Krunch Time at the NCAA Tournament - Day One

11:45PM -
I just enjoyed a nice dinner at Darryl's with a couple of guys from WWAY. That came after a few adult beverages here in one of the hotel bars. I say "one of" because they have, I think, like five bars just inside this hotel. Like I said earlier, it's VERY nice.

I am anxiously awaiting tipoff tomorrow. Not just for UNCW's game, but for all the games, period. I just love college basketball, and to be able to sit and watch four NCAA Tournament games in person tomorrow is something I am very lucky to be able to do.

Looks like Pops Mensah-Bonsu will play tomorrow. How effective will he be? We'll find out in about 19 hours. That's all for me tonight folks. Talk to you tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------
9:09PM -
I'll tell you. If I was a team playing in this NCAA Tournament, I started things off getting down by 18 at the half. The whole battery situation really has me flustered.

Apparently, when my audio recorder has low batteries, the audio it's recording skips. Thus, I have many tiny portions of UNCW's media session today. Bigtime bummer. Hopefully, they win tomorrow night and I'll have an opportunity to redeem myself.

I did, however, manager to get most of Duke's press conference. The two players they let us talk to were J.J. Redick and Lee Melchionni. It might as well have just been J.J. He's really the only person anyone aimed any questions at, including myself.

Following them was Mike Krzyzewski. Nothing exciting, really. We got the same coach speak we're used to. Someone asked him about the possibility of Johnny Dawkins getting the Temple job. He gave a stock answer. He keeps this up and I'm going to start calling him Coach Zzzzzz.

For those who were really curious as to what the folks from UNCW said during the press conference, here's the transcript:

UNC WILMINGTON SENIOR JOHN GOLDSBERRY

On the difference between this trip to the NCAAs and his first trip in 2003

GOLDSBERRY: It’s a little different (with) us being older. The first time we were kind of role players trying to do what we needed to do. This time, being our senior year, we want to make it special and we’re going to go out and play well.

On UNC Wilmington’s reputation

GOLDSBERRY: We’ve established our program well enough (that) we’re known around the nation as a good basketball program. We got a nine seed this time, so the respect for our team is climbing. We have seniors; that’s what we’ve tried to do the last four years to keep our program at that level.

On the impact of injured George Washington forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu

GOLDSBERRY: Obviously he’s a great player. You see the highlights on ESPN every game he plays. We’re preparing for him to play. Whether he plays a little bit or a lot, it’s irrelevant, but he definitely is a difference-maker when he’s in the game.

On playing in the shadow of Atlantic Coast Conference teams

GOLDSBERRY: We quietly go about our business. We do things the right way on the court and off the court. We probably don’t get as much attention as we would like, but that’s alright. We’re here in the NCAA Tournament. We’re satisfied where we’re at and we’ve come to win some games.

UNC WILMINGTON SENIOR BECKHAM WYRICK

On preparations for injured George Washington forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu

WYRICK: We’re preparing as if he will play because I’m sure he’ll play at little bit. I’m not sure how much he’ll be able to play, depending on how his knee feels, but we’re preparing for him to play and we’ll go from there.

On George Washington

WYRICK: We knew just from their record and from seeing them play on TV a couple of times that they are a great team. I think they’re 26 and two; they’re top-10 in the nation. We knew that they’re a great team. They’re an athletic bunch of guys who get after you on defense and now we’ve put in a plan a little bit to try to counteract what they’re going to do on defense.

On two CAA teams receiving NCAA Tournament bids

WYRICK: I think that just speaks to how tough our league was this year. I think this is definitely the best our league has been in the four years we’ve been here and probably in a long while. To get two teams in and have a third right there in consideration just speaks to how tough our league was and how good it was all around.

UNC WILMINGTON HEAD COACH BRAD BROWNELL

On the roster having only one active player from North Carolina

BROWNELL: Because of living a little bit in the shadow of the ACC, most of the kids in North Carolina are going up and playing for an ACC school. This state is also unbelievably recruited. All the teams in Florida, Clemson, the South Carolina schools, all of those teams also come up into the state. There are certainly a lot of good players in North Carolina. We’d like to add a few more to our roster, but at the same time, we’ve had some success going elsewhere and finding very good players. We’ve found in the midwest, the southwest, the northeast a little bit, we can find maybe a even higher caliber of player to come down and appreciate the fact that they’re going to play at UNC Wilmington.

Some of the kids we try to recruit in our state look at us a little bit differently, and to be honest, I’m not the most patient man in waiting on them to decide whether they want to get an ACC offer or not. I think our program stands well enough right now, having gone to the NCAA Tournament four times in seven years. There are a lot of ACC schools that haven’t done that. If you’re not excited about coming to play for UNCW, play in front of 6,000 fans every night, play for championships, and have the opportunity to do this – if you’re not excited about that right away, I may move on as a recruiter.

On mid-major coaches getting higher profile jobs after an NCAA run

BROWNELL: You have to do what’s best for you and your family. I love UNCW. I’ve been here for 12 years now. I was an assistant for eight years under Coach Wainwright and at the time UNCW was a little bit of an afterthought in basketball. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life the last 12 years working to change that reputation, both as an assistant and as a head coach. I’m extremely proud of what Coach Wainwright started and what I’ve helped to continue.

