UNMC Off the Clock – Sara Cizek Going calls the Bluejays’ shots

Sara Cizek Going knows basketball.

As a high school player, Cizek Going, a government relations specialist at UNMC, helped lead Millard South to a Class A state championship in 1996. She followed that up with four years of playing Division I hoops as a forward at Creighton University.

UNMC’s Sara Cizek Going and Brad Burwell call the radio broadcasts for the Creighton women’s basketball games on Omaha radio station, KVSS 88.9 FM. Cizek Going, a government relations specialist at UNMC, played for the Bluejays from 1998 to 2002 and has done color commentary for six years.

After wrapping up her career with the Bluejays in 2002, Cizek Going was prepared to walk away from the game, head off to law school and join the “real world.”

But a funny thing happened on the way to the bar exam — Cizek Going made a stop at the broadcast table and she hasn’t given up her seat yet.

“I never had any intention of doing this, but it sort of fell into my lap,” Cizek Going said of her gig doing color commentary for radio broadcasts of the Bluejays home games.

Oh Cizek Going did get that law degree and uses it in her day job to help UNMC interact effectively with lawmakers at all levels of government.

But since 2002, she has joined play-by-play announcer Brad Burwell to broadcast Creighton’s home women’s basketball games on 88.9 FM in Omaha.

Creighton head coach Jim Flanery first approached Cizek Going about doing the color job right after her playing career wrapped up.

More about Sara Cizek Going Welcome addition — In October, Cizek Going and her husband, Scott, welcomed their first child, Nolan. Family tradition — Cizek Going’s serendipitous route into broadcasting was followed several year’s earlier by her father, who after an athletic career at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was asked to provide color commentary for UNO football games. The same thing happened to her sister, Kelly, who played basketball at Iowa State and was asked to do color for the Cyclones women’s games after her playing days. Kelly has parlayed her radio gig into jobs calling men’s and women’s games on television for the ESPN networks. Coincidentally, Kelly recently has been asked to cover a couple Creighton women’s games for ESPNU. Now that was fun! — Cizek Going said the most fun she has had calling a game was the 2004 WNIT Championship game, in which the Bluejays beat UNLV 73-52. “It’s always more exciting to call the close ones, and of course the ones Creighton wins!” Cizek Going said.

“He knew I would be in town attending law school and brought up the idea,” she said. “I thought he was joking, but when I realized he was really extending the offer, I thought I would give it a shot.”

It’s been a good fit, she said.

While Burwell follows the ball and recounts game action, Cizek Going fills in the blanks, using her experience as a player to help listeners to gain a clear picture of the game as it unfolds.

Before each game, Cizek Going reviews stats and other information about the Bluejays and their opponents to gauge each teams’ strengths, weaknesses and key players. She’ll also grab Flanery for a few minutes before tip off to see what his strategy is for that particular game.

All of this allows her to provide interesting and useful insight as each game plays out.

The color commentary job allows Cizek Going to stay close to the game she loves as well as her former team, and it lets her provide a service to the Bluejays’ loyal fan following.

“It’s satisfying to bring the games to the fans who really want to attend but can’t,” she said.