Interesting Look at a Big Ten Basketball Production

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A major production: Nine hours inside a Big Ten Network broadcast

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Adam Mertz | 608-252-6474 | amertz2@madison.com | Posted: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:00 am | 1 Comment

buy this photo Producer John Walsh (left) talks with associate director Frank Albanese in the command center aboard the Big Ten Network satellite truck as they prepare for the Feb. 9 game at the Kohl Center between the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team and Illinois. Michelle Stocker -- Capital Times
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* John Walsh, Frank Albanese, Big Ten Network
* Big Ten Network satellite truck
* Dave Revsine, Patrick Herb, Big Ten Network

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BTN broadcast: 1 minute to tip
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BTN broadcast: Not bad, for openers
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BTN broadcast: Erik West in his audio lair

Demetri McCamey's latest improbable shot had sealed the deal for Big Ten Network producer John Walsh. Moments earlier, he asked his crew to load a series of highlights of the Illinois gunner to roll as the television broadcast went to halftime break.

The heave from five feet beyond the 3-point line marked McCamey's sixth consecutive made basket after a slow start. That flurry of success had the Illini heading into the locker room with the lead against a University of Wisconsin team that had won 18 straight at the Kohl Center, and hadn't lost to an unranked Big Ten Conference foe there in a decade.

Or so it seemed.

With a flick of his wrist, Badgers guard Trevon Hughes stole the thunder and imploded Walsh's plans. Taking a pass from backcourt mate Jason Bohannon, Hughes delivered a clean stroke through the 81-inch flying distraction known as Illini forward Bill Cole. The ball was airborne as the horn sounded to end the half, and came to a rest in the net for a 35-33 Wisconsin lead.

Cole lost it, flapping his hands at his side in disbelief.

Walsh, conversely, was more focused than ever. In the claustrophobic cabin of the production truck, parked snugly along the backside of the arena, he issued rapid-fire instructions to the assembled BTN crew through his headset. The McCamey package could wait -- Hughes' shot was what would be foremost on the viewer's mind.

"Give me all three angles," Walsh commanded. Without being mentioned by name, Phil Link and Dan Konar, who work on the other side of a short wall in the truck, sprung into action. Almost instantaneously, replays from the three BTN cameras on that end of the court were visible on his 20-inch, high-definition monitor, which was split into quarters.

While play-by-play announcer Dave Revsine and color analyst Jim Jackson kept the audience at bay with their summation of a back-and-forth first 20 minutes of the game, Walsh eyeballed a sneak preview of the replays. He made a snap judgment to use all three, as well as footage already in hand of a fan holding a sign that dubbed the Badgers senior guard "Tre-Bomb Hughes."

"B-A-Green," Walsh called, referring to the sequencing he desired, based on the names of the cameras that captured the footage. "Cue it up!"

Above the heads of Walsh and his cohorts, amid a collection of 23 screens, was the feed as Big Ten Network viewers see it from their couches. The sequence was seamless, timely and concise, as if Walsh had envisioned it that way all along.

Audibles aren't the exception for Walsh and his peers in the industry -- they're a modus operandi, along the lines of Peyton Manning.

On some level, every member of the very specialized crew has input on this constant stream of decisions, and a good crew has proactive people in every seat. In the end, the pace and content of a show are the product of an ebb-and-flow between the on-air personnel and the producer.

"I always think of myself at home, on the couch: What do you want to see?" Walsh said after the game, a 63-56 Illinois win. "A play three plays ago may not be it. What just happened? And you're not showing it?

"To me, a lot of it is the voice of the announcer. If he gets excited, then that tells me the way we've got to go. But it's a team thing. Everyone's got to know."

On Feb. 9, Walsh -- with the blessing of the Big Ten Network -- provided a behind-the-scenes look at the broadcast of the game between the Illini and Badgers.

Over nine hours, The Capital Times was exposed to every nuance of the operation, with the chance to interact with Revsine and Jackson; an audio technician who traded metal bands for Sports Center; and a video engineer who remembers when replays involved physically winding tape backwards by hand.

