By C. Kent Lowe
LSU Sports Information
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The LSU fans are beginning to arrive and make themselves known around the city as the clock ticks under 24 hours to the start of LSU’s NCAA Women’s Final Four national semifinal with Rutgers.
Most of those staying at the LSU headquarters, the Hyatt Regency at The Arcade, will walk out the back of the building onto Euclid Avenue and see a most eclectic sight — below a big neon bowling ball and pin stands really whatever you want — a full scale restaurant, a large bar area with DJ booth, and 10 bowling lanes with couches and furniture fit for a night at home with large projection televisions over all the lanes that is named “The Corner Alley.”
Now that’s what I call a well-rounded place. It’s all part of a downtown Cleveland area that features every kind of restaurant with every kind of price, nightlife establishments and the three major professional sports venues — Jacobs Field (Indians), Quicken Loans Arena (site of the Final Four, Cavaliers, Rockers) and Browns Stadium.
Several LSU people have taken to the lanes to try their luck and about all that needs to be said is everyone survived. So far.
Publicists Dream
I’ve always wondered when we as sports information staffers prepare postseason information for our particular sports if we really know how many people take the opportunity to read the stuff.
After picking up the guides and post-season guides for the teams and the various propaganda the NCAA wants you to have, my rolling briefcase was having a problem remaining rolling without a lot of force.
The size of the post-season guides is another thing that amazes you, sometime as well. LSU has split its guides and media clippings into two books in recent years but I lost count when trying to figure out how many pages one bound copy of Tennessee’s notes and clippings amounted to.
But in the end, no matter how big or small, there may be that one nugget buried somewhere in there that Mike Patrick on the television broadcast or some columnist will have stick in their mind and be what they use in their column the very next day. At least that’s what we hope.
LSU’s Saturday
The day before the game went without any apparent hitches as the team took to the specially designed floor with the guitar outline at noon EDT to the delight of the crowd gathered at “The Q”.
One of the highlights that drew crowd response were a couple of dunks from junior All-American Sylvia Fowles. She was asked about those during the press conference session later in the afternoon:
“It’s something I always do in practice, it just so happened we had fans in there to be able to watch and see it,” said Fowles. “So that’s something I do every day in practice.” Regarding a follow-up question as to why it hadn’t happened in games.
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t worry about it as much as some people think I should. But I just worry about doing what I have to do to help my teammates out. And if an opportunity for me to dunk comes, if I get one, I’m pretty sure I’ll knock it down, but that’s not my main focus right now.”
Starkey A “Young” 47
As expected, LSU acting head coach Bob Starkey was asked about his continued remarks that he would not go after or accept the head coaching job at the end of the season and he was asked about when he decided his life was right to be an assistant coach.
“…I just think it’s important that you understand your limitations, your strengths and your weaknesses. I’m not sure there was ever a time where I made up my mind that I just wanted to be a assistant coach, but I just think certainly at this point I’m 47 years old and I’ve always been an assistant coach and really never given it much thought or had necessarily very many schools come after me and offer me those type positions. So it’s really never been something that I thought about until now.”
The follow up from the audience was matter of fact. “47’s pretty young?” The acting coach never missed a beat: “I don’t know. In coaching, it is kind of like dog years (drawing laughter from the media). I think I aged about two years in the last three weeks.”
Next Door To “The Q”
A lot of Cleveland Indians fans were joined by those in town for the Final Four to take in an afternoon at Jacobs Field during the day on Saturday. Some 7,000 fans came out to check out the ball park prior to opening day and take advantage of $1 concessions around the facility.
After the LSU practice session, the Lady Tigers’ team host, John Carter (the Indians’ Director of Community Relations) took the LSU on-site SID staff and Lady Tiger broadcaster Patrick Wright for a guided tour of the facility that includes the new Heritage Park honoring the greats that have played for Cleveland over the years.
There was no sign of a marker honoring the fictional Cleveland Indians star in the Major League movie series, Willie Mays Hayes.
Now The Team Rests
The team went to a local restaurant Saturday night as a group and that will be one of the last public appearances the team will have before the game on Sunday other than a one hour closed shoot around at the arena. We’ll check in Sunday afternoon prior to the game with some pregame thoughts followed by post-game notes after the game. Remember tip time is 6 p.m. CDT on ESPN and of course on the LSU Sports Radio Network.