Approximately 30 games populate my list of college basketball games to cover this season. This past Saturday, while being only the second of the year, may just be the biggest.
The Creighton men's basketball program ranked 5th nationally in attendance last season, behind Kentucky, Syracuse, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. For that reason I never even considered requesting media credentials last year, but seeing as my personal schedule was open for the evening, I decided to give this exhibition a shot.
I've covered local teams plenty now: Creighton women's basketball, Omaha Mavericks men's and women's basketball, Omaha volleyball, and NAIA College of Saint Mary women's basketball. I hoped that having covered Creighton before may help.
On game day, I had to sprint from a basketball game I was coaching to get to the arena in time for the game. I've been to the CHI Health Center a hundred times, but never underneath, so I had no clue where I was going. I had to ask staff every hundred feet or so if my pass was supposed to let me go this direction.
I found my way to the media room and grabbed a few slices of pizza and a soda and got to work on the Live Blog on Reddit.
I also walked out to the arena floor, trying to look casual while seeing if I was given a spot at the media table. Fortunately they gave me one.
The atmosphere on the floor is just something else. I'm used to sitting a decent distance up and looking down on the players in the CHI Health Center, but looking up at the crowd (listed favorably as 15,804) was quite spectacular.
The location of the post-game press conference is in a different location, down a different hallway from the media room.
After the conference I had to walk out through the crowd of Winona State parents and fans greeting their players, which offered me an opportunity to say hi to a player I know personally who is from Omaha.
Also, here is an additional picture of me and my dad with Coach Greg McDermott on their trip to North Texas while I was a graduate manager there. UNT won 62-58 to start a nine game losing streak for the Blue Jays.
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