And then there's Walsh, a veteran producer whose exuberance boileth over, making him the perfect tour guide on this adventure.
BTN Truck


The BTN Production crew

Front row: Producer John Walsh, director Doug Brown, technical director Lindsey Groeschel, EVS (replay) operators Phil Link and Dan Konar

Second row: assistant producer Frank Albanese, Duet (character generator) operator Jordan Reis, graphics specialist Vince Cupo, statistician Ben White, Steve Zimmerman, unit/technical manager

Left pod: Erik West, audio technician

Right pod: Dan Albert, video engineer; Ron Pellegrini

Pregame

11 a.m.

Walsh already has laid the groundwork for the broadcast of the game, which tips off in seven hours.

He has printed a cheat sheet for every member of the crew that includes a basic outline of the timetable for the game, as well as the salient themes they'll touch on. Of the 25 sponsor promo cards to be read by the on-air personalities, at least five carry editorial value that he must pair to the circumstances.

One example is the Verizon Wireless Connection. The connection of choice for Walsh, a freelancer from the Milwaukee area with a strong base of sports knowledge, is Bo Ryan and the state of Wisconsin. To that end, he has snagged a variety of photos of Ryan through the years, including a nifty posed shot from 1984 in which the Badgers coach is pointing toward a spot in the southwestern corner of a large image of Wisconsin.

Bo put UW-Platteville on the map, to be sure, winning four NCAA Division III titles there before moving on to UW-Milwaukee and then Madison, where he is in his ninth season.

"You never want to force it," Walsh says of the content.

The technical underpinnings of the broadcast are already in place; all the wires that connect the camera and audio feeds to and from the arena are lined into the BTN truck, a task that is relatively straightforward thanks to the modern infrastructure of the Kohl Center and what is regarded as an intensely cooperative staff.

11:45 a.m.

The first snag of the day. Amid a snowstorm that is on the front end of dropping nine inches on Madison, word gets to the truck that Jackson's flight is delayed. No one expresses fear that he'll miss the game, but the color analyst will certainly miss the teams' shootaround at the Kohl Center.
Dave Revsine, Patrick Herb, Big Ten Network

Big Ten Network broadcaster Dave Revsine, a regular on studio shows and occasional play-by-play announcer, chats with Patrick Herb of UW athletic communications during the Badgers' shootaround. Michelle Stocker -- Capital Times

12:30 p.m.

Revsine, looking comfortable in a baseball hat, sweatshirt and jeans, grabs a spot along the baseline from which to observe the Badgers' walk-through.

Revsine, the face of BTN thanks to his role as studio host, is one of just two full-time network employees on site, the other being Mike Vest of the communications department. All the other people staging the broadcast - from the cameramen to the stats guy, Ben White, who works at Vilas Hall by day, and even Walsh - is a hired gun, a freelancer.

Revsine wasn't always a broadcaster. After graduating from Northwestern, Revsine landed a job as a financial analyst with Chase Manhattan. It was the longest year of his life.

"I hated every minute of it. I mean, I used to sit there in meetings and was so uninterested in what I was doing. You know, pull a few chunks of skin and turn them so that I didn't fall asleep. I couldn't have possibly cared less," he says.

"So for me, I have that perspective of knowing what it's like to have a miserable job that you don't like and that doesn't excite you. My worst day in television was better than my best day there ..."

Pause. Reflect. Smile.

"I didn't have a best day."

Suffice it to say, after 14 years in this business, including a tour of duty at ESPN, Revsine is -- to borrow a local radio personality's catch phrase -- living the dream.

"I thought I had the best job in the world at ESPN, and then I got this one, and it's even better. It's my conference. These are my schools. I grew up with the Big Ten," says Revsine, who was born in Champaign, Ill., attended a year of school in Madison when his father was teaching at UW -- where his sister Pam earned a degree -- then attended landed in Evanston, Ill., where his dad served on the faculty.

