Providence Vs. Uconn 2/28/12

Tonight I went East to the Dunk to catch what I knew would be a close game. As I was walking to the arena, I saw a  car pulling in and instantly knew whose it was, I handed my dad the camera and told him to wait a minute. As always, Ed Cooley, Head Coach of Providence was classy as can be and thanked us for coming out:

I headed inside, and the only Uconn autograph I got pre game was Uconn Associate Head Coach, George Blainey, it was my first time ever meeting him:

After that, I was able to land Bryce Cotton, who had an amazing game for Providence:

Here are a few pictures from during the game:(Uconn was up by 10 with 11:11 to go):

A scuffle:

Providence, of course ended up winning and then I went to work:

The order in which I got guys was very mixed tonight, so I'll just go team by team.

Uconn:

Andre Drummond signed 3 items, after his mother kind of made him. I gave 2 to my buddy Nick because they were for a 50/50 for him, and this other one is for someone on another website:

 

I also got Roscoe Smith on a Uconn program:

 AND, for the first time EVER, after 10 plus tries, Shabbazz Napier:

   

Those autos look even better in person, and are some of the best I've ever seen from him. I'm so happy that I FINALLY got him.

Providence:

Bilail Dixon, and Vincent Council, who also took pictures with me:

 Vincent Council:

Bilail Dixon:

  

 I also caught up with Kadeem Batts:

 

That was all for tonight, overall it was really fun. I am hoping to do Pittsburgh at Uconn on Saturday!

Total autographs for 2012:96

Bryce Harper

Tonight, the "Chosen One" Bryce Harper responded to my tweet! Hopefully this is a gooood sign for this year graphing him.

2/25/12 ESPN College Gameday and Uconn Vs. Syracuse

I have been excited since last night to write this entry for many reasons. First, College Gameday was a very fun event to go to. Secondly, I definitely had my best basketball graphing night ever.

I got to Uconn at 8 am, for the 10:00 and 11:00 editions of College Gameday. Here are some pictures from the electric event:

Here is another photo that belongs to ESPN, of the crowd:

Digger Phelps was absolutely hilarious before the show and on commercial breaks and such. The Uconn band has this song they play that has some swagger to it and Digger kept going, "Yeah big daddy's in the house!" Hilarious to be there.

Graphing wise, after the show I saw the Uconn team walking out a back door and I asked Drummond to sign, to which he declined me 1 on 1. Not the first time so I wasn't shocked.

I had to work at 5 so I went home for that and came back around 11 or so to graph postgame. This was my view from outside:

After the game ended, I managed to get inside while everyone was leaving. That helped me get out of the freezing night, and it payed off. I spotted former Uconn player Charles Okwandu and got him to sign. He must be one of the tallest players I have ever met:

The next guy I got was(other than Calhoun) the coolest basketball graph I have gotten all year. Dickie V Baby!!!
It certainly wasn't easy, but I got it done. Me and the few guys I were with ran over to get him in the back of the arena where we saw him headed. When he walked out the back door, he said things like his usual, "It's cold out here you guys are crazy!" and, "Ahh you kidding me!????"
He was rushing really bad, and kept saying, "Last one guys, last one." and luckily, I was the second to last guy to get him. Someone gave him a shitty dried blue marker which pissed me off, but hey it's Dickie V so I was happy.:
Hall of Famer Dick Vitale!:

The photo makes the picture look grainy, it isn't. And believe it or not, yes, he did fingerprint the sh** out of the picture. Can't blame him, it was freezing.

I then rushed back around front, and got a picture with Ryan Boatright. He really is such a nice kid, he was happy to take it:

Jeremy Lamb came out soon after, and wouldn't sign. He was really polite about saying no though, it was kind of weird.

After that, I got a ton of Syracuse guys, including many stars.

Scoop Jardine:

He also stopped to take a picture:

Rakeem Christmas:

Fab Melo:

Former Syracuse star Gerry McNamarra is on the left.
Picture with Fab:

Baye Moussa Keita:

There were a few others on the ball but nobody too notable, except for star Dion Waiters who I had to run over to the bus for. Some guy who worked for Syracuse was being a complete tool, and kept telling him to get on the bus, he kept signing and the guy said, "Dion, you're not listening to me!"
Got him:

Jim Boeheim ignored everyone, but a few ran over to the bus and were able to get him. I wasn't able to.
Kris Joseph must have snuck out.
Unfortunately, I did miss NBA Star Rudy Gay as well, he was in a rush and only signed a few.

I did get a few guys on this team sheet as well including Rakeem Christmas and Fab Melo

 After Syracuse left, I went in and got Andre Drummond as he was leaving:

Here are a few more photos from the night:

 We found this sign outside of Gample, Uconn staying classy haha:

It was an amazingly cold, but very successful night. Some nice surprises, and I went home happy.

Total Autographs for 2012: 84

My next event is Providence Vs. Uconn Tuesday at the Dunk. Thanks for reading!

2/15/2012 Uconn Vs. DePaul

Tonight as usual I took the short trip over to Storrs for the Uconn game. The game itself was pretty one sided, as I figured it would be, but Uconn was extremely sloppy for the first half.

I have been contemplating for a while about putting pictures from the actual events I go to on here, and I'm finally starting that tonight.

Here are some nice shots I got before the game:

 

Right before the tip:

 The huskies ended up blowing out DePaul, and after, of course the fun started:

At first I was mainly going for DePaul and I got 11 of their players:

Worrel Clahar

Edwind McGhee

Joe Belcaster

Derrell Robertso Jr.

Jeremiah Kelly

Cleveland Melvin

Brandon Young

Jamee Crockett

Donnavan Kirk

Charles McKinney

Kris Faber

 I also got Head Coach Oliver Parnell:

I didn't get a ton of Uconn stuff, but I got some more DeAndre Daniels items, which I only had a few of:

Tyler Olander was right with him so I figured, why not?:

 Then for the, I suppose surprise of the night. Jeremy Lamb as usual didn't want to have any of it, but someone was able to get him to stop, and he literally signed whatever people wanted. I wish I would have went for more, but I didn't want to piss him off:

Jeremy is chill as hell, you just have to catch him at the right moments.

My next event as of now is Providence Vs. Uconn at the Dunk. Maybe I will squeeze something else in, but I am not sure.

Total Autographs for 2012:68

2/5/12 Providence Vs. West Virginia

I went over to Providence this afternoon to watch the Friars play West Virginia. It was tough to see P.C. lose in overtime, after basically controlling the entire game. I had a pretty decent autographing day, my main targets were Head Coach Bob Huggins, and stars Kevin Jones/ Jabarie Hinds. Ironically both players are from Mount Vernon, New York.

I had no luck with Huggins after the game, but I did get Jones:

Jabarie Hinds came out next:

The last Mountaineer I got was Darryl Bryant:

Only a few Providence players were coming out, but I managed to get a couple of good ones:
Bilail Dixon:

Kadeem Batts:

My last auto of the day was Head Coach Ed Cooley(Autograph looks better in the light):

All in all, it was a good game even though WVU came out on top.
Right now, My next event is Uconn Vs. Depaul on the 15th.
Total Autographs for 2012: 50