Before she walked onto center court in front of a packed house of Hoosier fans at Assembly Hall Saturday night, ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor and IU alumna Sage Steele spoke with the media about her roots at IU, coming back to emcee Hoosier Hysteria and more. Here are some additional quotes from Steele:
On being asked by JD Campbell to emcee the event:
"When JD asked me to do this, I thought "Me? You want me to do this?" It's quite humbling. And yes, I brought one of my kids with me. There are two more at home, and they hate me right now because she's the one that got to go. That's the benefit of being the oldest right? So we're recruiting her tonight, the recruitment process has begun."
On her Hoosier pride while working at ESPN:
"I'm pretty open about it on Twitter. They tell us to be careful at ESPN about what you tweet, and we're impartial and unbiased as journalists, right? Of course we are. But if you're a sportscaster, you're not in this business unless you're a fan right? So for me I grew up as a sports fan, but when I came here in '91, transferred from IUPUI, and it was just life changing. It just changed everything.
"So I try to hide it, but if we make it our Top 10 or any of the highlights, its pretty obvious. I'm not that subtle I guess, but that's okay, it is what it is. Sometimes we get criticized for it, but I honestly don't think any of us would be working there if we weren't sports fans, and for me this is where it began, so I'm not afraid to talk about it."
On the atmosphere changing at IU surrounding the basketball team:
"Everybody at work in Bristol, they don't think much exists west of Philadelphia on the east coast it seems, so I try to educate them a little bit and let them know there's a lot out here in the Midwest, and now IU basketball has forced them to acknowledge once again what's going on out here. It's pretty amazing.
"I got a lot of emails and text messages last week when it came out that they were preseason No. 1, but the atmosphere is amazing, and its pretty cool to get communication from a lot of the students here. I changed my picture on Twitter a couple months ago just because it wasn't the season, and I got killed by all the students for taking the banners down, so at the end of the night the banners will be back up. I haven't been here, since I graduated. I've been away for the most part, mainly east coast, but I don't recall the feeling ever being like this."
On IU Coach Tom Crean and his impact on the program:
"I think there are a lot of us fans who were just disappointed with how it had gone down, and maybe, to be honest with you, some of the decision making and some of the people who were brought in here and the quality of the student athlete that you bring in here to play for this program as well. Crean and I were just talking about just doing things the right way, and sometimes it's harder, but at the end of the day, it's the right thing to do it the right way, and look at the results."
On what she misses most from being an IU student:
"Oh gosh, not having to pay for a mortgage, save for a kid's college. For me, my first year I was at McNutt, and that was an innocent time when you come in, and your basic concern is getting to class on time and meeting the right people and what are you going to do Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and meeting cute boys, so you know the whole innocence of that certainly, but I think it's just the atmosphere as a whole, that small-town Indiana Midwestern feel.
"No offense to people from the east coast where I live right now, but it ain't the same, and so just being back and feeling it is awesome and humbling because I just came here wanting to graduate and then try to fulfill my dream of being on SportsCenter on ESPN, and because of this place, that's the only reason why I made it. Yeah, hard work and some people helped me along the way, but if I hadn't been here, honestly there's just no way.
"So every time, to come back every time, it's so emotional because what if? What if I hadn't come? Well, you wouldn't be listening to me right now, that's for sure, but it's just really humbling to come back every time - I cant believe they asked me to do this - and I told the guys today 'You know you have a girl, you have a chick hosting Hoosier Hysteria? Hello?' Don't know if it'll ever happen again. I better not screw it up, but it's really been nice"
