As the NCAA tournament was being announced the Salt Lake media was huddled around an open car window, trying to catch a glimpse of the selection show on a computer that was on Deseret News sports writer Dirk Facer’s lap.
So, this was the beginning of the madness.
The Utes held a private viewing of the selection show at Larry Krystkowiak’s Sandy home on Sunday. There, the Utes learned they were a fifth seed and off to play Stephen F Austin in Portland. The Utah Athletics Department quickly posted a reaction video that showed the Utes happily clapping and cheering their at-large selection into the tournament.
As this moment was happening, dozens of media members were standing outside the home of the Utah coach, either watching the show on Facer’s laptop, or feverishly checking Twitter for updates. It was, in a word, odd.
Just three years ago it would have been hard to get that many media members at a game, let alone spend an afternoon standing outside waiting for comment.
We sat there as children stared at us from the doorway, banging pots in celebration of the selection and flashing some U’s. There were moments that I literally felt like a zoo animal. Was this payback for all the times we pushed a camera, or recorder in Krystkowiak’s face?
In time, Krystkowiak emerged from the house and took questions from the waiting media.
“It’s a great day to be a Ute,” the coach said. “We were sitting down in the basement and everybody’s really excited its been a long process for four years and its a heck of an opportunity for us.”
It’s been six years since Utah last put on its dancing shoes, and since then the Utes have gone through a complete overhaul with a new coach and new culture.
“It’s just amazing to be a part of a big turnaround,” junior Brandon Taylor said.
Out of high school, Taylor committed to a team that had won six games, but over the course of his three years, he has helped wipe that year away from a lot of Ute fans’ memories.
The Utes will now try to wipe Friday’s Pac-12 semifinal crushing defeat away from theirs, and they got off to a good start on Saturday.
After getting their hearts ripped out by Oregon guard Joseph Young’s 35-foot bomb, the Utes were relaxing their cares away at the MGM Grand pool on Saturday. The unwinding day was necessary.
“I had to go to sleep and wake and it still stung me that day,” Taylor said about the loss to Oregon. “I sat by the pool and just relaxed and my little brothers came and I just played with them all day and I wasn’t really thinking about it too much after that.”
As he shouldn’t, because the big tournament has come, and the Utes’ slate has once again been wiped clean. Utah is invited to the Big Dance and the madness is about to commence.
“If you told me I could only have a TV for a month, I’d need it starting Thursday, and give it to you when the Masters are over,” Krystkowiak said. “This is a pretty magical time of year, as we all know and I think its one of the best sporting events there is, so to be in the conversation with that is pretty darn special.”
So special it got a bunch of people to leave their own homes to stand outside a house, and maybe even question some of their own life decisions.
I guess March brings with it some media madness too.
@millerjryan