Reconnecting with 70s Demons

Turns out Marquette basketball coach Tom Crean had a former Demon who helped him climb the career ladder.

Crean worked on the coaching staff at Alma College under Ralph Pim, who was an assistant coach at NSU under Tynes Hildebrand in the late 1970s.

Pim is now intramural sports coordinator at the United States Military Academy. Yes, at West Point, where every cadet not involved in intercollegiate athletics is required to participate in intramural activities each weekday afternoon at 4.

Pim spent breakfast Saturday at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center with Demons coach Mike McConathy and staff, remembering his days in Natchitoches and talking basketball. He was extrememly disappointed to learn that Friday's blizzard denied him the chance to reconnect with former Demon assistant coach Derwood Duke, whose plans to attend the Marquette tournament were scrapped by the storm.

Pim and trainer Ed Evans spent time telling Eugene Christmas stories. Pim left in 1978 and Evans arrived as a graduate assistant trainer a year later.

Pim and Crean stay in contact. Pim flew in for the weekend tournament to see four good games and to check out the Demons.

Also during breakfast, the Demon coaches visited with a couple of their counterparts from North Dakota State, which will play Marquette tonight in the tournament championship game. There were naturally some strategic exchanges since NDSU beat Princeton, who the Demons face this evening, and conversation about the vast contrast in styles in the two semifinals. NDSU doesn't attack, but Princeton simply plods with its pass-heavy, screening offensive sets that chew time off the clock. After watching that game, the NSU-Marquette contest looked like it was in fast forward mode.

BTW, Marquette staffers and media covering the Golden Eagles were surprised and impressed by the Demons. Surprised that NSU would run and press against Marquette, and impressed with the depth, fearlessness, tenacity and athleticism the Demons displayed. Pim and the NDSU coaches echoed those sentiments Saturday morning.

Former Demons forward Rob Sutherland (1973-76), a Hales Corners, Wis., native and resident, was behind the NSU bench for the Marquette game. He visited Shreveport last year to attend the wedding of former NSU teammate Bill McKellar's daughter, and met Coach Mike at the event. When the Demons showed up on the Marquette schedule, Sutherland got in touch with McKellar and then McConathy and was impressed with the depth and athleticism of the Demons in their game against the nation's No. 8-ranked team.

Sutherland was recruited to NSU by Jack Hearron, another Hildebrand assistant. Hearron works at the Oklahoma School for Math and Science in Norman, and reunites with the Demons each time NSU plays at his alma mater, Oklahoma State. Hearron became close with the McConathy family when he recruited Mike, albeit unsuccessfully, in the early 1970s. Hearron played for legendary coach Henry Iba at OSU, just as his dad did.

There IS such a thing as ...

… a free lunch.

The Demon basketball team found out the nice way today, thanks to the havoc created by Milwaukee’s worst blizzard in two years.

The storm passed, ironically, just after the Demons were the beneficiaries of kindness from the Wisconsin Laywers, the state bar of Wisconsin. The group was hosting a tax law seminar at our hotel, the Hilton City Center, but hardly anyone who was supposed to attend could make it.

The bar association had a wonderful buffet luncheon set up outside its meeting room. The few folks who were able to attend enjoyed their lunch. Meanwhile, the Demons rolled back into the hotel lobby after their midday shootaround at the Bradley Center, site of tonight’s game.

Timing is everything. Somebody around the front desk asked our coaches if the team would want some free food that was going to be otherwise thrown away, and explained the circumstance. It wasn't a tough decision.

Our very gracious hosts were Dennis Price, the media coordinator for Wisconsin Lawyers; Timothy A. Clark, the group's program attorney; and administrative assistant Anita Klan.

It was an unexpected surprise that filled the gap created when the tournament luncheon, scheduled for noon, was cancelled due to the storm.

It was more enjoyable to meet some wonderful Wisconsin folks whose kindness came out of the blue -- er, white drifts of snow blowing through downtown.

