Burke enjoying ESPN stint on the sideline

Doris Burke didn't have far to travel for her assignment as ESPN sideline reporter at tonight's Celtics home game against the Denver Nuggets. The former Providence College women's basketball standout still makes her home in the Ocean State, just a mile down the road from the Friars' campus.

Although the majority of her duties with ESPN are as analyst for Big Ten and Big East games, she said she enjoys the variety of sideline reporting and as analyst during NBA games.

"The thing I try to be most mindful of is what information do I have that corresponds with what is transpiring on the basketball floor," said Burke. "You go into a game with lots of story ideas. What comes across on the air is dependent on what happens on the floor.

"If I've talked to Paul Pierce about his better conditioning in the offseason, the fact that he's trimmer this year, that only plays if there is a stretch in the game when Paul's been hot and he's scored three or four baskets in a row and there's an opportunity - like a dead ball or some way I can let people know [what has changed]. You go in with lots of information, but the challenge is, where does it fit and how do you do it so you're not overimposing or entering a broadcast just to enter it?"

Burke said in her experience, NBA and college players are very cooperative.

"I have found the athletes on both levels very accessible," said Burke, who was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. "The difference being, in the NBA you have definitive times when those athletes are available to you. The times for interaction are more defined in the NBA."

In terms of eliciting information, she said the NBA players have more experience dealing with the media, but it comes down to individuals.

"A lot of it is contingent on basic human personality," she said. "It really depends on who the person is. How I handle and approach a college kid is going to be different than how I approach a professional.

"College kids are 18- to 22-year-old individuals, they're not professionals."

As much as she likes her current position, she said this career path was unplanned.

"To be perfectly honest, I thought I would teach and coach at the high school level," said Burke. "I was about six months out of school and my college coach called and asked me if I wanted [to be an assistant coach]. I did it for two years and I loved it. When I left coaching, I was about to be married and I knew I wanted children and didn't think I'd be able to do both jobs well. The life of a television announcer, I've been able to make a living in this business for longer than I ever expected and I'm incredibly grateful for that. But at some point, this will end for me and I would still love to go back and coach a high school team."

Tonight's broadcast is shared with Comcast SportsNet.

Tappen on tap

Kathryn Tappen will host a live chat today at 3 p.m. on NESN.com. The Bruins are in the midst of four games in six nights against members of the Original Six. NESN reporter Naoko Funayama will have her first chat on the site Tuesday at 4 p.m. . . . NESN will air its first ACC basketball game of the season tomorrow at 4 p.m. when No. 1-ranked North Carolina hosts Penn . . . "The NFL Today" on CBS will feature rookie quarterbacks Matt Ryan of Atlanta and Baltimore's Joe Flacco at noon Sunday. Ryan and Flacco will address their adjustments to life in the pros, their expectations, and how they feel they are doing. James Brown teams with analysts Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe and Bill Cowher, NFL Insider Charley Casserly, and reporters Lesley Visser and Sam Ryan.

Titan outlook

Former NFL coach Brian Billick, who won Super Bowl XXXV with the Ravens in 2001, will be the analyst for the NFL on Fox. He said the 9-0 Tennessee Titans are a more complete team than last season's Patriots squad that had a perfect regular season. "When you're talking about Tom Brady during a 16-0 year, you knew it was going to come down to a Tom Brady-Peyton Manning situation because we are in an era of dominant quarterbacks," said Billick. "I think the Titans are a little like our [Ravens during the] championship year or the 2002 Tampa Bay team. There was a void of quarterback play at that time. A team that could play dominant defense, run the ball, and have competent play at the quarterback position could win a championship. With the package that Tennessee has right now, I don't know why they couldn't parlay that into a championship." . . . NBC Sports will air "McDonald's Family Tribute on Ice" Sunday at 2 p.m. from the Galen Center at USC in Los Angeles. Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi and Craig Hummer will host the program, which features some of figure skating's top stars. Headliners include 2006 Olympic ice dancing silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, US national champions Evan Lysacek and Mirai Nagasu, 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen, world champion Jeffrey Buttle, and 2007 US national champion Kimmie Meissner.