It was Wednesday afternoon, and as I was checking my email for the 30th time I realized something. I was a lot more excited than any sane person should be sitting in a cubicle on a cold, overcast workday in Boston.
I couldn't help it though. I was freaking out all day because it finally hit me that my school, Tufts University, is dancing.
We are in the NCAA college basketball tournament. Now I know that we are Div. III, but the setup is the same - the familiar bracket of teams giving everything they have to make sure their next game isn't their last. The "one-and-done" format of the NCAA tournament is what truly makes March the best month of the year for so many avid sports fans. And as long as that same format is used, I'm excited.
So that's why at around 4 p.m. I was spending corporate dollars writing an emotional email to all my friends outlining a road trip to SUNY Cortland, the site of Tufts' first two tournament games. As I went to sleep, visions of buzzer beaters and glass slippers were dancing through my head.
Well you know what they say about "the best laid plans of mice and men." I forgot to take into account the fact that my friends spend less time "out" these days than Charles Manson. It's hard enough getting them to go into Davis Square, much less convincing them into taking a five-hour trip. So with my original dreams of a "road trip for the ages" dashed, I turned to option #2: Jumbocast.
In case you aren't familiar with the Jumbocast, it's an online service that allows you to watch the game through a live feed. Now, I've experienced the live feed before as a junior abroad when watching the Red Sox's playoff run; but despite the picture quality and the fact that it was three in the morning, I actually enjoyed the online broadcast even more than television for two reasons: The first was that Tim McCarver wasn't announcing. The second was the lack of commercials.
Instead of the game being chopped up by a spot for Coke's latest carb-cutting incarnation or NBC's newest sitcom failure, I was left with some soothing shots of the crowd and the field that kept me firmly focused on the game at hand.
Unfortunately, our own Jumbo technology is a little behind that of MLB.com and as a result there were some Jumbocast problems. Firstly, neither the score nor the game time was present on the screen, which often left the viewer in the type of limbo that would make any sports junkie nervous. Secondly, the audio was about ten seconds slower than the video. This proved distracting at first and then eventually yielded some funny situations: after one Courtland basket, Tufts advanced the ball for a quick layup by Dan Martin, immediately followed by a wild cheer on delay from the Courtland score. With a little audio genius, we had effectively neutralized Courtland's home court advantage.
But even with these problems I enjoyed the Jumbocast for many of the same reasons as the MLB.com version. I was impressed by the announcers during the game and even more so afterwards when I found out that they were both freshman. Matt Kaufman, the play-by-play announcer, did especially well, providing solid information and always managing to escape the dreaded "dead air" during timeouts and other technical issues. Remember, he didn't have the luxury of commercial breaks.
And as for the color man, classmate Elton Sykes simply stole the show. Although still a little unsure of himself behind the mic, Sykes has a great voice for the job. He reminded me a lot of Walt Clyde Frazier, the flamboyant voice of the Knicks. While he doesn't quite have the vocabulary, Sykes has that same ability to get away with saying anything, no matter how ridiculous, and instead of getting mad, you like him even more for it.
For example, Sykes kept referring to the Red Dragons of Cortland as the Red Dogs. Even after Kaufman tried to subtly throw out statements immediately after like, "those Red Dragons are giving everything they have out there" Sykes remained unfazed, steadfastly sticking with his Red Dogs. After a while I started calling them the Red Dogs too, and from now on that's the way they'll always be remembered in my book.
But above all, my favorite exchange between the two occurred after a questionable late foul call with the game in the balance.
Kaufman: I don't know if that was the right call there. At such a crucial stage in the game too, this was a huge call [pausing for Sykes to respond].
Sykes: [silence]
Kaufmann: Well, the refs...
Sykes: "I'm sorry I wasn't really paying attention to the play, I was watching the Tufts coach."
You have to love that honesty.
The between-game timeouts also proved exponentially more entertaining thanks to shots of awkward fans doing awkward things - SUNY Cortland cheerleaders being dropped left and right, and above all, the shooting contest that occurred midway through the second half.
This is what I don't understand: if you're Cortland and you're hosting the NCAA tournament, wouldn't you want to make a good impression on the fans, opposing teams, and NCAA officials? Then why not make sure that the person you picked to partake in a shooting competition during a timeout can actually shoot. Not only did the student miss all ten of his free throws, he missed them badly. So badly that by miss number five, my friend starting yelling out "Let it rain" after each shot. Through that one person, Cortland University basically made the statement "Don't be fooled by our basketball team, the average Cortland student is not coordinated enough to tie his own shoes."
Above all, the best part of the Jumbocast was the game itself. In the end Tufts advanced to the Sweet 16 thanks to a fantastic team effort and the level-headed play of sophomore point guard David Shepherd down the stretch.
Make no mistake, though; it was a battle that ended with a wild finish thanks to some Jumbo misses from the line and one gutsy play after another from the Red Dogs. One of my friends watched the last three extremely tense minutes screaming "Down in front!" at any Cortland fan who made the mistake of getting up right in front of the camera. Suffice it to say that the internet live feed did not take away from the intensity.
But no matter how impressed I was by the Jumbocast, it still didn't match the fun of actually being there. So when Tufts heads to Amherst this weekend for a seemingly inevitable clash with the Lord Jeffs, barring a disaster of "24-like" proportions, I'll be there.
