Sectional Semifinals Highlights From Friday

It was upset Friday.  Princeton, Castle, and Memorial all go down.  I love sportscast like this.  Lots of action.

Watch Condensed Broadcast of Washington at Princeton

I edited down the highlights of our broadcast of the Princeton vs. Washington Game. For those of you who missed it or want to see it again.

Enjoy!

Princeton Edges Washington in First RTV25 Basketball Broadcast

What a fantastic night Friday in Princeton.  Everything came together perfectly making our first ever high school basketball broadcast on RTV25 a great success.  Two great teams, a two point game, major DI coaches in attendance, a rocking atmosphere, and some great hospitality made for a wonderful evening.

I was pretty stressed last week getting ready for the game.  I had not done basketball play by play since 2000.  Basketball is so drastically different from football.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t call the game like it was on radio, but at the same time I didn’t want to have too many times with dead air.  I studied pretty hard all week on both teams.

I also really emphasized to myself to slow down.  My brain gets going so fast with thoughts and my mouth can’t ever catch up.  I then end up trying to say too much and overloading the senses.

The setup at Princeton’s gym was really great.  Our camera angles were spot on.  Our production switcher and crew were in a room behind the bleachers and connected to the concession stand.  They really did a nice job.  Our director was Dale Williams.  He did not do the football games so this was his first time to direct.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with TV, the director is the person in charge of the whole broadcast.  He calls out all of the shots, sets all of the camera angles, and makes sure to capture the atmosphere of the game.  I really liked all of the crowd, bench, and coach cutaways. 

The game was really a nice piece of old-fashioned Hoosier Hysteria.  The class system has really erased many atmospheres like the one we had on Friday night.  There were fans trying to get into the gym at 3:30pm when I got there!  No joke.  There was a police officer trying to keep fans from rushing in the doors!  They didn’t even sell tickets to the game.  It was a sellout, and there really was no way to walk up and get inside, so I hope in that sense our broadcast helped. 

Randall and I were right smack dab in the bleachers with the fans.  It made it cramped and warm, but I liked it because it gave us a great feel for the game.  We were directly behind Princeton coach Tom Weeks and we could hear everything he was telling his guys.

The play was great at times, and sloppy at others.  Selfishly, I wish Cody Zeller wasn’t in foul trouble.  I really enjoyed watching him play.  I did think two of his fouls were pretty weak.  The loose ball foul, and the blocking foul.  However, that is a part of the game, and you have to credit Princeton for being aggressive.  Overall the refs did a nice job, and I hope the one who got hurt is OK.

Jalen Packer was extremely impressive.  He has a great size in his upper body for being just a junior.  It was fun watching Purdue’s Matt Painter in the corner after Packer made a nice play.  We were told that recruiters from Purdue, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Butler, and Evansville were there.

I was glad Dontray Chavis got into the game.  He was a real sparkplug off the bench.  He was aggressive on both ends of the court.

On the TV side, I was pretty happy the way things went.  I think the only snafu was Randall’s headset went out in the second quarter.  Our replays were fantastic.  Kyle Peach brought over an awesome computer DVR machine from Wabash Valley College that really made the broadcast better.

We have gotten amazing feedback from the community on the broadcast.  I have forwarded all of your emails to my bosses.  Those emails are great ammunition for me to talk them into doing more games so keep them coming!

Finally, a big thank you to Princeton’s Andy Elkins, Tom Weeks, and Washington’s Gene Miiller…and really for that matter to a whole lot of people that I met Friday night.  The hospitality was overwhelming.  Everyone went the extra mile to make sure we had everything we need.  Thanks to everyone on our crew too.  The camera work by our four camera operators was fantastic.  The engineers made it all go without a hitch. 

Congrats to the Tigers on a 2 point win.  I hope we can do it all again very soon!