860-mile roadtrip to the Big Dance yields tribute to Aggies’ Last Game
March 24th, 2011 Posted in SportsVideo by Ryan Parkinson and Steve Crass
ATV News
TUCSON, AZ—Two rabid Aggie basketball fans, Ryan Parkinson and Steve Crass, jumped in the car for an impromptu road trip on the Wednesday before Spring Break, planning to cover the USU-Kansas State game in the first round of the NCAA playoffs.
• See Ryan Parkinson & Steve Crass’s video story on the Aggies Last Game, 2011
A long night later, they pulled into Tucson and found the McHale Center in Tucson, site of the regional basketball madness, in time to wander into the press center and try to figure out what they were doing.
“It was about 2 o’clock on a typical cloudy afternoon in Logan, Utah,” writes Crass, half of the duo, “when two avid broadcast journalism students decided whimsically to apply for media credentials to an NCAA tournament game that Thursday.”
To their surprise, their literally last-minute application for press passes was approved.
“Having put almost no thought into the whole process other than, ‘Hey, Tucson’s pretty warm, right?’ Parkinson and Crass were whisked on their way with a trunkful of camera gear, a pack of beef jerky, and approximately 860 miles of more absolute nothingness than you could believe.”
The first-round match-up against Kansas State, as we all recall, ended badly for an Aggie basketball team of six seniors who compiled a 30-3 season record and an outright WAC championship. But the ATV News team had a great time, and came back with a video report that captures the spirit, style and energy of Aggie basketball than no first-round defeat can extinguish.
• See Tyler Huskinson’s account of the Aggies’ last game in The Utah Statesman.
“The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Crass writes, “something that could not have been done without a great collaboration between both students and faculty. Both the crowd footage and lockerroom interviews are solely the work of Ryan and Steve, and due to tremendous enthusiasm and great teamwork they were able to produce a great product.”
TP
Tags: Aggie basketball, Kansas State, NCAA, Tucson
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