Time for an overdue blog post from San Antonio. It would’ve been up earlier in the day, but we’re cheap and don’t want to pay for wireless down at the Alamodome.
Not that we’re on a StarWatch or anything, but it’s hard to miss some of the people who come walking right by you. Here’s our “We’ve seen them” list so far.
1) Virginia Tech’s Deron Washington, spotted while out to dinner on the Riverwalk Wednesday night. He’s in town for the college slam dunk contest that was held yesterday.
2) Kansas State’s phenomenal freshman Michael Beasley, seen at the Marriott hotel last night while we were walking through on our way to dinner. Now, why he’s there on a Thursday night when his team isn’t in the Final Four and he’s not playing in the college All-Star game is anyone’s guess. We’ve heard of things called school and class that normally take place during the week…….
3) FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, Clemson coach Oliver Purnell, Maryland’s James Gist
4) We’re pretty sure Georgetown coach John Thompson walked by yesterday, although he was a lot shorter than I thought. He has a pretty distinctive face though.
5) This morning, Oscar Robertson was in the lounge of a different Marriott.
6) Michigan State coach Tom Izzo taking a riverboat ride down the Riverwalk with his family yesterday while we were eating lunch.
-We hit up the Alamo yesterday, and I was pretty impressed. I guess I wasn’t expecting much, so that helped. But the buildings were fun to walk around in, and there were plenty of plaques with famous speeches, letters and such that were interesting to read. Plus, there are plenty of snowcone stands nearby.
-I just witnessed Kevin Love make a full court shot to wow the crowd on hand. I’ve never seen anything like that – he was JUST off on several other attempts. He barely takes a running start and basically just throws a chest pass to the other end of the court. Then he sat down at half-court and threw up a shot that was just short – incredible strength. Ben Howland had plenty of nice things to say about the Oregon native during his interview session outside the locker room, including that he calls Love “The Big Fundamental.” We’ll see if that one sticks at the next level. It’s not The Big Aristotle, but it’s something.
*Also, in case anyone was wondering, K-Love rocks the classic black/white Adidas low Superstars for the casual look during interviews. He left them in the locker room later, and I was standing next to them trying to compare sizes – I’m about a 12, he’s a …. 20 maybe?
-The Alamodome is MONSTROUS. The media area is literally a sea of white tables sitting right on the football field. 2/3 of the arena is cut off, leaving the last third for the court and stands. On all sides of the dome are huge conference rooms for interviews and such. I feel sorry for some of these players – they must feel like boxes being shipped around. Here we go to the solo interview room, then to the locker room, then to the CBS photo shoot, then to the players-only press conference….. I’m sure they’ll get over it though.
-Memphis’ Pierre Niles had writing on his shoe for #15 Andre Allen, who was suspended for the Final Four.
-Jesse Baumgartner
