Hall of Fame Tip Off Classic + A Surprise 11/23/13

After doing pretty well at this event last year, I knew I wanted  to come back, but after last year's tournament when this year's teams were announced, I knew I just couldn't pass it up. Powerhouse schools North Carolina(My favorite all -time non Uconn team) and Louisville were the two headliners for the weekend. Last year, I was able to do both days of the tournament, but this year I only had Saturday, so I had to really make it count.

I didn't print many photos because honestly it gets pretty expensive, and I didn't want to risk wasting everything if I didn't have access to the teams.

I didn't know if the teams would be staying at the hotel at the casino this year, because last year they did not. To my surprise, when I showed up, there were tons of other 'graphers in the lobby, and they told me I had just missed James Michael McAdoo, North Carolina's best player. That wasn't a great start, but 5-10 minutes later, I was able to get a coaching, and all around basketball legend, Roy Williams. I love UNC Basketball, and to meet someone with 700+ wins was pretty awesome.

I really didn't think he was going to do it, but I walked with him for a few seconds and he was actually very nice.

Later on inside, at halftime of the Louisville game, he literally signed and took pictures with around 100 people. I could have gotten another autograph, but I wanted a picture more, and was lucky enough to get one.

To make things flow more easily, I'll keep talking about what North Carolina items I got done, then Louisville.

I was able to get Hubert Davis(Former Tarheel/NBA Player/ESPN Personality). He was also very nice.:

Other UNC Players I got include:

Nate Britt:

J.P. Tokoto:

Joel James:

Brice Johnson, Followed by another Johnson and Kennedy Meeks:

Desmond Hubert:

Denzel Robinson:

Former coach Joe Holladay:

I struck out on McAdoo all day. I missed him early, he signed after the game but it was a mob, and he denied like three other times I saw him.

I am not kidding when I say this, after I met Roy Williams, it was probably less than a half hour later when I met Rick Pitino. I have been wanting to meet him for quite some time now, and the assist goes to my dad on this one. Luke Hancock had walked by and I was going to get him, but decided not to, and in that time, apparently Pitino had walked by and down to the side My dad told me, and I was able to catch up to him, and he was very nice. He signed, and took a picture. I had to take a selfie because I was the only person with him, and it came out blurry, but it is still cool to have.

Way later on, after the games I finally was able to get Hancock. The reason I was so focused on getting his autograph is because I had the championship Sports Illustrated from this year with him on the cover. He was the Final Four MVP.

I was lucky enough to meet Louisville's best player, Russ Smith:

I was able to get Kevin Ware as well. If you can recall, Kevin was the player who suffered the gruesome broken leg in the NCAA tournament last season:

I also met a few other good Louisville players, Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell:

For the tournament, there were a bunch of other basketball related people in town.

Hall of Famers Mel Daniels, Bob Hurley, and Nacy Lieberman all signed during the games. I had met Daniels and Hurley before.

After the games I went back up to the hotel because I knew a number of people would be arriving.

1)Shaq(I was going to his event later in the evening)

2)Dick Vitale(Would be arriving for tomorrow's game)

3)Sage Steele of ESPN(Hosting the Shaq event)

4)Dan Schulman of Sunday Night Baseball(Calling tomorrow's game with Dick Vitale)

I saw Shaq, but he was getting on the elevator and ignored everyone.

Sage Steele was very nice:

I never saw Dan show up, but I had a great encounter with Dickie V. Regular readers of my blog know that the last time I met Dickie was in 15 degree weather at Uconn 2 years ago for the College Gameday game of the week when Uconn lost to Syracuse. The marker was basically frozen, and he was rushing and it came out terrible. 

Anyway, this time Dickie V was in no rush, and signed for me no problem. He even asked his wife to take a picture of us to put on Twitter! His phone and the lighting worked out slightly weird, so I downloaded the photo and fixed it up just a little bit.

I had a photo of him with me, but I was in such a rush when he came in that I couldn't get it out so I had to get him on a photo sheet:

As I was getting ready to leave to head to the Shaq event, a few of us noticed that someone familiar was walking through the lobby, and someone said it was actor, Richard Woods. They were wrong, because it was JAMES WOODS, but once they said Woods I knew exactly who it was. James is famous for his movie/television roles, and lately of course for voicing himself on Family Guy.

He was really nice, and the guy with him was being annoying and rushing him, but Woods took care of everyone. I literally used my last photo sheet on him. Talk about lucky.

So after that, I headed to the Shaq event. Overall it was a funny and insightful interview type show, and I really enjoyed it. He left pretty quickly afterwards, signing for maybe 7-8 people out of probably 80 who crowded the front of the stage. I got close a few times, but just couldn't get him.

Overall, this was a really, really great day. One of my best 'graphing days ever.

Total Autographs For 2013:964

I do have one mystery autograph. It was someone who was with the UNC team:

EDIT: Thanks to a reader, this autograph has been identified as that of former Tarheel, and long-time NBA player, Eric Montross:

Uconn Vs. Detroit 11/14/13

This is my first post in a month, so it feels good to be back. Now that the semester is finishing up I should be able to string along a solid stretch of entries during one of my favorite seasons. College Basketball season
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Thursday night marked the return of college basketball to Storrs, and that meant that hopefully I could add to my Uconn collection. This season, Uconn has at least 4 future NBA players, Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, DeAndre Daniels, and Omar Calhoun.

Hall of Famer, and former coach, Jim Calhoun was in attendance, but he actually left with a few minutes left in the second half so I didn't have a chance to see him.

I couldn't get down court side by the game(I sometimes can, but this is rare) so I missed everyone coming off the court including former Uconn star, and now coach Ricky Moore who I had a Sports Illustrated of.

After the game was rough. There is a specific technique to 'graph Uconn after the game that I try to follow, but things just didn't work out how I hoped this time.

I was only able to get Shabazz Napier on some magazines. I did see Ryan Boatright at one point, but he left through the locker room and I wasn't going to go back outside and risk missing Shabazz.

Total Autographs for 2013:938