Ex-Lowell High Star Borodawka Loves Analyzing UML Games on Radio
11/05/2014
Lowell Sun
By David Pevear
LOWELL -- Jim Borodawka is a confessed college hoop nut. A vice president at the tax-consulting firm Paradigm Partners in Nashua by day, Borodawka every night during basketball season watches games.
"My wife (Linda) teases me all the time that she'll come down stairs at 12 o'clock on a Tuesday night and I'm watching Cal-Irvine versus Fresno State," said Borodawka. "She says, 'What the hell are you doing?' "
Since he always was watching basketball anyway, Borodawka last year figured why not watch his beloved alma mater UMass Lowell more intently, and over ESPN's radio waves share the insights he was already providing to anyone within earshot?
At a dinner last year introducing Pat Duquette as UMass Lowell's new coach, athletic director Dana Skinner approached Borodawka about providing color commentary to Nick Anastos' play-by-play on River Hawks games broadcast on ESPN New Hampshire 900 AM.
"Of course I jumped at the opportunity," said Borodawka, 40, who always did have a good jumper.
He averaged 26.4 points per game as a senior guard at Lowell High in 1991-92 (on his way to the school's Hall of Fame) and went on to score 1,206 points over four seasons at UMass Lowell, where Borodawka is the school's all-time leader in free-throw percentage (269 of 312, .862). He captained coach Gary Manchel's 1996-97 UMass Lowell team that finished 20-10.
But as he sat courtside last season commenting on the River Hawks' stunningly robust inaugural Div. 1 campaign (10-18 final record after a 1-11 start), Borodawka came to a humbling realization.
"Being a 5-foot-11, 1/2-inch No. 2 guard -- maybe six feet on a good day -- at the Division 2 level in the mid-1990s was a hell of a lot different than what I'm able to see at courtside now," he said. "I would have struggled. The kids are just so much bigger, so much more athletic, I don't know if I could have gotten a shot off against half of them."
Perhaps at the risk of losing some of his radio audience, Borodawka says local basketball fans who did not flock to the Costello Athletic Center or the Tsongas Center to see the River Hawks last season missed an eye-opening experience. He expects more of the same this season. The River Hawks open their Year 2 in Division 1 on Nov. 14 at Ohio State. Their home opener is Nov. 25 versus Division 3 Mount Ida College. Their America East opener is Jan. 2 at Costello versus Binghamton.
Borodawka is signed up for another year to provide commentary alongside Anastos for every UMass Lowell home game and select road games. He sounds excited to get talking about two things he loves -- basketball and UMass Lowell.
Borodawka graduated from UMass Lowell in 1997 with a business degree (sociology minor) and his daughter Lindsey graduated in May with a nursing degree. Borodawka and his wife Linda also have a son, Jameson, 9. They live in Tyngsboro.
Before taking his basketball radio commentary gig last year, Borodawka contacted Billy Herenda, a guard on UMass Lowell's 1988 Division 2 national championship team. Herenda was for years a radio analyst for University of California-Davis men's basketball before last year becoming Comcast SportsNet's "insider" on Sacramento Kings pre-game and post-game TV broadcasts.
"I just picked his brain," said Borodawka. "He kind of told me what to do."
Borodawka says he more than likely over-prepares for each broadcast, filling his head with stats and scouting reports.
"I want to make sure I'm not just an anchor that Nick is carrying around," he said. "Because this is his job."
And while he does dream of what it would be like to some day work Big Monday on ESPN, Borodawka says that for now he will keep his day job. And study up on UMass Lowell and America East.