SiriusXM host Nicole Auerbach on the Women's Basketball Final Four in Tampa

Our guest is the very talented Sirius XM host Nicole Auerbach, We will be talking about this week's Women's Final Four in Tampa.



Nicole will be hosting live shows from the Women’s Final Four for SiriusXM College Sports Radio this weekend. She will be in Tampa talking to players and coaches from the Final Four teams plus prominent coaches and commissioners from across women’s college basketball.



Nicole’s  Sirius/XM show schedule, live from Tampa:



Friday: 3-6pmET - pregame show from Amalie Arena Friday: 11pm-1amET - postgame show from Amalie Arena




Sunday: 9-10amET and 1:30-2:30p ET - pregame shows from Amalie Arena Sunday 5-8pmET - postgame show from Amalie Arena




SiriusXM broadcasts Women’s NCAA Tournament games. Listeners will hear Westwood One’s broadcasts of the Final Four games and National Championship game on SiriusXM College Sports Radio, channel 84.



Nicole Is one of the most respected voices in all of college sports. Nicole is known for detailed indepth coverage of both college football and basketball. Her work at Sirius XM can be heard on many of the college channels.



Nicole is also with NBC Sports where she covers college football and college basketball on all platforms.



For two decades she has been at some of the highest profile publications such as The Athlectic and USA Today and the Big Ten Network.



Her work has garnered her national awards such as the 2020 National Sports Media Association (NSMA) National Sportswriter of the Year and the 2017 U.S. Basketball Writers Association Rising Star.




Be sure to check out her work at SiriusXM radio and at NBC Sports


Also follow her on social media

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good accident and everybody, and we are ready to talk
to the final four. Our guest today is Serious XM
host Nicole our Back. We'll be talking, as I said before,
about the Women's Final Four going on down to Tampa
and Nicole is hosting a series of programming on the
Women's Final Four live for Serious XM down in Tampa. Nicole, welcome.

(00:41):
It's great to have you and it should be a
fun gig this weekend.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's my fourth year in
a row doing this live pregame and postgame shows for
Serious XM and it's just been awesome to see the
event and the work just continue to grow and understand
that there's more and more attention on it than ever before.
So it's an honor. It's great to go. It's a

(01:07):
lot of fun. The coaches on the women's side are
just so accessible, great, happy to talk to you, and
you just get a lot of great insights. So it's
a really fun event. It's awesome to be covering a
sport as it kind of is on this rocket ship
of sorts, and I'm excited to get down there and
provide some live coverage.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, you know, you've had such a tremendous career so far,
and you know, talking about rocketing to the top. You know,
as you go, as you've gone along and you've called
vered college and you've done the extensive work in college,
have you seen anything go as quickly? And I don't

(01:50):
know why, but because those of us who have loved
women's college basketball have basically just looked up and said,
you're now just getting to this. You know, you I
just realized these peole, you know, these young women can
play basketball at the high level. And and I mean
I couldn't be happier to see that it's taken off.
But are you, in any wish surprised that it's taken

(02:13):
so long?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah. I think a lot of people around the sport
do have that sense of, hey, what took you so long?
But we're happy you're here when they look at the
increased coverage and attention because it's not like, you know,
the past women's basketball stars were less athletic or less dominant. Uh,
they were still incredible players, they just weren't getting the

(02:35):
visibility that these athletes are now. I mean, it does
feel like, you know, we're in a different media landscape
where you know, viewers are going where the sports are
that they're passionate about, and I think it's uh, you know,
there there's been little tweaks and tinkering around and making
it a better TV product. You know, there's been a
lot more pregame, halftime, postgame coverage of these games, which

(02:57):
helps introduce you to players and understand what it's and
and and understand the storylines involved, which which keep you
coming back for more. And I think that's helped. But
you know, softballs made for TV, volleyballs made for TV.
These are great sports to watch, and so I think
that people are just more open to, uh, you know,
things that have not always traditionally been you know, in

(03:18):
certain windows and with certain exposure and finding that there's
audiences for all of these sports as well. And you
know everyone always says it, you know, if if you
build it, they'll come. But if you put these these
these games on linear TV or in better time slots
and more people are exposed to it, they are going
to stick around. I think that's what's been really impressive
about this Women's NCAA tournament is you know, you're seeing

(03:41):
all sorts of great audience markers and you know, we
knew that it would be different without Caitlin Clark, but
it's still in so many measurements like the second best
and most watched rounds and games and and individual standalone
moments then in the history of the tournament, And so
that means that a lot of people maybe were introduced
to it through Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese or somebody

(04:03):
else in recent years have stuck around two which so
I think it's all about introducing people to it, and
then when you start watching it, it's you know, it's
very it's great team basketball, and there's so much athleticism
that I think it's enjoyable to watch, and I think
for a long time people just didn't want to give
it a shot.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Right. The other thing, and this is from my days
as a producer and director, I could not be happier
to see more women now involved in play by play,
involved in the the hosting, and literally giving great insight
into the game during the pregame, halftime post game shows.