"This is where my passion is. It's been great."

Revsine drove to Madison on Monday and started his game prep as soon as he checked in to his hotel at 4:30 p.m. He continued through midnight, allowing himself a room-service dinner break. His info is logged on a legal-size manila folder, using a template passed along by former ESPN cohort Mike Tirico. On the facing inside pages are the rosters of both teams, with a pronunciation guide, updated statistics and a few notable facts on every player. On the backside are his talking points for the game, culled from his own observations and the game notes provided by both schools.

"It's pretty labor-intensive," Revsine said.

That homework turns out to be more valuable than Revsine would have predicted when he learns that Ryan doesn't attend the Badgers' mid-day sessions, which are voluntary for players as well. The shootaround provides Revsine a look at practice players such as J.P. Gavinski and Ian Markolf, but he won't get any insight from the head coach until they meet later that afternoon, just minutes before Revsine's duties kick into high gear.
Big Ten Network command center, Erik West

Click here to see a video of audio technician Erik West at work

1:30 p.m.

In front of Erik West in the audio bay of the BTN truck is a panel that contains no fewer than 1,000 knobs and buttons. Behind him is a labyrinth of cords that are patched into a grid of hundreds of holes in seemingly haphazard fashion on the wall.

"The knobs are the easy part. It's the patches. They're all in different locations in different trucks. I once spent 15 minutes looking for one little hole," he says, shaking his head in disbelief.

Still, West makes the look easier than one would suspect, especially after finding out he's relatively new at this.

He spent his formative years in the business on the Harley-Davidson stage at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and only in the last couple of years has he transitioned into sports. West handles a lot of Brewers games for Fox Sports Network; his mix of the audio on a pivotal Ryan Braun home run at the tail end of the 2008 season became a key cog of an Apple TV campaign.

West is driven, in part, by a fear of failure in the Internet age.

"There's not a lot of room for mistakes, and the ones that you make are immortalized," he says. "On the Internet, that thing is there forever. Man, oh, man - you're part of history."

Tonight's broadcast is meaningful to West because his parents, Bob and Karen, live in Madison.

"My audience is my parents," he said. "They drive red cars. They're hard-core Badger fans."

1:45 p.m.

Walsh offers introductions to the rest of the crew that is assembling for duty in the BTN truck, a compact, 43-foot trailer with an expandable main cabin that rolls out on site to provide space for two rows of seating lengthwise in a 12- by 20-foot space.

Each crew member serves a highly specialized duty. Some can be more carefree than others. Take Ben White, who handles statistics. "I'm watching anyway," said White, who works nearby at Vilas Hall and assists on Wisconsin Public Television broadcasts of UW men's hockey. "They pay me to click a button and keep score."

Over the next three hours, the crew will assemble reams of taped segments and graphics that get trotted out during the show.

2:31 p.m.

Jackson, the former Ohio State star and NBA journeyman, arrives in the BTN truck not long after his flight lands from Ohio. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "What it forced me to do was, as soon as I got to the hotel, I had to shower, shave, iron, get ready and come over to the game," Jackson says later. "But I'm used to that, coming from the league (NBA). You've got to be able to adjust on the fly. This is a piece of cake. I don't need to play - I just sit down to do my job."

2:40 p.m.

Steve Zimmerman's hand traces a line through the air, from Madison, up to a satellite, down to Houston, through a land line to Chicago, back to Houston, up to a satellite and back down to TV systems to distribute to their customers.

The line is the almost unfathomable path that the HD signal emanating from the BTN truck will follow to the set in your living room. The trek -- which allows for commercials to be inserted at a remote location -- can take as long as 10 seconds.

Zimmerman -- who spent 20 years as an engineer at WKOW/Ch. 27 -- is charged with massaging the technical quality of the broadcast. That's easier to do at the newer arenas; a good barometer of the conditions is the purity of the whites on the screen.

