University of Minnesota Athletics
BLOG: Thursday With The Gophers In Milwaukee
3/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
For the second straight year, the Gopher men's basketball team earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota earned a No. 11 seed and will face No. 6 Xavier on Friday afternoon. The game will be the first of four at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis. with the tip coming at 11:25 a.m.
The following is an account of Thursday's activities in Milwaukee by creative director Jeff Keiser:
10:00 a.m. – The communications staff arrives at the Bradley Center for a public relations meeting. During this meeting, we are informed of the team's interview obligations with a variety of media entities and some of the communications obligations like interview scheduling for each team's staff. For instance, each coach is asked to spend a few minutes with the CBS broadcast team of Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel so they can grab some tidbits on the Gophers. Westwood One radio os also broadcasting every NCAA Tournament game so coaches are asked to spend some time with the team of Wayne Larrivee and former Virginia coach Pete Gillen, who are calling the game tomorrow.
10:45 a.m. – Following the meeting, we get a quick tour of the Bradley Center. We are lucky that communications director Matt Slieter worked in the NBA for several years before coming to the U of M to handle the men's basketball communications, so he has a decent knowledge of the facility. There's many local Minneapolis media members here. In the last two NCAA Tournament trips by the Gophers, we were sent to North Carolina so due to the travel costs, we did not have as much media following the team. This is clearly different this year. I believe all of the local television stations are here with just a 335-mile drive in between the two locations.
11:00 a.m. – The Gophers arrive at the Bradley Center and file into our locker room.
11:20 a.m. – At this point, Lawrence Westbrook and Damian Johnson are taken to the main interview room where they field questions from around 45 media members. They are available for around 10 minutes before Coach Smith takes the podium. During this time, the Gophers locker room is open to the media for the rest of the team. The locker room is packed with an assortment of Minneapolis, Ohio and some national media. Just about every player is busy handling interviews.
11:30 a.m. – Johnson and Westbrook return to the locker room to field more questions. Johnson is kicking himself for a poor answer to a question from the press conference. He was asked who Xavier's star player, Jordan Crawford, compares to a player that Minnesota has faced this season. Apparently his brain locked up and after some deliberation, he came out with Michigan State's Kalin Lucas. Well, Crawford is a 6-4 wing player and Lucas is a 6-0 point guard. On the way back to the locker room, he was angry with himself for not coming up with Michigan's Manny Harris.
12:05 p.m. – After a brief shooting session, the team runs through some basic drills. The building probably has around 1,000 people here to watch the open practice. The team really doesn't do a whole lot at the practice other than some drills and shooting so the team can get used to the new environment. Following this session, the team will head to a local college to run through a full practice prepping for tomorrow's game. Will be interesting to see if they have a mini-dunk contest toward the end like they did last year for the fans.
12:35 p.m. – The team is almost done with its open practice. The guys are throwing down some nice dunks. Rodney Williams asked Blake Hoffarber just to throw down once. Blake kinda shrugs knowing that may not be an option. Back to jump shots.
1:00 p.m. – The Gophers gather for a quick team photo around the NCAA logo on the floor before heading back to the locker room and their next practice destination.
1:15 p.m. – After a short bus ride, the Gophers arrived at Wisconsin Lutheran College recreation complex. The NCAA Division III institution is nicknamed the Warriors and sport green and white as their team colors. The staff at the college set up the gym nicely for our team. It's really amazing how good the hospitality is at all of these places that the Gophers go. From the hotel staff to our team hosts to the staff at the Bradley Center to the people at Wisconsin Lutheran. They are all generally excited to have us.
1:21 p.m. – On the way in, as we passed Wisconsin Lutheran High School. I noticed athletic director Joel Maturi mention that he had coached there during his time as a high school basketball coach. In talking with Joel, he was a coach for 19 years at Madison Edgewood High School and visited this area many times. He said he coached at nearby Marquette High many times in addition to games at "The Mecca", the former home of the Milwaukee Bucks. The old arena is adjacent to the Bradley Center in downtown and that arena still hosts UW-Milwaukee games and several other events. It now goes by US Cellular Arena. Joel also mentioned that he is very familiar with the Bradley Center. During his time at the University of Wisconsin, they actually hosted the first Frozen Four that the building put on.
1:27 p.m. – While the team is running through many of its sets for tomorrow's game, I wanted to touch on a few random items from our stay over the last 20 hours or so. It's amazing that you can still smoke in Milwaukee. Definitely not used to smoke while eating dinner. Apparently they have passed a law here that will outlaw smoking in the coming months. However, it is kind of funny considering that we went to Greensboro for the NCAA Tournament last year where smoking still reigns. Definitely don't miss smelly clothing and itchy eyes after going to an establishment to get a meal.
