Expanded NCAA Tournament announcing teams featured for Final Four

The expanded teams will be showcased at the Final Four this weekend from Houston's Reliant Stadium.

In the booth, Turner's Steve Kerr has joined CBS' Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg for the first three-man alignment in CBS' 30 years of covering the Final Four.

In the studio, Turner's NBA analysts Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith have joined CBS' Greg Gumbel, Greg Anthony and Seth Davis.

Adding the low-key Kerr to the announce team already has worked well in six previous broadcasts — the Big Ten tournament semifinals and First Four games in Dayton, Ohio. A former Arizona and NBA guard, Kerr has blended in well with the mild-mannered team of Nantz and Kellogg.

“The chemistry was there right away and the neat thing is there is not a battle of egos,” Nantz said this week in a conference call. “That is not going to be an issue.”

Surprisingly, the brash Barkley also has been well-received by the CBS holdovers, even if he is covering college basketball for the first time.

“It's like you're playing on a good playoff team and all of sudden you get the best player in the league to come play with you,” Anthony said. “That's how I view Charles Barkley in the studio. Our team has a much better chance to be successful.”

Anthony noted that Barkley attracts viewers with his often-controversial comments.

“He's like this generation's E.F. Hutton,” he said, referring to the investment firm's ad campaign of people gathering to listen. “Everything Charles says, somebody wants to hear it. It's either going to be entertaining or it's going to be thought-provoking.”