This year for the Madness, I found myself following the eventual national champion, Villanova Wildcats, throughout the tournament! In Pittsburgh, Nova easily took out Radford in the 1st Round then romped on Alabama in the 2nd. Moving on to Boston (where I drank my share of Dunkin Donuts for the week), the Wildcats managed to dispense of pesky West Virginia in the Sweet 16 and then they beat Texas Tech in the Elite 8, despite having a bad shooting night. Then it was on to San Antonio, Texas where they clobbered Kansas by shooting an INSANE number of 3-point shots in the first half (they were 13/26 from the 3-pt line) and then won in the Championship pretty easily over Michigan, who had a 14 game win streak coming into the game. Nova was led by Donte DiVincenzo, who came off the bench to score 31 points and received Most Outstanding Player honors.
With this being my second Final Four (but my first on the CBS/Turner television broadcast), there was plenty to be excited about as I got to realize one of my work goals for myself. I’ve always wanted to be at the Final Four. Of all of the events I’ve done, college basketball is easily my favorite and being on the show crew was a privilege and an honor. One of the highlights of being in San Antonio was that my family joined me for a few days as the kids were on spring break. Despite the fact that I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them, it was cool having them with me for this event and I got to spend Easter evening/April Fools Night with Christopher as we were invited to play basketball on the Final Four court for a couple of hours. Not only was this a “Bucket List” item for me, but it was made even MORE awesome since Fer was there to play with me! That was an experience I’ll never forget! And to add to it…we both played pretty well considering how intimidating that court was! Playing in a football stadium, it’s LOT different than playing at my local gym, that’s for sure! But he and I both shot pretty well and we had a great time! While I was at work, Steph and the kids went to the Alamo, the San Antonio Zoo and the National Championship game. I was able to go on a Riverwalk tour with them and I think the change of scenery for this spring break was good for them. We love Destin, FL (which is where we’ve gone for spring break for the last 6 or 7 years), but it was fun doing something different and I got to work an event I have always wanted to work!!!
A Round World Through Square Glasses 