Dick Vitale back on March Madness TV coverage | Sports News

The voice that helped define college basketball’s biggest moments is back where it belongs.

After years of health battles that at times left him unable to speak, Dick Vitale returned to the broadcast booth for the 2025-26 season, and now, at 86, he’s stepping onto one of the sport’s biggest stages in a way he never has before. Vitale is set to call a First Four basketball game on television during March Madness, marking a milestone moment in a career that has already spanned nearly five decades.

For Vitale, simply being back behind the microphone is something he doesn’t take for granted.

“I’m still doing games,” Vitale informed USA TODAY Sports. “It’s a miracle. It’s absolutely a miracle. I get emotional about it sometimes.”

That perspective comes from a stretch that examined him far past basketball. Over a two-year span, Vitale battled a number of kinds of most cancers, together with melanoma, lymphoma, vocal wire most cancers and lymph node most cancers. There have been moments the place his signature voice, the identical one which made “Awesome, baby!” half of the game’s vocabulary, was gone totally, forcing him to speak by writing issues down.

“My whole life is my voice, and I got vocal cord cancer, I couldn’t talk, had to write everything down on a [white] board for my wife,” Vitale stated. “It certainly was a tough road for me. It was a journey that no one wants to go through.”

The highway back wasn’t rapid. Vitale underwent months of chemotherapy, radiation and restoration, navigating each the bodily toll and the uncertainty that comes with every spherical of testing. He leaned on household, religion and a constant mindset to keep pushing ahead.

“You can roll over from it, but you can just battle and battle,” he stated. “And I always tell them, think positive and have faith.”

That perception carried him back to the court docket. After initially concentrating on a return during the 2024-25 season, Vitale made an emotional comeback in February 2025, calling a recreation between Duke and Clemson. But he made it clear that wasn’t going to be the ultimate chapter.

In June, Vitale signed an extension with ESPN via the 2027-28 season, making certain his presence would stay half of the game’s cloth as he approaches 50 years with the community.

Now, his return reaches one other degree. Despite calling more than 1,000 video games and masking numerous Final Fours on radio, Vitale will probably be a tv analyst for an NCAA Tournament recreation for the primary time, becoming a member of Brian Anderson and Charles Barkley on the call.

“Gonna be doing the First Four game, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vitale stated. “I had a lot of fun with Charles. One of my favorite moments in my 46 years at ESPN has been when I did the game with Charles.”

As he prepares for March Madness, Vitale hasn’t misplaced sight of what the event means, each for gamers chasing a title and for himself, merely being half of it again.

“When that phone rings and you get those results, it’s life-changing, right?” he stated. “If he says you’re cancer-free, it’s like you won the national championship — cut the nets down and celebrate it.”