March 16, 2010
Lobos at the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Photo Gallery
March 17 – Practice Day Quotes
March 19 – Practice Day Quotes
No. 8/10 Lobo Men’s Basketball Team at 2010 NCAA Tournament
Assistant Media Relations Director Judy Willson will do updates each day from the NCAA Tournament
Saturday, March 20 – 8 a.m.
It’s Game Day in San Jose! Time to get after the Washington Huskies!
Yesterday was a closed practice day, so the only opportunity for the media was in the pre-practice interview sessions at the podium and in the locker room.
Since you are following along on GoLobos.com, you will notice that Katie’s camera got hijacked by Darington Hobson during the locker room session. Darington did a great job getting some interviews, even getting Dairese Gary to sing. But he had a little trouble getting the coveted one-on-one interview with Coach Alford. Maybe next time.
A few of us got to sit in on practice, partly to keep everyone else out. So to fill you in on the coaches vs. players half-court shooting contest, the coaches are now up 2-0 in the NCAA Tournament and 3-0 in the post-season (they took the one in Vegas). This time it was assistant coach Wyking Jones banking it off the square, straight down into the basket.
Time to get ready. See you at HP Pavilion!
Friday, March 19 – 9:15 a.m.
Good morning, Lobo fans! I hope you all enjoyed reading Richard Stevens recap of last night’s fantastic win over Montana on GoLobos.com this morning. What a great night! Thanks to all of you who come out and support our teams, and make these events special for our student-athletes.
Now it is preparation day for the Huskies of Washington. So there are a few items of business on the agenda today!
The coaches have spent all night breaking down film and preparing a game plan. The team will rest up, then head out to the HP Pavilion later this afternoon for press conferences and a closed practice.
For Lobo fans in San Jose, there will be ticket pick-up and a fan reception today at the Marriott for those attending Saturday’s game. Fans can show their spirit and get their tickets from 5-7 p.m. (Pacific Time) at the upper salon in the San Jose Marriott at 301 S. Market Street. There will be light food available, along with a cash bar. The UNM Spirit squads and the Sound Pack will be there as well for your entertainment.
Game time on Saturday is approximately set for 2:50 p.m. (PT) / 3:50 p.m. (MT). Exact game time will depend on the Murray State/Butler game that begins at 12:20 p.m. (PT).
See you then!
Everyone’s a Lobo! Woof, woof, woof!
Wednesday, March 17 – 7 p.m.
Press conference and practice day in San Jose! After a good night’s sleep and great breakfast set up by director of operations Duane Broussard, the team practiced off-site to go over their game plan for Montana. Duane has one of the toughest jobs of anyone on this trip, keeping the team on schedule and making sure all the details are in place where ever they go.
Around 3 p.m. Coach Alford, Duane and several other administrators attended the required pre-tournament meeting to go over the do’s, don’ts and expectations while the Lobos are in San Jose. Always a fun meeting.
At 4:30, it was press conference time for Dairese Gary, Darington Hobson and Roman Martinez, while the rest of the team stayed in the locker room for media interviews. Phillip McDonald was the first Lobo up for a locker room interview, followed by Nate Garth and A.J. Hardeman. Coach Alford headed out to his press conference at 4:45 and Dairese, Darington and Roman re-joined the team in the locker room. All three Albuquerque TV stations, along The Mountain Sports Network, took the locker room opportunity to get some last-chance interviews with the student-athletes. Even a photographer working with the El Paso Times (UTEP plays in the first session on Thursday) stopped in for some candid shots of Roman.
Interviews were over and it was time for the favorite part of the day for fans – open practice! It is the one time during the weekend that if you don’t have a ticket, it doesn’t matter! Open practice is FREE!
There was a great crowd of Lobo fans at practice! Fans got to see the coaches vs. players half court shooting contest. Coach called everyone in to center court to change things up a bit. A couple of players took half court shots and missed. Dairese’s shot was a bit short. Coach stepped up and swished his half court shot! So it was up to Roman and Darington to tie things up. Roman’s shot went long and Darington missed as well. So the coaches are up 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament team half-court shooting contest. The crowd in the arena went nuts when Coach hit his shot.
Coach also spent part of the practice time visiting with the national radio and television announcers about the Lobos. Spero Dedes and Bob Wenzel will provide the play-by-play and color analysis for CBS, while Ted Robinson and Bill Frieder will do the same for Westwood One Radio.
So with media and fan responsibilities out of the way, it’s time for dinner and film.
Tomorrow is Game Day! So everyone get rested up and be ready to go when the Lobos hit the floor at HP Pavilion.
Tuesday, March 16 – 7:30 p.m.
Hi all! We had several folks ask if I would blog from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after I blogged from Lobos’ trips to the NCAA volleyball tournament and NCAA ski nationals, so here goes.
Today was travel day for the Lobos. Three bus loads of the team, families, administration, pep band and spirit squads left Albuquerque at 1 p.m. and arrived in San Jose around 2:30, Pacific Time. It was a great, uneventful flight! Thanks, Sun Country!
The weather in San Jose is fantastic! Sunshine and 60’s greeted us as we loaded up to head to the team hotel. It is great to be able to swap out my ski parka for not having to wear a jacket! Everyone got settled in, before we headed out for dinner.
The weather was so nice that Greg Remington, Katie Brutlag and I walked to the restaurant to meet the team for dinner. It was a great time to hang out and we got to watch the end of the Northeastern-UConn game and the start of the Texas Tech-Seton Hall games.
Tomorrow is press conference and open practice day for the team. So to any fans in San Jose on Wednesday, come check us out at HP Pavilion at 5:10 p.m.