2010 NCAA Tournament Coverage
Click here for my pictures from the roadMy road to the Final Four this year includes stops in Milwaukee and Indy. I need to be home on regional weekend this year. Follow my travels in this space.
April 5
Championship Monday brought severe weather to Indianapolis for the second straight Final Four. In 2006, we had a tornado hit close to downtown. Monday, we had a severe thunderstorm warning (and the storm that came with it) and a tornado watch.This is also the first Final Four to have a non-major since 2006. Is this a coincidence?
Fortunately, the rain did not come until after the big Butler pep rally in Monument Circle. A couple thousand Bulldog fans gathered there around noon to get fired up for the game.
The buzz in the city was electric, which is unusual, but having the home team there helped. It was easier to get into bars and restaurants during the afternoon because some people had to work, but there was still good energy around, and it built up as the game got closer.
I did some radio with Tim Brando on Sporting News Radio on Monday. Before me, Tony Barnhart and Gary Parrish were his guests, and they were suggesting that the Big Ten was essentially going to raid the Big East for Pitt, Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers, thus putting the writing on the wall for Notre Dame, which competes in that league in all sports but football. The feeling is that would force the Irish into the Big Ten also, making it the Big Sixteen (although the name would undoubtedly not change). I think that's too big, but they swear that is in the works.
Tim and I are usually arguing about one thing or another, usually on twitter, but we do get along great. Usually, we beat each other up over the BCS, but the talk was all hoops this time. I don't think we got into too many arguments this time.
I received the strangest media request that I have ever had. Bloomberg TV wanted me Monday late afternoon for their Asian Morning Call show, which is live in both the US and Asia and is geared, obviously, as a business morning show for the Asian market. They wanted to talk to me about the game and the business of bracketology (a word I hate, in case I've never said that before). It ended up getting canceled though. Good thing probably. Asian languages are not one of my strengths.
I rode over to the game on the bus (too rainy to walk) with a guy freelancing for CBSSports.com that I had never heard of. Turns out, he used to write and produce some sitcoms, going back to the old Bob Newhart Show (the original one). His name is Lloyd Garver - nice guy - and you can find his stuff here. Haven't read it myself yet, but I will. Taxes come first.
I still needed my umbrella because the bus dropped us off with still a bit of a walk to the media entrance. Good thing the umbrella got through security there, unlike the concert.
The crowd at the game was at least 80% rooting for Butler. First true home-crowd atmosphere at a Final Four I have attended. It was a pretty unique occurrence because not only was the home town team here, but it was a team that everyone but hard core fans of the opponent was going to root for.
A couple of Butler students recognized me before the game and as I was talking to them, I mentioned I wanted to go to the postgame party when they won (trying to be optimistic for them - I picked Duke), so they told me where to find it. I never went though. I was around enough sad people when Memphis lost two years ago.
Maybe I should have asked about the Duke party too.
There was a big mistake on the video board at the game. Whoever did the graphics for that misspelled Coach K's name wrong all night. Every graphic. Or at least the ones with his name on it. Hey, we all make mistakes, but how hard is it to spell "K?"
"K" made a big mistake too at the end of the game, but it didn't cost him. He had Brian Zoubek miss a free throw on purpose that would have given his team a 3-point lead with 3.6 seconds left, meaning they would have been assured of no worse than OT. Now, Zoubek isn't a star FT shooter, so he might have missed anyway, but you have to try. 3.6 seconds is a lot of time to get up the floor and get a decent look. Duke did defend it well (although Singler will feel the effects of a Howard screen for a while), forcing Hayward to wander enough that he had to fire from about 45 feet, but it nearly went. Nearly became the greatest finish ever to a NCAA tournament game. So near, yet so far.
After the shot rimmed out, the arena got a lot quieter. Duke fans were probably cheering, but you couldn't hear them.
Krzyzewski has been pretty sensitive this tournament, taking offense to questions asked or semantics, sometimes to questions not even asked of him. So, you'd think he'd be pretty relaxed after finally finishing the tournament off. You'd be wrong. Right after he turned the media over to his players because, "they'll answer questions a lot better than I will," he took offense to the first question asked and interrupted before it could be answered. He didn't like the characterization of Zoubek's career as "up and down."
After the pressers, I headed back to the media hotel for the postgame media buffet, which was OK. It mostly consisted of very tired media folks grazing, drinking, and talking about the game, or if talking to me, talking about expansion.
