Seth's 50 Centers

Watching this year’s Ohio State men’s basketball team cut down the nets after beating Memphis in San Antonio tonight brought back a ton of memories.

I was a sophomore during the Buckeyes’ 1999 run through the NCAA tournament that has since been abandoned by the school because of improper benefits given Boban Savovic and Alex Radojovic, a player who never played for the team.

My position with the OSU student radio station gave me a bird’s eye view of the Buckeyes from the hockey press box during the regular season as I called the play-by-play.

In the NCAA tournament, however, I watched from courtside, content to take in the games and get interviews following the games.

The memories of that time haven’t faded a bit, despite the fact the banner no longer resides in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center, and the feat has been erased from the record books.

I went to Indianapolis for the second round game – the first round contest was held the night before a final I had to take – against Detroit. Junior point guard Scoonie Penn had injured his tail bone in the final regular season game at Penn State and was hampered by the injury in the Big Ten Tournament and the first weekend of the NCAA tourney.

Even with Penn not looking like the co-Big Ten player of the year he’d been all year, the Buckeyes got into the Sweet 16.

This wasn’t the team we know from this year, filled with McDonalds All Americans and other top recruits. This OSU squad had gone 8-22 just one season before and even though it had run through the regular season, a near-decade of not making the tournament left a lot of us wondering what this team could do.

I went to Knoxville for the Sweet 16 with some friends. They got tickets through the university while I sat in an overflow media area just behind the scorers’ table at mid court.

Nestled in a seat not 15 feet from me was Charles Barkley, an alumnus of Auburn, the team OSU was playing. That was the one time I got an autograph while wearing a media pass.

The Buckeyes rolled to a victory, meaning they’d play St. John’s in Knoxville two days later. The tournament was such an unknown to us that we really hadn’t planned past that game. We went to a Waffle House after the game and ran into senior Neshaun Coleman’s father, who was on top of the world.

The next day we drove back to Columbus because one of our friends had to work Saturday, while the rest of us were determined to go back to Knoxville.

We made the drive Saturday morning in my roommate’s grandma’s Lexus – and what a smooth ride it was. If you get the chance, I highly recommend it!

At this point I decided to move from my lonely seat behind the scorers’ table to the other side at halfcourt where I was able to sit with former OSU hoopster, and my favorite player growing up, Jay Burson and former Buckeye football player Ryan Miller, both of whom were working for 1460 THE FAN at the time.

We maintained our composure as media members as best we could, but beating the Ron Artest-led Red Storm was a great experience.

Afterward O’Brien and his players danced on the floor while I ran tapes to the WBNS Channel 10 TV truck, all the while appearing in the cameramen’s interview shots!

I also met one of my other heroes growing up while in Knoxville. Reds pbp announcer Marty Brennaman was working as the network radio announcer for the South region, and I took it upon myself to introduce myself to the future hall of famer.

This was important because Brennaman was leaving the arena when he saw me running back and forth to the TV truck.

“Slow down Son,” he told me. I was thrilled to have him remember me, no matter what he said to me!

Another memory of the postgame was the fact I was able to ask a question at every press conference following games during the tournament, something that was really cool because my family back home was able to identify me by my voice while watching at home.

I also remember talking to Boban, and assistant coach Paul Biancardi, outside the locker room. Little did I know that they’d help bring down coach O’Brien, and put a scare into fans of the program that lasted until current coach Thad Matta righted the ship in just a few short years.

I made a postgame call to my grandfather from a telephone on press row, telling him I was standing at midcourt where our team had just clinched a Final Four berth.

Next we were off to Tampa.

This time it was just my roommate, Randy, and me, and this time we borrowed my mom’s Pontiac Grand Prix.

We drove and drove and finally reached the Tampa area, but a broken accelerator cable stalled us on the side of the interstate for several hours.

We ended up in a hotel just off 75, several miles from Tropicana Field.

Over the next few days we secured Randy’s ticket at the box office, along with our friend Sarah’s, and my press pass at the media room.

When I emerged from the dome I saw Randy talking to a man with a stack of cash six-inches high. He was offering my friends upwards of $7,500 for their Final Four seats, which were just 20 rows up foul-line extended.

Sarah wouldn’t budge, even when the scalper offered upper level seats and $4,000. Randy was determined to watch in a sports bar down the street, but she wasn’t about to pass up her chance to sit in the OSU section so close to the court.

One look at my press pass and the jilted broker had a new idea.

“You could get $10,000 for that,” he said.

Only problem was even before 9-11, security was tight and ID was required to get into any tournament related event.

We attended a Yankees Spring Training game at Legends Field, just across from the Tampa Bay Bucs’ Raymond James Stadium. Roger Clemens, entering his first year as a Yankee, pitched six innings of no-hit baseball, something that was exciting to see.

Then came the game.

Randy and I drove north of Clearwater to pick up Sarah from her aunt and uncle’s house, then we drove down to the dome.

Burson came through for me again after my media seat turned out to be just behind the UCONN tuba section, a spot that would be impossible to see the game from. Burson had an extra seat beside him between the three-point line and half court, a great spot to see the game, except the fact the three rows of media tables were so high we couldn’t see the players from the waist down.

We were there, however, and we watched the Buckeyes keep up with the Huskies for much of the game, eventually losing by six points to the eventual national champions.

Randy and I stayed one more night and began heading home, choosing to sell Randy’s championship game ticket and get back to Columbus in time for spring quarter to begin.

The 1999-2000 team was probably the better squad. It was more experienced, obviously, having only lost Coleman and forward Jason Singleton, but it lacked the fire of the ’98-99 team and lost in the second round to Miami.

I’ll always have the memory of that Final Four run, despite the fact the banner has come down, O’Brien was fired and the stain of NCAA violations are still fresh.

It was a magical time, and as fun as this year’s team has been to watch, it can’t replace the experience I had as a student at a school that made the Final Four.