Mims Brings Florida Tech Exposure in England

Tech head basketball coach Billy Mims brings Panthers exposure on British broadcast.

MELBOURNE, Fla. (Men’s Basketball) – Though things may be slow during the summer months for Florida Tech Athletics, the Panthers are getting good exposure in an unlikely place: England. Tech men’s basketball coach Billy Mims has been working as a studio analyst for the NBA Finals for a program called Sport on 'five' on Channel 5, one of the UK's five free stations available to a nation-wide audience. Throughout the broadcasts, Mims has been seen proudly donning his Florida Tech emblazoned gear.

Mims has been working as a basketball analyst for many of the British networks ever since coaching there on the professional level. He worked for both Sky Sports and Channel 5 on NBA coverage for 10 Finals series and three NBA All-Star games. He also worked for the BBC and ITV covering British Basketball Championships.

“Winning five national championships in the top level of British basketball in 10 years, and leading two different clubs to their only titles in team history, led to this opportunity,” said Mims. “We work as a studio analysis team, like the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley. Breakdown of the match-ups and analysis of the games is performed by our three-man team of British presenter Mark Webster, England Under-18 coach Andre Alleyne, and myself during pregame, every commercial break, halftime and postgame.

“We're forced to work live on camera a little more than the TNT crew as UK television does not take as many commercial breaks as TV in the USA. The most interesting thing about broadcasting American sports events live in Europe is the time difference. For a 9 p.m. EST USA tipoff, which is 2 a.m. here in the UK, we report to the ITN Studios in the Kings Cross area of London around midnight. By the time the game ends and we are off air, usually around 5:30 a.m. here, the sun is already well up outside, so we're truly working the television nightshift!”

One of the most popular aspects of Mims’ presence on this year's broadcast has been the halftime trivia competition. During the first half of each game, the crew poses an NBA trivia question to the audience for a chance to win an official Florida Tech basketball game jersey from past seasons. At halftime all the contestants who have e-mailed the correct answer are printed out and Mims got to choose the winner.

“The stack of e-mails entering the competition looks like the manuscript for the next JK Rowling Harry Potter novel! It's three-plus hours of live international television each game and great publicity for Florida Tech and our basketball program,” proclaimed Mims. “While boarding the 'London Eye' on a brief family excursion during last year's Finals broadcast, one of the workers nodded to me and said, ‘Great job on the NBA game last night coach!’ My daughters Courtney and Callie were very impressed with their Dad's British status.”