Oh, and we talked a lot about One Shining Moment, which pretty much stunk. Now I'm not a fan of that to begin with (I don't like canned syrup), but this was lame even by its standard. There were very few basketball highlights (by my count, about 30 seconds out of 3 minutes) and too many clips of Jennifer Hudson. She has nothing to do with the tournament and doesn't belong in the video. In fact, I haven't heard of anyone who liked it, which means it was better received than the idea of a 96-team tournament. In fact, if they go to a 96-team tournament, One Shining Moment won't be enough. We'll need at least a couple.
The media buffet is a chance to wind down and say good bye to folks you may not see again for a year, or most of one. However, one poor soul was still working hard at 2:30 AM. Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune was trying to get something in about the hiring of Oliver Purnell at DePaul.
So, the road trip ends for another year. Thanks for following along. Hopefully, we'll do it again next year.
April 4
Sunday was a relatively quiet day in the city, especially with it being Easter.Our day started with press conferences, which amounted to three hours of "David vs Golaith" stuff. They have the big press room, where the coach and five starters sit and answer questions. Then, they send the starters off to individual rooms for more questions.
I was a little late getting there, so I missed most of Butler's session. However, Brad Stevens said that Shelvin Mack (cramps) would play and that Matt Howard (concussion) would not practice Sunday and would be a game-time decision.
He had the best quote of the afternoon when asked about going up against great, accomplished coaches like Izzo and Krzyzewski. He said, "they write books and I get to read them."
Coach K had a nice little comeback for that: "I've preordered his."
Jon Scheyer said that the team they faced that most resembles Butler is Purdue (dang - another Purdue reference). He felt that although the personnel matchups are a little different, both teams play the same style of offense and especially defense, and that both are pretty physical.
After the press conferences, I headed over to Bracket Town. The fan fest here used to be called Hoop City, and I wanted to see if it was any different, or if it had simply been renamed. The only difference I could see from before was that the room was much darker. Of course, it was pretty dark, so there may have been differences I couldn't see. There are activity stations for playing various games, basketball and otherwise, a souvenir shop, autograph sessions and whatnot. A lot of whatnot.
Then it was off to the Big Dance concert at White River State Park, just a short walk away. LL Cool J and the Goo Goo Dolls performed in the evening, but I couldn't stay long enough to see either. It was a pretty nice setup, with the stage at the bottom of a hill and people just sitting on the grass. There were also beer stations at the bottom of the hill. That made it easier for the id checkers to tell who was too drunk to serve. Anyone who couldn't stop themselves going down hill, or rolled down hill, they're too drunk to serve.
I had dinner at Iaria's just SE of downtown with a few other writers, including my agent, Dave Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News. That is the place the committee goes for dinner the night before sequestering themselves away for most of a week to put the bracket together.
It looks like a mom-and-pop dive, but the food is great. I may not have to eat again until Thursday.
April 3
Semifinal day in Indianapolis brought rain and wind with it. The rain quit mid-afternoon, but the wind never really did. Chamber of Commerce weather is expected resurrect itself on Sunday.And that reminds me - Happy Easter!
I spent Saturday morning in the Panera downtown because that was a place that had internet access. Until they kicked me off. While I was there, an Illini fan recognized me. I'm not used to being recognized. My fame, such as it is, has always been anonymous.
Anyway, I was grateful he didn't punch me. He did tell me I was often quoted and not well thought of on Illinois fan message boards, although he appeared to have no problem with me. He was asking advice on how to scalp a ticket - where to go, where to sit. I wasn't much help. Haven't had to do that for a while.
Shortly after that, Illinois assistant Jay Price walks in and says hello. I know him from his days at Purdue (was going to try to get through an update without a Purdue reference. FAIL - sorry). He also told me I had Illini fans riled up on their message boards, "although, you were right," he said. I guess I can add Champaign to the list of places that I'm no longer welcome. That list includes, but is not limited to, Blacksburg, Boise , Colorado Springs, Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Miami, Tulsa and Utah - the entire state.
After Panera tossed me, I went to radio row in the coaches hotel and hung out with the guys from the Fan in Raleigh.
Then, I walked over to the free concert that was going on before the game. Darius Rucker was playing, to be followed by Daughtry. They didn't let me in though because I was carrying an umbrella, so I had to settle for listening from a distance. Kind of sounded like the crowd at the stadium.
