heads are rolling in kansas city and chicago....and southern utah????

Heads are rolling with (current and former) Mid-Con teams. According to ESPN.com:

UMKC fires basketball coach Rich Zvosec after 12-20 season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- University of Missouri-Kansas City fired men's basketball coach Rich Zvosec on Tuesday after a 12-20 season.

Zvosec compiled an 84-91 record in six years and had one year left on his contract, which was extended last summer. Read more.

And then I just saw on the ESPN TV ticker that Chicago State University Head Coach Kevin Jones also was fired today.

I can't say as I'm surprised by either. CSU, as you know, was booted out of "left" the conference after last season amidst a groundswell of allegations against its athletics program. As for Zvosec at UMKC, I half-expected it. I don't know him personally, but he never seemed to elevate UMKC above the middle of the pack.

I now wonder out loud if longtime IUPUI Associate Head Coach Todd Howard will get any looks from UMKC or other schools. As for Chicago State...well, I wonder if that program can survive without a conference for much longer. I predict they'll be forced to shut it down.

ETA: Boy, how did I miss this?????

Bill Evans Leaves Southern Utah

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. Evans was not a bad coach, I thought.

and that's that.

Both teams lost today...both to top seeds. From the looks of things, the top seeds were the best teams. And that ends the Jags' seasons.

It could've been better, it could've been worse.

The women's team no longer had the element of surprise on their side, as they did last season. The men's team no longer had the element of a game-changer once George Hill went down for the season with injury. Then, factor in losing Fred and you're basically looking at a team that lost two integral forces to the starting lineup.

So, this is it. Our part of March Madness is over. Wait 'til next season.

Tulsa, be ready. I'm coming back with a vengeance.

jags win! jags win!

Nice to see both men's and women's team win today. The women beat Western Illinois this afternoon while the men's team just wrapped up a convincing win over Southern Utah. But for both teams, the next opponents loom large:

TOP SEEDS

The women play tomorrow at 12:50 p.m. against #1 Oakland.

The men play tomorrow evening at 6:55 p.m. against—wait for it—reigning champs Oral Roberts University.

Shock the world, Jags. Shock the world.

missing tulsa.

I'm listening to our women's team play Western Illinois right now (down by one at the half). I never thought I'd be saying this, but I miss not being in Tulsa right now. I went last year, had lots of fun, wanted to go this year but couldn't swing it. And now, I'm sorry I didn't go.

I'll be listening and watching as long as our teams are playing. And I'll certainly go next year. In fact, I'm looking into forming an exploratory committee to gauge interest in a bus trip to Tulsa for the tourney next season.

jabba the pa announcer.

Senior Night
Originally uploaded by jawzthejaguar.

Who's that gigantic blob goon sitting at the scorers table, reading announcements? Oh yeah. Me.

Note to self: the season's over...get thine large arse back to the gym.

the song is over.

We dropped the curtain on another Jaguars basketball season this evening. Thanks to the most spirited game they've played all season, the women's team went out with a win too. Both teams head into the tournament next weekend at virtually identical records and seeds.

I hope they do well.

As for closing down my sixth season as the Jags announcer...well, it's always bittersweet. You always look forward to the end. But once you get there, you want it to keep going just a little longer. Perhaps it's because I know it's the last game. but I'm always relaxed and in good voice a the last game.

My overall performance this season? Well, I've done better, but I've done worse. I passed, but would like to improve on a couple areas.

The bad, cheerleaders and especialy the dancers were great this year. I'd like to think these groups can hopefully become the foundation of a real student section some day....some day.

As for the table crew, this was our sixth season together. It's a privilege and an honor to work with them. I look forward to the beginning of next season in September with soccer.

In the meantime, I'll be watching the tournament and cheering on the Jags.

Onward.

change of address.

In case you haven't noticed, I've changed the URL to this blog. No, I'm not retiring from my PA duties at IUPUI (unless you know something I don't know). I've decided to make the URL more reflective of the name by which most people associated with the IUPUI Jaguars knows me. So...

