Yeah, whatever....

So people really get into this whole "March Madness" thing a little bit, don't they??? I personally have a really hard time being all gung-ho about basketball when spring training is going on and the Major League Baseball season is only 10 days away!! (My birthday, btw, is 11).

But Pacific is hosting the NCAA West Regional up at ARCO Arena (home of the Kings) in Sacramento. So that'll be my home for the next three days. And man, hosting a Regional takes a lot of work! But it's been a neat experience so far.

....Especially wandering the halls before anyone else really arrives ;)

Note the bags under my eyes, ew.

No one hates me more than roadtrips

While I was tending to my Pacific baseball official scoring duties, I escaped some pretty gnarly travel as the women's basketball team headed home from their double overtime win at Long Beach State. The ride in itself is over six hours, so I was pretty excited about only having to make the hour and a half drive out to Stanford instead. But on the way back, the Long Beach road gods struck again.... flat tire for the Pacific travel bus.

Despite the team's recent success - having won two out of their past four games, despite only winning six the entire season - it seems their luck on the road would go to hell for the rest of the season.

While they were to play UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon, the Pacific women's basketball team headed for Anaheim, Calif., two days earlier, this Monday. The thinking was a few extra days' rest would help the team, but I can't help but think that in the back of everyone's mind was the thought that if we lose Wednesday and would have left Tuesday, that would be a hell of a lot of travel for not even one full 24-hour period spent down there.

I digress. After I got to stand in as part of the practice squad on Tuesday afternoon, we showed up ready to roll for Wednesday's game just blocks from Disneyland. Although we had our hotel booked until Thursday morning, our loss yesterday afternoon sent us back on the road for Stockton, Calif., a lovely six-to-seven-hour trek. Passing through the usual Los Angeles traffic at 4 p.m. on a weeknight, I figured the ride would take a bit longer than usual, but nothing too strenuous. Anyways, half the girls' families were down in SoCal watching the tourney, so they ended up staying with the parents for the remainder of spring break. Meaning there were only 10 of us on the bus, including staff.

Before we even reached the sign for the Grapevine - about an hour north of Los Angeles - we hit a massive amount of wall-to-wall traffic. No one was budging, save for the assholes trying to drive through the median and merge into stopped traffic. As we pulled up to a big rig, our associate head coach begged the bus driver to open the passenger side door, so she could ask the semi's drive (who must have had a CB radio) if he knew what was going on. Apparently he had no clue, but heard on the news a few trucks had flipped due to windy conditions and ignited a fire on the freeway. Awesome.

I don't believe we were stuck in two miles of traffic for any more than two hours. You know, no big deal. Instead of reading my latest French book - which gets me carsick - or sleeping awkwardly on the bus - which hurts my TMJ-laiden neck - I decided to head to the back of the bus and mingle with the players for the first time all season really. And, now it's the last time since their season came to an abrupt end. Long story short, we exchanged musical tastes, played a ridiculous game of truth or dare on one of our student trainer's phones and all-in-all had a fun time joking and teasing. At one point, Kyle broke out his training tape and started taping McKenzie's feet together. His student trainer, Mark, let CT tape his ankle because she assumed she was a pro now that hers had been taped so many times. Anyways the tap fiasco ended when I couldn't wait any longer and did something I promised I'd never do in my life - I used the bus's restroom. Everyone knew that was my worst nightmare and I was deathly afraid of it, but still, the trainers decided to tape the door shut and I about cried/vomited. But it was a good laugh, looking back on it. Welcome to road trips.

When we finally made it back to campus it was nearly midnight on a trip that should have had us back no later than 9:30 p.m. I booked it over to my friend Zach's house, as he was watching little Woodstock and picked up my puppy. Instead of waiting until I woke up the next morning - probably would have been close to noon - I decided to just go straight home since I was already in a driving mood. Plus, the drive from Stockton to Alamo usually takes me around 45-50 minutes.

But disaster struck on the way home once more. As I hit Livermore, a semi decided to swerve out into my lane, around 12:30 a.m. I had no choice but to veer in the opposite direction, which was directly in front of a CHP - little to my knowledge. As soon as I made the switch, the blaring lights went off and I nearly went blind. This fucker was fast and in a Charger, so he had to be an ass. See the type of cop car below:

Anyways, I pulled off the off-ramp and into a safe stopping place and this younger guy came out, with his flashlight all up in my face. He asked me if everything was alright, and if I had been drinking, but I calmly explained that my swerve was self-protection instead of intoxication. Before ever asking for my ID or any proof of anything, the officer looked down into my lap, saw Woodstock and began asking me a billion questions about my puppy. He was smiling, saying how cool it was that he was so tiny. After he had been satisfied with answers, the officer told me to be careful and have a good night.

No ticket. No DUI despite my full-fledged sobriety. And no nervousness. The first and last time I was pulled over, I cried my eyes out for the officer and the world to see. This time, I remained calm even though my heart was thrashing inside my chest.

But no harm done. And now I'm only down to one season - baseball. I was reminded a few days ago how much I miss baseball and baseball writing. So I'm going to try to make it my goal to pay a bit more attention and get back into that a bit.

