GAME TO BE BROADCAST NATIONALLY ON ESPN2

For Dewayne Staats, coming to Cape Girardeau to broadcast today's nationally-televised basketball game between Southeast Missouri State University and Murray State will be something of a homecoming.

Staats, who will do the play-by-play for the 1 p.m. ESPN2 telecast from the Show Me Center, was born in Advance. Although he moved with his family to the St. Louis area by the time he was in grade school, he still has plenty of relatives in Southeast Missouri.

"I'm excited," said Staats of his return to the area. "I still have some aunts and uncles and cousins who live in that area and I might be able to see them."

Staats was most recently in Southeast Missouri last summer for his father's funeral. Although his father had been living in the St. Louis area, he had spent much of his life in the Advance area and the funeral was held in Marble Hill.

"We had a great turnout for that, because he was born there and lived there a lot of his life," said Staats. "My mother still lives in the St. Louis area and I'll go back there after the game (today) to see her."

Staats, who now lives in Clearwater, Fla., has spent the bulk of his professional career broadcasting major league baseball, most recently with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, for whom he will be entering his fourth year of work.

Staats has also spent eight years with the Houston Astros, five years with the New York Yankees and five years with the Chicago Cubs.

In addition, Staats does a handful of college basketball games each year for ESPN, although he has considerably cut down that schedule in recent years.

"I used to do about 30 to 35 basketball games every winter and I wanted to cut that down, but I still wanted to do a few here and there. ESPN was good enough to allow me to do that," said Staats, who added with a laugh, "It just gets me out of town enough to get me out of my wife's way, and it still gives me a chance to get into a college environment every now and then, which is fun."

Teaming with Staats for today's broadcast will be former Rutgers coach Bob Wenzel, who will handle the color commentary.