Basketball Inches Closer On Numerous Fronts and More (submitted by Jason Plotkin, Oct. 8)
With basketball season right around the corner, numerous preparations are going on behind the scenes as it relates to our gameday operations. Wags and I have been in and out of the Lakefront Arena several times this week focused on these preparations. While the details of our work at the building may sound boring to you, what may excite a few of you is that the basketball court is holding down it's rightful spot on the floor of the facility.
The only thing missing when looking out onto the court is the goals on both ends of the court. It's not like anyone needs those, right? Don't worry, they are not too far away from where we will see them in just a few shorts weeks. For now, they are tucked away behind the scenes. What will stand out when one steps into the building and takes their first look at the hardwood is the Privateer logo head at center court, the Lakefront Arena's new logo and the designation of the court as "Corchiani Court".
If something else looks a bit new, that's probably the new three-point arc for the men at 20'9", a foot back from where it used to be. The women's arc is still at 19'9". To help ease confusion for our teams with the modified look beyond the arc, both the men and women have the new lines also painted on their practice court.
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Some more basketball news. SBC Extra, which is the official broadband channel of the conference, will be producing a live web show free of charge from Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Arkansas during the 2008 Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tip-Off (also known as conference media day).
The show which will air from 12-5 p.m on Monday, Oct. 13 and from 9-11 a.m on Tuesday, Oct. 14 will feature interviews with all the coaches from around the conference, as well as the league's commissioner, Wright Waters. At this point, a coaches' interview schedule has not been made available, but I will update this blog if it does, so you know when to keep tabs for appearances by Coach Pasternack and Coach Champion. Mitch Hyder, who does an excellent job of calling games for the Denver Pioneers will be serving as the interviewer.
UPDATE: Coach Pasternack is scheduled to talk to Mitch from
2:50-3:05 p.m while Coach Champion is slated for 5-5:15 p.m. Both of those are on Monday. Coach
Pasternack will also appear on the Jay Walker radio show based out of
Lafayette, La. from 3:36 p.m until 3:43 p.m, also on Monday. The show streams on the
ESPN 1420 web site at http://www.espn1420.com
Speaking of the two head coaches, we're less than a month away from the debut of the UNO Basketball Hour. Starting on Nov. 3, the program will take place live from Lafitte's Cafe at 6325 Elysian Fields on Monday nights from 7-8 p.m. There will be a few weeks when the program will take place on Tuesday to allow our coaches to perform their job on the sidelines either at Lakefront Arena or on the road, but we'll keep you abreast of those down the road. The show can be heard on the home of Privateer athletics, WGSO 990 AM or via the world wide web at http://www.wgso.com.
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If you have an excuse to take off work early this Friday and call it a weekend around the lunch time hour, make sure to join us at the Privateer swimming and diving dual against Incarnate Word at 12 p.m, taking place at the Reilly Center at Tulane.
We are presently working through technical issues associated being at an unfamiliar setting, that if we can work through, will allow us to stream the dual. You'll just have to check back with UNOPrivateers.com later in the week to verify whether or not we will be streaming.
UPDATE: No streaming as the technical side of things were not in our favor. Our goal is to stream as many home duals as possible, pending conflicts with other athletic events, when the Privateers get back into Lakefront Aquatic Center. I will be bringing my lap top and hope to 'live blog', if possible so our far-reaching fans can have something to follow LIVE on UNOPrivateers.com.
Looking through the records again this week, this may be the first time we've seen a UNO Privateer compete in diving since spring 1989. Rob Broussard was commenting a few weeks ago that we now have athletes from the 1990s amongst us our department. Well, this probably doesn't hit home more than the fact that divers Jonathan Field, Johnny DeMaine, Paige Chauvin and Kelly Swartzbaugh were still not born the last time we had a Privateer diver. Good thing we have diving now though as instead of a 32-0 deficit in giving up two events on each side, we now have a strong diving unit under diving coach Richard Marschner.
Admission is free to the dual, though it may cost a few dollars to park at the Diboll Complex relatively close to Reily Center. You can find Diboll at the intersection of Ben Weiner Drive and McAlister.
On that note, the first of several planned interviews on UNO Vision was done this past week as Wags interviewed head coach Randy Horner. Look for more of these as we'll include other head coaches plus some student-athletes, administrators and anyone else we can get our hands on!
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If you thought he was good calling basketball and baseball, Mike "Wags" Wagenheim will lend his voice to volleyball beginning with Thursday night's contest against South Alabama at the Human Performance Center in a broadcast, exclusively on UNOPrivateers.com.
Wags will be joined by Adam Stowe, our Privateer Athletic Foundation head, as his color commentator for the contest against the Jags. This is the first of several broadcasts that Wags will do in-conjunction with our UNO Vision games outside of what has been his comfortable setting of hoops and baseball.
Hopefully, Wags will point the crowd mic at the swimming and diving team, who will be attendance. If you recall from our home match against Nicholls State, the 36 or so athletes from that Privateer program definitely created a home advantage as our Privateers swept the Colonels from right down the road.
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Our athletic department picked up a new employee this week as a familiar face for me has moved in next door. While she may be new to those in our office, Paula Picker, was a co-worker of mine during my time as athletic director at the New Orleans Jewish Community Center. Paula, who will be taking over for Khasmir Price in our Coordinator of Administrative Services position, spent 28 years at the JCC, most of which was served in an administrative role.
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According to a recent blog by the Sun Belt Conference, a Sun Belt segment will be airing every Wednesday on "The Fox 8 Sports Daily". Per the release, fans can tune into WVUE-DT (channel 115 on Cox cable and 8.2 over the air) at 6 p.m on Wednesdays. Different topics around the conference will be discussed in addition to highlights of past week performances. The show will re-air at 8 p.m and 10 p.m.
Worth mentioning the Sun Belt is also getting into the "student-athlete spotlight business" by featuring serveral student-athletes on their main page. In order to further promote the hard work of our student-athletes, we've let them share our most recent feature story on volleyball player Jaci Bayley and if they have not by the time you read this, soon enough swimmer Sarah Gros. Thanks to Travis Llewellyn, who heads up electronic media at the SBC office for making this happen.
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That's all for now -- hopefully you will join me in taking in a full slate of Privateer athletics this weekend. Volleyball on Thursday at 7 p.m and Sunday at noon at the Human Performance Center with a swimming and diving dual on Friday at noon.
We'll see you again next week after I get back from SBC Media Days in Hot Springs, Ark!
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