Big Ten Media Day

I told you there would be another post about this weekend and I actually delivered this time. So post-Mudbowl we had our annual Mudbowl party which blew up. So many people, so much booze. Jeff got wasted, and we probably got put on social pro for awhile. But a good time was had by all. So that morning at 5am (I didn't go to sleep, Zac can attest to this as he saw me leave) I drove to Chicago for Big Ten Basketball Media Day. I was going on fumes, I'm really not sure how I did it. But I arrived in Chicago at about 8am central time and ate some free breakfast courtesy of the Big Ten. Basically every top player from every team, along with his coach were there. The format was like roundtable discussions from 9am-noon. Some notables who I actually had one-on-one interviews with were:

Lester Abram, Dion Harris, Courtney Sims, and Tommy Amaker of Michigan: The highlight of these talks was with Courtney Sims. Basically I turned off my recorder and just talked with him for like 25 minutes about nothing. We both agreed that booze needed to be served at stupid media day things like this one. And I forgot to ask lester about his theory on getting more drunk if you take booze up your nose. Also, Amaker told me he was missing the 20th reunion of his 1986 Duke team, to which I gave a look of astonishment. He laughed, I didn't. Go Duke.

Adam Haluska of Iowa: He said Crisler Arena was the toughest place to play in the Big Ten. He lost all credibility with that statement.

Dan Monson, coach of Minnesota: He actually thought his team was overrated when it was ranked 9TH in the preseason BIg Ten poll.

Roderick Wilmont of Indiana: He told me that Michigan was always well-coached. Clearly he hasn't watched Tommy Amaker at work the past six years.

Brian Butch and Kammeron Taylor of Wisconsin: Brian Butch's breath smelled real bad so I tried to avoid talking to him after one question. And then I asked Kammeron Taylor if he gets mistaken for Chris Rock ever. He responded 'No' and that's how the interview ended.

Geary Claxton of Penn State: He didn't know he was voted All Big Ten preseason 1st Team until I told him. He said he was gonna call his mom.

Tom Izzo of Michigan State: I asked him a question and he didn't answer it. My hate for State (haha it rhymes) went up tenfold.

Bruce Weber of Illinois: He said he wasn't going to talk to Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson ever again. Actually he refused to refer to him by name, instead calling him "the Indiana head men's basketball coach". This is all because Illinois had the number one recruit in the nation verballed for next year, but Sampson started recruiting him anyways after he got the Hoosier job. A few weeks ago the recruit bolted Illinois and went to Indiana.

Thad Matta of Ohio State: So to get on his good side I lied and told him that when I was younger I used to go to a lot of GW basketball games, and saw him coach with Xavier. In actuality I've been to one GW game, and he was the coach of Xavier in it. Thad then went on a little five minute rant about how good Xavier is gonna be this year. Now that I was in, I asked if it was fair to compare this year's Ohio State freshman class (with greg Oden and Mike Conley among others) with the Fab Five. He responded, "no because we didn't cheat to get them". ZING! He promptly told me I couldn't print that, but I say fuck you Thad Matta because it will live in eternity on this blog.