Three Evansville Natives Involved In Purdue-Vermont NCAA Tournament Game On TruTV

Thursday night's game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Vermont Catamounts featured not one, not two, but three Evansville natives in some capacity. Two were on the floor trying to help their team advance to the next round, while the other let people at home know what was going on from the broadcast booth.

Brothers, and Harrison High School graduates, Ernie (pictured above) and Everett Duncan are both Sophomore guards for Vermont, while Brandin Gaudin, also a Harrison grad, calls play-by-play for Westwood One Radio, but for whatever reason got the call to sit court-side for the television broadcast of Thursday night's game.

Whether his bosses let him call the because of his hometown connection with the Duncan brothers, or the originally scheduled announcer (Andrew Catalon, according to SB Nation) fell ill before the game, I don't know. What I do know is that as I watched the game, Gaudin made a point to mention Ernie's hometown anytime the Sophomore guard made a play. Something he didn't do for any other player on the court.

For example...

Gamers, like myself, likely recognized Gaudin's voice. Earlier this year he became the new play-by-play commentator Madden 17, replacing long-time announcer, CBS Sports' Jim Nantz.

After putting two and two together, I tweeted my revelation of the Evansville connection, and to my surprise, woke up Friday morning with a reply from Gaudin confirming what I thought.

The Evansville trio also found time before the game to take a quick picture during warm ups.

Unfortunately, the Duncan brothers' tournament run came to an end at the hands of the Boilermakers by a score of 80-70, but considering both are only Sophomores, I suspect we'll see more of them in the future, and hopefully Gaudin will there as well to call it.