On defending George Washington’s uptempo style of play

BROWNELL: We’re not going to just walk the ball up. I think some people expect us to try and take the air out of the ball. We really don’t play that way. We’ll take advantage of situations that they’re presenting. If they try to trap us in situations at the full-court level and we’ve got advantage numbers, we’re going to try to go and score.
I think it sends the wrong message to your team. Your team needs to understand that they can win the game and we’ve won some games that have been a little bit higher scoring. We’re not going to win every game that way, we certainly aren’t excited about it being an 88-86 game, but if the floor is spaced, if they pressure and they force you to go make plays, I want my guys to go make plays.

On George Washington

BROWNELL: Everybody harps on the differences between our two teams. I think you guys are missing the similarities. You have two experienced teams, two teams that share the ball unbelievably well, that play as a team and don’t play with much of an ego. I think that’s a little bit rare in college basketball.

You don’t win 26 games without having five or six guys that can go for 20 points a night and they certainly have that. They’re unbelievably balanced, unbelievably unselfish, which is something we pride ourselves on. Watching more and more tape on GW, that impresses me the most – the way their kids approach each game and how unselfishly they play.

On getting over their heartbreaking loss in their last NCAA Tournament appearance

BROWNELL: That was disheartening to say the least and I’m not sure I’m quite over it. With
the help of ESPN and Instant Classics, I get reminded of it quite often. At the same time, it served as motivation for me and the senior class. We wanted to put ourselves in a position to get back to this tournament. We had a good season last year, winning 19 games, but it wasn’t quite good enough to make the NCAA’s. I think it served as a springboard for us to really motivate us in our off-season work.
------------------------------------------------------------
6:40PM -
I'm in the process of getting a BUNCH of pictures up. My batteries lasted as long as I needed them to. Now, I'll pick some more up at the hotel after I leave the Coliseum here.

UNCW just finished up with their practice session. Kind of a neat side note. They took the floor immediatley after Duke, and the Duke fans who were here cheered them as they came out. I think it's a pretty good indication of what it will be like tomorrow night, as UNCW's game is before the Duke game. It'd be nice to see the Cameron Crazies join forces with Teal Nation.

The rest of the audio will go up a little later on tonight, once I get the new batteries.
--------------------------------------------------------------
4:05PM -
Yeah...the whole "ride the media shuttle back to the hotel" thing didn't go so well. Apparently, the media shuttle is M.I.A. So...I gave up waiting at 3:45 and came back into the coliseum. Hopefully, my batteries hold up for the rest of the evening. Hopefully.

Just heard from GW's players and coaches. They say UNCW plays tough and likes to foul. They don't really know them that well. Somehow, I feel like they won't truely realize how tough they are until about 2 minutes into the game tomorrow. Here's to hoping that they take'em by surprise.

Be on the lookout for GW coach Karl Hobbs' press conference going up on the website in just a few. At 4:30, it's time for Duke's presser. I'm really looking forward to that.
-------------------------------------------------------------
2:48PM -
Well, this whole thing couldn't have possibly gone off without a hitch. I forgot to pack the battery charger for my digital camera, so I'm going to have to leave the Greensboro Coliseum for a few to go grab some batteries. Gotta make it quick. I don't want to miss Duke.

There's some new stuff up on the web. Photos of Tennessee's press conference, plus some audio, including an interview I just did with CBSSportsline.com's Tony Mejia. Great writer, even better guy. Go listen!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
12:55PM -
Man, am I going to be busy here today. A good kind of busy though. The NCAA has this stuff running so tightly together that it's pretty much impossible to cover everything.

I got to get to Seton Hall's press conferences and watch their practice, but missed Winthrop's in the process of putting stuff up on the web for you guys to see and hear. I really wish I had another person here helping me. Anyone volunteer? Hah...

The media hotel is the Sheraton Four Seasons. UNCW and Tennessee are also both staying there. The room is NICE. I'll have to snap a few photos of it and throw them up on the web for all to see.

UNCW's media session is tonight at 5:15, with practice beginning at 5:55. I know they already had a "real" practice this morning at UNCG, so tonight should be basically a show for the members of Teal Nation who made the early trip. More later!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:56AM -
I just arrived in Greensboro a little bit ago. I'm going to have to hustle over to the Coliseum in order to get there in time for Seton Hall's practice session/media press conference, so I don't have much time right now. Look for more later on.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:02AM -
This morning, I leave for Greensboro. You may be asking yourself why I would leave today when the game isn't until tomorrow night. Good question. It's the same question my fiance asked me.

The reason is that the NCAA does their media day the day before the games are played. The media day consists of an open practice, which is really just a glorified shoot around, plus time with members of the media. So today, I'll get the opportunity to speak to Mike Krzyzewski, J.J. Redick, Brad Brownell, John Goldsberry, and others. Sounds nice, lumping all those names in together, doesn't it?

Currently, I'm sitting at my desk at work, eating a McDonald's breakfast burritto. I love those things. I had to swing by here to pick up a few things I forgot, namely Wilmington's Bracket. I had to grab it to enter it in on espn.com, so that we can see how well you guys did this year. I'm pretty hopeful, considering the Final Four on this sheet is exactly as it is on my own.

Back to today's media day, the NCAA is weird about taking still photos and stuff like that during these things. I may have to sneak a few snapshots and upload them to our website for you.

Remember, as with the CAA Tournament, you should check am630.net regularly for updates from Greensboro. Today, especially, there'll be a lot of audio from each team's press conference. Plus, I'll put a bunch of other surprises up there as well. And I expect to be calling in to Krunch Time quite a few times today and tomorrow as well.

Time to hit the road! Greensboro, here I come!