Rutgers coach Mike Rice, George Mason's Paul Hewitt, DePaul's Oliver Purnell, Penn's Jerome Allen and ex-Illinois coach Bruce Weber.
Wright also served as a CBS analyst a year ago for the second weekend of the tournament, after the Wildcats were eliminated.