"The Kohl Center is very nice, very well-maintained. The lights are all in good shape; you don't see big variations across the court," Zimmerman says. "The next time you watch a game at Northwestern, take a close look."

2:48 p.m.

Bob Wold, who drives the semi, notes his crazy itinerary for the evening. He needs the 43-foot truck packed up as quickly as possible after the game because he is aiming to have it parked at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, by 3 a.m., for the broadcast of Wednesday's game between Northwestern and the Hawkeyes.

3:20 p.m.

If Welsh-Ryan Arena is archaic, so is looking through the viewfinder of any of the five camera operators at this game.

The great irony of this broadcast is that the state of the art, HD cameras that capture all the action feature black-and-white viewfinders. While there is actually a technical advantage to that format -- it's easier to focus than is color -- the main reason for its continued existence is that no manufacturer has been able to perfect color technology for those devices.
Dave Revsine, Jimmy Jackson, Kristin Gibbons, Big Ten Network

Revsine and Jimmy Jackson (middle), whose flight to Madison was delayed, watch Illinois go through warm-ups while BTN stage manager Kristin Gibbons (right) preps for the broadcast. Steve Apps -- State Journal

Shifting into gear

4:30 p.m.

The crew conducts a live check on every piece of equipment that will be used for the broadcast. Surprises are a broadcast's worst friend.

5:01 p.m.

Walsh presents Revsine with the opening video sequence, as well as the voice-over he has written. Revsine insists on writing his own tease. The decision causes some consternation in the truck -- not because Revsine is out of bounds, but because the clock is ticking. Fifty-nine minutes to tip.

5:13 p.m.

Revsine's timing is slightly off on the main preview sequence, which is what Walsh hoped to avoid. Revsine launches into the Illinois segment while Bo remains on camera for a couple seconds, so Walsh and director Doug Brown holler to "push" shots through -- jumping the entire sequence to the next image to condense the intro.

5:23 p.m.

Illinois starting lineup flashes on screen. Freshman Tyler Griffey in penciled in at forward. The truck questions whether junior Mike Davis will get the nod instead. Revsine pledges to check with Illini spokesperson Kent Brown.

5:25 p.m.

No detail is too small to overlook: Walsh asks that BTN logo be added to the projected Big Ten tournament bracket that will flash at some point during tail end of show, the thought being that this outcome will affect seeding

5:26 p.m.

The ragging on technical director Lindsey Groeschel begins. She needs "quality time" with her laptop, Brown suggests. There is no immediate counterattack. Groeschel, a Madison resident, waits for her opening on a return volley.

5:31 p.m.

The shot from the main midcourt camera reveals a lot of red seats dressed as fans at the Kohl Center. Says Brown: "Looks like the snow's keeping people away." Responds Walsh, ever the optimist: "Huge ratings, huge ratings."
Big Ten Network truck interior

5:39 p.m.

The crew shoots the open (click here to view video of the process as it unfolds). Walsh and Co. weave in all the pre-recorded segments, then shift to Revsine, who cleaned up nicely from his shootaround appearance. He's donning a fresh coat of makeup, and a dazzling purple shirt and tie. A subconscious Northwestern bias?

5:43 p.m.

Walsh wants to re-do the open. The entire sequence lasts 3 minutes, 43 seconds, which is too long. He trims out a Jackson aside and the package comes together at about 3 minutes.

5:44 p.m.

Revsine caps his open by noting in very boisterous fashion that Wisconsin and Illinois will tip off "NOWWWWW." That prompts the ever-lighthearted Walsh to break out his bodybuilder pose and exult, "That's a big voice, Dave, BIG voice!"

5:48 p.m.

With 12 minutes to tip, Brown notices that BTN's "The Journey" program is airing a segment on Trevon Hughes that showcases his time at St. John's Military School in Delafield. "I went there for band camp," Brown said. "That's a beautiful place."

5:49 p.m.

The Illini lineup change is confirmed, 11 minutes before tip. Davis is in, Griffey out. The graphics tandem of Vince Cupo and Jordan Reis makes the fix.

