2026 Staff

Legends

Five coaches and basketball voices for one full day — national champions, Hall of Famers and one of the game's most recognizable writers. See the full day on the schedule page.

Jim Harrick

Head Coach, UCLA — 1995 NCAA National Championship

A National Championship head coach, Jim Harrick has led four different programs to a combined 16 NCAA Tournament trips in his 23-year head coaching career. Overall, his teams have advanced to three Elite Eights and four Sweet 16 rounds. Harrick has won nine conference championships and amassed 470 career victories. Harrick began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant, first with Utah State (1973-77) then with UCLA (1977-79) before taking over head coaching duties at Pepperdine (1979-88). A four-time West Coast Conference Coach of the Year, Harrick led the Waves to five WCC titles and four NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1988, Harrick returned to UCLA as a head coach, leading the Bruins to eight NCAA Tournament appearances. Harrick's Bruins won the school's first national title in 20 seasons in 1995. He would be named the Naismith College Coach of the Year and Pac-10 Coach of the Year that season. Outside of John Wooden's 10 national titles, Harrick is the only Bruin head coach to date to win a National Championship. Harrick also led the Bruins to two Elite Eights and three Sweet 16 appearances during his time in Westwood. He left UCLA in 1996 as the school's second-winningest head coach in program history (192 wins), behind only Wooden. After a one-year hiatus, Harrick spent the next two years as the head coach of Rhode Island (1997-99) where he led the Rams to two NCAA Tournament berths including an Elite Eight appearance. Harrick also served as the head coach for four seasons at the University of Georgia, leading the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament twice. Harrick worked as a scout for the Denver Nuggets and helped develop basketball in China following his collegiate head coaching career. His extensive coaching career began at Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif. where he served as an assistant coach from 1964-1969 and as head coach from 1970-1973 for the boys' basketball team. In his final season, Morningside earned a No. 1 ranking in the country. Harrick graduated from the University of Charleston, formerly Morris Harvey College, in his native West Virginia with a degree in speech communication in 1960. He later earned his master's in education administration from USC.

James Cosgrove

Head Coach, Trinity College — 2024-25 NCAA Division III National Championship

James Cosgrove enters his 17th season as Marlynn V. and William P. Scully Head Men's Basketball Coach at Trinity College for the 2026-27 season. Cosgrove holds a career record of 515-267, including a 276-130 mark at Trinity. During his tenure at Trinity, Cosgrove has coached ten NESCAC All-Conference selections, four NESCAC Defensive Players of the Year, three National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-American selections, the 2015-16 NESCAC Player of the Year, and the 2022-23 NESCAC Rookie of the Year. The Bantams have earned 27 Academic All-Conference selections, and have received NABC Academic Excellence Team recognition four times. Last season, Cosgrove was tabbed as the NABC Division III Coach of the Year after guiding the Bantams to the program's first NCAA Division III National Championship in 2024-25. Cosgrove led the Bantams to a 30-3 record, matching the program-high for wins in a season (2023-24), capped with a 64-60 victory over top-ranked New York University in the title game on March 22. Trinity collected their second straight New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship field.

Peter Vecsey

Hall of Fame Basketball Writer & Broadcaster

Peter Vecsey was born in 1943 in Queens, New York, where he became very interested in basketball. As a youth, he attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, New York, and graduated in 1961. Vecsey had covered the NBA for the New York Post. He was formerly an analyst for TBS and NBC and became an analyst for NBA TV. His writing style has been described as vicious, combative, and witty. In the 1960s, he served in the United States Army Special Forces. Vecsey's column in the New York Post frequently detailed behind-the-scenes trade maneuvers as well as spotlighting many rumors in the NBA. Vecsey is also known for his open criticism of players. Familiar players he has criticized include Charles Barkley, Danny Fortson, Danny Ainge, Byron Scott, the New Jersey Nets, Larry Brown, Alonzo Mourning, the Los Angeles Clippers, the New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Vin Baker, Shawn Kemp, and former Nets star Jayson Williams. He gave number one draft pick Joe Barry Carroll the nickname "Joe Barely Cares" and dubbed former 1980s Knicks player Larry Demic "EpiDemic" after he failed to live up to expectations. Vecsey is the younger brother of The New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey. With his passionate writing style, he received the Basketball Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2009. Vecsey was also deeply involved in the grassroots of New York City basketball, especially at Rucker Park where he coached a team.

Tricia Fabbri

Legendary Former Head Women's Coach, Quinnipiac

Coach Fabbri retired as the winningest coach in Quinnipiac University history (570 wins). Fabbri is one of nine active Division I women's basketball head coaches with at least 500 victories with a single program. She has led the Bobcats to 10 separate 20-win seasons throughout her successful tenure. Quinnipiac reached the 30-win mark in both 2012-13 and 2014-15. Fabbri wraps up her 31-year career at Quinnipiac with five conference championships and five NCAA Tournament appearances. Since joining NCAA Division I, Coach Fabbri has distinguished herself as a premier coach in the region. Fabbri and the Bobcats left the Northeast Conference in 2013, ranking second all-time in career NEC regular season wins (177) and overall NEC wins (187). Fabbri and Quinnipiac captured one title during 15 seasons in the NEC. She coached one Player of the Year, one Rookie of the Year, two Defensive Players of the Year, and 28 All-Conference selections. Fabbri was named conference Coach of the Year three times. During her 13-year MAAC tenure, Fabbri and Quinnipiac have won four MAAC championships, three NCAA Tournament games, and two WNIT games. She has been named conference Coach of the Year in the MAAC five different times. Quinnipiac has had two Player of the Year award winners, a Defensive Player of the Year, two Rookies of the Year, and three Sixth Players of the Year. Quinnipiac has had 30+ players selected to All-Conference teams, including eight first-team selections.

Pete Gillen

Legendary Former Head Coach, Xavier, Providence & Virginia

Coach Gillen began his coaching career at his high school alma mater Brooklyn Prep, first as freshman coach in the 1970–71 school year, then as varsity head coach from 1971 to 1973. He soon moved to the collegiate level when he joined the coaching staff of the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, with Rick Pitino as one of his fellow assistants. Gillen followed that with subsequent assistant coaching stints at the Virginia Military Institute, Villanova University under Rollie Massimino, and the University of Notre Dame under Digger Phelps, from 1980 to 1985. Head basketball coach at Xavier University from 1985 to 1994, Providence College from 1994 to 1998, and the University of Virginia from 1998 to 2005. At Xavier he won 202 games in the third-longest tenure ever for a XU coach, taking the Musketeers to the NCAA Tournament seven times and the NIT once (1994); he was the winningest coach in Xavier history until Chris Mack passed him in 2018. Hired at Providence to replace Rick Barnes, he followed the Friars' 1994 Big East title with two NIT trips before the 1997 run to the Elite Eight, upsetting Marquette and Duke and beating Chattanooga before losing in overtime to eventual national champion Arizona. He moved on to Virginia in 1998, where his seven teams compiled a 118–93 record and competed in five postseason tournaments, including the 2001 NCAA Tournament and four NITs. In September 2008, Gillen was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

Coaches and times are subject to change.