Midwest Swing First Round Edition

By Paul M. Banks

MILWAUKEE-University of California-Santa Barbara coincidentally happened to be staying at the same hotel as me, so when I encountered the cheerleaders in the lobby I had to snap a photo-opp (it has since become my new Facebook profile pic). After taking the shot, and looking it over, one of the cheerleaders said: “look at you in that pic, the center of attention.” The one on the other side of me started singing Britney Spears- “the center of attention……”

-I probably would have joined in with “…even when I’m up against the wall,” had I not been sleep deprived and worn down by sinus flare-up at that exact moment in time. Yes, I just quoted Ms. Spears’ “Gimme More.” This is not the first time either. I’ve alluded to the song in features on Purdue’s E’Twaunn Moore and Northwestern’s Craig Moore in the past couple years. And you have to admit saying “it’s Britney bitch!” to celebrate a win and taunt your opponent would be awesome.

-The next day, a couple writers said there’s a video of the UCSB cheerleaders dancing up on tables at some Milwaukee bar that was much more wild than the hotel bar I went to. A video they shot at that very same bar. Yes, I’m trying to track down that file.

-However, those who stayed at the hotel bar got to hang out with UCSB’s entire coaching staff, and I had a fun time listening and reacting to what they thought of Evan Turner and company. This is off-the-record stuff, so next time we hang out- I’ll tell you all about it. I give props to one of the coach’s son-in-laws, who was very emotional about his sports geekiness. He even wrote down all the members of the Big West conference from memory on a cocktail napkin. I still have the napkin.

-BEST EMAIL of the weekend, this was from a high school journalist who attended my presentation at Roosevelt University entitled “Sports Media in a Web 2.0 World,” a speech I gave earlier in the week.

I attended your session at Roosevelt University on tuesday March 16th.  I just wanted to let you know I was inspired by your speech, and BY what you do.  So I have created my own sports blog at SportsAtTheHelm.blogspot.com

I wanted to ask you if you have any advice for someone like me just getting a blog started, like how to get people to come to my site, how to keep it entertaining but also interesting, and any other thoughts you may have.

-Thank you so much. That was very nice. In my presentation I managed to include my voice impersonations of Tom Izzo, Bill Carmody, Evan Turner and Bruce Weber.

-Evan Turner claimed the Oscar Robertson trophy yesterday, and he’ll soon take home the Naismith. But all his hype has overshadowed a lot of important guys on his team. Some name you should get to know are Mark Titus and his very well written Club Trillion blog, Dallas Lauderdale, William Buford, and David Lighty.

-Best mascot belonged to the mid-major Gauchos of UCSB and greatest fight song goes to Georgia Tech, because when you have the phrase “to hell with (insert rival’s name here) you got it hands down.

-With Turner and James Anderson combining to go 4-25 from the floor Friday night, coupled with the struggles of Georgia Tech’s Gani Lawal and Iman Schumpert, the NBA hype surrounding the first night’s match-ups, for that night at least, looked like all sizzle and no steak.

-Finally, but most importantly, NCAA ARE YOU LISTENING? I’ve covered hundreds of games in numerous sports during my lifetime, and this is the FIRST time I’ve had to pay anything, let alone $16, to get internet access. Just to simply do my job. It’s so wrong on so many levels. Are you kidding me? Really are you freaking kidding me?

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