Fran Fraschilla

Francis John Fraschilla (born August 30, 1958) is an American ESPN basketball commentator. He is also a former college basketball coach for 23 years, whose teams when he was head coach had an aggregate record of 176–99, as they won 64% of their games. He was named the 1994-95 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Coach of the Year.

Early life and education

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Fraschilla grew up in its Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. He is the oldest of seven children in an Irish-Italian family. His paternal grandparents, Francesco and Josephina Fraschilla, immigrated to the United States from Sicily in 1920.

He graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn. Fraschilla played basketball for the high school.

Fraschilla then graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelors degree in American history in 1980. Fraschilla was the first in his family to graduate from college.

College basketball coach career Fraschilla coached college basketball for 23 years.

Manhattan Jaspers Fraschilla then served as head men's basketball coach at three schools, where his teams had an aggregate record of 175-100. They won 64% of their games. In 1995 the Jaspers became the first Jaspers team in 35 years to compete in the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the first team from the MAAC to obtain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and there they defeated the fourth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners in the first round, before losing in the second round to the Arizona State Sun Devils. He was named the 1994–95 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Coach of the Year, after his team's 26-5 season.

St. John's Red Storm He next was the head basketball coach of the St. John's University Red Storm from 1996, when he was 38 years old, to 1998. He inherited a team that had a record of 11-16 the prior season.

ESPN basketball broadcast analyst career After coaching, in 2003 he joined ESPN as a TV college basketball broadcast analyst. Fraschilla currently serves as a game analyst on Big Monday broadcasts, covering primarily Big 12 action, and as a studio analyst for ESPN college basketball programming. In 2002, he received the National Association of Basketball Coaches Literacy Pioneer Award for working with the “Dream to Read”program. In 2019, he was inducted into the Basketball Old-Timers of America Hall of Fame.

Personal life Fraschilla married Meg O’Connell in 1988. He later moved to White Plains, New York, and still later to Dallas, Texas.

His older son James Fraschilla played in 27 games over four years as a guard for the University of Oklahoma men's basketball team, and was nominated for the Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year Award. He then worked from 2017-18 as the Player Development Coach for the Salt Lake City Stars (the Utah Jazz’s G League team), from 2018-22 on the basketball staff of the Orlando Magic, in 2022-23 as an assistant coach for the Grand Rapids Gold G League team, in 2024 an assistant coach for the 2024 USA 3x3 Men's National Team, and from 2023-25 as the assistant coach for the Capital City Go-Go (the NBA G League affiliate of the Washington Wizards), and since 2025 as an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards.

Fraschilla's younger son, Matthew Fraschilla, played guard for the basketball team at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 2017. He suffered a ACL tear after his junior year. After his injury he coached as a graduate assistant coach at Villanova University under Coach Jay Wright, and also became a pseudo-assistant coach at Harvard. He was an assistant coach for the Harvard Crimson from 2022 to 2026. In April 2026 he became an assistant coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Head coaching record