5:51 p.m.

Walsh takes a call on his cell phone. "I've got a big show coming up," he explains breezily. "Wisconsin-Illinois. Big Ten Network. Got that in Arizona?"

5:57 p.m.

The open is cued. Walsh leans back in chair. "We always tape the open, so we can come in clean," he says. "That way, at least the first three minutes of the broadcast are good ..."

5:58 p.m.

Two minutes before tip, the monitor in front of Revsine goes dead. The problem - a faulty power cord -- is easily identified, and more important, easily rectified.

6:04 p.m.

"Doctor," Brown calls through the headset to one of his cameramen, "you got all your shots?" Rim shot, please.

Click here to view a video of the crew as it heads into the final minute before tip-off
Dave Revsine, Jimmy Jackson, Big Ten Network

The BTN on-air team surveys the action. Steve Apps -- State Journal

Game time

6:09 p.m.

Two minutes into the game, the first replay airs. An excellent camera trail catches Hughes blowing a kiss to the stands after sinking a 3-pointer. The tape guys catch it right away and cue it.

6:10 p.m.

A foul is called on Illinois' Davis. The crew takes advantage of every break for replay or sponsor spot; there are only nine natural breaks in a broadcast, and tonight there are nearly three times as many spots. In this case, it's a replay. Walsh walks Jackson through what he'll see on two replays that flash on his screen inside house, the swing offense and the Badgers converting in transition. Jackson, who played 14 NBA seasons, breaks it down off the cuff.

6:11 p.m.

Tim Jarmusz, the much-maligned Wisconsin swingman, nails a 3-pointer. "That'll be his last points of the game," a voice calls out inside the truck. "He'll keep throwing them up, but that'll be his last basket."

6:12 p.m.

A shot from Jarmusz clangs off the rim, a tribute to West's superb audio. "What'd I say?" the Jarmusz observer says, looking for credit on his prediction. "What'd I tell you?"

6:34 p.m.

Spurred by an observation by Walsh, the graphic crew prepares a nugget of information: Illinois' 7-1 center Mike Tisdale is 5-of-6 from the field, but the rest of the team is 0-for-9.

6:35 p.m.

Clang! West's audio captures another brick of a shot.

6:36 p.m.

McCamey makes his first basket, so Jordan Reis quickly alters the aforementioned graphic to 1-11 and fires it up on a preview screen. Walsh gives his thumbs-up. "It ain't a mistake until it gets on the air," he says, repeating a producer mantra.

6:37 p.m.

Brown jostles two camera operators at once: "Gibby, why can't you be more like Jeff?"

6:48 p.m.

Walsh wonders aloud whether the officials need a video review on a potential shot clock violation on the ridiculous 3-pointer by McCamey described in the opening sequence; the truck is responsible for generating replays of controversial plays for the officials to review at midcourt. No problem here, everyone quickly realizes; there was a solid 1 second left.

7:12 p.m.

The Russell Stover Sweet Shot gets pulled out of mothballs, almost two hours after it was finalized. True to his word, Walsh saved it for an appropriate moment; Bohannon, the subject of the piece, had just hit a 3 to pull the Badgers within 49-48 midway through the second half.

7:20 p.m.

Revsine tells viewers about Illinois' tough remaining schedule. Walsh, no doubt wishing he knew that info was on the way, hollers for the graphic to be readied.

7:21 p.m.

Revsine points out a rarity: Illinois gets to 50 points in just 30 minutes. Jackson takes that cue and focuses on the Illini's effectiveness with pick and roll.

"I think there's a pretty natural rhythm" between us, Revsine said. "I've sat at home and watched a million games, and I look at it as, ‘What would the average fan want to know?' I try not to be an answer guy when it comes to strategy because I didn't play ...When I've got a two-time conference player of the year in the Big Ten who played 14 years in the NBA alongside me, I think I'll defer to him."