Failing at that, I went to find some food. Could not get into any place - literally could not get in the door. I did find a bar full of Butler fans, so I hung out there for a short while before making my way to the stadium.
There, we were greeted with internet access issues. It's an annual occurrence. The entire network was down until about 20 minutes before the game. So, I found my seat (last press row across from what was the Butler/WVU bench, baseline) and took some pictures.
As I was walking in, one of the Cameron Crazies recognized me. Did I say that I'm not used to being recognized? It's a bit disconcerting when it's a guy with rubber horns on his head, but he seemed otherwise normal.
It was hard to tell who the crowd favored. Obviously, Butler had a good turnout, but since their fans were right behind me, I heard them better. At one point - I saw the Spartans' fans rise to their feet and start clapping and I could barely hear them. Crowd noise simply isn't a factor in the floor-in-the-center setup. It just doesn't get to the floor with much oomph.
One thing the NCAA did was create a student section on the floor, which is right behind the band for each team. There is a walking aisle in between the two groups. As I walked through the WVU section to go check on Da'Sean Butler (knee to be examined today - BTW), I noticed the kids in the student section watching the game on the big TV up in the opposite corner from them. They could not see the game from where they were sitting! Well, standing. Their own band, which was also standing, was blocking their view. When the action was on the end of the floor closest to them, they could see some bits better. Of course, the way things were going for them, just as well they missed it.
With about 12 minutes to go in the game, I heard a vendor behind me say it was last call for pop and water. Last call? With 12 minutes left?? Were they afraid people would drive home over-caffeinated?? Were they concerned folks would have to stop and pee on the way home???
After the second game, referee Curtis Shaw took off his shoes and left them on the court. That is a tradition in wrestling (not that WWE crap - real wrestling) when someone wrestles for the last time. Shaw is retiring to become the supervisor of officials in the Big 12 (look out coaches - more Ts coming!). Not sure how that tradition translates to basketball. Also, not sure where the shoes ended up.
After the games, I walked back and had a postgame beverage with a writer from the Miami Herald. It was tough getting into places, even at 12:30 AM. The Butler party was in full force.
April 2
I also missed West Virginia's practice dealing with internet issues (who knew TweetDeck interfered with internet access - seems counterintuitive). Once I got that resolved though, it was time to hit the floor.
The crowds were good for both MSU and Duke's practices. Duke fans have been in hiding on the streets though. I have seen a lot of fans for all three of the other schools, but people in Duke gear have been fewer and farther between.
In between the MSU and Duke practices, there was a presentation of the finalists for the Lowe's Senior Class award. Among the group are Final Four participants Raymar Morgan and Jon Scheyer, and Purdue's Chris Kramer. I said hello to Kramer's parents before the game. They are local legends at Purdue. They look every bit as tough as Chris - both his mom and his dad. You wouldn't want to mess with either one. However, they were very nice.
After the practices, they had the senior all-star game. Kramer was a participant and former Purdue coach Gene Keady coached one of the teams, but I couldn't stick around to watch that.
Hanging out in the coaches' hotel a bit, I got to say hello to a few. Notably for me - last Purdue reference, I promise - was Matt Painter, who signed an 8-year extension today.
Oh, and here's an Indiana reference - coach Tom Crean was mobbed in the streets by fans wanting to pose for pictures, get autographs or just say hello. Not bad for a guy who has some in his fan base wondering if he's the right guy after his team fell flat late in the season.
I had dinner with an assistant coach from Harvard. It took a while to find a place to eat that wasn't an hour wait. Like most of my conversations with coaches, it's a lot about how to get in the tournament, and just talking about their team and others.
After dinner was the CBS party. That is a lot of meet-and-greet, mix-and-mingle stuff. This year, it was at a place called the Cadillac Ranch, which in Las Vegas would probably be an entirely different kind of place. It was a dimly-lit space, although the light was blue, which gave everything sort of an icy look. Les Moonves even made an appearance - I didn't get to meet him though.
By the time that was done, it was after 12:30 and time to crash - not literally. It's a drive for me to where I'm staying, so crashing is not allowed.