IUPUI-JagsAnnouncer.blogspot.com has been changed...

The new URL:

KMac-PA.blogspot.com

Please make a note of it. Beeeeeeeeep!

shock the world.

Last evening was the final men's game (and final doubleheader) of the season. Our teams swept Centenary rather handily. The end of the season is always bittersweet. The men finished dead even: 14-14 overall, 7-7 in the conference. I suppose you could consider the record a letdown after last season's 18-9/13-3 finish. It's worth noting the Jags played most of the season—including the entire conference schedule—without its best player, George Hill. George red-shirted the season after his early ankle injury. To a degree, losing George took a lot of wind out of IUPUI's sails, and not just on the court.

Without George, it seems most Jags fans were deflated. That's probably why we had dismal attendance against Valpo and Oral Roberts and a few other games along the way.

Comparing the crowds in this year's Valpo and ORU games to last year's bedlam is a contrast in night and day.

I prefer bedlam to sleepy fans, personally.

The women's side of things was letdown this season as well. Last year, they had their best season ever, 16-10/11-5. Nobody expected that of the women's team last season. I suppose you could chalk up this season's 12-15/6-7 with one to go as a disappointment, but last year's success put the entire conference on notice: don't take them lightly. And nobody did.

We'll see how the teams do in the tournament. I think I speak for all of us when I say it's going to be an uphill climb for both. At least on the men's side, the know what they're up against. Their first round game against Southern Utah will not be a gimme. And if we get past the T-birds, it gets no easier.

I guess we have to wait and see.

The only part of next season to which I look ahead is in the hopes we draw in the fans again. The Jungle is not a very big place. There's no reason we can't sell the place out for every game. I'm not expecting the crowd to be as amped up every game as they were at the end of last season. But I do expect fans to be into the game. Believe it or not, I've had fans who sit behind me more concerned about what music is being played over the PA system. I'm not joking there.

"Can you play.....?"

I've gotten that more than once. My answer? No. It's that simple. No. I'm not a DJ. This isn't a club. I don't take requests. You're here to watch a basketball game!!

That's probably my biggest pet peeve right now.

Let me conclude by saying the Pep Band, cheerleaders and dance team were SPOT ON this year. You all were great; the best fans in the Jungle, night in and night out.

We've got one more home game and then it's on to Tulsa.

Crazier things have happened (remember Oakland two years ago?), so let's go shock the world!

you tube test.

I decided to upload this to You Tube. It's from last year's ORU-IUPUI game...man, how I wish our home court was like that these days. sigh

heading into the home stretch.

We had our third of four doubleheaders this past weekend. We've had better nights at the table, I have to admit. It's nothing that will carry over or anything, but we weren't as tight as we normally are. The plus side, though, IUPUI won both games. In both cases, our teams are squarely in the middle of the pack. I honestly had higher expectations for both teams, but you know how it goes. On the men's side, an injury to the team's best player clearly rendered an effect. Despite losing George Hill for the rest of the season, the team seems to be coming together at the right time, with four games remaining on the schedule.

For the women's team, it's hard to pinpoint what's happening. Last season, they took the league by surprise. This season, they've had trouble getting the offense going. That couldn't be more apparent than winning on Saturday by a score of 34-31. But they've got five remaining games and could get as high as a #3 seed in the conference tournament. But I think it's going to be Oakland's to lose this year.

What are the men's prospects in the tournament? Hard to say. Oral Roberts and Oakland are dominating right now with the rest of the league jockeying for position. IUPUI is currently in fifth place and could secure a #3 seed if they run the table. My prediction: they finish the conference season at 8-6 and in either fourth or fifth place. That puts them in a tough, tough bracket.

But who knows. Anything can happen.

I'm really quite surprised I'm already talking about the post-season. After tomorrow night, both teams only have two more home games. Once again, how time flies.

jags beat valpo (again); fans still sleeping.

