Pregame

It is a lovely Thursday mid-morning, the sun is out, the birds are chirping... though I don't really know if that's all true since I have no windows in my office.

The men are scheduled to play at 2 pm this afternoon against Pitt in Denver. The news this morning (or the "Morning Gossip with Mary Loue" --marketing secretary -- as I like to call it) is that Sports Illustrated has picked the men to upset Pitt AND the second-round opponent to make it to the Sweet 16.

I don't think its too far off... if we all remember, it was only a few short years ago - my first year - that I was working at Wichita State and they upset a few big-name teams to get to the Sweet 16. Two years later, I'm in my first year at ORU and they are in the Tournament -- anything can happen! Though I wish that the good luck that I give to the teams was good luck that I could give to me personally -- the only good luck I have is with finding outstanding parking spots. True story.

Anyway... just hanging out, waiting for the game. I was terrified after our women won the conference tournament because I knew that meant I would be SWAMPED at work -- people calling wanting interviews, getting my game notes ready, the constant drive to FedEx with five million boxes of media guides and postseason notes to deliver. Boy, was I wrong. That was Wichita State -- a school that has WAY more money than ORU. But at WSU, we had to MAKE our postseason guides. We did the printing, the binding, the sending. At ORU, we send them off to have them made. What a concept, eh?!!

But I really haven't been that busy. Just the normal e-mails with people requesting things. I've probably had more phone calls with people asking about our track stud that won a national championship - ORU's first national champion in ANYTHING - last weekend in the 400-meter dash.

SO... until tomorrow and Day One of Allyson's Trip to the Big Dance... :)