And...the Last Edition from N'Awlins

And, just like that, I'm heading home.

It was quite a game tonight. I'm glad I was here - now I can say that I've been to an NCAA game. (Depending on my future career, I hope I get to go to a lot more.) And it's always great to see the Cougars.

But it was heartbreaking and disappointing. It's such a strange way to end the sports season, to lose one game and all of a sudden it's time to go home. It's especially a strange way to end a college basketball career, for Jimmer, Jackson and Logan.

In the 48 hours I was here, I was very productive. Besides writing five stories for The Daily Universe, I also saw a lot of the French Quarter and the surrounding area.

I like New Orleans a lot. It's definitely got something that no other city has. In a lot of ways it's like Las Vegas. But even if the "hedonistic" lifestyle is the same in both cities, Vegas is sleeker and shinier, more futuristic. New Orleans looks and feels 200 years old, and it's not as clean as Vegas. But that gives it its own appeal.

Today, I spent the morning roaming the French Quarter, looking for BYU fans to talk to and also took a ton of photos. It was a little bit strange being a tourist all alone, I wish Erin and Allisyn were with me. But I saw a lot of cool stuff.

Here's the story I wrote:

New Orleans: A different way of life

And, here's a link to my Facebook photo album with all the photos (I set it so that "Everyone" could see it, so you shouldn't have any trouble accessing it):

N'Awlins!

I'll put some photos here too, just to make my blog pretty:











Then, I walked over to the arena for the game. When I got to my assigned seat, I discovered how lucky I was to be here:

Doesn't get much better than that.

At the media buffet, I met Matt Marheine from The Daily Cardinal, one of Wisconsin's student newspapers. It was great to meet him and chat with him. He even offered to loan his photos of the BYU vs. Florida game to The Daily Universe, which was super nice.

Also before the game, I got my chance to meet Andy Katz. I came up to him and said hi, and that I was the student newspaper guy who Pat Forde talked to. He seemed to remember me from that article. He didn't have anything to say, and I couldn't think of anything. (It was a few minutes before the game, so he was probably a little busy.) So it was a little awkward. Afterward I was thinking, "Duh! I should have told him that I'm a big fan of his and love listening to his podcast and thanks for watching and supporting BYU all year." But, too late. I was awkward. (Now I'll never get a job at ESPN! Just kidding.)

Then it was game time. It was tough to not be vocal! I felt like the team sometimes needed one more voice to cheer for them. But, all in all, the guys worked hard and definitely deserve to be commended, not only for making it to the Sweet 16 but for everything they've done all year.

Of course, even though I was prepared for either a Butler or a Wisconsin preview, now I couldn't use that. Instead, I filled up that newspaper space with an extra story on this being the last game for Jimmer, Jackson and Logan. At the press conference, I asked Jimmer and Jackson about the emotions they were feeling and the thoughts running through their head, and they said a lot of nice things, enough for me to come up with a separate story. It was probably the fastest story I've ever written!

You can see all three stories in Friday's Daily Universe. Or, right here on my blog!

(The link to my BYU fans in New Orleans story is above.)

Sweet ride comes to an end

BYU seniors go out with a memorable season

Oh, I almost forgot: Cory Giger tweeted me to ask if I would be on his show again! This time just to talk about the game. It was pretty cool, and I think the interview went well.

And this one is available online!

Sports Central with Cory Giger 3/24/11 (Go to the 1:02:55 mark to get to my interview.)

Catchin' up in Vegas

Now that the long day is over, I think I'll relax and do a blog update or two.

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First, I'll follow up on my brief stint as a celebrity. Since my last post about it, not too much has happened other than I did the Israel Sports Radio interview with Jasmine Marcus. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to talk to someone who was so interested. You can listen to the interview here (look for "Jumpshots with Jasmine- BYU sports editor JJ Despain, Ari Bluestein, Cornell squash club Dan O’Connor and YU basketball star Jeremy Pressman").