So, we played Valpo last night. We beat Valpo last night. Normally, that would be a big deal. But Valpo isn't the team they used to be. And, to be honest, we aren't the team we thought we'd be. Don't get me wrong. I think there's a lot of talent on the Jags bench, but without George out there, it's not very cohesive. I give credit to our team last night, though. They played their best basketball of the season in the second half to out-score Valpo by 22 points. It's worth noting our shooting was over 60 percent in the second half. You can't count on that happening every game, but you'll take it when it does.

And oh yeah, Valpo had ZERO offensive rebounds. That's saying something about our effort last night.

I have to say, though, the crowd (or lack thereof) was a major disappointment to me. For whatever reason, this program lost all its traction from a year ago. We played Valpo last season on 9 Feb 06 and the place was rocking. It was a sell-out and the fans were the noisiest I'd ever heard them; until two days later when we played Oral Roberts.

We haven't even had a whiff of that atmosphere this season and it's frustrating. I expected more from our fans and our students this season. I don't expect them to make the road trip to Tulsa because that's a haul and a half. But I expect them to show up to the home games and make the place a college atmosphere.

I don't know why this season has been so different, but hopefully we can rally a bit here at the end of the season.

But back to last night's game for a moment...this was the last meeting between IUPUI and Valpo in the Mid-Con. Valpo's moving on to the Horizon League next season. It may surprise you to hear me say this, but I'm going to miss the rivalry. It may not be as strong as it was a couple seasons ago, but it was a fun rivalry.

"winter break."

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been all out of sorts since the holidays. It's a pretty quiet home schedule right now; our next game isn't until the 18th, so I'm taking the break to relax a bit and catch up on other blogs I write.

The last home game on the 30th, a women's game against Miami of Ohio, was a relatively well-played contest despite the home team coming up short in the end. Miami is highly athletic and its coach is in love with "line change" substitutions. Yeah, that was a hoot.

The Dance Team gave me a gift before the game: a picture frame they made for me with the title "#1 announcer" on it. Aw, shucks. They're good kids. I took a photo with them in the pre-game and put it in the frame and have it at home in my den. The photo we took is below. Yeah, I look like I'm off in the distance and don't know why.

re-capping the conseco game.

The scoreboard may have read Indiana 86, IUPUI 57. But it should read Indiana and the BIASED refs 86!!! Seriously! The Hoosiers can't beat this Jags team; not by themselves. They had the refs in their back pockets all night long. It was embarrassing. It was a travesty of justices.

Bob Lovell would be spinning in his grave if were dead!

I'm totally kidding.

As Coach Hunter said tonight, the significance of this game was not whether or not IUPUI won or lost as much as it was just getting the opportunity to compete against a Big Ten (11) in-state team.

Truth is, IU came out blazing from the starting gun while IUPUI looked a bit shell-shocked in the early stages. The Hoosiers are bigger, stronger and faster. By the end of the first half, the Jags looked like they were out of gas while Indiana was barely breaking a sweat. Such is the uphill climb for a mid-major playing a top-level program.

But this is how teams get better. They take their lumps against the big teams. Look at Valpo. They used to be fodder for the big programs. Now, they're moving up a notch into the Horizon League.

Baby steps. And tonight's game was another important step in the growth of a program.

On a personal note, here's are some points of interest for me:
* A certain writer for a certain newspaper does not wash his hands after using the lav
* The coffee in the media room at Conseco is hotter than the surface of the sun
* D.J. White is every bit of 6-9, 250 lbs.
* Kelvin Sampson doesn't seem to have a very loud voice.

But most of all...I'm a better PA announcer than Chuck Crabb!

I keeeed! I keeed!

Mr. Crabb has a very respectful style and I can dig it.

Oh yeah, props to the Pep Band and Cheerleaders tonight. Job well done!

sleepy fans and the swear jar.

Last night's game against IPFW? UGLY! Yeah, IUPUI got the 'w', but it was not a pretty game. One thing is evident about this group of players: loads of individual talent, but without George Hill out there, they seem to lack cohesion.

