These are the announcers for tonight’s Alabama @ Kentucky game in Rupp Arena. I hate Duke!
Rob Stone joined ESPN in June 1997 as the host of ESPN2’s Worldwide Soccer, a weekly news and highlights show. He now covers a variety of events, and was introduced in July 2009 as the host of the new SEC Network studio show that will air live during the college football pregame for ESPN’s regionally syndicated coverage of the SEC, part of ESPN and the SEC’s landmark 15-year television rights agreement.
Since 1999, Stone has served as a college football sideline reporter. He has covered roughly 30 games a season since 2006, including the SEC, Big 10, ACC, BIG EAST, Pac-10, and MAC, along with several bowl games each season.
Since 1998, Stone also has served as a sideline reporter for select MLS and U.S. Soccer telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, covering the last three FIFA world cups and hosting the last 11 MLS cups. In 2006, he served as both a reporter and play-by-play announcer at the World Cup in Germany.
During World Cup ’98 in France, Stone traveled the country and filed daily reports for ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 on the offbeat and behind-the-scenes sites of the world’s most popular sporting event. He also provided reports and features from France ’98 for World Cup 2Night. In Korea/Japan ’02, Stone served as host of World Cup 2Night on ESPN2 and during the pregame, halftime and postgame segments.
In addition to college football and professional soccer, Stone’s contributions at ESPN include coverage of men’s and women’s college basketball; skiing; darts; horse racing; bowling – he has been the lead announcer for the PBA for the past two years; the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest; Great Outdoor Games; college soccer; and track & field.
Stone came to ESPN from WTOG-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla., where he served as weekend sports anchor and sports reporter from 1995 to 1997. In addition, he reported for the [I]Tony Dungy Show[/I] and the [I]Sam Wyche Report[/I], and was chief reporter for the Bucs’ Countdown to Kickoff pregame show.
During the 1996 and ’97 MLS seasons, Stone also was an analyst for Tampa Bay Mutiny matches on SportsChannel Florida.
Stone began his television career at ESPN as a production assistant. From 1992-93 he worked on [I]SportsCenter, Outside The Lines [/I]and [I]College GameDay[/I]. From ESPN, Stone went to WFXL-TV in Albany, Ga., as a weekend sports anchor/sports reporter (1993-94) and sports director (1994-95).
The Simsbury, Conn., native graduated in 1991 from Colgate with a bachelor’s degree in English. He was an all-state and all-conference soccer player as a midfielder for the Red Raiders, and captained the squad in his senior year.
[URL=”http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/”]Source[/URL]
At Duke, Williams became one of the few freshmen to average double figures in scoring, and was named ACC Rookie of the Year and National Freshman of the Year by The Sporting News, averaging 14.5 points, 6.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds per contest. He was also a first team Freshman All-American by [I][COLOR=#002bb8]Basketball Times[/COLOR][/I].
In the summer of 2000, Williams shined as a member of the U.S. select team, a group of college players picked to play an exhibition against USA Basketball’s “Dream Team”, helping his team to surprisingly dominate the much more experienced pros for the first half of the game, before eventually succumbing to defeat in the second half.
Back at Duke that fall, Williams started all 39 games as a sophomore and led the Devils to the 2001 NCAA National Championship, earning NABC Player of the Year honors. His 841 points broke Dick Groat’s 49-year record for points in a season, while he led all tournament scorers with a 25.7 ppg average. Williams also set the NCAA Tournament record for three-pointers attempted (66), while also making 132 three-point field goals — good for the sixth-highest total in NCAA history. His 21.6 ppg led the ACC and made him the first Duke player since Danny Ferry (1989) to lead the league in scoring. His 6.1 assists were good for second in the league, while he also ranked second in three-point field goal percentage (.427) and first in three-pointers made (3.4 per game. Williams, widely considered the best player in college basketball, proved his supporters correct, earning both the prestigious [COLOR=#002bb8]Naismith Award[/COLOR] and [COLOR=#002bb8]Wooden Award[/COLOR] as College Basketball’s Player of the Year in 2002. His prolific career was even more amazing given the fact that he accomplished these feats in only three years, graduating with a degree in Sociology in 2002. He would leave Duke with 2,079 points, good for sixth all-time, and would have his [COLOR=#002bb8]jersey number[/COLOR] 22 [COLOR=#002bb8]retired[/COLOR] at Senior Day.
Williams was selected by the [COLOR=#002bb8]Chicago Bulls[/COLOR] with the second overall pick in the [COLOR=#002bb8]2002 NBA Draft[/COLOR], after [COLOR=#002bb8]Chinese[/COLOR] player [COLOR=#002bb8]Yao Ming[/COLOR] who was selected first by the [COLOR=#002bb8]Houston Rockets[/COLOR].
He played for the [COLOR=#002bb8]US national team[/COLOR] in the [COLOR=#002bb8]2002 FIBA World Championship[/COLOR].[SUP][SIZE=2][COLOR=#002bb8][2][/COLOR][/SIZE][/SUP]
Williams was a starter in the Bulls’ line-up for most of the [COLOR=#002bb8]2002-03 NBA season[/COLOR]. Although his performance was inconsistent and he competed for playing time with [COLOR=#002bb8]Jamal Crawford[/COLOR], he showed signs of promise including posting a [COLOR=#002bb8]triple-double[/COLOR] in a win over his hometown [COLOR=#002bb8]New Jersey Nets[/COLOR].
Williams’ life almost ended on June 19, 2003 when he crashed his motorcycle into a pole at the intersection of Fletcher and Honore in [COLOR=#002bb8]Chicago[/COLOR], [COLOR=#002bb8]Illinois[/COLOR]. Williams was not wearing a helmet, wasn’t licensed to drive a motorcycle in Illinois, and was violating terms of his contract [SUP][SIZE=2][COLOR=#002bb8][3][/COLOR][/SIZE][/SUP] by driving a new [COLOR=#002bb8]Yamaha YZF-R6[/COLOR]. Williams severed a main nerve in his leg, fractured his [COLOR=#002bb8]pelvis[/COLOR] and tore three ligaments in his left [COLOR=#002bb8]knee[/COLOR] including the ACL and required [COLOR=#002bb8]physical therapy[/COLOR] to regain the use of his leg.
[URL=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Williams_(basketball)”]Source[/URL]