The Demons were very relaxed at their shootaround and had a great practice Thursday morning before leaving Natchitoches. Let's hope it translates into a super game tonight against Marquette!

Blizzard Warning

The phrase "Blizzard Warning" is what the Demons awoke to this morning.

The very biting, cold wind had been replaced by what local news stations are referring to as the worst storm in more than two years in Milwaukee. Schools are closed, businesses closing and the snow is falling at 1-1/2 inches per hour. The wind is hitting 40 mph and the wind chill is 15 degrees.

The picture at the top is a shot from my hotel window in downtown Milwaukee early this morning. I hope you can see the snow falling vertically like rain.

The good news for the Demons as they get set to take on Marquette tonight is that the Bradley Center is just a few blocks away, so if necessary, we can slide our way over there, literally.

The National Weather Service just issued a warning saying that "if you go outside, you go at the risk of your own life."

Wow.

March Madness Extends Into November

At Northwestern State, advertising is not measured in millions of households or millions of dollars, it is measured in hundreds or thousands of dollars and thousands of households.

And yet, in advertising and television circles, you hear about the millions of households watching a given program, ratings and shares. None of that has really meant anything to NSU…until now.

With Jermaine Wallace’s shot as THE defining play of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, everyone around the athletic department at NSU knew that the benefits would be impressive. The $107,000 to the general scholarship fund. The countless mentions, front page stories and even the domination of the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage at the end of the tournament.

But surely the good pub will stop there.

It has not.

CBS has begun airing a promo for its NCAA Tournament coverage. Who gets mentioned? Of course George Mason, the Cinderella of all Cinderellas that made it to the Final Four. The Florida Gators? Of course, they won the national championship. The only other team very noticeably included in the highlight?

The Northwestern State Demons with Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery’s call of “Oh my goodness, Northwestern wins!”

The Demons are in that commercial at least three times (Tyronn Mitchell jumping, the Demons jumping on the sideline, a sideline shot of Mike McConathy clapping with the team celebrating the comeback behind him).

The reason I began this story talking about ratings? Because the CBS NCAA promo was running during the NFL coverage on CBS. The NFL is a runaway juggernaut of ratings, with almost every sports fan in America watching. So the fact that the promo runs during that time means that tens of millions of people see NSU again.

No longer can the NSU athletic department talk about buying a billboard in Natchitoches or putting a radio spot on the local airwaves without realizing that with one stirring comeback and one miracle shot, anything they can pay for would be dwarfed by something they didn’t have to buy.

And as anyone in advertising will tell you, the more people who see you the better, the lower the price the better.

Being able to advertise to millions of people for free? Priceless.

Stillwater first, now Louisville

The week long road trip with the Demon basketball team continued as we loaded up a Continental Express plane and flew from Oklahoma City to Houston, then Houston to Louisville Thursday afternoon.

The three days we're spending in Louisville began with a night practice on the UL campus in the volleyball gym. Freedom Hall, the home of the Cardinals, is not available due to a cattle show being held until Friday.

On Friday morning, the team loaded up into three vans and headed for nearby Seneca High School where the team practiced from 7:30 a.m. to 9. What was interesting about this practice, nearly 200 of the school's students filled the bleachers to watch the Demons go through their preparations for Saturday's contest.

Demetrius Bell joined the team later Friday morning after playing in the Demons' final football game of the season Thursday night at Stephen F. Austin.

On Friday afternoon, Patrick Netherton and myself headed to Churchill Downs to catch some live horse racing. After that, the team loaded up and headed off into different directions.

One group when with Coach Mike to Bowling Green and to the Corvette assembly plant while the other crew jumped in the vans with Coach Slessinger and Coach Moore to visit the Muhammad Ali Museum.

The team gathered for a meal at a local buffet restaurant for dinner before studying films for Saturday's game.

A local television station ran an interview with UL head coach Rick Pitino during its six o'clock sports segment, and this is what Pitino said about the Demons...

"This is definitely the toughest team I've played in a season opener in my 32 years of coaching."