100 South Capitol Street, Indianapolis

TigerBlog started the week with John McPhee's birthday and then spent the next three days talking about the 25th anniversary of when the 1996 men's basketball team defeated Penn in the Ivy League playoff game and then UCLA in the NCAA tournament.

Today, for a moment, he'd like to go back to Mr. McPhee after something that gets more extraordinary every time TB thinks about it.

It was Wednesday afternoon when TB and McPhee went to ride bikes together. They went 11 miles. Think about that. McPhee is 90 years old, and he rode 11 miles - like it was nothing.

There were times when TB looked over to make sure McPhee was okay. Mostly, though, he just looked and marveled at the idea that a 90-year-old man was still out there, on his bike, pedaling away.

That is incredibly impressive.

Meanwhile, back at the 25th anniversary, this would all have been better if both March 9th (the Penn game) and March 14th (the UCLA  game) had fallen on weekdays this year, since TB could have written about both events on their actual anniversaries. 

Don't worry. He's already looked. March 9th, 2046, is on a Friday, and March 14, 2046, is on a Wednesday, so he's all set for the 50th anniversary 25 years from now.

Hey, he'll still be younger than John McPhee is now. 

If he can ride 11 miles at 90, TB can write about Princeton Athletics in his 80s.

So yesterday, TB mentioned the wayward postseason media guides. If you didn't read it, TB will save you the trouble on this. 

The guides were done and sent to the printer Monday of that week. They were to be printed and shipped overnight to Indiana, so they would be in the RCA Dome media room Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday's press conferences. 

Only they weren't there. When TB investigated, he found out they had been shipped three-day ground, rather than next-day air. 

Oops.

Anyway, after a scramble, he was able to get them reprinted and into the media room by the press conferences. It's funny now to look back on it, though it wasn't so hysterical in 1996.

It's also a pretty good indicator of technology then and now, as TB also mentioned yesterday.

Anyway, with reprinted postseason guides, all was right in the world. 

There would be press conferences Wednesday, as well as an introductory Bill Carmody press gathering at a table in the media room. The UCLA game was Thursday night, late. There was more work to be done Friday, such as updated game notes and more press availability. 

Then there was the Mississippi State game Saturday, followed by the trip home Sunday. 

And then it was back to work.

And then, once all of that emotion and adrenaline and non-stop pace ended, it was back to business as usual. 

Except for one thing  - whatever happened to the original postseason guides? 

TB can't remember if he thought of it or if it was his OAC colleagues David Rosenfeld and Vinnie DiCarlo. Either way, someone brought it up.

TB went back to UPS to track the package, and it had in fact been delivered three days later, not to the RCA Dome (100 South Capitol Street in Indianapolis) but instead to an administrative office at 1 South Capitol Street, Room 100). This was about 100 yards or so from the media room.

From the tracking information, TB was able to get (from the UPS customer service rep, not from the UPS webpage, which didn't yet exist) the name and number of the person who signed for it, a Mrs. O'Malley, as he recalls. 

And so he called. Very nice woman, Mrs. O'Malley. She said yes, she had signed for them, had no idea what they were and put them in a storage closet in case anyone asked. Did TB need them? Should she send them back? 

Uh, no, TB said. She could simply throw them away.

He really, really, really wanted to ask her if she never connected the package from Princeton Athletics with the NCAA tournament that was going on a few feet away from her office, but she was so nice that TB just let it go.

Yeah, that was a great week 25 years ago. It's been a lot of fun reliving it all this week. 

And there's more to come next week.