Nevertheless, David Barlow had a career night last night. And he made me laugh pretty good during the latter stages of the game. Out of timeouts and needing to get out of a double-team after he picked up his dribble, Barlow got crafty and bounced the ball off his defender's leg, and then it went out bounds. The play happened directly in front of me and made me laugh out loud. Why? I'm not entirely sure. But I laughed, Barlow looked at me and flashed a proud smile. Props to you, David!

Everything else went fairly well last night. The band was in good form (and snazzy new shirts, I must say). The cheerleaders did their thing and the dancers, as always, performed great. The fans? Well, I hope we didn't disturb their naps. Seriously, do they ever get off their hands?!?!

Anyway, I had an OK game. Nothing spectacular, nothing terribly bad. If anything, I rushed through a few things, but there were so many subs I felt like I had no choice. It was fun to see Dane Fife prowling the sidelines. He had us rolling at the scorers table with the F-bombs. The first one he unleashed on a player (in the first half) resonated through the gym. We all looked right at Fife as he was reading his player the riot act.

"That's a quarter in the Swear Jar," I said to the guys at the table. Matt Davis, the man on the shot clock, held up a cup and shook it for donations.

Had we actually held Fife to the Swear Jar rule, he may have needed to bring his checkbook. Who was his college coach again? :-)

Fun night. But I hope our fans wake up soon.

see you at conseco.

I just got word today that I'm offiicially in for the IUPUI-IU game next Friday night at Conseco Fieldhouse. Being as how it's not our home game I won't be doing PA. But IUPUI SID Ed Holdaway took pity on me and extended an SID pass so I can sit courtside for the game. This ain't no free ride, though. A seat on Mr. Holdaway's Wild Ride comes with a price. I've got to run down postgame quotes in the press conferences.

So let me get this straight: my "job" is to attend the press conferences for Ron Hunter, Kelvin Sampson and any players they bring in? Slave drivers!!!!

This is not unfamiliar work for me. I've attended two conference tournaments and did similar work for IUPUI at both.

A little personal history: I've been an IU basketball fan since I was in high school in Michigan. I've never been to an IU game in my entire life. Until next Friday.

And as big a Hoosiers fan as I am, I'm wanting to see the Jags shock the world. They're the horse I'm riding next Friday.

It's going to be cool to see the band, cheerleaders and dancers at Conseco.

I can't wait to see what kind of crowd is on hand.

back in form.

I think my voice is back in form now, after a week of battling a throat infection. After last Saturday's game—where I was losing my voice in the first half—I admit I was a bit nervous.

Last evening's game went off without a hitch. Although I'm finding myself picking up bad, old habits like "rushing" through substitutions. I need to work on that. I also think it's high time I gain a little "stage presence" when doing the halftime shootout.

Perhaps I should bust out the wireless mic and work the floor. Perhaps I should egg the crowd on a bit more too. I don't feel 100% comfortable with this promotion yet, so I'm going to have to work on it.

I did have a little bit of fun with the Dance Team last night. I did a little fake like I was going to play the Fight Song at the end of half-time; had them glaring at me a bit. I played Crazy Train instead. I like the Dance Team. They're super-cool kids and are very good at getting me their music well in advance of the game. That's important so I don't stomp on their mojo by playing a song in my line-up that they're dancing to that night.

Oh yeah, the women's team won last night. It wasn't the prettiest game I've ever seen, but it was good to see Alicia Booyer have a great first half (12 points).

This was the last women's game until Dec. 30. And Saturday's game will be the last men's home game until Jan. 18.

Man, are we that far into the schedule already?

err on the side of caution.

Tonight's game could've been better on so many fronts. And I'm not even talking about the Jags sneaking away with a win over an NAIA team. Seriously, Indiana Wesleyan nearly handed us a loss tonight! The horror....but anyway.

Yeah, my throat/voice seemed to not want to cooperate with me tonight. I've been fighting off a throat infection of some sort all week, but I thought the worst was behind me. Well, I know the worst is behind me. But the first half of tonight's game? Something just wasn't clicking.

