ESPN Adds New Voices To Strong Women’s College Basketball Commentator Lineup
Nikki Fargas, Angel Gray, Chelsea Gray, Stephanie White and Aja Ellison add their perspectives
The 2021-22 women’s college basketball season is well underway, and ESPN has added five new voices to its esteemed commentator roster. The new voices include former head coaches, a current WNBA player, a WNBA executive and former college stars. Nikki Fargas, Chelsea Gray, Stephanie White and Aja Ellison have joined the ranks as analysts, while Angel Gray has come on board as a play-by-play commentator.
Nikki Fargas
Fargas serves as an analyst for both games and in studio. In addition, Fargas is the current WNBA Las Vegas Aces president, a role she stepped into in May 2021. Prior to her role with the Aces, Fargas served as the head coach of the LSU women’s basketball team for 10 seasons, garnering five 20-win seasons and six NCAA Tournament appearances. She was previously the head coach at UCLA, where she was recognized as Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2010. She served as an assistant coach at Virginia and then at Tennessee alongside her former coach the legendary Pat Summitt, where the Vols won back-to-back NCAA titles in 2007 and 2008. Fargas played for Tennessee from 1990-94 and was a part of the 1991 NCAA National Championship team. She was named to the 1991 SEC All-Freshman team and twice received the university’s Gloria Ray Leadership Award.
Angel Gray
Gray joins ESPN as a play-by-play announcer across multiple sports, starting with women’s basketball. Gray also currently calls play-by-play for the Atlanta Dream for Bally Sports Network. Gray previously worked as a sideline reporter for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Prior to joining the Cavaliers, she was a play-by-play announcer for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks with Spectrum SportsNet. Gray has held various roles with ESPN, SEC Network, CBS, and Raycom Sports and was the first woman to cover men’s basketball as an analyst for Stadium Network. In addition, she spent two years as a writer for SLAM and SLAM.com, covering the WNBA and women’s college basketball. As a four-year letter winner with the Florida State women’s basketball team, Gray helped the Seminoles earn two regular-season ACC championships, four NCAA Tournament tickets, two Sweet 16 berths, and one Elite Eight appearance.
Chelsea Gray
Former Duke standout Gray joins ACC Network as a college basketball analyst. She will appear weekly as part of ACCN’s “Ladies Night” coverage, as well as an in-game analyst. Gray, the 11th-overall pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft by Connecticut, played one season with the Sun before spending five years in Los Angeles, where she helped the Sparks win the 2016 WNBA title. Gray signed with the Las Vegas Aces prior to the 2021 season as an unrestricted free agent. She started in all 32 games and averaged 11.2 points and 5.9 assists per game last season while helping to lead the Aces to the WNBA semifinals. Gray was named to the WNBA All-Star Team (2017, 18, 19, 21), earned first-team All-WNBA honors in 2019 and second-team honors in 2017. While at Duke, she earned an All-America nod her sophomore and junior seasons and was named the ACC Co-Player of the Year for the 2012-13 season.
Stephanie White
White returns to ESPN as a game and studio analyst. White most recently served as the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores. Previously, she was a head coach for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever for the 2015 and 2016 seasons; White also was an assistant for the Fever and the Chicago Sky. She also took on the assistant role in the college space at Toledo, Kansas State, and Ball State. The Charlotte Sting selected White in the 1999 WNBA Draft. She played one year with the Sting and four seasons with the Indiana Fever before retiring in 2004. She spent her college years as a Purdue Boilermaker, where she was named the winner of the Wade Trophy in 1999 and won a national championship in 1999.
Aja Ellison
Ellison calls games as an analyst, primarily on ESPNU and SEC Network. Ellison finished her playing career at Texas A&M, where she played one season as a graduate transfer. In her year as an Aggie, she set single-season career-highs for minutes played, points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage. Prior to transferring to Texas A&M, Ellison played three seasons at Maryland, where she was a member of three Big Ten Championships and part of a trio of Big Ten Tournament titles. The Terps made the NCAA Tournament every year she was in uniform, including a Final Four appearance her freshman year. In 2017, Ellison played for Team USA in the World University Games.
