BLACKSBURG, Va. – Evan Hughes and Jake Lyman are the voices of their universities’ women’s basketball programs, but they are also former sports media students at Virginia Tech.
“Hands down our culture - it’s the best,” said Evan Hughes, voice of the Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball team and former sports media analytics student at Virginia Tech. “I think it’s kind of showcased with our relationship.”
This week, both will get to live out their dreams of calling some of the biggest games in college basketball.
“Dream come true is really the only way to describe it,” said Jake Lyman, voice of the Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball Team and former sports media analytics student at Virginia Tech. “Since I was probably 12 years old, this is what I wanted to do—to be a play-by-play broadcaster.”
They said the sports program at Virginia Tech is more than just a program.
“Everyone says their culture is like a big family, but I’m willing to put our culture up against any other college and sports broadcasting program,” Evan said.
Head of the department, Bill Roth, said seeing his students come back with this success is great to see.
“To see two of our [Sports Media Analytics] graduate, one is the voice of the Hokies, one is the voice of the Commodores, is very surreal, and I’m proud of both guys.,” Roth said.
For Evan and Jake, they said they are going to make sure they soak it all in this weekend.
“I’m going to soak that in and make sure I live in that moment and don’t get too lost in the weeds of the broadcast and enjoy it,” Jake said.
“There’s one thing that I learned through the amazing run through the Final Four,” said Evan. “If you don’t take a moment to smell the roses, you can get so lost in everything that’s going on.”
Now the key is for Vanderbilt to win their play-in game on Wednesday against Columbia. If they do that and continue to win, the Hokies could meet Vanderbilt for a chance to go to the Sweet Sixteen.