Veteran WLKY anchorman John Boel recalls his most memorable moments covering past NCAA tournaments.

I once heard a comedian say, "The definition of broadcast sports journalists: people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."

I didn't laugh because I didn't understand the joke. Then, even though I was a news reporter, I was assigned to cover the NCAA basketball tournament. Though I have taken turns over many years following Kentucky, Louisville and Indiana in the tournament, I understood the joke my first hour of the first day of my first sports assignment.

Here are my favorite moments, people, and observations from covering dozens of NCAA tournament games:

Most impressive player: Shaquille O'Neal. When Shaq passed by in front of me, it was like an eclipse. I've never seen a more towering human specimen, and he's only gotten bigger since March 21, 1992, when I watched him impersonate "Chief" from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in Boise, Idaho, against the Hoosiers. By the way, Shaq's LSU Tigers lost to Indiana by 12 on the Hoosiers' way to the Final Four, proving once again that Bobby Knight was right about Dale Brown -- he couldn't coach LSU past the first weekend with the most imposing player in basketball then and now.
Most impressive coach: Knight. The only time he ever choked ... was in practice ... on a surveillance camera. He's the only person I've ever known who intimidated me clear across the gym, and I wasn't doing anything wrong. I didn't get a true understanding of how great of a coach he is until I watched him take players as average as Brian Evans all the way to the 1992 Final Four, where IU lost to eventual national champion Duke by three points when the Hoosiers were riddled with injuries.
Best player story: Cameron Mills. He passed up a scholarship, and chose to walk on at Kentucky, even though coach Rick Pitino told him he would not play. Mills then hit the biggest shot down the stretch of each of the final three games en route to the 1998 championship.
Biggest waste of space: Next time you watch the NCAA tournament on television because you can't find an overpriced seat, take a good look at the rows of courtside seats. There are hundreds of them that tournament officials replaced with tables and a few dozen media seats so Ernest T. Bass of the Mayberry Times can kick back and watch for free. Ironically, the real working journalists are in the back room logging and editing tapes or writing stories.
Dumbest press conference question: A tie, between two in New York, from East Coast writers, before Kentucky beat Iowa in the second round of the 2001 tournament: "Saul Smith, there are a lot of no-name teams in this tournament. Does anyone ever ask you, 'Where's Kentucky?'" And UK's Tayshaun Prince was asked, "When you moved from Compton to Kentucky, did you find the people speaking a different language?" By the way, the answers to both questions were "No." Whoever coined the phrase "there's no such thing as a stupid question" obviously never attended an NCAA tournament press conference.
Best pre-emptive strike: After being upset by the Richmond Spiders, Knight began his postgame press conference by asking for a show of hands of any reporters who were really surprised by the result. While the rest of the nation talked about it for days, not one cowering journalist raised a hand.
Best game that almost happened: Few people realize it, but Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater in the 1992 regional final not only KO'd Kentucky, but it also killed the ultimate border war dream game. Kentucky would have played Indiana in the Final Four, with the winner likely grabbing the title. Imagine Rick Pitino versus Knight, Jamal Mashburn versus Alan Henderson and Calbert Cheaney versus John Pelphrey.
Best advice: My first time covering Indiana, a crew from Indianapolis told me their news director had a rule on Bobby Knight press conferences: Turn the camera on and start rolling before Knight walks in and don't stop rolling until after he leaves the room. That's because you never know when The General will go off. They were right. In almost every press conference in Boise and Albuquerque that year, the coach did something memorable when we least expected it.
Most selfless act: For those people who believe coaches would auction off their own mothers to win it all, consider this: Even though Derek Anderson was cleared to play after his knee injury, and even though he was begging to play, Pitino refused to put him in the 1997 title game against Arizona, which Kentucky lost in overtime. Is there any doubt that even a tiny dose of Anderson would have tilted the game in UK's favor? Do you realize with that win, Kentucky would be able to say it won three national titles in a row? But Pitino was looking out for Anderson, because his bright pro career hinged on a healthy knee.
Worst photo-op: Knight bending over Calbert Cheaney before a 1992 third-round game in Albuquerque, and pretending to punish him with a bull whip in hand. Two cameras caught it. Oops. When we aired the video, and when the photo was published in the next day's papers, the NAACP became involved in the NCAA.
Most relaxed player: With dozens of cameras, tripods and reporters clanging and banging around the locker room a few hours before a 2001 tournament game, and lights as hot as sun lamps blinding everyone, UK forward Marquis Estill lay slumped over in his cubicle sound asleep and snoring. Who said anything about pressure during March Madness? He went out and dropped about 30 on Iowa.
Worst road to the Final Four: A bus ride. When I accepted an invitation to ride with fans and document what it's like to road trip by bus from Louisville to San Antonio, where Kentucky beat Utah for the 1998 national championsip, I had high hopes. Perhaps it's because I've watched "Animal House" dozens of times. Perhaps it's because I assumed a bar would be on board. But the 22-hour trip was torture. Paris Hilton to my left and John Belushi to my right could not have made it any less painful.
Best team comeback: In the final three games of Kentucky's 1998 title run, the Cats were down by 17 to Duke, 10 to Stanford and 12 to Utah. It didn't matter. The rest is history.
Most impossible assignment: Several times in the early 1990s, I was sent to cover the NCAA tournament without a photographer or camera. That's fine for a newspaper reporter, but what about TV? I was the ultimate one-man band. I borrowed videotapes, edited stories, begged satellite truck engineers to feed my tapes back to the station, and used pizza and beer to bribe photographers to shoot my live shots. Viewers never knew the difference, because I slept in a Holiday Inn Express.

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