(04:41):
I mean, if this is really an opportunity that has
again we've talked just about a minute ago how long
it took to get people to this sport. Now we're
actually getting women who are getting the opportunity to do
the play by play and the rest of the sport
in basketball and actually branching out from that to other sports.

(05:06):
And it's been a long time coming on that standpoint
as well.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, no, I think it's a great point. We've also
seen some relatively recent players get involved, like Aleah Boston
is involved on the media side while she's still playing, right,
and you can work it around, you know, the off
season schedule, and I think that stuff helps, right, it's
all about visibility, but also there's just a freshness when
you get active players engaged in the media side of

(05:32):
things as well, and it's it's all interconnected. I think
it all plays into each other and help support the sport.
But it does feel like, you know, it's kind of
like everyone's catching up and and you know, you've even
seen a lot more written coverage of women's basketball this
season through the off season w NBA season, and so

(05:55):
it's it's kind of everyone's realizing, you know, there's an
audience there and we want to be part of it.
We want to be want to educate ourselves, we want
to give people opportunities to cover this stuff. And then
also you know, have them stick around. But everyone's looking
for revenue streams too, right, Like I wrote about this
for nbcsports dot Com this week about you know, the
units that they're getting in the women's tournament this year

(06:17):
for the first time, it's not nearly as much money
as the men's teams earn for wins and advancing in
the NCAA tournament. But that is a revenue stream, right, Like,
everyone's looking for money, and to have that opportunity to
put a dollar figure for the play to say, you know,
our women's basketball tournament is worth sixty five million dollars

(06:38):
per year in our media rights package. All of that
just just kind of goes against these these antiquated ideas
that like it was a money loser, there's no money
to be had in the business of women's basketball, and
so I think it's you know, you're kind of knocking
down all those excuses as you move on, and then
you're trying to build out the media ecosystem around it.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I also think that the launching of so many solid
streaming platforms have helped, because you know, they need content
and uh and this is quality content. So you know,
you're with NBC Sports of course, one of my favorite
streaming services is Peacock, and Peacock has been you know,

(07:22):
seriously involved in that as well.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Right right, I think I think all of that comes
into play. And it's again, I think so much of
you know, kind of this on demand world that we
live in is like there has to be reasons for
for you to tune in, and so you do have
some real serious data on the interest and engagement in
women's basketball fans that kind of backs up all of
that support absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, I'll tell you what. Let's go and try to
take a look at what's going to happen this weekend
in Tampa, and that is we got kN and u
c l A. That's kind of an interesting situation that
you you're so used to UCLA being involved in college basketball,
but we find out this time around that the top

(08:06):
seed of Bruins, this is our first trip to an
nc double A you know, Final four.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the men's side obviously has so
much history. Sure, and you have to remember that women's basketball,
you know, didn't become an en didn't come under the
NCAA umbrella until much later. But it is strunning when
you think about it, because you do think of all
the basketball royalty that have come through UCLA. But you know,
they're the number one overall seed. Lauren Betts and the

(08:33):
size that she brings on both ends of the floor
is really hard to handle and you kind of have
to do it by committee. But it's interesting. I feel
like they are kind of I think Vegas has them
with the longest odds to win it all despite being
the number one overall seed. But I feel like they're
the team that's getting talked about the least, in part
because they are going against Yukon, which has looked fantastic,

(08:56):
and you have Pagebackers coming off three straight games of
twenty five plus points. Right She's playing like she does
not want her college career to end, and she is
one of the rare Yukon stars that hasn't won a
national championship, so she has a lot to play for
here down the stretch. But I do think, you know,
people are really invested in Page's story and her career
arc and the injuries that she's had to come back