I felt like I was struggling all game to fight the right pitch and tone on the mic. Perhaps the problem was external, but I couldn't help but wonder if my throat is still not 100%. Joe, the official score keeper, even turned to me once and said, "are you all right?"

My conversation voice is fine, but my PA voice? Well, it was not. It wasn't helped by the sauna-like conditions of the first half in the gym. I found myself feeling kinda woozy from the heat or something. Once I took off my jacket and rolled up my sleeves I was fine. But for a second there, I thought I was gonna have to call for a back-up.

Fortunately for me nobody's there to listen to me. And everybody else performed magnificently. I think I'm going to rest the pipe tomorrow and stay home for the Colts game. I'm not sick, per se, but I'm not 100%; best to err on the side of caution.

dance, dance, dance.

The ability to have fun at another's expense is only funny under a few conditions:
1) You know they'll get a laugh out of it
2) You don't abuse the privilege

That's pretty much what I did tonight with the Dance Team at tonight's b-ball game. The team co-captains, during our standard pre-game greeting, talked a bit about not wanting to do the Fight Song at the end of halftime. At the moment, I dind't really recall it being a staple (I honestly didn't recall it at all) and told them I had no plans on playing it.

But then, with about two minutes remaining in the halftime, a devil appeared on my shoulder. That devil reminded me of how the Dance Team and Cheerleaders jump to their feet and perform a choreographed dance to the Fight Song!

I simply couldn't resist.

Everybody was relaxing, gearing up for the second half...and I went and screwed it all up for them.

It was all harmless fun and (I think) the dancers know that. They hassled me afterward, of course. But, as I said, I couldn't resist the temptation. I won't do this again, though. Like I said, it's only funny once.

A little note about this year's Dance Team, if I may: as w/ every other year, they're a great group of people. But this is, by far, the best IUPUI Dance Team I've seen.

They threatened to make me dance during the Fight Song next time I pull a stunt like I did tonight. Yeah, I don't know who gets punished more: me, or the people forced to see the debacle that is me dancing.

basketball "line change" substitions.

The women's game the other day (Saturday) had a strange feel to it. It started at 4:30 p.m., but there was no men's game following it. It was like an island out in the middle of nowhere, or something. From a PA standpoint, these early games can be a little trying because the crowds are decidedly smaller. Saturday's game was no exception. Given the opposing team's penchant for hockey-style substitions—three, four, even five players at a time—it made my job that much more challenging. I actually referred to it, once by saying, "now on the floor on the Evansville line change..." It's a subtle joke that only three or four people will ever get.

I have to admit, it was annoying. But it's not my job to coach the teams. I had to plow ahead and do the best I could. It honestly was tricky.

Fortunately, the Jags won in regulation. The last thing I needed was OT.

The women play at home again tomorrow night, and then the men finally have another home game on Saturday. Hopefully the women's team plays better tomorrow than they did on Saturday.

The dance team and cheerleaders performed well. They've got their act together, and it's great to see. Hopefully I get my timing right with the fight song and pre-game rituals so we all know what's what.

so far, so good.

The first full weekend of Jags basketball is well underway and things, for the most part, seem to be moving along well. We haven't had any setbacks, technical or otherwise, at the scorers table. With the exception of George Hill's injury, the teams seem to be hitting their strides.

We've worked in a few new promotions and a few less pre-game announcements and I couldn't be happier about both. Nobody comes to the game to hear me, so the less yammering I do, the better.

Of course, I need to work on giving all affected parties advance notice when I'm going to flip the script. I switched things up on the cheerleaders last night and sort of left them hanging.

I think I'll start checking with each group in the pre-game to make sure we're all on the same page. Tonight's game will be easy, though. With the Pep Band there, it makes my job exponentially easier. Outside of starting line-ups and Dance Team music, I have little to do.

I still need to get my "Shout" thing put together, though. We want to incorporate that in the under-four media timeout.

Maybe tonight.