He said that the desire is to play the tournament in the same time window they use now - three weeks. The first round would be Thursday-Friday, second round Saturday-Sunday, and third round Monday-Tuesday or Tuesday-Wednesday at the same site. And then, yes, a quick turnaround for the Sweet 16 teams to play Thursday-Friday again. To me, that sounds like a logistical nightmare.
One thing to keep in mind is that everyone assumes this is a done deal, but it's not. Some very powerful people are against it, notably Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. I saw him at the practices and asked him to prevent it. LOL. He made no promises though. He did say that expansion is not a basketball decision.
Most think it's a done deal because it gets so much talk, but that talk is media driven, not NCAA driven. It's the most interesting expansion scenario, so it gets the most attention and the most questions, but it is not a foregone conclusion. I still have not found a person here that's not a coach who is in favor of expansion.
April 1
Did I just date myself with that reference? OK - for you younger crowd - you'd think the Black Eyed Peas just walked in. On second thought - I'll just stick to my old man references. You whippersnappers will just have to look up the Beatles on Wikipedia or something.
Brad Stevens could be Mayor of Indianapolis if he wanted to be. Others think there is a bigger job than that awaiting him. I think he'll keep the one he has.
March 22
I had the same seat for the games that I had on Friday, which was nice. Turns out I was by the losing bench for both games, which is always more interesting.
In the first game, GT coach Paul Hewitt and ref Curtis Shaw were going at it pretty good. It wasn't always heated, but Hewitt was on him just about the entire game. He was also on his team quite a bit too because they had issues with things like shot selection and simply running the plays that were called. Sometimes, especially later in the game, he would spend about half of a timeout just talking to Shaw.
Jamie Dixon was a lot calmer than Hewitt in the second game, despite the fact that his team was in a pretty good battle. He did complain about the officials some (every coach does), but he rarely complained to the officials.
He didn't really need to - the entire Pitt cheering section behind their bench did plenty of that. It seemed like there wasn't a moment that they weren't unhappy about something, and they were letting everyone know about it. Even if something appeared to go well, like Pitt getting the call on a ball that went out of bounds, the fans wouldn't be happy because they wanted a foul. They saved most of their venom for John Cahill, but they were equal opportunity ranters.
Xavier fans didn't seem too excited about the officiating either, but they were across the floor from me, so I didn't really hear anything they said specifically.
The other nice thing about my seat was that Ohio St AD Gene Smith, in his role as NCAA committee member, and NCAA Tournament Queen Jeanne Boyd were sitting in front of me with a TV monitor so they could follow the broadcast of the game. It also allowed them to check in on other games, so as the Purdue game got toward the end of regulation, I could watch that a little bit.
After the game, I caught the OT of Purdue's win on the TVs in the media work area. The No Cheering Rule was severely tested. Perhaps even broken.
I didn't get out of there until close to 9 PM and headed back to Chicago to do a little TV Monday morning.
So, here are a few highs and lows from my stay in Milwaukee:
Taking next weekend off, but the travel diary will start back up a few days before the Final Four.
March 21
You may not be aware of this, but a company called ASAP Sports transcribes the press conferences at many major events. Here is a link to yesterday's Xavier presser.
In there, you can see Jordan Crawford get asked three times about his dunk over LeBron James that is a YouTube sensation, but also very old news. Yet, people keep bringing it up, causing strained eyes everywhere as they try to roll out of everyone's heads. This guy would not let it go.
I don't ask many questions in press conferences because I don't want to ask the trite and stupid ones. Fortunately, somebody else always has my back there.
I did end up hitting a couple of bars later to catch the end of the KSU-BYU game, and to see what the action was like down here. I have to say, except for one bar where a local radio station was doing a remote, it was pretty tame, which surprised me.
I ended up in a German bar that served Hofbrau House beer, which is always nice. They had something called a shot ski, which had five shot glasses glued to it. The way it works is you line up five people, tip the ski, and all do shots at once. I don't know how they did it without somebody wearing one of the shots. I think it helped that the people I saw doing it were all about the same height.
I also wandered over to one of those dueling piano bars you are now starting to see everywhere. I'd never been in one, but this place was pretty crowded. I guess it's a big place for bachelorette parties because they had at least three, maybe four, of them going on in there. The appeal of this place as a go-to joint for bachelorette parties is lost on me, but I'm a guy (this just in!), so what do I know?
