- published: 17 Mar 2011
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Bill Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and college basketball coach.
Raftery was, for more than 35 years, the alltime leading scorer in Hudson County high school basketball history until being surpassed by Puerto Rican basketball star Rick Apodaca and was awarded the New Jersey high school All-State selections not just in basketball, but also in soccer and baseball at St. Cecilia High School in Kearny, New Jersey. He has been named, retroactively, Mr. Basketball USA for 1959.
Raftery played at La Salle University under coach Donald "Dudey" Moore. During his freshman year he scored a freshman record 370 points, followed by a team leading 17.8 points per game in his sophomore year. As a senior he co-captained the Explorers to the National Invitation Tournament.
Following his senior year at La Salle, Raftery was drafted by the New York Knicks making it to the final cut, but he never played in the NBA.
From 1970 to 1981, he was the head coach of Seton Hall University where he had a 154–141 win-loss record and led the Pirates to four ECAC post-season tournaments and two National Invitational Tournament appearances. His 154 wins as a coach places him fourth on the all-time list at Seton Hall behind Honey Russell, P.J. Carlesimo, and Frank Hill. Prior to his job at Seton Hall, he was at Fairleigh Dickinson University at Florham Park where he coached basketball and golf, and also served as Associate Athletic Director. In 1979, he was named Coach of the Year by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association.
Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN.
The son of Boston Globe sportswriter Will McDonough, Sean graduated from Syracuse University in 1984. It was in Syracuse where McDonough began his broadcasting career in 1982 as the play-by-play announcer for the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Four years after graduating from Syracuse, he began broadcasting Boston Red Sox games on WSBK-TV (Channel 38) in Boston with former Red Sox catcher Bob Montgomery. McDonough was an Ivy League football announcer for PBS. He was a sideline reporter from 1984–85, and a play-by-play announcer from 1986–87.
He began work for CBS Sports in 1990, where he broadcasted college basketball (including 10 NCAA tournaments), college football (including the prestigious Orange Bowl game), the College World Series, the NFL, US Open tennis, 3 Winter Olympics (bobsled and luge in 1992 and 1994 and ice hockey in 1998), and golf (including 4 Masters and PGA Championships).