| 08 April 2011
When I was in college, one of the best classes I ever took was “Reporting and Editing For Television News.” Sure part of the reason I enjoyed the class was because my professor was one of those creepy dudes in his 40’s, who acted like he was 26, and was always trying to get a little too cozy with the female students. Still, that was only a part of it.
Overall it was entertaining class, and one of the things I remember the professor constantly harping on was, “Shoot everything!!” In other words, when you’re on the scene of a potential news story, shoot as much camera footage as you can. Because really, you never know what pieces and video might end getting used later on down the road.
And when it comes to this website, I use the “Shoot everything,” motto as well. If I’m ever at a sporting event that I know I’ll be writing about, I try to take as many notes as possible. I just never know what will end up making for interesting stories or anecdotes for my articles.
In the case of this past week’s Final Four, that was definitely true. When I got home Tuesday, I had a notebook full of all kinds of fun nuggets that I planned on using in the article I wrote Wednesday. Stuff on my travels, on people I met, on everything. But unfortunately for whatever reason, those stories just didn’t fit.
So then the question became, what to do with all those little nuggets? Toss them? Nah. Instead I decided to put together this “Final Four Odds and Ends,” article, with everything that just didn’t have a place in what I’d already written.
Understand that these stories have no correlation to one and other, and no correlation to anything really. But I thought they were fun and interesting enough to share here.
Enjoy.
The Kentucky Kids: My first- and favorite- story comes from the arena on game night.
Upon getting to the arena, my friend and I did all the typical stuff that anyone would do at their first Final Four. We took some pictures, walked around, took some more pictures, before scarfing down a pizza in about six seconds and heading to our seats. Again, the usual stuff.
And after getting to our seats and settling in, I noticed there were three little kids, sitting by themselves, to my left, without a parent in sight. Two happened to be wearing Kentucky shirts.
Never one to avoid an interesting conversation, I said to them, “So who are you rooting for?” The two in Kentucky shirts both said Butler, while the third, who was apparently a Louisville fan, liked UConn (Big East solidarity my brotha!).
Anyway, after promising the two Kentucky fans I'd buy them candy and a puppy if they rooted for UConn (Yes, I’m kidding), they eventually changed the subject to next season. After going back and forth for a minute, one of them confronted me in his thick Kentucky twang. He said, “You may have gotten us the other night, but wait until next year. We’re gonna get you back!”
Not thinking much of it, I asked why that was.
He quickly replied, “Because we’ve got the best recruiting class coming in. We’ve got Anthony Davis and Michael Gilchrist…” before the other one added, “And we’ve still got DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller too! We’re gonna win the championship!!”
Now understand, this stuff isn’t exactly news to me, if only because I write about sports for a living. Talking to Kentucky fans, I’ve known about Davis and Gilchrist for over a year now. But still, these weren’t regular Kentucky fans. These weren’t the people that e-mail me, or check message boards, or pay for Rivals.com subscriptions. These were a couple of 10-year-old kids!
And I’ve got to say, whatever respect I already had for Big Blue Nation, improved 100 fold after that conversation. Because, again, I’ve got to ask, other than Kentucky, where would a couple of elementary school kids be able to break down their team’s recruiting class better than the best analysts on ESPN?
I can’t think a single place.
And it is stories like that, why I love Kentucky fans so much.
An Airport Run In: After UConn won the title on Monday night, I got a handful of Tweets and e-mails asking me if I thought that Jim Calhoun might retire. Although Calhoun has since
come out and basically said he’ll be back next year, the logic behind the question did make sense. After all, with NCAA sanctions looming, Kemba Walker almost assuredly leaving, and a third NCAA title to firmly cement his legacy as one of the greatest coaches ever, what exactly would Calhoun have to come back for?
Well of every person I could’ve ever imagined would ask me about Calhoun’s future, there was one who did, that I could’ve never seen coming. That man was Georgetown head coach John Thompson III, who I met while I was stuck in Washington D.C. on my way back from Houston.
Now understand that whenever I see famous or recognizable people, I almost never bother them. After all they’re constantly getting asked dopey questions by dopey people, and as dopey as I am, I don’t want to be one those kinds of dopes. If that makes sense.
But the funny thing with John Thompson III was, everything just happened so fast that I didn’t have time to reign myself in. One minute, I was standing in line waiting for food, and the next minute I was blurting out, “Heyyya Coach, how you doing?” It really happened that fast.
Anyway, after he realized I wasn’t some deranged lunatic (at least not on the surface), coach and I got to talking some hoops. I mentioned how my first year at UConn was his first at Georgetown, and how my last year (2007) was the same that he made the Final Four. The craziest part was that I kept giving him chances to get out of the conversation, and he kept wanting to talk basketball (The other crazy part which I forgot to mention to him, was that I actually saw his dad, John Thompson Jr., outside Reliant Stadium on Monday night).
Finally as Coach and I were getting ready to say our farewells (which you could tell was quite emotional for him), he said to me, “So what do you think happens?” To which I looked at him like he had 11 heads and just asked me for a clean urine sample.
“What do you mean coach?” I said.
“Calhoun,” he said laughing. Ohh right, Calhoun. That guy. Aaron Has A New BFF
So I told him what I already mentioned, that I think Calhoun should ride off into the sunset, and get away from basketball.
Apparently Coach Thompson agreed. “It sure would make things easier on me,” he said, nodding and walking away. The man couldn’t have been nicer.
More “Celebrity,” Sightings: While we’re on the subject of celebrities (or at the very least recognizable people), there is one other “celebrity,” sighting that I’ve got to mention. That sighting would be Mr. Pony Express himself, Craig James!
Unlike poor coach Thompson who got stuck talking to me, I didn’t end up bothering Pony. I saw him right after the final buzzer of the championship game sounded, and he seemed to be trying his best to get out of the stadium as quickly as possible. Honestly I’m not sure if was just trying to beat traffic or had really bad diarrhea, but either way, it didn’t seem like the time to bother him.
Still, an awesome celebrity sighting none the less. No word if Mike Leach was in the building though.
A Quick Shout Out: Finally, I want to wrap up by quickly doing something that not many people tend to do, and that’s thank the city of Houston for showing me a good time.
Now I understand the city has its faults, all of which has been documented before. You’ve probably read about them all: The traffic is a nightmare. Everything is spread out. If you ever go to the Houston Downtown Mall, there’s an 80 percent chance you’ll get lost, and at least a 50 percent chance you won’t get out alive. I’m not kidding when I say that my friend and I got lost in there, and spent the next 40 minutes retracing our steps, and looking for any sign of daylight or the outside world.
But what I can’t deny about Houston is that the city had some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Now, was part of it that they were hosting an event they’d spent years planning? Yeh, probably. At the same time, the city did a heck of a job of setting everything up for us visitors. There were easy to use shuttle services to get around, people at every prominent hotel and point of interest to direct you, and maps and guides all over the place.
Back to the people for a second though, because really, they don’t come nicer than the one’s in Houston.
My favorite story comes from the day of the championship game, when my friend and I went down to our hotel lobby, and asked around, to see which shuttle we should hop on to get to the stadium. You know what the worker’s response was? “Well, I’m done with my shift in 10 minutes. If you just want to wait around, I’ll take you down there myself?”
Honestly, when and where does that happen? Like, ever? Having spent a ton of time in New York, you’d be more likely to get punched in the face, than offered free transportation in a similar situation. But stuff like that was happening all around the city from time I landed until the time I left.
So I’d like to wrap up by thanking Houston. Thank you for showing me a great time. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for everything.
I look forward to visiting you again for the 2016 Final Four.
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