(09:18):
from and how well they played to get here. Certainly
her combo and her duo with Sarah Strong the freshman,
and then of course you got the all SEC matchup
on the other side, and how Carolina going for back
to back titles. So I kind of feel like UCLA
is kind of slipping through the cracks a little bit.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, and who doesn't love Geno Oreena. I mean what
he's done. You know with Yukon. We talked a couple
of seconds ago about UCLA. I mean, there's no question
that no one's gonna ever take anything away from what
John Wooden has done. But you know, Geno Orienta is
the John Wooden of the women's basketball world.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, and what's crazy is he has han't won a
national championship in nine years, which I know, like forever
in Yukon history, right, So it's been so interesting to
see as the sport has, you know, parody has increased,
but the way I like to think about it is
the depth at the top of the sport has increased,
so there's just more national title contenders. Like this year
on Selection Sunday, I was hosting our series XM Selection

(10:22):
Sunday Show, and I was like, there's like at least
six teams that you could make a legitimate case could
win it, right, And I don't remember ever coming close
to thinking that way. On the women's basketball side, you know,
these teams can't really coast until they get to the
final four. We've seen really competitive games in the Sweet
sixteen and Elite eight rounds. Certainly South Carolina was tested

(10:42):
in both of theirs. But so there's just there's so
much more depth there, and it's come at the expense
of Yukon, which used to be just you know, a
cut above everyone else and like your second string was
better than most of America. And now you have the
talent dispersed in South Carolina's in Don Staley's dynasty coming up,
and it's crazy to think that, you know, Yukon beating

(11:04):
South Carolina earlier this year in the regular season, crushing
them was like kind of a moment for parody in
the sport if you think about it, because Yukon wasn't
in that category. They're kind of in the mix, but
that kind of submitted them as a title contender and
not just the default that we had been so used
to considering them. And so I think them being the

(11:24):
non number one seed that's here, not having won in
almost a decade, pagebackers, not having a national championship, it
is a different place for Yukon to be in coming
into a Final four after obviously decades and decades of
history and success.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yep. Now you cover not just college excuse me, basketball
of college football and in the different conferences. And interesting
thing to me is, you know, we just talked about
the Southeastern Conference of all of South kee for Eastern
Conference schools, South Carolina just didn't strike me when they

(12:03):
started becoming a power in women's basketball. I was thinking,
you know, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, I mean by South Carolina,
what did they do right that the others in the
Southeastern Conference missed?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Well, they have Dog Staley, So I mean, you know
that doesn't hurt. It does not hurt. And they pay
her well, right, she sets the market in the coaching
salary side on the women's side. But that's so so important.
You have seen other SEC programs really grow and invest
and support women's basketball over the years. I actually think

(12:40):
a lot of it has to do, you know, the
title nine and just sort of like it's just the
right thing to do. If you're going to renovate your
men's facilities, you've got to do your women's too. So
you have some state of the art facilities across the conference.
But it's a concerted effort, right like the level the
big name coaches, retaining them, bring the best coaches away

(13:01):
from other conferences. All of that has happened throughout the SEC,
and I think Don Staley has you know, welcomed that
she mentors other coaches. You know, there was that famous
story about how you know, she sent a lot of
other black coaches, you know, the cut of the net
when she won it for the first time. But something
I talked to coach oh at Ole miss about. You know,

(13:22):
they were in the sweet sixteen this year. Sure, South
Carolina is the standard. They're not dropping off, so you
have to chase and get up to where they are.
And I think that has helped elevate basketball throughout the
rest of the SEC. And then you know, with Texas
there you're one in the league. But Vick Shafer was
at Mississippi State when they went to the Final four,
so you know, again it's it's kind of all interconnected.
But I think, you know, one program has Don Staley

(13:45):
and others do not, and that has been a huge
difference maker over the last decade.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Let's take a quick look at what you're going to
be doing this weekend. You've got a very busy weekend
going on down in Tampa. On your second let's talk
about some of the programming you've got going.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, So we'll have a three hour pregame show on
Friday from three to six Eastern and we'll have a
couple hours of postgame covered as well. So we've got
a bunch of great interviews lined up. We get a
bunch of different coaches who will be on site, mentioned
coach he O, Bill Fenley from Iowa State. Jan Jensen
from Iowa will also be talking to Charlie Baker, the

(14:25):
NCAA President, Greg Zanke, SEC Commissioner Val Ackerman from the
Big East, and in a number of the ads of
the participating schools. Hoping to get Shane B. Murph he's
able to get down there to support the South Carolina
women's program. So we've got a bunch of guests. It's
gonna be a lot of fun. And then postgame will
have interviews, exclusive interviews with some of the players involved