1:29 p.m. – Couple of notes for tomorrow's game....the Gophers will wear our dark uniforms, most likely maroon. The Xavier band will play the national anthem by virtue of being a higher seed.
1:38 p.m. – It's astonishing how much these guys eat. They are always eating. The team has four scheduled meals to start. Then there was a boxed meal with a sandwich, apple, chips, cookies, etc additionally when the team left the locker room. It's really non-stop. This doesn't even include other snacks. It's nice for the players who have ridiculous metabolisms but for the staff, it's dangerous.
Colton Iverson apparently eats the most on the team. Rodney Williams puts down a good amount of food as well.
1:46 p.m. – Impressive wireless strength at the Wisconsin Lutheran rec center. We are able to watch the end of the Villanova-Robert Morris game n March Madness on demand on a laptop. A relatively large crowd of WLC players and some building staff have gathered in the gym to watch practice.
1:58 p.m. – Practice is over and Coach Smith is in a hurry to get the team back to the hotel. It was a lovely brief stay at Wisconsin Lutheran.
2:04 p.m. – We are back on the bus and the players get right on their respective blackberries, iphones, etc. and there's a buzz about some of the scores of today's NCAA games. VIP Johnson...."Robert Morris and Villanova are in overtime????".
2:06 p.m. – Funny quote from yesterday that I forgot to mention. While we were at the rest stop in nowhere Wisconsin yesterday, someone noticed a strong scent of manure and said to Colton Iverson, "Smells like South Dakota." Colton responded with "smells like money."
2:09 p.m. – Hoffarber is singing "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies. Not sure why this is occurring.
2:18 p.m. – Back at the hotel. Guess what, team meal in a half hour. Then time to relax for the players.
2:52 p.m. – The team is dining on a healthy portion of chicken sandwiches and burgers. Props to Paul Carter and Devron Bostick for going for some fruit. Chatting with Westbrook at the meal, he mentioned it's tough to not eat. "Sometimes you're not even hungry but because it's in front me, I just eat it. I can't turn it down. I'ts kinda dangerous for me. I don't want to pick up the 40 pounds I worked so hard to lose during the summer."
2:58 p.m. – Bostick is going to head home and see his family, which is just 20-30 minutes down the road. Almost all of the players have their families in town to watch the games. The guys were also giving Bostick a few jabs for saying that a 1,000 pounds of bricks weigh more than 1,000 pounds of feathers. Some of the team is going to catch a movie while others will watch the tournament games in their rooms.
3:06 p.m. – I was wondering while watching the team practice at Wisconsin Lutheran, if Iverson and Sampson are sick of each other. No other teammates have to consistently go at each other every single day during practice. Asking Sampson about this, he responded..."It gets annoying. Sometimes I just have to just let him go. You don't want to get hit every day. He swings arms in practice. Some days I feel like going at him but it's a giant wrestling match on a daily basis between me and colton. Every day during practice, the coaches tell you to deny post so you do what you can but it takes a toll. The guards have it easy, I will tell you that."
3:15 p.m. – I sat in the team meal trying not to eat the team meal. It's literally impossible to not eat something. After 20 minutes, I caved and dined. Just imagine if all athletic teams had training tables like this. May be somethiing to bring into the fold for my softball team Warning Track Power. Don't think it's going to fit in the team budget.
3:25 p.m. – That is pretty much it for today. The guys will be dragging themselves out of bed early tomorrow morning. They are supposed to eat four hours before the game, so that means around 7:20 or so. We will be back tomorrow to preview the game.
3:53 p.m. – Catching up with today's games....what an array of close contests. Murray State with the latest installment of major first round upset buzzer-beater.
3:59 p.m. – From my perspective, it's really interesting to see how Johnson is really the center of this basketball team. He is the piece that holds it all together on and off the court. He is the social center of the team and then does just about everything on the court. You can't place a value on someone like that. It really seems like the team is in a great frame of mind. Paul Carter brings a similar set of attributes and his role next year will be very important. Carter also was wearing one of the sweetest pairs of kicks today after practice, a green throwback pair of Nikes.
Westbrook, who I know actually cracked several smiles today at the Bradley Center even though he denies the fact, said that he is even more excited for this year's tournament than last year's. The energy is definitely flowing through the entire team.