I'm also not let down in the least that my next road trip isn't until the weekend of my birthday - Easter weekend - when we travel to Long Beach State for baseball. The few weeks home and away from a bus will be nice.

Don't cheat, people will find out.

Watching the KTLA news down here in Orange County last night, I learned of the bomb that just dropped on the USC men's basketball team.

At every university's athletic department there is an NCAA compliance director that tries to keep teams/players/coaches/staff honest by releasing information on adherence to NCAA rules, regulations and by-laws (which seem to be changing daily). That just goes to show how crazy the NCAA's governance is and how far it actually extends.

But every now and then, someone blatantly ignores the rules, just for a shot at winning an NCAA title.

Enter USC.

In the recruiting of O.J. Mayo, the Trojans broke a ton of rules that I imagine many people probably turned their heads to. To give you an idea as to why, Mayo played one season with USC (2007-08) before being taken in the NBA draft to Memphis, and averaged 20.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game that one season.

It has recently come out that USC broke several NCAA laws in the recruiting of Mayo, including his relationship with Rodney Guillory, who under NCAA rules became a USC booster that season due to the dollar amounts he donated to the basketball program and USC's former head coach that year. There also is a lot of talk about Mayo receiving large sums of money for his play at USC (collegiate student-athletes are not allowed to accept money and can never have done so, since they are supposed to be listed as "amateur athletes" to participate in the NCAA).

There isn't a lot of information out there on what exactly USC and Mayo did wrong. But USC just released their own self-imposed sanctions in response to those NCAA violations on its website.

The self-imposed sanctions for the men's basketball program include a one-year ban on post-season competition following the 2009-2010 regular season, including the Pac-10 Conference basketball tournament; a reduction of one scholarship for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years; a reduction by one of the number of coaches permitted to engage in off-campus recruiting activities during the summer of 2010, and a reduction in the total number of recruiting days by twenty days (from 130 to 110) for the 2010-2011 academic year.

In addition, because of Mayo's involvement with Rodney Guillory, whom under NCAA rules became a USC booster due to his role in Mayo's recruitment, USC will vacate all wins during the 2007-2008 regular season, which was when Mayo competed while ineligible. USC will also return to the NCAA the money it received through the Pac-10 Conference for its participation in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Tournament.

Now this is a big deal, since Mayo and USC's 2007-08 coach are both gone from the picture. So why severely punish the current members of the USC men's basketball team? What I imagine they're saying, is that O.J. Mayo influenced the team during the entire four-year span he originally committed to USC, which would go until the 2010-11 year, his supposed senior year.

If that's the case, then why not strike all the records from the 2008-09 year? And why not count this year's records? Because let's be honest, how many recruits was USC able to secure the year they also signed Mayo? If we're going with USC's rationale, the team during the entire four-year span is tainted. So why leave last year alone?

Either way, I think that's some severe punishment. Especially when you take into consideration the fact that the NCAA has not yet responded to USC's self-punishment. I imagine USC was so strict so the NCAA wouldn't come in and take over with a worse punishment, but it's still a possibility.

Lesson learned, don't cheat. USC really didn't gain that much from Mayo. Even with him and their No. 6 seed in the post-season, they still couldn't overcome No. 11 Kansas State to advance deep into the tournament. And now, they've actually been hurt by the means to which they secured him.

All B-ball, All The Time.

Tonight's Stockton Showcase downtown at the Stockton Arena kicks off four-straight games for me before my Vegas trip.

After working professional sporting games in the past, going to a mid-major Division I collegiate team has been a nice change of pace. While the pressure still is great, it's not as terribly demanding as the professional realm.

But when we host Pac-10 opponent Cal downtown tonight, in front of nearly 8,000 fans and 25 media members to perform for, I think it's finally going to feel like what college hoops is all about on the grand scale. Tonight just might be a glimpse into working for a big-time BCS school. And I'm fairly excited about that prospect!

So we have tonight's game, women's basketball tomorrow night, men's basketball again on Saturday night and women's basketball Sunday afternoon. Then I head out to my parents' house in the East Bay Sunday night, so as to catch an early flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas on Monday morning.

Gosh I can't wait!

And I really am trying to practice my story writing. I made a promise to myself that it's going to get me somewhere. But you can't run a marathon before stretching... so consider this my pre-warm-up lap stretch.

2,833 Miles Later....

I made it to New York, in case you were curious.

And boy what a trip it's already been. Have I mentioned that we've only been here for just under four hours?

As I mentioned earlier (or Tweeted, I can't remember anymore) our women's basketball team hosted Southern Utah last night. I did my radio broadcast of the event and then stayed after the game's conclusion to write up my story and update stats on the website. At about 10:45, I was ready to leave my office, until a number I didn't recognize called my work phone. Normally, I would have ignored it since I don't like taking calls from numbers I don't recognize on my cell phone, or after 5 p.m. at the office. If it's important enough, someone will leave me a message.

Well that person did. And I decided to check it instead of going home to pack. Lucky for him, it was the media contact at Southern Utah with desperation in his voice, asking if I'd go into our gym and get his computer charged and bring it to their hotel since he'd forgotten to pack it.

