I Know Him!

While watching and listening to the NCAA tournament I kept hearing names and those names kept sounding familiar. Come to find out, I actually sort of know them. With my three years working at ONN I got to meet a lot of the best in Ohio. As I am writing this I have seen two guys I had interviewed. BJ Raymond (Toledo St John) who is Xavier and Raymar Morgan (Canton McKinley) at Michigan St. I did a feature about BJ Raymond and followed St John as they advanced to the finals my last year. Raymar was part of a Canton McKinley bulldog team that dominated the state. He was a man playing against boys.

Then I also saw a story on the NFL Network about Jevon Ringer who went to Dayton Chaminade Julian. Javon is looking to make it in the NFL, but every time I see him all I can think about is the promo he did for us. He said "Hi, I'm Javon Ringer and you are watching SportsZone." He jumped and did a round house kick in front of the lens. All I kept thinking was, "Holy crap this guy came inches from kicking my camera, which was set up 5 feet off the ground. He later broke his leg his senior year, but he still has a chance to make it to the NFL.

That's the thing I miss, I will no longer be able to say "I know that kid, he almost kicked my camera" or "That guy dunked over my reporter (DeQuan Cook)." I will being able to do that. I know no one else cares, but for me it was always a perk of shooting high school and college sports.

Finally The March Madness Wrap Up

I've been back for a week and you may be wondering why it took me so long to get a wrap up of my trip. The simple answer is, I was exhausted. I have never had a trip were I worked that hard, had so many problems and still get everything done. I'd say it was more exhausting than my post Katrina trip, and on that trip I slept on the ground two nights.

After my last post trying to convince UNC that they needed to win because they were loosing to a guy named Sasha, things didn't get any better. UNC lost and I had to go into the locker room for post game talk about how they were not prepared to play. We got a lot of great sound and things were looking pretty good. It was a late night but the next day should go pretty easy. Yet again, Murphy had other plans.

Sunday we had laptop issues ranging from my external hard drive dying to Gibby's laptop not reading P2 cards. Then here's where it really went down hill, the internet in some of the rooms in the hotel didn't work. Let me revise that only two rooms could not get internet connections; mine and Gibby's, the two people feeding out copious amounts of video. After having the business center guy not care about our plight Penn got his room to work and I continued to deal with the motel's engineer and his compatriots on the phone in some undisclosed location. All I got was I'm sorry for the problem and a bill for internet usage. We barely got everything in for the 6pm show... how barely... lets just say less than 5 minutes barely.

After we were done, no one at home knew we had a problem, in TV that's the biggest thing. You can have a day from hell where nothing works, yet when it's time for the story to air and it goes as planned all problems are for not.

After all the problems we decided to hit the town, we caught up with a couple of radio guys and had a good time. While sitting there I hear one of the radio guys mention he sees Dan Dakich. Poor radio guy, he did not know I'm an angry Bowling Green fan that is willing to make a fool out of himself. I taunted Dakich with everything but the kitchen sink; you suck, how many players left you, you destroyed our program, good job at Indiana, I think I even started screaming Ay Ziggy Zoomba. My sports guy was laughing while the radio guys hit under the table. They had interviewed him earlier in the day and here I am launching attack on him next to them.

Here's the thing Dakich has zero connection to North Carolina, so why where they talking to a guy who was not going to be out of a job and had no way of coming to our area. That's the problem with radio guys, they only worry about connections, they are almost as bad as PR guys. Of course I would never have yelled at him if I had my gear with me, I'm a fan and when I see a guy like Dakich or Urban Meyer I'm going to let them have it.

A Guy Named Sasha is Beating You

Dear UNC,

You are letting a guy named Sasha beat you. How can you allow that to happen, his name is Sasha! There is no way a guy named Sasha should be allowed to play anything other than figure skating or fencing. You are down eight, start playing like the other team has a guy named Sasha on it.

Either Win or Just Lose!

So I run out to the live shot to make sure it's good, when I get there the lead was down to 4. I set up the lights and get everything ready. I run back in and the lead is up to 8! Come on Tarheels take the lead or lose big, I want to know when my flight will be. If it gets ugly, we can call and change our flights, if they start to win everything is fine. I hate the waiting.

Talk in the hole

The big conversation in the second half by the Carolina media is defense and the fact the Heels don't play it. Even though the lead is down to 14, they have to start playing defense. it's even been brought up that they have not played defense all year.

Half Time

Murphy has not only smacked me upside the head, he has decided to hit UNC as well. My Laptop has crapped out, I can not use my external hard drive and I also can not record the game feeds. So I can only blog and edit off of my P2 cards. It's caused a lot of stress for me and yet again I feel less than whole. This trip has been a mental disaster.

