Listening to UA's stream team Brunson, Bonvicini feels like home

When Joan Bonvicini and Cindy Brunson took their seats next to each other just off center court at McKale Center on Monday night for the Arizona women’s basketball home opener, it was like two old friends ready to take in a game.

This dynamic broadcasting duo has called many of the home games of the Adia Barnes-led Wildcats since Feb. 2, 2018, (that one was a 78-60 loss to Washington State), on the Pac-12 Network.

But this time it was a little different.

There’s a new league (Big 12) and new teams coming to Tucson to play Arizona. The games are streaming on ESPN+. Still, the one thing that always remains the same with Bonvicini and Brunson on the call is that it feels comfortable. It feels … like home.

We feel it and they definitely feel it.

“Of all the people that I worked with, I only need one hand to count on the instant chemistry I’ve experienced with certain people, and Joan is at the top of that list,” Brunson said.

“As soon as we worked together, it just felt like magic, and it’s this nebulous thing that you can’t describe, but you know it when it’s happening. It happens with Joan and it is as if we have known each other for all of our lives. We get each other’s sense of humor. We both share a deep passion for women’s basketball and all of it just comes together in this beautiful confluence, which I hope the fans appreciate.”

The next time to catch Brunson and Bonvicini is Thursday when Arizona (1-0) takes on Tarleton State (0-1) at 6 p.m. at McKale Center. They will be on the call for all of the Wildcats’ home games this season.

Bonvicini added that from the start, something just “clicked. It seems effortless and it’s fun. It was very easy and it started feeling almost like you’re sitting on a sofa having a conversation.”

Many know and still lovingly call Bonvicini “Coach B.” The former Arizona coach also coached at Long Beach State and Seattle. She finished her career with 701 career wins. Bonvicini has been an analyst on basketball games for Pac-12, Mountain West, GCU and the WAC Tournament. Besides the Pac-12 Network, she has worked for ESPN and Fox.

Brunson was an anchor and studio host at ESPN for more than a decade. She has also called men’s basketball and was a sideline reporter for college football. Her focus now is play-by-play for women’s basketball and softball. She does play-by-play for NBC (Big 10 basketball), Athletes Unlimited professional women’s basketball and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.

Brunson said if she had a home away from home it would be McKale Center. As a Washington State grad, Brunson was careful to distinguish between her home in Pullman and Tucson. Since she started calling Arizona games back in the 2014-15 season, Brunson has seen the attendance go from only hearing “the sound of my own voice projecting” throughout the arena because no one was there to UA coach Adia Barnes “putting her stamp on the program, getting the fan base engaged and excited, and now it’s a vibe.”

Finding a new home

With the changes in the offseason and four Pac-12 teams – Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado – moving to the Big 12 – the schools would have to build their own studios to produce and stream games on ESPN+. But no one, especially not the broadcast teams, knew what it would look like or if their services would be needed.

Brunson recalled finishing her last broadcast on Pac-12 Network — a Wildcat softball game — and looking at Kenzie Fowler, the former UA softball standout, trying not to cry.

Shortly after, Bonvicini told her “I think I can sell us as a tandem to continue working together in Tucson, if you’re interested.”

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Brunson didn’t have to think twice. She was onboard.

Despite not calling a game together since last February, on Monday night the duo slipped right into that easy rapport like no time had passed.

Brunson tipped off the evening saying she was alongside “my BFF – you know her, the woman with more than 700 wins in her career.”

Brunson quickly segued into asking Bonvicini what is going through the minds of the coaches and the players?

Bonvicini replied, “They’re very excited, but there are a lot of butterflies. As a coach, I really remember being on the sideline. You prepare so much, but really a lot of things, crazy things happen in the first game.”

The banter continues like that with Bonvicini, the analyst, giving her thoughts on the players, their performances as well as the decisions of the coaches throughout the game.

They have this conversation with each giving the other the space to talk. At times Brunson tees it up for Bonvicini with questions – especially at the end of a game during a timeout situation – and other times just flowing naturally back and forth.

“If Cindy tees me up at the end and there is a close game for a time out, I’ll always say something like this, ‘well, if it was me, I do ABC,’” Bonvicini said. “That’s just from experience; coaching (for) so long. And that’s why I like to talk to the coach (before the game) because I’ll get information on the players, I’ll ask very strategic things like how they’re going to handle certain situations? Are they pressing? What kind of press and where they do it on the court? What’s their philosophy of how they defend screens?”

Bonvicini and Brunson complement each other well. Each has taught the other about their own deep expertise – Brunson on the television side of things and Bonvicini on the X’s and O’s of basketball.

Bonvicini calls Brunson “a pro, who does the little things,” that make her standout, especially her homework. While Brunson said what separates Bonvicini from the others is that “she is able to take something very complex, basketball wise, and make it very consumable.”

The connection between Bonvicini and Brunson doesn’t just start when the headsets go on for the game. Just like what makes any team successful, these two are always communicating whether it’s during a commercial, in the moments before the stream starts or even during the week with their preparation.

Brunson’s favorite games to prepare with Bonvicini is when Arizona faces its rival ASU. The former coach has plenty of stories to tell from when her Wildcats played.

“She can recount every instance she faced off against Arizona State (as Arizona’s head coach),” Brunson said with a laugh, “(from) what was going through her mind, what she wore, what she had for a pre-game meal and how much she hated the opposition.”

Brunson added: “It is awesome. It’s one of those things that made me so grateful that this rivalry stayed intact, with all the conference chaos and the cratering of the best women’s basketball conference, for my money, in the Pac-12. To have that rivalry still there, because that means that Coach B will be in full throat when the Sun Devils come to Tucson, and it will be a beautiful thing.”