Madness Comes To The Music City

Friday night was full of madness. I am talking about the tournament of course and not the hoard of zombie like hoard of intoxicated people leaving Broadway every night. Friday was a fun day full of great games. I left my hotel after watching much of the Purdue game on TV with the thought of shooting some of the 2nd half of the Cincinnati game against Georgia State. I went out for the start of the 2nd half, and stayed for a decent portion of that half. I was only going to shoot a bit of the Nevada and Texas game, but it ended up being so good I stayed for the entire game. That includes the overtime period that you knew would happen. I then shot my game for Xavier, and then went out for a very quick portion of the Missouri and Florida State game. At the end of that day I was actually tired of shooting sports which does not happen very often. Here is a look at some of the fun from the games not including my Xavier game. If you want to read about that game you can click back to yesterday’s post.

Cincinnati vs. Georgia State

For a minute I thought that I might be seeing another epic upset. A #15 over a #2 seed was the highest that had ever been done in the tournament at that time. Of course we all know that fact changed later that night at another site. Cincinnati is from the same town as Xavier, but I don’t think that there is much crossover with the fans. It does make it nice for the Enquirer the local paper as they could send both photographers to the same site to really cover the event. In the end Cincinnati was too much for Georgia State, and moved on.

Nevada vs. Texas

When I went back to the media room at the half of this game I thought that there was no way that Nevada would win this game. They just didn’t look that into it. They of course proved me wrong by winning the game in overtime. It was a great comeback full of the emotion that you would expect during March Madness.

Missouri vs. Florida State

This was a game that I was not too excited to shoot. I knew that it should be a good game, but I was not inspired to shoot it. I shot a little bit during the first half before packing it up and heading back to the hotel. At the end of the day it was not a competitive game anyway so I don’t think that I missed too much.

Seeing Cuonzo Martin Again

Part of the draw of shooting for a while was seeing Cuonzo Martin on the sideline again. He of course was a Boilermaker player and part of Matt Painter’s first coaching staff at Purdue. I have always rooted for him, and I want to see him do well. It is really amazing just what kind of a ride he has been on since leaving Purdue. I hope that he found a place to stay in Missouri.

Another Look At Kendall Stephens

Kendall was always a favorite of mine while at Purdue. He had a smooth style of play that photographed well. It was cool seeing him fill up the nets again. For a while I thought that I might be watching his last game in college, but the comeback made sure that I will see him play again today.