Want to watch an NCAA Tournament classic? Your odds are good with this CBS broadcast crew

Men’s college basketball has its own version of “The Tess Effect” in the form of Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas.

The CBS basketball announcing team is currently on a two-year NCAA Tournament heater that includes No. 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson’s historic upset over top-seeded Purdue in last year’s first round and an incredible stretch in Pittsburgh this past weekend in the first and second rounds, featuring No. 14 seed Oakland’s upset of No. 3 Kentucky on Thursday and then two overtime games on Saturday night — NC State defeating Oakland in overtime and Creighton holding off Oregon in double overtime.

“First of all, it’s just luck,” Catalon said Sunday morning. “You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time, and we have been in some great places. In the 2015 tournament, we had a 14-seed beat a 3(-seed) when Georgia State beat Baylor. Last year with FDU was historic. This year we have had an unbelievable ride. The best part about it for me is we have now done so many games together that we have fun with it and we embrace it. We kind of like it when it gets a little crazy because we know each other so well.”

“I think a big reason why these games stand out is because of the calls that Andrew has in these situations,” Lappas said. “In the 2015 game, Ron Hunter was the coach at Georgia State and his son RJ Hunter made a 3 (in the final seconds). The coach had a torn Achilles tendon and he was on a scooter and he fell off the scooter. I see Andrew’s call of Ron Hunter falling off his scooter every now and then.

“… I’m not a TV guy. I’m a basketball coach. And Andrew told me very early on, ‘Lap, just one thing. Don’t step on my call.’ I learned way back when, hey, at this moment here, it’s up to him to do his thing.”

Catalon’s “FDU Believe It!” call from last year went viral and The Athletic chronicled how CBS Sports producer Bill Thayer and director Andy Goldberg handled the moment along with their broadcasters. (Jonathan Segal is the producer for Catalon, Lappas and sideline reporter Evan Washburn this year.)

"FD YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!!" pic.twitter.com/tr53NWkXx0

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 18, 2023

“I’m fortunate at CBS to call the NFL … and I am going to The Masters in a couple of weeks,” Catalon said. “But I keep hearing ‘FDU Believe It!’ all year long. It recirculates on social media all the time.”

“We knew how big that was,” Lappas said of FDU’s win. “We hugged right after the game as we were getting up from the table. We knew we were witness or part of something that was really special.”

On Saturday night, with 16.9 seconds left in the first overtime of Creighton-Oregon, CBS showed a replay of Catalon and Lappas calling the game-tying 3-pointer from Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard at the end of the first overtime. Viewers saw Catalon pumping both fists and mouthing out, “BANG!”

The Tessitore Effect, or Tess Effect, is an ode to ESPN broadcaster Joe Tessitore, who seemed to call an incredible amount of fourth-quarter comebacks and crazy last-second endings as a college football announcer before his “Monday Night Football” stint. (Tessitore is once again calling college football games.) Catalon said one thing the group learned from the FDU game was to have patience with the moment. Don’t assume something will happen until it does.

Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas in February 2022. Over the past two seasons, they have called several memorable NCAA Tournament games. (Porter Binks / Getty Images)

Catalon and Lappas estimate they have called more than 300 games together and first worked with each other back in 2012 when they did a Colorado State-UTEP game in Fort Collins, Colo. This is their ninth NCAA Tournament together (Catalon has called 10 NCAA Tournaments overall) and the first year where they have been rewarded by getting a regional finals assignment. They’ll be behind the mic for the Midwest Regional games in Detroit this Friday and Sunday, which feature both Creighton and Purdue, a No. 1 seed again this year.

“Andrew was very respectful of me when we first met, and we developed this friendship from them,” Lappas said. “We always joke about how I am a guy who does not know what a BA (broadcast associate) or AP (associate producer) is and he went to the Newhouse School (at Syracuse). He understands how I came up, and I understand how he came up. I think we have developed something special. The best thing that I hear people will say about us is we sound like two guys in a bar having a beer and talking about the game. That’s kind of how it feels during the game.”

“We spend so much time together,” Catalon said. “How many times have we done a game at UConn that ends at 11 at night and then we drive back together and I drop him off at the Vince Lombardi Service Area on I-95? … Even though we have different personalities, he’s very relatable to me.”

On Saturday night, following Creighton’s late-night win, Catalon, Lappas, Washburn, Segal, Goldberg and Ross Malloy, the network’s vice president of talent, production planning and technology development, were on an elevator together at their Pittsburgh hotel when Lappas reminded everyone that this year was different for the crew.

Recalled Catalon: “It’s 1 in the morning and as Steve is getting off the elevator, he says to our crew, ‘Guys, that was an unbelievable week. But the best part about it is that we get to do it again next week.'”

On Sunday night the broadcasters learned they would be going to Detroit. Next up for Catalon and Lappas is No. 5 Gonzaga vs. Purdue on Friday at 7:39 p.m. ET (TBS and truTV) followed by No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 2 Tennessee.

GO DEEPER

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(Top photo of Creighton’s Jasen Green: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)