how i did my part to spawn an overnight 'net sensation.

(reposted from SummitLeague.blogspot.com

I don't know if I talked about it at length here, but I think I figured out how my video of Eli and Jawz squaring off in a Battle Royale with Cheese was the YouTube video that would launch a thousand blog entries, TV news stories, ESPN conversations, etc.

I think it all started here and here.

Let's go back to the beginning...

Tuesday
6:30 p.m. CDT: (or so): The mascots got ejected for fighting during a timeout.
6:41 p.m. CDT: I post a one sentence entry about the fight to this blog.

Wednesday
12:35 a.m. CDT: I uploaded my video of the fight to YouTube.
2:41 a.m. CDT: I upload a link to the video on this blog.
6 - 11 a.m. CDT: As I'm waiting for my flight home from Tulsa, I sit in the airport and bump around the Internet on my iPhone. Amidst the bumping, I notice I'm getting lots of traffic to this blog. All the hits seem to be coming from Tulsa.Rivals.com. By the end of Wednesday, this blog received 120 hits...a ONE THOUSAND PERCENT INCREASE!
7 p.m. EDT: After a long day of traveling, I go straight to bed once I get home. I don't re-surface until 7 a.m. the following morning.

And to what did I awaken?
* My YouTube video received more than 40,000 hits in about a day and a half
* I got word the Tulsa World ran a story about the brawl, directly citing (and linking to) my YouTube video: "The incident sparked interest Wednesday after a portion of the scuffle appeared on youtube.com, a popular Internet site for viewing, sharing and uploading video content."
* ESPN contacted me to use the video.
* Several local affiliates across the nation broadcast it or portions of other video captured by IUPUI and a Tulsa affiliate.
* It appeared on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann Thursday night.
* By week's end, the Jawz vs. Eli scuffle has become an all-out Internet sensation...my YouTube video has garnered nearly a quarter-million hits.

Of course, no one knows nor cares about Patient Zero in this entire thing...unless you're Patient Zero. In this case, I am Patient Zero! And I will remind you of that as often as necessary.

Why? Since I stand to gain nary a penny from this whole thing, I feel it's to my best interest to remind the world who broke this thing wide open. This is my Watergate. My Zapruder film. My stained, blue dress. It is my one and only claim to Internet fame and I plan to exploit it so this site may receive more traffic.

Just remember, boys and girls, it was SummitLeague.blogspot.com who broke this story.

EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY followed me on this one.

Let's not let that minor detail escape, eh?

last dance.

Well, today's the day. My final home game as PA Announcer for the IUPUI Jaguars. I'm excited, really. Sad? No, I wouldn't say that; not even melancholy. Mostly, I am appreciative of the opportunity to sit courtside for the past seven years as work as a part of this program.

I want to say thanks for it all. It's been fun.

Thanks to the JagBand, for making the "one minute remaining" call more fun.
Thanks to the cheerleaders for also joining in on that fun.
Thanks to Ed, Buerge, Joe, CD, Davis and all the other folks on press row who have been there almost every game with me for the past seven years.
Thanks to the coaches and players, who bust their butts every game.
Thanks to the program, for allowing me to have fun with the job and to pretend to be a sports journalist at the conference tournament.
Thanks to the fans, for not booing me when I made mistakes.
Thanks to Matt Crenshaw for hitting the shot.
Thanks to Greg Rakestraw for...well, being Greg Rakestraw.
Thanks to all my friends who, over the years, have come out and watched the games.

So, that's it.

Thank you, IUPUI...and please drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrive home safely.

the 105-second conversation.

One thing I will most certainly miss when I "retire" from this PA gig is the scorers table camaraderie. I've been working with the same cast of characters for about seven years.

Seven years...wow.

In that time I've seen divorces, deaths (of their loved ones), marriages, promotions and so on.

I'm so used to seeing Joe O. in a striped shirt sitting to my right and Greg Rakestraw sitting to my left that, come next basketball season, I'm going to have to get cardboard cutouts of them just so I know how to behave at a basketball game.

In these past seven years, the gameday crew and I have gotten used to having a full conversation during a media timeout. As the band plays or cheerleaders cheer, we stop what we're doing for 105 seconds and have a conversation. It's kind of funny, really. We pack a lot in those few moments we have. Once that first horn sounds, we're back to business. Joe's on the book, one of the Matts is on the shot clock, CD is on the game clock, Buerge and Adrian or JD or another Kevin are down there doing the stats. And Sherrill's on the phones. Amidst all that racket, we work calmly next to the eye of the storm.

I'm already missing it.

one more game.

My final ORU game was gratifying, to say the least. Oh sure, I wish we'd won by 20, but I'll take a win over ORU any day of the week...especially in, say, three weeks or so when we go to the conference tournament.

I can't believe I've only got one more Saturday at the mic. This season went fast.

Saturday's ORU game wasn't bad. I think I sounded better during the women's game than the men's. That sound system needs a complete overhaul. It was fun to watch the game on TV when I got home that night. It's not everyday IUPUI gets a home game broadcast on TV anywhere!