Oh yeah, they also left at 7 a.m. this morning. Apprehensively, I called him back and said I'd go search for it, but as I made my way down to the arena at 11 p.m., the lights were all off and it was locked. So I had a coworker come let me in, who generously agreed to take the charger himself. I owe ya, Ben.... :)

Then I get home just after 11 p.m. and frantically try to finish my packing for our East Coast road trip. I take a shower at 11:20ish and realize I'm starving. So J.D. made me some food while he was watching TV downstairs. After eating, we finish watching Chopped and for the life of me, I can't fall asleep. Every hour it felt like I was fruitlessly rolling around in bed, only to find another one of my four precious hours of sleep has disappeared.

When my alarm finally sounded at 3:35 THIS MORNING, I was already laying in bed, dreading its noise. Having no other choice, I gathered my belongings and made it to the athletics department.

We had about an hour and a half drive to the Oakland Airport, but I couldn't sleep and felt ill from my less than two hours of sleep and lack of food. But we finally made it. And I had to pay for my second checked bag, but I'm hoping for reimburstment.

With less than 30 minutes to go, I scurry through security and conveniently find a Chili's right in front of my gate serving breakfast. I order a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and wheat toast to go as to make our 7 a.m. departure. However, I become a nervous wreck as the preparation takes nearly 10 minutes. And cost me $12!!! But as soon as I grabbed my meal, my seating group was called to board. Lucky me.

Once we take off, I open up my breakfast box and quickly consume it all, only to feel slightly ill from the poor quality of ingredients. As is my usual reaction, I tried to sleep it off. But my head kept falling down the aisle pillow waking me up. And my foot fell asleep.

So I finished my notes on during the three hours my battery lasted me. For the final hour and a half, I tried a combination of reading and watching DirecTV (I <3 Jet Blue!) before I started feeling motion sickness. I really have the world's worst stomach.

When we land, we board our charter bus to take us to the hotel (aptly named Luck of the Irish Lines), before one of the freshmen players finds $20 on the seat near her, shrieking "It's the Luck 'o' the Irish!" Well, turns out it wasn't, our trainer had lost $20 from his pocket. Or so he claims. Our associate head coach caught on and said the staff would be sharing that money for an evening out. $20 in New York for seven people.... good luck :)

All is well and fine to set forth, except our driver had awesome road rage. And I became enraged because he kept giving us spiel after spiel about why the "New York Yankees are the greatest team in the world, from the greatest city in the world." Whatever, dude. If they're so great, where have they been the past nine years?? I guess money can't buy you everything, afterall.

However, it was a pleasant trip, because this crotchety driver was a riot. And I was quite impressed how in tune he is with current events, sports, politics, history and local tourism. Needless to say, we got a mini tour on our way up to White Plains, N.Y., where our hotel is located. Apparently he'll be taking us on a bus tour of New York City on Monday, so I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Close to 5 p.m. EST, we arrived at the hotel and within seconds of spotting the name, I shouted out, "I've stayed here before! They give you free cookies!"

Turns out, this is exactly where we camped when I worked with the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour and had a weekend tournament on Coney Island. Kind of an inconvenient commute, but fun nonetheless. I got to spend two days in the City with my mom two years ago.

But back to the present stay.... I seemed to impress some of the other coaches, because as we made our grand entrance (how do 13 college girls in matching Pacific Tiger sweats, along with five similarly-clad coaches not make a grand entrance?), what should appear other than a large, inviting plate of warm chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.

And a free "social hour" complete with booze, salad bar, hot wings, fries and my personal favorite, hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Awesome! I think it's going to be a good trip. Now about getting some sleep....

2009 Basketball NorCal Media Day

We hosted the inaugural 2009 Big West Baseball NorCal Media Day at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Sacramento yesterday. My boss and I made the 45-minute drive North and helped set up, then partook in the event from 2-3:30 p.m. and headed back to Stockton for the final 25 minutes of the work day.

In attendance at our media day were UC Davis, Sacramento State and my employer, Pacific. Each school's head women's and men's basketball coaches had about a five minute talk to the media (including TV!) and the student-athletes were there for one-on-one questions with the media. I was just there to help moderate and facilitate interviews with my players and the media. Our beat writer put up his story on the event here.

I was at my photographing ways again, so here are some more pictures as I continue to try and supplement my sports writing with my own photos ha.

New jerseys for our "Stockton Showcase" game downtown against Cal in December.

Old Spaghetti Factory

UC Davis women's head coach Sandy Simpson


Simpson


UC Davis men's head coach Gary Stewart


Stewart


Sacramento State women's head coach Jamie Craighead


Craighead

Sacramento State table


Sacramento State men's head coach, Brian Katz


Pacific men's head coach Bob Thomason

Coach T and our new Stockton jerseys

Pacific women's head coach Lynne Roberts (this is the team I will be traveling with in the winter)
Coach Roberts


Davis and Pacific tables

Setting up for the event at 12:30 p.m. yesterday

Monique finally figured out how to use PhotoShop!

And this is the result of me aimlessly playing around (who knows if it'll ever end up getting published!)...