Much like the snow on driveways, lawns, and streets last weekend, winter broadcast schedules are piling up around the fax machines.

College basketball and hockey are the featured sports as New England Sports Network and Fox Sports Net New England focus on regional and national games, and the University of Maine shows up on both schedules.

In basketball, NESN will air the UMaine men when they’re on the road in Hartford on March 2. The 4 p.m. game will be aired live. If Maine makes its fifth straight trip to the America East semifinals, the men will once again appear on NESN as the network is providing live coverage of both conference semifinal games on March 10.

In all, NESN is airing 85 live NCAA men’s basketball games this season starting with an exhibition game between Ohio State University and the Harlem Globetrotters on Friday night. Counting the semifinal playoff games, NESN is airing eight America East contests this season.

The UMaine men’s hockey team will make at least one appearance on FSNNE – the Feb. 2 game at New Hampshire is the only scheduled regular-season broadcast for the Black Bears – but may also appear on one of FSNNE’s three “wild card” games scheduled Feb. 9 through March 1. The matchups in these wild-card games will be determined late in the regular season based on which games have the most impact on the standings.

Also included in FSNNE’s 12-game Hockey East telecast schedule are one quarterfinal playoff, one semifinal, and the March 15 championship game.

FSNNE is also airing 10 Boston University hockey games negotiated separately with the school.

NESN is televising 14 NCAA men’s hockey games this season with the bulk of its coverage focusing on Eastern College Athletic Conference. The first broadcast was Quinnipiac-Connecticut on Nov. 1, but the next one isn’t scheduled until Jan. 24 (Rensselaer at Vermont). Four of the broadcasts will be playoff games.

In all, the Black Bears hockey team will make at least seven TV appearances with six of them on Bangor station WABI (Channel 5). WABI will air Maine’s home game with New Hampshire tonight at 7 p.m.

Celts announcers reach milestone

Mike Gorman and broadcast partner Tom Heinsohn, a Boston Celtic great and NBA Hall-of-Famer, accomplished a rare feat earlier this month when they called their 1,000th Celtics telecast.

Gorman, who handles play-by-play, and Heinsohn, who provides color analysis, are the country’s longest-running sports television commentary team. They called their first live game together on Nov. 6, 1981, when the Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers.

During their 21-year career together, Fox Sports Net New England has grown to reach 3.7 million households and has gone from being known as PRISM/New England to SportsChannel New England to FSNNE.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net