For Jackson, walking the line between informational and insider-ish is the biggest challenge. "Knowing when to speak and when not to - how much is more of a conversation instead of so technical," he said. "Because when you've played the game so much, you want to use terminology -- but you have to use it so people can understand it and how it applies to the game."
Big Ten Network command center, Jordan Reis

Duet operator Jordan Reis

7:29 p.m.

Coming out of the break, the crew airs the graphic on the Illini schedule.

7:31 p.m.

As the game heads into the home stretch, and a span of uninterrupted play, there are more pauses. It's not hard to hear Brown's frenetic gum chewing through the headset.

7:34 p.m.

Has anyone scored in the last 2 minutes?" Brown asks no one and everyone. That prompts Revsine to recite the exact span of the drought, which promptly is ended by a McCamey basket.
7:35 p.m.

Walsh pinpoints McCamey as Player of the Game, another sponsored segment. The tape guys start compiling his highlights for postgame package.

7:36 p.m.

The field-goal percentage graphic rolls out

7:38 p.m.

Brown commands the cameras and graphics operators as the broadcast rolls through its sponsors upon returning from a break. "Wipe A; roll A ... Dissolve 1 in the box ... 3 over Duet 2 ... dissolve 2 under ... lose the font ... fly out of the box."

7:41 p.m.

The Big Ten tournament bracket is shown... and it's displaying the BTN logo.

7:42 p.m.

Walsh leans back in chair to technical director Frank Albanese, who holds an old-school stopwatch in his hand to measure the breaks. ESPN has someone at the scorer's table that tells the officials when the game can re-start; the tables are turned for everyone else. "That was a busy segment," Walsh says. "Good job, Frankie ... thanks for keeping me honest."

7:42 p.m.

A media timeout gives the BTN staff a much-needed spot to get caught up on promos, which have lagged in the second half

7:47 p.m.

"Dying for that hockey promo, Kristin?" Walsh says, getting the attention of BTN stage manager Kristin Gibbons. "It's never happening," she says.

7:50 p.m.

Talk about good timing. After McCamey takes a free-throw, his Player of the Game package runs.

7:50 p.m.

Walsh pronounces that the crew is all done with sponsors, and there's 1 minute left in game.

7:51 p.m.

Revsine, searching for a concise way to explain the magnitude of Illinois' pending victory - the first by an unranked Big Ten foe in Madison since 2000 -- tells the viewers, "This is something you just don't see at Wisconsin."

7:52 p.m.

Walsh asks Albanese, who is communicating with the BTN studio crew, who they want for postgame interviews.

7:53 p.m.

Albanese says BTN wants Mike Tisdale and McCamey in one interview, Illinois coach Bruce Weber in another. It's 60-53 with 27.1 seconds left, and the outcome is elementary.

7:54 p.m.

Walsh to Gibbons: "If there's another time out, you'll get your hockey preview." Gibbons: "I thought this one would have been good." Walsh, a tad sheepishly: "I know."

7:55 p.m.

The long-awaited Alaska at Ohio State promo pops up onto screen, along with a shot of outdoor skaters behind a fire. Gibbons: "You're the best producer ever!" Walsh: "Can you put that in writing?"

7:56 p.m.

Wisconsin's shooting goes haywire and the Badgers make just 3 of their final 20 shots. After a trey finally falls for UW, the camera turns to Bo. Brown sums up his glare: "Holy crap, now you're hitting them?"

7:57 p.m.

Albanese reports that on-court interviews will be taped ... the studio crew in Chicago wants to come in and offer thoughts on momentous upset before the principals do.

8 p.m.

The final horn sounds. Jarmusz didn't make another shot, although it should be noted he only took three.

8:03 p.m.

As Revsine and Jackson prep for the interviews with the victorious Illini on the Kohl Center court, an equipment crew brings out a monitor so they can view replays as they interview players, and another group brings over some portable lighting. Meanwhile, Illinois athletic communications chair Kent Brown intercepts McCamey on behalf of BTN just as he is about to throw on the headset for an Illini radio station.