I guess UNC forgot that Kansas was a 1 seed and seemed out of sorts. At one time the Tarheels were down 26 points and at half time were down 17. They were forcing shots and were chasing Kansas around the court. The one thing though Kansas seems to be in a bit of foul trouble and that could help Carolina in the second half.

If UNC loses, I'm probably going to be flying back early Sunday or sometime Monday.

Everyone is Blue

It didn't dawn on us till today, all four schools at the Final Four have the color blue. All be it that UCLA and North Carolina are a light blue and Kansas and Memphis are darker it's still odd to see that much blue in the city.

Yet with this blur of blue the largest fan base belongs to Kansas. I can't throw a rock with out hitting a Jayhawk... trust me I tried and they don't like being hit by flying projectiles. This has me a little worried, the last time I saw some many fans out numbering the others was the BCS title game where LSU represented strong. We know how that game ended so I'm a little worried. I don't want to go home early.

No Basement at the Alamo

I felt a little extra spring in my step so I took a quick jaunt down to the Alamo. To be honest I was a little disappointed. I almost walked right past it, luckily I saw an arrow point me across the street. I took a lot of great picture and I might post them after I get my camera developed.

The one thing that kept popping into my mind was, the Alamo was a huge defeat. You always hear the cry "remember the Alamo," as a kid I always thought we won that battle. Instead it's about remember how they killed everyone inside. Enjoyed the walk around and seeing the history.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

It's alive! My camera works!!! Behold me in all my glory! Suck on that Murphy your my bitch now! Crap I probably cursed myself now. Ummm, hi Mr. Murphy... my your hair looks nice today. Please don't make things suck. I'm off with Gilbert to the Alamo for some touristy crap.

Murphy Strikes Again

I was hoping today would be better, alas not so. I got the battery plate around 10 in the morning only to find out it's the wrong plate. For some reason Panasonic and Anton Baur decided to make different plates for each model of camera. So, for another day I was cameraless.

We developed a system for having only one camera and that worked out fine, the only other problem was feeding video. I guess the Alamodome or the NCAA tournament did not realize TV stations would feed through the internet and there is not enough bandwidth to deal with this issue. So what took 20 minutes last week was now taking and hour or longer. I caused a lot a panic and then at different points through out the day the laptops kept "freaking out." Mine would not respond and then we would have to start the sending process all over. Gibby's was just going real slow.

Luckily for the most part the viewers never saw a problem, except when the IFB (the way the reporter can hear what is airing and hear the producer) when down. Also we had a problem coming back from commercial one time. We did not know they were going to not play the normal music, instead they went straight into the Mariachi band that we sent back. All I heard on the phone was; cue... CUE, J DOG CUE PENN! I frantically started waving my hand at Penn and he response was classic. What? Oh, hi?!?! Welcome back.

So after two days we have had our fair share of problems and I am looking forward to a relaxed morning and a slow start before the chaos known as game day. I may see the Alamo tomorrow and I might do some other touristy crap before we have to head to the arena. I hope tomorrow I will have more time so I can do more than one post a day.

I'm Murphy's Bitch

You all know Murphy and his law, what ever can go wrong will? Well that was yesterday, it all started with the 6:30AM flight. The flight itself was OK, it was my camera that did not enjoy it. I had to check my camera and bad things happened. I get the camera to the hotel room and find out that the batter that WAS connected has now been ripped off and the battery plate is severely damaged and the battery is useless. So yesterday I had a $16,000 paper weight. Of course, the station was not happy and luckily they are sending me a new plate. I am down to two batteries, but that should get me through the week.

Then we almost missed our slot in the show. For some strange reason, every time I sent back the look live through the internet I would get an error message with 5 minutes remaining. We thought it was my computer till we tried to send it to my external hard drive. The file was bad and I had to reconvert it. It made it back with five minutes to spare.

It was just a long day, we pretty much started our day at 4:30 in the morning and did not stop till after 7 in the evening. After we got back to the hotel I kept sending more stuff back so could get ahead on Friday. Hopefully Friday will go a little better, it's 10:00AM and my battery plate has yet to arrive, FedEX normally gets to the hotel at 8:00AM... not a good sign.

One more thing, I also for got the digital camera. So there will only be pictures posted via my cell phone or image grabs from the video camera... if it ever works.

An Encounter

Gibby and I finished out work for the night and started to walk to the media pick up van. As we are loading in ESPN's Andy Katz joins us. It's a nice ride till Any notices the sign I am carrying. As we are packing up I snatched the "Video Distribution" sign, why did I do this? I was forced to sit in a small room and watch the game on a small monitor when the actual game is just yards away. It's my small revenge against the NCAA. Take that, I stole your sign that cost you only nickles.

Andy looks at my sign and starts laughing and ask why would I take that sign, not one that said North Carolina or some thing more significant. I convey the above story and he laughs. Gibby and I inform him that other signs were taken as well, he can't believe it. He then asks where am I going to put it, of course in my computer room where all my news stuff goes. Technically video is distributed there so it fits.

