This coming season, WRBB will air at least 32 regular-season Northeastern men’s hockey games, from nine different arenas. Below is the tentative broadcast schedule for the 2010-2011 season, which is subject to change.

WRBB Sports Hockey

This morning, Northeastern announced that basketball head coach Bill Coen was signed to a Six-year contract extension, ending weeks of speculation about Coen’s future. Coen and athletic director Peter Roby spoke about the deal on an online question-and-answer program earlier today.

Coen and Roby had been negotiating for the past few weeks, ultimately reaching an agreement in the past few days. No further details of the contract’s terms have been disclosed, though Roby and Coen alluded to raises for assistants and an increased recruiting budget to effectively compete in the top tier of the CAA.

WRBB Sports Basketball

This past Wednesday, WRBB Sports completed its 2009-2010 broadcast season with coverage of the 21st annual Baseball Beanpot championship. It was the end to a journey of over 25,000 miles from coast to coast, originating from 31 different road broadcast sites, and spanning 17 different states. It was another year of growth for the station - student web traffic was up 10%, and direct non-referred traffic was up 7%.

WRBB’s commitment to on delivering live streaming audio to several mobile platforms resulted in a whopping 100% increase in mobile-based web traffic and listenership. Huskies fans can now listen to WRBB through Northeastern’s “Go Huskies” iPhone/iPod App, WRBB’s iPhone/iPod compatible web stream, Nobex Radio Companion for Blackberry, and through several media players for Windows Mobile devices. Read more…

WRBB Sports The Dog Pound

Today, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that it has entered into a new broadcast rights agreement with CBS and Turner, and has expanded the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament to 68 teams beginning in 2011. The announcement comes amid speculation that the tournament could have been grown to as many as 96 teams, and occurs before a July 31 deadline for changing the broadcast rights agreement. The new tournament increases the ‘opening round’ to three games from one, and expands regional television coverage to cable outlets TNT and TBS.

Interim NCAA president Jim Isch said in a press release, “This agreement will provide on average more than $740 million annually to our conferences and member schools to help student-athletes in 23 sports learn and compete.”

ESPN, one of the bidders for tournament rights, released a statement which said, “We made an aggressive bid and believe our combination of TV distribution, digital capabilities, season-long coverage and year-round marketing would have served the interests of the NCAA and college fans very well.”

As the new agreement will potentially change revenue distribution to member institutions, the NCAA has established a committee to evaluate new distribution formulas which will, in Isch’s words, “[support] student-athletes so they can be successful in the classroom and in life.”

WRBB Sports The Dog Pound NCAAs

Northeastern is unable to defend its Beanpot championship, dropping the title game to Boston College 9-3.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

WRBB Sports Baseball, QuickCast BC, Beanpot

Basketball provided two more lasting memories in the month of March, concluding Northeastern’s best season in years:

March 6, 2010 - Double-Overtime CAA Quarterfinal

Northeastern and Hofstra tangle in a thrilling CAA quarterfinal matchup that took two overtimes to decide. For the first time under Bill Coen, the Huskies advanced to Sunday night in Richmond.

March 16, 2010 - Back to the NIT

Northeastern returns to the NIT, matching up and almost overcoming UConn, in front of hundreds of students who made the trip south to Storrs, Connecticut.

WRBB Sports Basketball, The Dog Pound CAA, Hofstra, NIT, UConn

Wednesday, April 21

6:50 p.m. - Baseball: Huskies vs. Boston College Eagles
21st Annual Baseball Beanpot - Championship
from Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, Mass.
with Andy Towne and Aaron Insler

Saturday, April 24

Only available on
11:00 a.m. - Baseball: Huskies vs. UNC-Wilmington Seahawks (Game 1)
3:00 p.m. - Baseball: Huskies vs. UNC-Wilmington Seahawks (Game 2)
from Friedman Diamond
with TBA

Sunday, April 25

Only available on
1:00 p.m. - Baseball: Huskies vs. UNC-Wilmington Seahawks
from Friedman Diamond
with TBA

WRBB Sports Baseball BC, Harvard, UNCW

Northeastern drops the first game of the weekend series against the hot-hitting Patriots, 9-5.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

WRBB Sports Baseball, QuickCast George Mason

The biggest moments in February came as the season inched towards its conclusion:

February 2, 2010 - Down by 15, win by 20

Hofstra appeared to be in control early, but Northeastern came back to take a dominating win, scoring 45 points in the second half, maintaining first place in the standings.

February 19, 2010 - Hockey steals one from BC

Continuing a mid-season surge, Northeastern hockey gave fans hope for a late-season comeback when it defeated Boston College in front of a near-sellout crowd at Matthews Arena.

February 20, 2010 - Bracketbuster vs. Louisiana Tech

Despite the outcome of the game, the raucous crowd of over 4,400 at Matthews Arena was the culmination of years of resurrecting Northeastern basketball. An appearance on ESPN2 drew unprecedented buzz leading up to game day, and likely created countless new fans.

WRBB Sports Basketball, Hockey, The Dog Pound BC, Bracketbuster, Hofstra, Louisiana Tech