Back from break

Good to be back after a few restful days over spring break. Coming to you from the baseball game, the third of the Big East opening weekend for the Bulls. Connecticut and USF have split the first two games, and right now at the top of the second there is no score with Davis Billardello on the mound. Unfortunately, I was not able to attended the women’s first NCAA Tournament game tonight against USC. That turned out to be a real downer early in my week.
A few more game details later, but here’s a few leftover notes I have:

— The watch party for the Women’s Selection Show on Monday was, to put it lightly, a lot of fun to attend. I was at the selection show for the men’s soccer team in November, and while the guys were a little more certain about getting in than the women, the men were still happy to get into the tourney.
The women, on the other hand, seemed to be having the time of their lives, and they were only in the Big East room. Not that I’m trying to take anything away from the men’s soccer team, but the women sang and cheered to celebrate four and a half months of work coming to a fold. Being in that room, you couldn’t help but feel how the women felt. Covering them for the past two seasons now, they are the types of athletes who make covering sports fun.

— I’ve been reading Jessica Dickson’s blog, which is available to everyone on the USF Athletics Web site. She’s posted for the past two days the women have been in Norfolk, Va., and I’ve got to say, she laughs out loud (LOL) at lot. It’s actually pretty interesting, especially the note about the team getting quizzed on the game film they watch daily. Makes you wish she’d been blogging all season or that another athlete — possibly a football player — will do one for a season.

— Been reading the messages boards (big shocker) and blogs, including my buddy Collin Sherwood, all coming from Virginia. The note that really stands out in my mind is everyone getting upset that no one outside the Southeast knows USF teams. To me, it’s not surprising that many people on the West Coast don’t know who the Bulls are. You’ve got to believe there were many fans for most of the northern schools of the Big East who didn’t know about USF when they first joined the conference, especially those, say, in Villanova or Georgetown.
For example, when I went to Penn State for the football season opener, I meet many people from a small town called Scranton who insisted USF was in Orlando and “we had that coach who lied on an application.” I even had the guy guarding the keg at the party I was lucky enough attend ask me, “What part of Miami is Southern Florida in?”
While USF is only in its first decade of football, it’s in its 30th year for both basketball teams. Football will make USF nationally known. Teams such as USC have these storied histories and fans who grew up watching the Trojans, but those fans in California are going to think of the University of San Francisco before they think of South Florida.
Unless USF gets its first-ever tournament win tonight.

That’s it until after the game, in which the Huskies have taken a 2-1 lead. I’ll post the results later.

Mike Camunas