Day Two

The internet access has been a very random and crazy experience. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. The last couple days we have experienced the does not part. Sorry, that would be why I have not posted lately. Day Two was a very long day. After the day before you think you'd be seasoned for another four game day, but it feels even longer. Maybe the fact that there were no good games at all that day was one of the reasons the day seemed to drag on. I repeated my duties for handing stats to locker rooms at half and postgame. Along with postgame distribution. When the day was over I think including myself, everyone was ready for a long sleep. The next day we were not required to be there until four, so we had the perfect opportunity to sleep in. Before arriving at the SEC Tourney, I had been suffering major sleep deprevation, so I was needing a good sleep day and Day Three I found it. After Day Two, I got in bed around one, and guess what? I did not wake up till one the next day. A twelve-hour sleep is good for everyone now and then. We woke up and you would think we are sick of basketball, but no we got the chance to watch Texas-Kansas on TV for the Big 12 Championship. What a game, plus we saw Wisconsin hit a 3 with 2 seconds to go to win it too. We arrived at four at the stadium, and there was very little to be done. We got a good meal in, and waited for game time. After the game started, it got hectic. The game itself was busy and packed, because it was Tennessee and LSU playing each other. When Tennessee got beaten the crowd seemed really down. 85% of the fans there had to have been Lady Vols fans, so it was a major upset. I delievered stats to the Tennessee locker room, so the excitement level there was not really high. But in my opinion no need to worry, there season is not close to over. The Georgia-Vanderbilt game was a slow one, because Vandy killed them. We did not have a difficult time postgame, and hopefully that was partly credited to a good volunteer staff...hint hint. When we got back to the hotel, the bed was calling my name again. I took advantage of another one of those 12-hour nights and woke up just in time to see the start of the MSU-Alabama game. Me and my roommates watched the whole game in our beds from start to finish and saw the Bulldogs win the WEST! That was a good feeling, but as soon as it was over I had to get ready because I had to be at the stadium early to work will call till the championship game. That is were I am at now. Also, I forgot to include this, during the first-half of the Georgia-Vanderbilt game, I got the chance to do my informational interview with Tammy Wilson, the Associate Director of Media Relations for the SEC. She is the Women's Basketball and Tennis Contact for the SEC. She is a lot of fun to work with, and had some very wise advice. I really enjoyed getting a chance to work for her, and talking to her for my informational interview. Well I am about to get back to work, and hopefully get a post on shortly after the championship game.

Day 1 2007 SEC Women's Tournament-Duluth, Ga.

Hi,

My name is Jan Blaine, and I am a sophomore Sports Communications Major at Mississippi State University. Me and three other student workers from MSU are volunteering for SEC Media Relations here at the SEC Women's Tournament. We arrived at our hotel (The Marriott) Wed. at 8-ish, the night before the tournament starts. We immediately ran into some speed bumps, as the hotel did not provide free wireless and were charging $12 a night and per computer for wireless access. So we spent the evening watching the Texas and Texas A&M, double-overtime game and then made a late night trip to Waffle House. The next morning we showed up at the Gwinnett Center in our business attire ready to work for the SEC. My assignments were to deliver stats and game notes to the coaches and their staff during halftime and postgame. So with that, I got a chance to watch the majority of the games. I also got the pleasure to see Mississippi State lose to Florida in the first round, the first time ever that an 11-seed beat a 6-seed in the Women's Tournament. We spent our first day at the Gwinnett Center from 10 a.m. till 12:30 that night, so the first day I was pretty tired. After we left we went back to the hotel where I had to write the game stories for the Alabama-Ole Miss game, and the Mississippi State-Florida game, for the Commercial Dispatch out of Columbus. It's been a long day and I was tired so I am getting some sleep! Talk to you tomorrow.

Here's Hoping We Hear From Jan & Christina at the 2007 SEC's

Two prize pupils...will they blog from the SEC Championships? Only time will tell!!!!

Saturday Night Report

For dinner on Saturday night we went to the Big River Brewery on 2nd Street in Nashville ... The town was still hopping with UK fans ... I kid you not, I saw a couple of Big Blue fans give ticket books to some homeless folks ... The Brewery was excellent, had a big cheese burger and yes watched more basketball with Big East Championship game ... A friend of mine, Chad Wallace, who works with Gaylord in their Internal Communications office joinded us for dinner ... We went down by the Cumberland River to enjoy the scenery ... Checking out of the hotel and getting the car out of valet was pretty hectic, but we have arrived at the arena for championship Sunday ... I will be assisting with the all-tournament team this afternoon, compiling all the votes ... So who is your choice for MVP...

