musings from dayton

Greetings from Dayton, where we’re about 17 hours from OSU tipping off with Pitt. I’m sitting in my hotel room half watching Gonzaga-Western Kentucky and wishing I could watch the Texas-Duke game as well. Why is it that all the good games have been on so late?
Anyway, the only action from Dayton today was press conference action, and there wasn’t much terribly interesting or exciting said, to be honest. This is what happens when guys are meeting with the media for the third time in about 48 hours. I was actually working on a story for Sunday about Travis Ford’s family, so I was glad not to be relying on what was said in the interview rooms.
OSU’s press conference was a lot of questions from visiting/national media about Ford and how his players have adapted to him and vice versa. Basically, the stories all of us in the local media have been writing since last April. It’s always strange when you know exactly how a guy is going to answer a question because you’ve already asked it before. And of course Pitt big man DeJuan Blair was a hot topic, and the Blake Griffin comparisons were flying around. Ford’s general message was that OSU is going to have to play a near-perfect game to beat the No. 1 seeded Panthers.
On the Pitt side, it was interesting to see Levance Fields a little irritated by questions about his injured groin. The point guard declared that “I told you yesterday I’m 100 percent, so I’m 100 percent today.” His performances in the Big East Tournament and Pitt’s first round game tell different stories as the senior pg had more turnovers than usual in those games.
OK, gotta catch the last three minutes of this Texas game.
by andrea cohen