Oh, on my way to Las Vegas I was catching up on my podcasts. And I was sort of mentioned in one! It was the ESPNU College Basketball podcast, with Dana O'Neil and Eamonn Brennan. What was cool was that it was Dana who called me last week, but Eamonn who brought me up in the podcast. It's cool to think of all these people in Bristol talking about me.

Go to the podcast here and go to the 6:47 mark if you want to skip all the way to where I come in.

Also, a couple of friends from the newsroom are involved with a project called "Her Campus: A Collegiette's Guide to Life." It's like Seventeen magazine, but online and for college-age girls. Tiffany, Lauren and Darrian are involved with BYU's HerCampus.com site, and they have a "Campus Celebrities" section (not to be confused with the "Campus Cuties" section, haha). Anyway, Darrian asked me a few questions and I guess I'll be on their site! That should be cool. By being featured on a site somewhat linked to Seventeen, I'm well on my way to Justin Bieber's path to stardom.

The last thing is that I got some feedback from Cory Giger, the DJ at ESPN Radio 1450 AM. He sent me some direct messages on Twitter:

That was nice to hear from him again, although it's too bad he doesn't have that audio available. And it's nice that, even though he doesn't like the Honor Code, he's respectable about it.

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This weekend, I'm in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament. I'm here as a sports columnist representing The Daily Universe. And I've already cranked out three editorials!

1) Not down and out, just turning out

This one I wrote literally in the van while we were pulling into Las Vegas. I was very impressed to see how many BYU students were planning on coming to the tournament and supporting their Cougars, instead of writing off the season after the Brandon Davies announcement and the embarrassing New Mexico loss that followed.

2) Rams win would be a Cougars win too

Yesterday and this morning I was probably thinking more about the Colorado State vs. New Mexico game than the BYU vs. TCU game, to be honest. For some reason I've just been really intrigued by coach Tim Miles and the Rams this season. I was rooting for them to get into the NCAA Tournament, although it looks now like they've definitely missed that chance.

Anyway, I wrote this viewpoint to discuss how Colorado State could win against New Mexico (and why that would be good for us). I knew that the viewpoint would only be relevant for about six hours, haha. In fact, I don't know if it was ever published on the website, just on my blog. But I wrote it for fun, and now you guys can read it if you're interested.

3) Back on track to break the curse of the Lobos

This is what I wrote after it turned out Colorado State lost to New Mexico (after a really good fight). During both the BYU game and the Colorado State game, I was sort of struggling to think of what to write. But this is what I finally came up with. Hits newsstands in about six hours, but you can read it here first!

And it's too bad Colorado State didn't win, because I wrote two different beginnings to my editorial so that I would be ready for either outcome and I liked my Colorado State winning one better:

The Colorado State Rams overcame the New Mexico Lobos __-__ yesterday, even though they trailed about __ percent of the game.

Around the 12-minute mark in the second half, Wes Eikmeier made a big three that kept the Lobos from running away with a win. Eikmeier's shot was followed by a steal and breakaway layup from Pierce Hornung to take back the lead and make the score 47-46. ... New Mexico kept the game close, very close. The Lobos even grabbed the lead __ more times. But CSU coach Tim Miles and his Rams persevered and kept their finesse until the final buzzer.

While the Rams celebrated their miracle win, BYU was probably celebrating just as much.

During the conference season, BYU swept every team in the league but could not get past New Mexico. Fortunately for Cougar Nation, Colorado State nicely pushed them out of the way for us.

The Week of Davies

I am rapidly becoming the national media's resident expert on the BYU Honor Code.

The announcement came Tuesday night that Brandon Davies, BYU's third leading scorer, would be suspended for the rest of this season because of an Honor Code violation.

I was actually on my way to a Real Salt Lake match when it happened. I had never been to one, and I thought I'd take a chance to go before I graduate and no longer can represent The Daily Universe. (I still need to get to a Jazz game.) Anyway, here's the story I did (didn't end up making it into the paper, haha):

Real Salt Lake makes history

Anyway, back to the basketball bad news. I knew immediately that I would write a viewpoint on it on Wednesday. But it turns out I would be depended on for a lot more.

