A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Men's Basketball Final Four

As everyone knows the Division I Men's Basketball Final Four was held in Indianapolis this past weekend. The event is the culmination of "March Madness" as the 65-team men's field is ultimately whittled down to one national champion. This year featured an exciting title game that came down to a last-second half court shot.



What you may not know is all the other stuff that goes on behind-the-scenes. The Final Four is more than just a basketball game. For example, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) has its national convention in the host city each year and nearly every basketball coach in the country (at all divisions) comes to network, participate in meetings and look for jobs.

You will also find organizations that host awards ceremonies to give away National Player and Coach of the Year awards like the Naismith, USBWA and Rupp Awards. So seeing Ohio State's Evan Turner, Kentucky's John Wall or Syracuse's John Boeheim (some of this year's award winners) - even though they were not participating in the Final Four with their teams - is definitely not out of the ordinary.

With representatives from every conference in town, ESPN holds meetings with leagues to talk about television deals and games that will be broadcast for the upcoming year. Conferences also hold meetings with their administrators and/or basketball coaches, and different groups (like league commissioners) get together to share ideas and go through agenda items.

With so many people in one downtown location, you are bound to bump into some celebrities too, whether it be former players like Magic Johnson, or media "celebrities" like Dick Vitale, Stephen A. Smith, Jim Nantz or CBS College Sports announcer Wally Szczerbiak (pictured).




As a conference media relations director, I was credentialed and helped out with the media operations for the event, including credential distribution as well as numerous activities related to the games. More specifically I helped with player participant seating on Saturday and on Monday I was a band liaison for the post game awards celebration.



It takes a lot of people to run a championship event as big as the Final Four, so being a small part of that is a fulfilling thing, especially since I will need lots of help in 2014 when the Ohio Valley Conference hosts the Division I Women's Final Four in Nashville.



So what were some of the highlights of the weekend? Getting to work and share ideas with fellow conference administrators is always great, as is the chance to talk to a lot of national media members face-to-face, something I rarely get to do during the year. I also got to meet Butler Blue II (right), the real-life Butler University bulldog mascot; what a handsome fellow Blue is and very well-behaved too. Butler Blue II is a busy boy as he has his own Twitter, Blog and Webcam. If you have some time, I suggest you check them out.

Also did you know the Final Four was shot and broadcast (in select movie theaters) in 3-D this year? 3-D seems to be the "next big thing" as it is already in most movies theaters and now TV shows and sports are trying to broadcast things in the technology.

Pictured to the left is one of the 3-D camera used to record the Final Four this year. This camera was behind the basket and weights nearly 75 pounds. It was quite impressive to see in person.


Finally below are just some of the other photos I was able to capture. They were taken with my BlackBerry, so they are high-resolution, but hopefully they give you an idea of some of the things that went on at Lucas Oil Stadium.


A view from the floor (in an empty Lucas Oil) prior to Monday's Championship Game. This was right before the trophy presentation practice. Although it is small, that is former OVC Sr. Associate Commissioner Ron English, who is now the NCAA's Director of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

This is a view from the media overflow seats on Saturday night. This was the first row of permanent seating behind the Duke student section. Notice the huge CBS camera on a crane. These were actually pretty good seats.