Last spring,  I had the pleasure of covering all four weekends of March Madness. This college basketball vocational voyage, which I dubbed the “Midwest Swing,” granted me a lot of face time with the national player of the year Evan Turner. This kid from my hometown of Chicago swept all the player of the year awards en route to winning the Big Ten Tournament, reaching the sweet 16 and becoming the #2 pick in the NBA Draft.

The Ohio State Buckeyes were prominently featured in three of the four Regionals I covered in 2010, so I got to see Turner and his teammates play a hell of a lot.

From March until the beginning of the NBA season I saw Turner: become a national sensation by hitting a half-court buzzer beater to eliminate the Michigan Wolverines, whine to the media about Illini trash-talking him the next day, win a conference tournament and later every important individual award, get eliminated by Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen, get drafted second overall, get rattled by trash talk again (this time from the Purdue Boilermakers Student Section Twitter account) struggle massively in Summer League and begin his professional career.

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