Championship participants are set ...

An all Eastern Division battle will take place for the automatic bid to the Big Dance ... Should be interesting since the Gamecocks swept the Gators in the regular season ... The buzz in the media circles is - How many people will be here for the championship game with the three biggest draws eliminated (Kentucky, Tennessee and Vandy) ... Heard a statement saying that the SEC should move the game to Lipscomb College ... I thought that was pretty funny ... I think we are planning to do some night life in Nashville tonight, Joe's Crab Shack has been a possibility ... I'll check back later.

Tickets Galore

Now that the Big Blue nation is heading north back to Lexington. if you are in the vacinity of Nashville, you can probably find a cheap ticket for Sunday's championship game ... One thing to keep in mind - two of Florida's losses have come against the Gamecocks.

Semifinal Saturday

Today will seem like a breeze today compared to the past two days ... Only two games on the docket today with Kentucky and USC in the first semi and Florida and LSU in the second game ... I am glad to see Krispy Kreme has joined in as a corporate sponsor for the Nashville event ... doughnuts each morning is classic.

CBS & ESPN

The CBS announcing crew has arrived at the SEC Tournament for Sunday's Championship ... Calling all the action will be Vern Kundquist and Bill Rafferty ... I just handed Rafferty some score updates. He quickly looked at the Big East scores ... Also, Shelly Smith of ESPN is doing an inside Tennessee Basketball piece for the NCAA Tournament, too bad she did not get to see the Vols in Nashville very long.

between session update

I guess you know how Kentucky did, since Katie has already posted it ... I, on the other hand have been keeping up with my sports information duties for the MSU Women's Tennis team, as I was following how they did against Auburn on thr Plains (They won 6-1) ... You have to love Technology, being able to follow events from from far away ... We are planning on venturing over to the SEC Fanfare right now ... I will be back soon.

Day Two is officially rolling

Good morning from the media workroom of the GEC in Nashville, TN

Day two will feature a lot of Blue and Orange as the top-seed from the East will face USC, while UK squares off with Bama (a nice match up for the second round) ... Our duties remain the same as it was on Thursday ... I am in charge of getting scores from other conference tourneys around the nation and distribute them to the media ... Got to venture in to the Nashville Predators Press Box from the rafters of the Gaylord Entertainment Center ... I may try to count the many times Rocky Top is played during the UT-USC game - that could be an interesting postgame note ... By the way, I am hoping for an Ashley Judd sighting for the UK games this weekend, If I get a pic with her I will definitely post it on the blog ... On tap for lunch is southern cuisine - fried catfish, fried chicken and many side dishes.

10 p.m. update from the SEC Tourney

Well it's 10 p.m. CT and we just started the second half of the UGA-Arkansas game ... I have been sitting on the first row of press row down by the UGA Band (pretty funny group with some corny cheers) ... The games and operations have run smoothly and on time for the most part. It will still be early Friday morning before we will probably leave the GEC ... One thing in media relations and working at tournaments is the amount of paper that is used. I can only imagine how many boxes of paper we have gone through today. We run everything from startinf line ups, box scores at halftime and postgame, updated scores from across the nation, postgame notes and quotes ... Quotes are done by a company called ASAP ... They are very similar to court reporters.

First Session is complete

With Kentucky's win ove the Rebels, the first session of the SEC Tournament is in the books ... The second session does not get underway until 6:30 ... They are setting up for dinner in the media area, but I have not found out what is on the menu ... An interesting tidbit from press row - even the UK cheerleaders got in to the retro act with cheerleading uniforms from the past ... The guys had blue sweaters with a big K on it (those had to be hot).

Good Morning from the Gaylord Entertainment Center

Hello from the GEC

I found a space back in the media workroom to log on ... It's just 11 a.m. CT and there are already a slew of media members getting ready for a full day of basketball ... We had our 10:15 meeting with the SEC office and on the first day I am in charge of getting SportsTicker scores that are faxed to the SEC Media HQ ... The way the system works is, we call in to a number and punch in a fax number and within minutes we have scores from all the tournaments going on around the country this week ... I have not yet ventured in to the media food room, but it's getting that time to eat before the first game tips off ... Everything in the arena has the throwback feeling as the SEC is going throwback ... All teams this week will wear retro jerseys from seasons past.