Day 1
Jackson, Tenn.
Well, the tournament begins in the morning, actually tip-off is nine hours away from when I am writing this. I arrived today around 11 a.m. and checked in at the Jameson Inn, then headed down to the NAIA Headquarters at the Double Tree Hotel.
Upon arrival I learned that my media manual had not arrived yet, nor had the media programs. Steven Aldridge, the SID for Union University and I sat around the lobby waiting, then decided to go grab lunch. He jinxed us on the way to the restaurant. Steven asked if I had heard about a pre-tournament SID meeting, which I had not and neither had he. Well just our luck, while we were waiting for our food to arrive, Steven checked in with his wife about picking up his daughter from day care and I received a call asking if I knew that I had a meeting at 2:30 with the SIDs….”No, but that’s ok…we’ll aim for 2:30, but let the SIDs know we may be a few minutes late,” was my response.
We arrived back about 2:35 after devouring our late barbecue lunch. The media manual was there, which was what I needed to help conduct the meeting, so to say the least, the meeting was strictly improvised – which turned out well.
We’re short some fax lists and media credentials, but that can be taken care of in the morning. After the meeting Steven and I went to Oman Arena where the tournament will be and I set up my “office” for the week that is closed off from the rest of the media room. I also set up the press tables a little. Tomorrow, I’ll need to get there extra early to setup press row for the games and make sure we’re good to go.
I rushed back to the hotel to change clothes then go to the WBCA Kodak All-American Banquet at the Carl Perkins Civic Center, then a quick Wal-Mart run, then back to the hotel to my second office on the week to update the MMC website with our baseball, softball and tennis results from the day.
I was nervous about getting through today with my students helping me out back in Pulaski, but it all worked out great.
The highlight of the day/night is most likely nothing to do with MMC or this tournament, but receiving a call from Andrea from the Gulf South Conference, who was keeping track of the Montevallo game for me.
“They were down 14 at the half, I’ll call you back” – first call
“They just went up with seven minutes to go, but keep swapping leads” – second call
“Overtime” – third call
“86-83…Montevallo” – fourth call.
The Falcons are in their first ever Elite Eight!
In other words….BZZZZZZ…Alfred Kojima’s getting a buzz cut by Marcus Kennedy – an ongoing agreement since our first Sweet 16 appearance two years ago.
Previous to Danny Young’s tenure, the last UM team to go to second round of the National Tournament was the 1995-1996 women’s basketball team (25-4) here in Jackson at Oman Arena in their final year as an NAIA team. Garry Van Atta was head coach at the time of the purple and gold Lady Falcons.
Tomorrow, Van Atta will lead his No. 1 seed Lady Trojans of Trevecca Nazarene University onto the court for his first trip back to Jackson as a coach since March 1996. Oh, Trevecca wears purple and gold.
Every time I speak to Van Atta, including this afternoon, I tell him it’s the purple and gold!
I am hoping to see our four TranSouth teams do well this week. I hope that Van Atta and I can sit down and talk about the Montevallo days sometime soon, most likely not here, but when we do, then maybe I can start working toward the “History of Myrick Hall” book that I thought about and wrote him about two years ago.
Time to roll over and go to bed…I was thinking I’d be nervous. I was earlier today, but not as much now. Tomorrow may be a different story though.
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