While my announcing may not have been the best on Saturday night, the crowd was one of the best this season.

I hope some folks can travel to Tulsa for the tournament. I know I'm looking forward to it.

collision course.

For two years, I've been waiting for this game tonight: IUPUI vs. ORU. This is THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE SEASON (to this point) for IUPUI. I won't call it a must-win game, but it's close. Until the conference tournament, this is the one that matters the most.

I'm looking forward to it. I hope ORU brings its students, but word on the street is they're not making the trip. A Tulsa television station is broadcasting the game, though.

I'm going to talk to the band tonight to get our stories straight. I'd like to go back to something we did a couple seasons ago. At about the five-minute mark in the pre-game--before the teams come back to the floor--the JagBand would start a big chant of "Let's go, Jags!" Complete with the drums, clapping and stomping. I think we need that tonight.

I know the Red Zone will join in. This year has been our best student section in my seven years and I hope they bring their A game tonight.

I hope I bring mine as well. But most of all, I hope the Jags bring theirs.

Go Jags.

g.p. for threeeeeeeeeee!

Gary Patterson must've eaten his Wheaties yesterday or something. He was absolutely unconscious. 37 points, 11 three-pointers? That's just stupid.

Good win for the Jags in a game they easily could've looked past. The officials observer (his name escapes me) paid me a very nice compliment last night. He told me "you're very good at what you do." It's always nice to hear.

I can't believe the season is winding down. I'm honestly getting a little sad about it. I've only got nine more games until I "retire" as an announcer:

Men's Games
Saturday, 2 Feb 08 vs. UMKC @ 7 p.m.
Thursday, 14 Feb 08 vs. Centenary @ 7 p.m.
Saturday, 16 Feb 08 vs. Oral Roberts @ 7 p.m.
Saturday, 1 March 08 vs. Western Illinois @ 7 p.m.

Women's Games
Saturday, 2 Feb 08 vs. UMKC @ 4:30 p.m.
Monday, 4 Feb 08 vs. Southern Utah @ 7 p.m.
Saturday, 16 Feb 08 vs. Oral Roberts @ 4:30 p.m.
Monday, 18 Feb 08 vs. Centenary @ 7 p.m.
Saturday, 1 March 08 vs. Western Illinois @ 4:30 p.m.

Three more double-dips...and that Feb. 16 game is looking HUGE right now. I can't wait.

jags soccer player goes pro.

NACOVSKI CHOSEN BY THE CHICAGO STORM IN THE MAJOR INDOOR SOCCER LEAGUE COLLEGE DRAFT
Midfielder was four-time First Team All-Conference pick

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. - IUPUI soccer standout Vangel Nacovski was picked by the Chicago Storm in Tuesday’s Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) College Draft in the opening territorial round, eighth overall. Nacovski, a 5-foot-11 midfielder, was named The Summit League’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2007 and was just the fifth player in league history to earn four straight First Team All-Conference berths. Read more.

just how fabulous are these t-birds?

I wonder if somewhere in the Utah desert is a feeling that tonight's game between the Jags and T-birds is something of a vengeance game in the name of Bill Evans.

Evans, the former coach at Southern Utah, was fired shortly after getting knocked out of last season's conference tournament by IUPUI in the quarterfinals.

Truth is, I wonder if Evans would still be coaching there had they not lost that one game. IUPUI was plagued by injuries last season...well, injurY is more like it. Without George Hill, the Jags were a different team; still highly competitive, but you just don't replace a guy like George Hill.

Nevertheless, tonight's game won't be about Bill Evans. For IUPUI, it's getting closer to locking up at least a #2-seed. As it stands, they're two games up on the nearest team (Oakland). With nine games left, IUPUI needs to win seven (right now).

We shall see.

Looking forward to tonight and Saturday. This is all a precursor to the Feb. 16 showdown against Oral Roberts.

If history is any sort of guide, it promises to be a classic. But first, SUU.

yet another blog.

Though it's barely there, I'm starting another blog:

Summit League Hoops

No, it's not going to be Woodward & Bernstein caliber of journalism. I doubt I'll be getting scoops on the teams and such, but maybe I can draw some interest from fans around the conference to get involved a bit and mix it up for fun.

We'll see.

tulsapalooza2k8.

It's about 75% official. I'm heading back to Tulsa for a return engagement. We'll call it TULSAPALOOZA2K8.

What: Tulsapalooza2k8
When: March 8-11
Where: Tulsa, OK
Why: IUPUI Jaguars will be competing for a Summit League championship

This will be my third trip to our conference tournament. Far from a vacation, though, this is something of a working trip for me. Once every couple years I pretend to be a sports writer for the program and write the game re-caps for the IUPUI Jaguars Web site. In addition, I'm tinkering with the idea of being a regular, courtside blogger as well as posting video updates.

Yeah, I'll be busy. But this is fun for me.

As we draw nearer the dates, I'll keep you in the loop so you can follow the bouncing ball.