MENS BASKETBALL: GAME DAY- Behind the scenes

Casual spectators arrive at the Stuart C. Siegel
Center shortly before tip-off, watch the game and
then go home. The entire game-day production
involves more than the 10 players on the court,
though. The CT went behind the scenes of
Saturday’s game against Old Dominion to show
what happens from the band to the fans, as
well as the referees, sports-information department,
cheerleaders, dance team and facilities
management.

Friday

Afternoon: Chris Kowalczyk, men’s basketball sportsinformation
director, updates the stat pack that is
available to the media for each game. It includes each
player’s game-by-game statistical performance for the
season, as well as trends and milestones that the
team or players are approaching.

Saturday

9 a.m. (11 hours until tip off): Rick from catering arrives.
Catering supplies food for the teams, the media and
away fans. Rick and his crew will set up all morning in
preparation for the meals. “ODU is definitely the busiest
game of the year,” Rick says.

1:30 p.m. (7.5 hours to tip off): The first of the Rowdy
Rams show up at the entrance to the Siegel Center,
five hours prior to the doors opening to fans. The Rowdy
Rams are led by president Chris “Pav” Crowley, a 2006
VCU alum. Talk CAA sports and listen to music to pass
the time. Crowley is known for his white board displaying
messages about the game to fans.

5 p.m. (3 hours until tip-off): Dance-team captains arrive
early for a required appearance at a banquet for the VCU
School of Business. “People say ‘Oh, the dance team
doesn’t do much,’ but we really do,” says dance-team
member Sheena Jeffers. “We go to the coach’s show at
Popkins (Popkins Tavern) and sometimes the school has us
go and teach (kids at schools) a dance . We are always
representing the university at all times.” Band director
Ryan Kepasci arrives at Siegel Center in suit and tie.

5:12 p.m. (less than 3 hours till tip-off): Jonathan Clark,
the band-equipment manager, comes to help set up. New
T-shirts arrive, stating, “OD-WHO?” “I love it because I
get to come to games, play my horn and get paid for it,”
Clark says. “You can’t go wrong. I love it.”

6:15 p.m. (105 minutes until tip-off): The dance team
and cheerleaders perform at the VCU School of Business
banquet, held in the auxiliary gym of the Siegel Center.
“We love making those appearances,” says Tiffany Katinas,
president of the cheerleading team. “It’s a great way
to show appreciation and continue to spread the Ram
spirit.”

6:25 p.m. (100 minutes until tip-off): The band, which
has about 42 members, enters Alltel Pavilion, playing the
VCU fight song. They are followed by the dance team
and cheerleaders.

6:35 p.m. (85 minutes until tip-off): Referees Ron
Tyburski and Haywood Bostic arrive at the Siegel Center.
The third referee, Sean Casady, beat them by 15 minutes.
The goal of the crew is to arrive between 90 minutes and
two hours before game time to prepare for the game.
“We’re going to talk about what we need to do as a
crew,” says Tyburski. “Our goal every night is to be the
best crew working that night.”

7:30 p.m. (30 minutes until tip-off): Tyburski, Bostic
and Casady take the floor to watch warm-ups, talk to
coaches and stretch. For the referees, stretching is a very
important part of warm-ups. “Everybody does their own
thing. Everyone knows what their body is,” says Tyburski.
“We get older; the players don’t,” Cassady adds. The Rams
take the court for warm-ups. Band plays fight song.

7:50 p.m. (15 minutes until tip-off): Facilities workers
introductions. Whoever is responsible must walk on the
catwalk above the gym floor where everything is controlled
by a laptop computer.

8 p.m. (5 minutes until tip-off): While teams are being
introduced, both the cheerleading and dance teams run
onto the court to perform for the crowd.

8:05 p.m. (tip-off): Live stats are kept at the scorer’s
table by the sports-information staff. A two-man team is
used to follow and record the action. Greg Stephenson
calls out information including which players score, who
rebounds and who assists. Scott Day enters the stats
into STATCREW, which then uploads to vcuathletics.
com in real time through Live Stats. “It’s pretty much all
codes,” Day says.