8:07 p.m.

The interviews conclude and the day is finally done for the BTN crew.
2-9-10-Wisconsin Illinois 4-02092010210028.jpg

For the first time in his nine seasons at Wisconsin, coach Bo Ryan walks off the Kohl Center court after a loss to an unranked Big Ten Conference foe. Steve Apps -- State Journal
Aftermath

By the time Jackson puts on his overcoat, the Kohl Center is all but empty of fans, and the cleaning crew has punched in. He walks away from the broadcast pleased that he underscored his main point of the evening.

"How hard it is to win here -- point blank," Jackson said. "You talk about Cameron Indoor, or North Carolina -- it's hard to win here. Duke came in and felt that. Michigan State. This is not an easy place to play."

When it comes to evaluating a broadcast, Revsine is more of the pass-fail school of thought than that of letter grades, calling on an anecdote that involves former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman's first game as a FOX announcer:

"They shuffled him off to a charter flight, and about a half-hour afterward, he turned to whoever it was who was sitting next to him and asked (facetiously), ‘Did we win?'"

Revsine laughs.

"It's not that cut and dry, I think," he continues. "I'm hypercritical of myself and I'm my own worst critic. So, if there's a little something that goes wrong or I misspeak, I'll beat myself up for a little while. But generally, if we tell the story of the game and it goes smoothly, and there are no obvious errors, I guess I'm happy.

"But you so rarely come out of a game saying, ‘That was perfect.' And there's always tomorrow. I have a studio show and we've got two halftimes, we've got postgame -- I just feel like there isn't a whole lot of time to sit back during the course of a season and be self-congratulatory. The drumbeat goes on."

Likewise, Walsh is introspective.

"I always drive home and think, ‘Man, that didn't go all that well. ... I wonder what they thought about that?'" he acknowledged. "Because you're a professional. And you're only as good as your last show."

This last one, though, was pretty good. One would never guess it was his first time working with Revsine.

"I don't think it could have gone any better," Walsh said.

Posted in Men on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:00 am Updated: 10:59 am. | Tags: Big Ten Network, John Walsh, Kohl Center, Jimmy Jackson, Dave Revsine

I Am A Bad Son/Happy Birthday Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

:( Sorry! I hope you had a good Birthday! I can't believe I missed it by that much and that it's been happening way too much lately-to everyone. I love you Mom! No matter how late I am, I think about you and Dad and everyone everyday.



In other news while I'm here...

I'm working day seven in a row right now and tomorrow will make it day eight in a row. Horrible, but what else do you expect when you work where I do? It's horrible, just like my memory. So, I have been in quite the routine of working, coming home and going to bed to just do it all over again. So yeah, I work eight days in a row and five of those were closing while throwing in some Bethel basketball preparation and a game and it's a busy week and a half.

Also going on in that stretch, Herbs had some more layoffs. Nothing exciting going on at our store. We actually added a manager and another assistant manager but retail is still in a horrible situation and so is the economy so it's still that much harder to get another job.

So, with all of those changes I change again too. I go from Men's to Accessories and now I work in the Home Department, learning anything and everything about dishes, china, crystal, flatware, cookware, sheets, towels, thread count, GPS systems, luggage, candles, frames, barware and more. It's quite the product knowledge center. However, it has not been my favorite thing going on so far. It's been a week already I guess but I don't enjoy it very much. It is really getting tough working there and trying to be there full time and try and stay happy and enjoy work, do Bethel basketball and try and create something enjoyable to listen to, while trying to run and wishing I could run and exercise more, to the mundane every day activities of eating, showering, cleaning up our apartment and more it's gotten quite tiring and tiresome going to work. Not to mention all the other managers are on their comp week from working six days a week over Christmas, leaving all of their closings and weekends of working to me. It just is not enjoyable working there much anymore.

So, I was just watching UConn play Villanova and have a quick panic that Mom's birthday passed. Boy, did it pass. I'm sorry Mom. I love you! :) Happy Birthday!