COLLEGE PARK — Master’s alum Monica McNutt ’13, an ESPN and MSG Networks basketball analyst, and graduating senior Jenna Bloom have been selected as the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s 2025 commencement speakers, Dean Rafael Lorente announced.
Merrill College’s commencement ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on May 21 at Reckord Armory on the UMD campus. No tickets are required. It will be live-streamed on the college’s YouTube page.
McNutt is an Emmy Award-winning analyst and reporter based in New York City. She covers basketball for ESPN, and serves as the lead radio analyst for the New York Knicks on 98.7 ESPN New York and studio analyst for MSG Networks.
McNutt can be seen on a variety of ESPN programming, including “First Take,” “Get Up,” “NBA Today” and on live NBA and WNBA coverage. She also is a key part of the annual NBA Draft broadcast and was part of NBC’s coverage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
McNutt was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. An All-Big East basketball player, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 2011 before getting her master’s at Merrill College.
Bloom, an Olney, Maryland, native passionate about visual storytelling, worked for The Diamondback’s layout and video desks, and led its video team.
She filmed and directed Capital News Service’s biweekly news broadcast and traveled to Mississippi with The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism to produce a story on youth tackle football that aired on PBS NewsHour. She also co-directed the feature-length documentary, “From Africa: Pathways to the NBA,” with fellow graduating senior Alexa Wootten while on the Povich Center’s study abroad program to Senegal and Rwanda.
Outside the college, Bloom interned at Bethesda Today and works on the Maryland Athletics creative video team. After graduation, she will spend a month traveling across Europe and will continue to make films wherever she goes.
For more information, contact:
Josh Land
joshland@umd.edu
301-405-1321