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Thursday, March 15, 2007
From Nationwide (where we're on your side)
A busy day of public workouts and press conferences is underway in Columbus Ohio's Nationwide Arena, where Holy Cross will take on Southern Illinois Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

All eight teams competing at the site take their turns meeting the media and getting in a quick shootaround on the Nationwide Arena floor.

Albany was first up, the Danes arriving at the arena with three motorcycle cops escorting their bus through the non-existent Columbus traffic.

Obviously today's weather -- it was raining when we hit the road in Zanesville this morning and snowing by the time we made Columbus around 10:30 a.m. -- has a factor in the lack of pedestrian traffic, at least in the parts of the downtown we drove through to reach the Arena District. But weather aside, this might be the slowest-paced city we've been in since we quit making the trek to Hamilton.

Columbua folks, it appears, are the ultimate Dilbert characters, cocooned in their cubicles downtown near the capital and out here near the Nationwide Insurance headquarters.

Albany led off the press conference lineup. They go student-athletes, then the coach, during these pre-tournament affairs. After Danes coach Will Brown wrapped up his comments, Albany was first to take the floor for the public practices.

These are the sessions that are open to the media and general public. For the most part, they tend to be more entertainment than preparation. Serious work is done at closed practices held in other gyms in town. These public sessions give the players a chance to shoot under the lights a little, but for a lot of teams, especially the major conference schools, they tend to become dunking exhibitions.

Southern Illinois will take the podium at 4:30, with its shootaround set for 5:10 p.m. Illinois will follow, then Holy Cross will end the day's festivities with a 6 p.m. press conference and a 6:40 to 7:20 slot for its public workout.

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Published at 12:01 PM by Hoop Time.
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