Valparaiso University Athletics has announced the department’s broadcast plans for the 2020-2021 men’s and women’s basketball seasons.

All men’s and women’s home games during the nonconference schedule will be streamed on The Valley on ESPN, with all games airing on either ESPN3 or ESPN+. During the conference schedule, all women’s games (home and away) will be broadcast on either ESPN3 or ESPN+ as will all men’s games, except those selected by ESPN, CBS Sports or the MVC TV Network for linear television distribution. TV schedules will be announced by the Missouri Valley Conference at a later date.

All nine men’s nonconference games will be broadcast in some capacity, with seven of the nine airing on ESPN3 or ESPN+ and the other two airing on national television. The Nov. 27 season opener at Vanderbilt will be carried on the SEC Network, while the Dec. 4 game at Purdue will be broadcast nationally on Big Ten Network.

Over the last decade, 95 Valpo men’s basketball games have been televised, including 61 nationally-televised games. Most recently, 1.2 million viewers watched the 2020 State Farm MVC Tournament title game between Valpo and Bradley. Valpo basketball games have aired on the following television networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, CBS, CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports 1, Big Ten Network, PAC-12 Network, TNT and SEC Network.

Ron Blatz will continue his leadership of Valpo’s Valley on ESPN productions as he returns as Broadcast & Streaming Manager this season. Viewers will be serenaded by the familiar play-by-play voice of Todd Ickow on men’s basketball broadcasts, while Dave Huseman is back for his eighth season as analyst for home ESPN3/+ men’s basketball productions. Ickow is set to begin his 30^th year calling Valpo Athletics and his 29^th as the voice of Valpo basketball.

Huseman will also be featured on Valpo women’s broadcasts again this season, joining longtime Northwest Indiana high school basketball coach Renee’ Turpa, former Valpo women’s basketball standout Jamie (Gutowski) Stangel ’06 and longtime Northwest Indiana sportscaster Brian Jennings. When the Valpo volleyball season gets underway, Jennings and Turpa will return as the broadcast tandem. Jennings will also join Ickow for several men’s basketball broadcasts this season. 

All men’s and women’s basketball games will once again air on WVUR-95.1 FM Valparaiso, under the leadership of sports director Garrett Willis and assistant sports director Zach Collins. Willis will return as the play-by-play voice for many Valpo men’s home games this season while adding women’s play-by-play for both home and road games to his list of duties. Numerous other WVUR staff members will be involved in men’s basketball home broadcasts and women’s basketball broadcasts, both home and road.

Ickow will continue as the play-by-play radio broadcaster for men’s road games and will move to the radio call for any home Missouri Valley Conference games where conference-assigned talent or national television distribution preempts his ESPN3/+ broadcast. For road games, Ickow will be joined on the call by assistant director of athletics for media relations Brandon Vickrey again this season. Ickow and Vickrey will travel to nearby road games for in-person coverage and will call select road games remotely from the WVUR studio off monitors as a precaution to reduce travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willis and the WVUR staff will do the same for road women’s broadcasts.

Although home games will not be open to the public during the months of November and December due to the ongoing pandemic, there are numerous ways for Valpo fans to follow from home. ESPN+ is available for $5.99 per month, and subscription information can be found here. All Valpo Sports Network radio broadcasts can be streamed online free of charge via the new Valpo Sports Network page on the Tune In Radio app.

An active in-game social media presence will be available for all games by following @ValpoBasketball and @ValpoWBB on Twitter. As always, links to broadcast coverage and live stats will be available on the men’s basketball and women’s basketball schedules pages on ValpoAthletics.com. Fans are also encouraged to download the free Valpo Athletics app, a one-stop shop for all the latest in Valpo Athletics, via the app store or Google play.

The hour-long Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Basketball Special presented by State Farm will debut this week, with its first run on NBC Sports Chicago coming on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The show, which previews the conferences men’s and women’s basketball seasons, will also air on NBC Sports Chicago on Wednesday at 10 p.m. (main), Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. (main) and Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. (plus channel).