(14:47):
in the action from both semi finals, and then we'll
have more on Sunday. So we'll have a special apologies,
So we have a special in the morning on Sunday.
This is all on Channel eighty four on Serious xm
Our College Sports Channel, and then we'll have a live
pregame coverage as well leading into the national Championship game
on Sunday afternoon, as well as post game. So yeah,

(15:09):
it's it's it's chaotic and and certainly juggling so many guests,
but it's what I love about covering this event is
there's just so many opportunities to talk to so many
impactful people, and all the coaches go. It's like the
men's Final Four. You know, you have a coach's convention,
can wander into that coaches Hotel, uh and network and
connect with a lot of people, and so many of

(15:29):
them are gracious to talk about, you know, the teams
that they've played and gone up against, especially if they're
in the Final four. So it's a lot of fun.
It's very hectic running or I'll be running around downtown
Tampuck carrying, you know, recording equipment, but wouldn't trade it
for for anything else because it's really fun and you know,
with the coaches, coret Close has been on our shows before,
so excited to get to talk to her as a

(15:51):
participant in the Final four. Vick Schaeffer's on serious XM
all the time, and then you know, I've talked to
Dawn after she's cut down the nets before for for
our coverage as well, so it'll be a lot of fun.
I can't wait to get down there. And you know,
you and I were talking before we started recording about
you know, downtown Tampa has really changed and evolved. To
ask for dinner and bar recommendations, and I got just

(16:13):
a million recommendations, So I'm excited to explore Tampa as well.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Well, let me just put this way, Okay, if you
truly want a Cuban sandwich, if that's something that you're
looking for, there's only two places that they do it right,
and they are the original two places, The Silver Ring,
which is a cafe in Ebar City, and the Columbia.

(16:40):
So you've got a couple of places there that people
do not understand. The Ebor City, which is the epicenter
of the Cuban culture in Tampa, was there sixty five
years before Miami existed. Wow, So that's where the Cuban
sandwich came from. And if you want a good one,

(17:03):
either of those places will serve it to you. And
do it well. And over to Colombia as well, they've
got the black beans of rice and all the good stuff.
So you've got plenty of wonderful places to go, but
those are two that have been there for a very
long time, and I quite recommend either. If you're looking
for true Cuban food, It's gonna get you right there.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Great, I will. I'm writing them down as we speak.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Okay, Well, one last thing, shameless plugs, Nicole. We know
you're gonna be with serious exam down in Tampa, which
is we're gonna pay you know, pay attention to that
all weekend long. But that's not just where we can
find you throughout the week and throughout the year. Give
us some ideas of where we can constantly check up

(17:52):
on all your good work.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, so over on Twitter, I'm just at Nicole hour back,
and I'll probably be telling you where I'll be and
what I'll be doing on There will be I will
be writing from the Women's Final four for nbcsports dot
Com as well. And then you know, of course, you know,
as we get closer to football, there will be lots

(18:14):
on NBC and Peacock with our college football coverage and
college troops coverage as well. But yeah, social media and
Instagram and Nicole Underscore hour back those are usually the
places I will tell you when I'm doing something, so
you can follow me there and I will keep you posting.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
All of the information on Nicole's social as well as
the information about what show she's going to be doing
with Serious XM over the weekend is in the showbox below,
so if you happen to miss something, you can always
come back catch up. It's all going to be right
there in the showbox below, and we greatly appreciate your

(18:54):
time that you've come on and joined us. But one
last quick thing, and that is do you have a
favorite as to who might win the championship?

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh? So Vegas likes Yukon. With how well they've been playing,
I think that we are headed for a Yukon South
Carolina national championship game, and I do give the edge
to the Huskies right now. I think South Carolina. They've
had some close calls and there's just something that's not

(19:28):
clicking in the way that there are other championship teams were.
Maybe it's just that some of the players are a
little inconsistent at times, like Malaysia Full Wiley or there
isn't quite the same like Alpha that they've had before.
But I'm a sucker for a storybook ending and so
I think Pagebackers is going to get it.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Hey, you know what, that would be a wonderful way
to go. It would done. So we'll see them. Nicole,
thanks so much for joining us. We're going to get
you back, hopefully to talk some college football in the
NATO District future.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Sure. Absolutely, thanks for having me, and enjoy the games everyone.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, thanks to Nicole, and have fun watching all of
the action and listening to all the action. Remember, as
Nicole said, check it out on Serious XM. They're going
to have all of her coverage and the games all
on channel eighty four on your Serious XM dial. So
thanks to Nicole, Thanks to you all for joining us,

(20:25):
and we'll see you next week. Take care,