If you got a chance to join Pat Coleman and me for “Breakfast with Hoopsville” or “Lunch with Hoopsville”, you got to hear the exclusive announcements of the women’s tournament and the simulcast of the men’s tournament.
It was an incredible honor of mine – and for that matter the show – to have the Division III Women’s Championships Committee choose Hoopsville, after our invitation, as the place to announce the women’s teams (Sunday night) and then the brackets (Monday morning). I thank Pat Coleman for helping facilitate the invitation and then those on the committee, Shirley Egner (Chair & UW-Stevens Point Coach) and Kristin Steckmesser, for helping us get the information we needed, or even joining us on the show to answer questions.
As for the men’s show, while it was delayed, it was still incredible to see how many fans, teams, coaches, parents, etc. tune into our simulcast and then stay online as we talked about the tournament, interviewed coaches, and did our best to answer your questions. You all are very important to making Hoopsville the show that is and I thank you very much for joining us!
I would also like to thank Gary Grace, Chair of the Men’s Championships Committee, who not only agreed to call in to answer some questions on the show right after the brackets were announced, but also called a few minutes before hand to announce how the NCAA Production made a mistake with how the brackets were done and wanted to get us the correction as quickly as possible.
Now, below you will find the selection shows which we will keep up for only a few days, before removing them from the site. Take a listen and enjoy. I will be sharing a few stories from behind-the-scenes of the shows (including Sundays) in this week’s upcoming Around the Nation article.
However, there is one link I wanted to share ahead of time: enjoy the reaction of WPI when they had learned they were “dancing” in the NCAA Tournament.
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There’s been some criticism of the NCAA’s show and while I’ll join on one point — the NCAA should know how to pronounce the names of its member schools — I have to remind people: Putting together a show like that is an incredibly difficult process.
In varying stages, I’ve been behind the scenes on six NCAA Tournament selection shows, most recently the 2007 Division III football selection show on ESPNU. When you put video into the mix, it’s a laborious process. Our work this weekend on the women’s selection show was a breeze in comparison. But getting names right is paramount, and after sitting next to Dave for nine hours over the past day and a half I know even more how important that is. 🙂
Just listened to the Women’s show. Nice job. However, I held on till the bitter end waiting for your promised final four predictions which never arrived. I’ll chalk it up to lack of sleep and give you a pass this time. 😉
Yeah… forgot about that promise! Sorry about that!
You can chalk that up to a lack of sleep and wanting to get off the air to take a breather before what became a very busy men’s show.
Speaking of the lack of sleep… extra bonus points to anyone who can figure out when Pat and/or I officially became punchy!
Ha. Very cool reaction for WPI.
We plan to have the call of the Engineers’ match-up with Va. Wes for NCAASports.com on Friday.
Thanks to Mr Grace for his appearing on the show.