Spring Break
Inside the locker room circus
Media day turns the Huskies locker room into a sideshow
Mike Cardillo
Issue date: 3/18/02 Section: Sports
WASHINGTON -- The UConn Huskies locker room is usually like a zoo -- reporters mobbing players, television cameras prodding everywhere and the ever-present smell of 17 pairs of sweat socks after 40 minutes of game use.
Saturday afternoon on the NCAA sanctioned media day, their locker room turned into a circus. There may not have been any trapeze artists, tightrope walkers or man-eating tigers (save for player's tattoos) but there were enough clowns present to make P.T. Barnum proud.
I'm not much of a showman, but here's my account of the scene anyway.
A seemingly endless supply of reporters swarmed around the Huskies' ringmaster Caron Butler. They proceeded to block him into his cube-like locker like an animal trainer would use a chair to force a lion into the corner of his cage. (Butler still handled it like the class act that he is, although you could tell by the sixth or seventh, "Are you guys more prepared after beating Hampton?" his patience was beginning to wear.)
On media day, arrogant television talking heads were pushing their way past everyone else just to get a nine second sound bite and carrying themselves in a manner reserved for P. Diddy and foreign head of state.
Provincial reporters from Raleigh, N.C. wearing NC State sweaters were asking blockmaster Emeka Okafor questions ranging from when his parents came to America from Nigeria, to why he takes academics so seriously, to who his favorite player on the Houston Oilers was growing up. (North Carolina State's Haywood Jefferies, in case you were wondering. Also, every southerner reporter called pronounced Emeka, "Emeeka." It got really annoying.)
Bizarrely enough at the same time assistant coach George Blaney was telling a reporter from Wisconsin about his home in Vernon, Conn.
While all this madness was going on, CBS sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein quietly interviewed Taliek Brown in a secluded corner gathering background info for Sunday's telecast.
Saturday afternoon on the NCAA sanctioned media day, their locker room turned into a circus. There may not have been any trapeze artists, tightrope walkers or man-eating tigers (save for player's tattoos) but there were enough clowns present to make P.T. Barnum proud.
I'm not much of a showman, but here's my account of the scene anyway.
A seemingly endless supply of reporters swarmed around the Huskies' ringmaster Caron Butler. They proceeded to block him into his cube-like locker like an animal trainer would use a chair to force a lion into the corner of his cage. (Butler still handled it like the class act that he is, although you could tell by the sixth or seventh, "Are you guys more prepared after beating Hampton?" his patience was beginning to wear.)
On media day, arrogant television talking heads were pushing their way past everyone else just to get a nine second sound bite and carrying themselves in a manner reserved for P. Diddy and foreign head of state.
Provincial reporters from Raleigh, N.C. wearing NC State sweaters were asking blockmaster Emeka Okafor questions ranging from when his parents came to America from Nigeria, to why he takes academics so seriously, to who his favorite player on the Houston Oilers was growing up. (North Carolina State's Haywood Jefferies, in case you were wondering. Also, every southerner reporter called pronounced Emeka, "Emeeka." It got really annoying.)
Bizarrely enough at the same time assistant coach George Blaney was telling a reporter from Wisconsin about his home in Vernon, Conn.
While all this madness was going on, CBS sideline reporter Bonnie Bernstein quietly interviewed Taliek Brown in a secluded corner gathering background info for Sunday's telecast.