8:11 p.m. (14:59 left in 1st half): Kowalczyk passes out
stat sheets to press row during the first time-out. Media
are provided with statistics through the most recent
stoppage in play.

8:12 p.m. (14:48 left in 1st half): Casady, who is stationed
under the Old Dominion basket, signals to Tyburski, who is
stationed under the VCU basket, to make sure everything
is correct on a shooting foul that would give the Monarchs
two free throws. “We as a crew need to get our plays
right. There are no egos in this room. We go out and do
our thing and get our calls right,” Tyburski said.

8:15 p.m. (12:00 left in the 1st half): Facilities workers
go to the auxiliary gym to remove the banners, chairs and
tables from the business banquet. The floor was left down
because of an event that happened the next day.

8:43 p.m. (halftime): The referees go to their locker room
to discuss the first half and any changes that need to be
made. “They (the teams) go into halftime to improve – we
want to improve too,” says Bostic.

8:52 p.m. (halftime): A video tribute is played honoring
Ryan Moser and Eric King, aka “The Wheelchair Posse.”
Black-and-gold stickers with the pair’s initials are unveiled
at the east end of the court. “Having their names on the
court proves that they were really good fans and to have
the VCU community give back really means a lot and I
know that they would have loved that honor,” Moser’s
father said.

8:58 p.m. (halftime): Band performs during the half. “One
of the big roles of the band is to be the leading factor in
the crowd,” says band director Patrick Smith. “To control
the emotion of 7,500 people is unbelievable.”

9:22 p.m. (11:34 left in 2nd half): VCU coach Anthony
Grant is assessed a technical foul following a defensive
stop by Old Dominion. Grant unintentionally touched
Casady on his way up the court. Referees typically look
for poor behavior by coaches to keep control of the game.
“With the coaching box, if he’s two feet out of the box
coaching his player, that’s fine . if he’s out of the box and
screaming at us, (it’s a) technical foul,” says Tyburski.

9:23 p.m. (11:03 left in 2nd half): At a time-out, the
cheerleaders come out onto the court and perform stunts
and cheers for the fans. “We do the same cheers for
every game,” says Katinas. “The fight song is definitely
a favorite, especially when the crowd gets into it.”

9:47 p.m. (3:44 left in 2nd half): Assistant Athletic
Director for Media Communications Mike Harris checks
with press row to confirm which player media needs to
speak to post-game.

10:03 p.m. (game over): The cheerleaders and dance
team clear the floor as the game ends and head to the
locker rooms to change and go home. The band plays
VCU’s fight song.

10:06 p.m. (3 minutes post-game): Harris notifies VCU
senior Jamal Shuler that he will speak with the media.

10:08 p.m. (5 minutes post-game): The band packs up
and leaves.

10:13 p.m. (10 minutes post-game): Kowalczyk confirms
stats with official scorekeeper.

10:16 p.m. (13 minutes post game): Harris leads VCU
coach Grant to the media room to meet with press.

10:23 p.m. (20 minutes post-game): Band equipment
managers leave Siegel Center.

10:38 p.m. (35 minutes post-game): Harris leads Shuler
and enters the media room.

10:43 p.m. (40 minutes post-game): The referees do a
post-game breakdown, which includes watching a DVD
of the game and reviewing plays. “No matter what the
teams, you’ve got to get your calls right,” Tyburski says
in regard to the VCU-ODU rivalry.

4 a.m. (6 hours post-game): Usually, facilities finish their
work around midnight. This night was not a normal night.
“We weren’t done until 4 a.m.,” says Brandon Baker, a
VCU-facilities intern. The workers took the time to take
down tables and chairs for safety reasons.
The following people contributed to this report: Kia Brady,
Julie Bunson, Matt Doyon, Jonathan Howard, Antwain
Jackson and Sarah Sonies.