DaytonDailyNews.com

So just how is Fox Sports Net's Tim Brando going to make the national basketball game between Wake Forest University and Wright State at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, seem interesting?

How's he going to make the Raiders sound promising after finding out leading scorer Vaughn Duggins is out with an injury, and two key players off the bench may also miss the game? How is he going to make a 1-6 (with a game tonight) team like the Raiders appear to have a chance against 8-0 and No. 11-ranked Wake Forest?

"Did you see the (Nov. 30) UNC-Asheville at North Carolina game on Fox?" Brando asked. "That game was made with the expectation Asheville's 7-foot-7 Kenny George was going to play. He didn't (foot injury), and North Carolina won 116-48. I think Wright State can keep it under 70."

Brando has done so many sports for so many networks, it would seem he has no room on his plate to know anything about Wright State, and yet he does. He knows a lot.

He knows WSU has three players injured, and who they are.

He knows WSU plays home games in the Nutter Center, because he was here for a Mid-Continent Conference tournament weekend in 1993.

He knows WSU coach Brad Brownell, because he broadcast a game involving North Carolina-Wilmington when Brownell was an assistant coach there.

"There is no substitute for preparation," Brando said Thursday in a telephone interview from his home in Shreveport, La., from where he does a daily talk-radio show. "There's a story to tell. Regardless of how the game ends up, Wright State is coming off a couple of 20-win seasons. Dayton is a great basketball town that supports two teams.

"Coaches always tell players to play as if they don't know what the score is. Announcers have to do that the same way.

"This is an ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) game, but you've got to service both teams. We have to be balanced. There will be time for us to do the stories of Wright State and the Horizon League. I always enjoy doing games with teams like Wright State."

Saturday afternoon, Brando will host CBS' college basketball show from New York. He will fly to Winston-Salem on Saturday night and attend both teams' shoot-arounds Sunday morning.

By game time, he'll be ready, and expects the Raiders will be, too.

Win or lose, even if they have to play without a full lineup, the Raiders get their chance on national television.

And if there's an upset, Brando will be able to spread the word well past Sunday.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.