I can now imagine him telling all his ESPN friends about that weird guy in Charlotte that took the Video Distribution sign. Well, he will probably for get about that chance encounter by the time he hits the airport.

Deep In The Heart of Texas

Well UNC won the game and I just found out that I am going to the Final Four. I am very excited, yet at the same time a little worried. Finances are a little low right now, we are going to have to find ways to make this work. Good thing though I get paid Friday and will have a lot of over time from this trip. Now I wonder what days I will have so I can get packed and spend time with The Wife and Lucy.

At the Half

It's half time and we are getting a little loopy. One of the guys from RAL grabbed my digital camera and started taking pictures. I've been singing Cool It Down by New Edition and T Dog is, well T Dog.

I just said the phrase redonkulous... we need out of this building, and drinks are required.

More on the Cardinal Teeth

I mentioned the whole Louisville Cardinals' mascot has teeth and that does not make any sense. I actually got to do the story today and the above is what aired

Yesterday Shorts, Today Parka

Yesterday and the day before it was in the low 80s and I was loving it. I put on my shorts, I got a little sun on me. Then today I go outside and the wind is whipping and it's now in the 50s. Those in the frozen north are looking at me like I'm insane for complaining about weather in the 50s. I don't care it's a 30 degree difference and it's tough to deal with. It doesn't help that downtown Charlotte is a wind tunnel and making it feel even colder.

I almost did not bring my fleece pull over. It was sitting on the outside of my suitcase and it was between putting in the fleece or putting in the bathroom bag. I decided to put the fleece in there even though it was not suppose to get below 70 all weekend. I learned from my lessons last year. Always take a warm shirt just in case.

Great Moogly Googly!

OK, I just checked my Google Analytics page and I saw something I thought I would never see, I had 240 visitors with 364 page views yesterday! I don't know what's going on, but I am in complete shock. It seems everything is coming from blogger navbar page, I've tried to see what it is, but I can't get that page to open. How many more will I get today? Who knows, but I'm excited to see.

Last Full Day

It's just after noon on game day and I am feeling much better today than I did yesterday at this time. I slept for about nine hours and the only thing that hurts is my feet and calves (stupid walking). As I mentioned yesterday the game does not start till 9 so we don't have a lot of work to do till later in the day. This will hopefully give me enough energy to get through the day. Our work flow will be in a more compact time frame and I'll be on the move a lot.

So far the feeling is that Louisville could beat North Carolina, all I am saying is this is the same game that the Tarheels lost last year so, you never know. I'm torn, I want to travel more, but I have a feeling if they do move on I will not be going. I get the sense that I will have to stay back and to the Chapel Hill rioting live shots. For some reason when I do them, the shot works. When someone else does it... failure. I believe it's nothing that I am doing, it's more about being lucky. No matter what I probably won't get to see the game. I'll just have to enjoy this game and the rest of my trip.

Saturdays Game

The big question this morning has been when will the game be played on Saturday. Will it be the logical 6:15 EDT or the ridiculous 9:00 EDT time. We come to find out we are the late game and the NCAA needs to get their heads checked.

The reasoning you will here is the better game is the UNC Louisville game, but when the other game is being played out west and involves UCLA... University of California Los Angeles... you might think more people out west would rather watch that game at 6:00 Pacific instead of 3:00.

The real reason is money, the NCAA wants the game that more people will watch later, why? They can charge the advertisers more because the east coast is more likely to stay up to watch UNC than UCLA or Xavier. The west coast will tune in for UCLA and CBS hopes they will stay and watch UNC. More people at one time, that equals a lot of money.

I don't mind people making money, but when it comes at the cost of making the game enjoyable and forcing people to stay up late and hope to see a final is going to be the NCAA's down fall. Last week I did not know who UNC was going to play because the game ended after midnight. I'm not that die hard of a fan and I can wait a day or two to find out who they will face.

Logic needs to prevail, yet I know it will not. This also hinders us from doing our job, we can't show highlights during the 11 because the game will still be on. Then if the game ends during the show, we now have to scramble to get back inside and hope to get sound about how they won or lost. Instead of wanting to do what's right for all the NCAA will greedily force everyone east of the Mississippi to lose sleep or not watch an ending of a good game.

I know money rules and the NCAA will do what's best for them, but think of the public as well.

So It Begins

Within a few hours, I will be heading to Charlotte for the third and most like fourth round of the NCAA tournament. I am going to try and do it like last year, with many new posts about everything I am going to do, and what I see. The interesting aspect this year will be that I am a day behind everyone else that is there. Because of scheduling problems I had to stay and edit the Wednesday shows. I hope this does not cause problems and hopefully I will get into the swing of things. I am leaving Raleigh at 9AM and hope to be set up around noonish or maybe one.