National championship game blog

6 p.m. -- I arrive in Indy. Only three hours from game time, I still get a parking spot immediately and spend no more than five minutes driving around downtown. That's convenience. It's hard to ignore the majesty of the Final Four, though. Capitol Street in Indy is absolutely loaded with pedestrians, one of whom I almost run into as a I take a good long look at the RCA Dome's exterior decorations. It took about 3 minutes after I got back into town, and my eyes, glazed and droopy from the weekend, are immediately opened. \n7:30 p.m. -- After arriving, I work my way from the Marriot to the RCA Dome press workroom, and am suddenly thrust into a chance most budding reporters/sports fans dream of. Allow me a moment to be starstruck; I eat dinner and talk sports with a round table of Mike Wilbon, Pat Forde, Gene Wojciechowski, Andy Katz, Stuart Mandel and Rick Bozich. This is a table that swamps me in sports knowledge by about 250 combined years, and in salary dollars by, well, somewhere in the tens of millions. These are guys that were around for Bob Knight's first chair throw. Needless to say, when Wilbon starts telling stories about Knight and Charles Barkley, I do my best fly on the wall impression.\n9:20 p.m - Time for the National Championship, either a little distraction from mingling with media personalities, or the real reason I was sent here (depending on whether you're my editor or not). \nMy seat isn't on the court next to such media personalities; instead, I perch in a Colts press box seat just left of the nosebleeds and just above a rabid contingent of boat-shoe sporting Florida frat boys -- a far cry from the celebrity status I thought I momentarily earned at the buffet tables. I have a sinking feeling that, by the end of the night, I will have seen enough Gator Chops and heard enough "Go…Gators…Go…Gators" chants for the rest of my life. \n9:22 p.m. -- Tip Off. This is going to be wild. \n9:29 p.m. -- Our first timeout, and it's 11-6 Florida. Everything's been textbook Florida so far -- great inside D, good balance of threes and low post buckets. These Gator Frat boys are lovin' it. My personal favorite outfit is the blue and orange polo shirt - collar popped, of course -- with some combination of Mardi Gras jewelry, khakis, and a faded hat. Classic. \n10 p.m. --The last 10 minutes of basketball was as uptempo as UCLA has played all year, and it's clear they are not accustomed to the pace. They never choose to slow it up, though, and Florida preys on their willingness to push the ball indiscriminately up the floor. Every time Florida gets an open dunk, their section says "YEAH" in such unison it literally sounds like five people chanting it at the exact same time, times 5,000. \nHalftime -- Florida's up 36-25. There are tons more Florida fans here than UCLA -- orange is far easier to spot in here than the light blue most UCLA fans are rocking. The saddest color here tonight? Forest green, found on a few proud George Mason fans who apparently refused to give up their tickets. \n10:45 p.m. -- The Gators have never relented. Their defense is far more impressive than UCLA's and its offense is scoring - by way of dunk after dunk by Noah and Horford - at will. \n11 p.m. -- As Noah slams home another huge dunk, Florida fans are starting to celebrate. The Florida crew directly below me is starting to ready itself for the major eruption. One Florida fan, who I will refer to politely as Bubba, has plenty of twangy advice for Joakim Noah: "Throw 'er down! Git 'im! Gooo Gaytersss!" You can't blame him; his team is closing out a game -- a tournament -- they have dominated entirely. Bubba gets to celebrate to his heart's content. \n11:30 p.m. -- Game over. One shining moment time for Florida - a completely deserved celebration of the way they rolled through this tournament. Writers begin to flock to their laptops in the press work room and set up for the press conferences, ready to fight hard against deadline. I will do the same. \n12:25 a.m. -- At the Florida press conference, it's easy to see why so many around the country seem to be vaguely admiring fans of Billy Donovan. He's extremely thoughtful, well-spoken, addresses reporters' questions directly and analyzes basketball with the same zeal as his discussion of his personal life. It's refreshing to see a coach willing to work with the media and allow fans access into his thought process. Also, Joakim Noah is downright hilarious. He mentions (as I'm sure plenty of uncreative sports writers will work in their stories somehow) winking at the UCLA cheerleaders after feeling offended that they kept calling him ugly. It's hard to argue with either side on that issue -- Noah is, well, ugly, and the UCLA cheerleaders? Very worthy of a wink. \n1:35 a.m. -- With that, I file my story and my final post from the press workroom, a place where I was provided with tons of free food, a $30 wireless connection (seriously), and the opportunity to hide my schoolgirl-ish desires to give Mike Wilbon a big hug. Like the NCAA tournament, it's been a wild ride, and like Joakim Noah's season-long abstinence from drugs and alcohol (if it even existed), very over. From here I pack up and head back to Bloomington, back to a couple of political science classes, and back to Wednesday's paper, eyes irrevocably wide open.