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Greg Gumbel to miss March Madness for first time in 25 years

TV host Adam Zucker announced on Sunday that Gumbel is taking time off due to a family medical issue.
A basketball on a basketball court.
Posted at 12:25 PM, Mar 18, 2024

Greg Gumbel has been a fixture on TVs in March, hosting the CBS coverage of the men's NCAA basketball tournament for 25 years. But this year, he is skipping the event. 

Host Adam Zucker announced on Sunday that Gumbel is taking time off due to a family medical issue. 

“Greg, of course, has been a fixture of our March Madness coverage for the past quarter century and we look forward to having him back, right here, next year," Zucker said. 

Zucker will take over the main hosting duties this year, alongside the likes of analysts Wally Szczerbiak and Chris Walker. 

CBS will kick off its coverage of the tournament on Thursday — with the game between Michigan State and Mississippi State. Games will also be featured on TBS, TruTV and TNT. 

This year's tournament is led by the University of Connecticut, which earned the overall No. 1 seed. The University of North Carolina, Purdue and Houston are the other No. 1 seeds in the tournament. 

As people begin filling out their brackets, there will be a lot of eyes on teams that "stole" bids from other teams by winning their conference tournaments. Oregon, Duquesne and North Carolina were not expected to make the tournament, but earned automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments. The automatic bids bumped out other teams, like St. John's, which were on the "bubble."

Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect that the University of Connecticut was named the No. 1 overall seed, not the University of North Carolina. 

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