March 20
Friday was Game Day in Milwaukee - four games starting around 11:30 AM and not ending until 11:00 PM.We had one good game, one competitive, but very ugly game, and two more-or-less blowouts.
I had a great seat yesterday. I was between center court and the bench that is on the right when you are watching on TV. I expect to be in a similar place on Sunday. That's usually how it works.
It's a great seat because you can hear so much of what's going on at the scorer's table.
In front of me was Laing Kennedy, the Kent St AD and a member of the selection committee. We chatted for a while about Cornell, where he used to be the AD. He was a pretty happy guy with their result yesterday.
At one point, Oklahoma St coach Travis Ford was giving him a hard time about something - I'm pretty sure it was the officiating, which Ford was generally unhappy about all night.
Actually, it was probably someone else. At one point in the game, he asked one of his assistants for the name of one of the refs. He would know O'Neill.
Also in front of me was the alternate official for each game. The alternate official sits by the monitor they use for replays, and consults with the refs working the game when they do have a review. For the morning games, the alternate was a guy assigned to work an evening game, and vice versa, so I had Tom O'Neill, TV Teddy Valentine, John Cahill and Curtis Shaw sitting in front of me for one game or another.
O'Neill was my boss when I was an official in HS. He assigns games for the conference in South Suburban Chicago that I worked in and I attended his camps, which is how I got my start. I guess you could say he was my Yoda, not that I'm implying that he's 900 years old, green and has pointy ears. So, Tom and I got to chat for a little bit before the first game and again at halftime. He worked the Oklahoma St-Georgia Tech game, so maybe that's who Ford was complaining about. LOL.
During that game, we had an issue with the clock not stopping, so O'Neill comes over to the scorers table, and says, "got a hammer?"
March 19
One of the nice things about covering a pod in Milwaukee is that it's not too long a drive - I don't have to deal with airports. I got here yesterday morning, got into the hotel, and wandered over to the Bradley Center to take in some of the open practice day.You would have thought this was a media only event. During the day, at least, when people were either working or still hung over from St. Patrick's Day (or both), there were barely 100 people in the stands. The media outnumbered the fans, although you couldn't see most of the media because they were in the press conferences more than on the floor.
However, as the first set of games was ending nearly all the media were standing in the area outside the workroom watching ODU-ND, BYU-Florida and Villanova-Robert Morris come to an end.
Even some of the Pitt team was standing there with us trying to catch Villanova's game, but some security guy threw them out. Seriously. I guess they didn't have the right credential to be there or something.
The crowds were a little better for the later open practice sessions.
If you are watching our games on TV, you'll be able to tell it's Milwaukee because our court has....wait, no, our court looks exactly like every other court! Why do the courts all have to look the same? Couldn't we at least have the name of the host school on them or something? Some alternative color schemes?
Last weekend, I was in New York City doing some work for CBS College Sports, and while I had very long days and didn't get to see a whole lot of the city, I have noticed a few differences between Milwaukee and New York - besides the size.
For example. If you go into a place called La Perla in NYC, you will find yourself in a high-end lingerie shop. Here, La Perla is a Mexican restaurant. I suppose it's hot and spicy either way.
Here, if one guy says to another in a bar, "I'm going to go grab a sausage," he's probably hungry. In New York, if I overheard the same thing, I would probably sprint out of that bar as fast as I could.
So, those are just a couple of differences. I'm sure I'll stumble across some others.
Sports bars are plentiful here, and they're pretty good. During a break in the open practices yesterday, I went to Major Goolsby's, where they have TVs covering just about every inch of wall space. You could watch four games at once without turning your head, from almost any seat in the house. The place exploded when Murray St hit that last second shot to beat Vandy.
At Goolsby's was a couple of fans from UC Santa Barbara who made the trip. I expect they won't have a lot of friendly company.
Later on, I watched the Marquette game with some MU fans who follow me on twitter (@jppalm) at Zims, which is just across the river from where we are. That was a fun time, until about 2 seconds left in the game. Then the bar became pretty quiet - except for one Washington fan. Had a Schoolhouse Rock flashback.
After that, I was hungry, so I headed to the Milwaukee Brat House for a brat and a beer - actually two, because they serve them two at a time. That was good eats.
Today brings a full day of games. I may post some stuff on twitter, but my primary job is writing for CBSSports.com, so you will be able to find my game stories there. I'm writing at least one from each session (morning and evening).