Big Ten Network Announces Women’s College Basketball Analysts

Former
Wisconsin coach Mary Murphy, former

Indiana
assistant coach Vera Jones and former Purdue All-American Stephanie White will
serve as the Big Ten Network’s lead women’s basketball analysts. The
announcement was made today by Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman and
Executive Producer Leon Schweir.

Murphy
will regularly handle game analysis on location during the network’s Monday
primetime telecasts. Jones and White will primarily take part in studio
coverage from Big Ten Network headquarters in downtown

Chicago.

Once
conference play begins in January, the Big Ten Network will air a 30-minute
pre-game show leading into the Monday night contest.

“With
64 women’s basketball games on the schedule this season, the Big Ten Network
will deliver unprecedented women’s basketball coverage. We are proud to put
women’s sports onto a national stage,” Silverman said.

“Vera
Jones, Mary Murphy and Stephanie White bring many years of Big Ten women’s
basketball experience as players, coaches and broadcasters,” Schweir said.
“They have a great understanding and appreciation for what the conference
represents.”

Jones is
an experienced broadcaster having called Big Ten and Big East games for Fox
Sports Net. She has also served as an analyst for the WNBA’s New York Liberty
and Indiana Fever and covered the WNBA Draft for NBA TV.

She also
was an assistant coach at

Indiana

University last season,
helping guide the Hoosiers to postseason play. In
Bloomington,
Jones worked under head coach Felisha Legette-Jack, her former teammate at

Syracuse.

During her
time at
Syracuse, Jones scored more than 1,000
points and helped lead the

Orange
to their first Big East Tournament title, a regular season Big Ten crown and
two NCAA Tournament appearances. A prolific three-point shooter, Jones earned
the nickname “Sweet V from Top of the Key.” Jones was inducted into
the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame in 2002.

After
several years coaching and broadcasting women’s basketball around the country,
Murphy returns to her Big Ten roots. A

Chicago
native, Murphy was a two-year captain at Northwestern and a finalist for the
Wade Trophy as one of the top players in the country. Murphy served as an
assistant at Notre Dame before spending eight years as the head coach at

Wisconsin. In 1992, she
led the Badgers to their first NCAA Tournament.

Murphy was
chosen as the first coach and general manager for the WNBA’s Sacramento
Monarchs in 1997. Her broadcasting resume includes work for Fox Sports Net and
ESPN on college basketball and WNBA telecasts.

White is
best remembered in Big Ten circles for leading Purdue to its first NCAA
championship in 1999. That season, she was named the National College Player of
the Year, the Indiana NCAA Woman of the Year and Big Ten Conference Player of
the Year.

White
played five seasons in the WNBA, including a four-year stint with the Indiana
Fever. When she retired in 2004, White ranked third in games played (112) and
three-point field goals (92) and fourth in scoring (684).

After her
playing career, White embarked on a coaching career and has since been
recognized as one of the top young assistants in women’s basketball. She is
currently an assistant coach for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. Her previous stops
include the University of Toledo, Kansas State and

Ball
State.

White was
a prep star at
Seeger
High School in
West Lebanon,

Ind., where she broke the state’s
single-season scoring record and was named

Indiana’s Miss Basketball in 1995.