< Previous 9 MEN’S B ASKETB ALL S T AFF IRA BOWMAN Assistant Coach STEVEN PEARL Assistant Coach WES FLANIGAN Assistant Coach DAMON DAVIS Strength & Conditioning Coach RANDY ROBERTS Chaplain CLARK PEARSON Athletic Trainer IAN BORDERS Video Coordinator MADDUX JEFFREYS Graduate Assistant KT HARRELL Graduate Assistant CHAD PREWETT Director of Operations MARQUIS DANIELS Director of Player Development MIKE BURGOMASTER Assistant Director of Operations TRA’CEE TANNER Equipment Manager HOLLY MCKEE Sports Dietitian CLICK EACH PHOTO FOR FULL BIO10 FEA TURE: P ANDEMIC PL A Y -B Y -PLA Y AT HOME ON THE ROAD: PANDEMIC PLAY-BY-PLAY Looking up at a monitor in the press box at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn play-by-play announcer Andy Burcham paints a picture for listeners of the Tigers’ men’s basketball team. Suddenly, the screen freezes, a common occurrence for anyone who’s ever streamed a TV show, only to see the signal buffer. The voice of the Auburn Tigers pauses briefly until the video feed returns, with listeners unaware of the glitch. “You wait for it to come back,” Burcham said. “You really have no choice. When it comes back, you pick up where you left off.” A veteran of more than three decades of broadcasting, Burcham has called approximately 1,000 Auburn men’s and women’s basketball games, all of them on location until the Tigers’ 2020-21 season opener on Thanksgiving. Burcham and Sonny Smith are calling road games remotely this season, a common practice among broadcasters to limit travel during the coronavirus pandemic. opener vs. Saint Joseph’s in Fort Myers, Florida, the Auburn Sports Network received a feed from Fox’s studio production team, the event’s producer. “It’s trickier in a way because we are relying completely on somebody else to provide video and audio,” said Brad Law, director of broadcast operations. “When it works, it’s really seamless. They sent us the same mix of crowd mics in the arena that they used for their telecast.” “It’s been a collective effort,” said Ben Harling, Auburn Sports Properties interim general manager. “A lot of help from IT and [Auburn Athletics’ technology director] Kevin Duvall, War Eagle Productions, and associate media relations director Cody Voga in coordinating postgame interviews. A lot of people put in a lot of work to get us to this point.” “It’s going to be a chore all year to do this,” Burcham said of the behind-the-scenes work of Law, Harling and their team. “It’s not a small task to set up a broadcast to try to sound as much as we can like we’re at the event.” With seven remote road broadcasts under their belts, Andy and Sonny have settled in to their new routine. “When you’ve got somebody as good as Andy, who stays up on every play and knows the number of every guy, it becomes very easy for me,” Smith said. “So I just analyze the game as a coach, and he takes care of business for me.” For the beloved 84-year-old Smith, who has avoided most outings for the past 10 months except for trips to the grocery store, broadcasting games for the team he used to coach has provided a sense of normalcy. “It’s tough for us old folks,” said Smith, expressing appreciation for his broadcast partner. “The same way with Rod [Bramblett], they took care of the things that I would not do well, and it makes it so easy and more enjoyable for me. It’s not like work.” “We’re still calling Auburn basketball,” Burcham said. “And we’re thrilled to be able to do it.” Thanks to nifty engineering wizardry, listeners are still able to hear every swish, whistle and shoe squeak. For the season 15 A UTLIVE The Bruce Pearl Family Foundation is once again continuing the fight against cancer with the sixth year of AUTLIVE, Auburn basketball’s fight against cancer. The best way to beat cancer is to detect it early and be able to fight it on your home court. This year’s AUTLIVE game will take place in Auburn Arena on Saturday, February 27, 2021 vs. Tennessee. You can support the cause by purchasing a t-shirt for $25 beginning early January. AUTLIVE raises the awareness of cancer prevention and detection while t-shirt sales and donations raise money to benefit cancer patients at these locations: Russell Medical Foundation, Smile-A-Mile, Coosa Valley Medical Center, Children’s of Alabama, East Alabama Medical Center, Joy to Life, aTeam Ministries, Cancer Wellness Foundation and Russell Hill. Pearl and his coaching staff initiated the OUTLIVE program in 2009 at Tennessee in recognition of former Vol Chris Lofton, who beat testicular cancer through early diagnosis and local #ThinkSunSouth WHETHER YOU’RE CUTTING, MOWING, MULCHING, TILLING, LOADING, DIGGING, PLANTING, HAULING OR OFF-ROADING... QUALITY JOHN DEERE EQUIPMENT, AFFORDABLY PRICED. 21 LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHEAST. >> FIND YOURS << SUNSOUTH.COMNext >