I was in the DU newsroom when there was a call on the phone for me. It was none other than Pat Forde of ESPN.com. He was looking for a campus perspective on the Davies news, and after calling somewhere at BYU was eventually routed to the campus newspaper and then to me. Forde used some of what I had to say in a column:

BYU puts principle over performance

Pretty cool to see my name on ESPN.com!

Then, I wrote my editorial, which is in today's paper:

Honoring the Code

As I was leaving the newsroom, I saw that an e-mail came from Deseret News looking for someone to do a campus story for them. I decided I was too busy, but I handed it over to our man Chuck Krebs who did a great job.

Fans' reaction to Brandon Davies suspension
(We had it in The Daily Universe too, but it looks like it's not on the website yet.)

The rest of the night I stayed in a pretty depressive state while I watched the game.

This morning, I saw that I had a Facebook message from Jasmine Marcus, who introduced herself as the host of Jumpshots with Jasmine, a radio show at Israel Sports Radio based out of Jerusalem. How 'bout that, huh? After going back and forth, I'm scheduled to be on Jasmine's radio show next Tuesday at 9 a.m. MST. From the looks of the website, it looks like you'll be able to listen there, if not live then at least soon after. Be sure to listen in!

Then, today at work, I got a call on my cell phone from Dana O'Neil, another ESPN.com writer. She wasn't writing anything else, she said she just had some questions out of curiosity. She said she got my number from Pat Forde, and that I've become ESPN's go-to guy about the Honor Code.

After that, I got a call from Cory Giger, a DJ for ESPN Radio 1450 AM in State College, PA. I wanted to call me back about a half hour later to go live on his radio show out there. Even though I wasn't too nervous to talk to Pat Forde, Jasmine Marcus, or Dana O'Neil, I was a little nervous to be on live radio. But excited at the same time. Then, I looked him up on Twitter, and he seemed like he might have some animosity toward the Honor Code and maybe toward me. So I got nervous again. Fortunately though, if he had any animosity he didn't express any of that toward me. It went well.

(One interesting question, and probably the most confrontational: He asked me what percentage of students I would predict are out having sex even though they did sign the Honor Code. I told him I know the sex and the alcohol exists around here, but to be honest I wouldn't even know where to look for it. Maybe I just don't know where to look, but I really think it's minimal around here.)

Unfortunately, I don't know where to listen to it online. The 1450 AM website is very outdated. It looks like it might show up at this UStream site eventually, but so far I haven't seen anything. I'll be sure to spread the word the moment I know.

So, even with a website and two radio shows down, that wasn't the end.

Now, there's a possibility I might be on TV.

I got a Facebook message from Sheryll Lamothe from Inside Edition. From what I know about Inside Edition, it seems a kind of gossipy, E! channel style of journalism. But Sheryll was very respectful and interested in what I had to say. She said she read my Daily Universe editorial and was interested in interviewing me for the show. All she has done so far is put me on her list of possible interviews, so nothing is set up yet. And I'm not sure how I would be on TV unless someone from Inside Edition comes to Provo. I guess that will come up later. Anyway, I'm on a TV producer's list!

As far as my actual thoughts on the whole situation, it's basically summed up in my Daily Universe editorial. There's not a whole lot to add other than that.

Originally, I thought that although Davies will be missed, I didn't think it was enough to change game outcomes. We might win by less, or lose by more, but I didn't think it would change Ws to Ls and vice versa.

But after last night, that view might not be accurate. The game against New Mexico was pretty atrocious. I don't think it was a direct result of Davies being missing, but probably indirectly. The whole team was pretty dead. And I don't blame them, I felt pretty dead too. (It doesn't help either that New Mexico was doing really well.) I hope the team can shake this off soon.