Is it April yet?

Normally, I love March Madness. For whatever reason, I’m kind of already over it.

Nah, I’m just tired. I’m sure I’ll reread this later and want to take it back. I think I just need a vacation…

It was a long day, though. Selection Sunday will wear you out. You don’t want to publish a bad bracket, that’s for sure. (I think at least five people checked it. It’s a time-consuming task.)

I haven’t begun to fill out my bracket(s) yet, so I haven’t had a chance to do any research. For me, making educated guesses on who will advance is half the fun.

But after listening to my co-workers talk about the picks all night long, I think I can regurgitate some of their opinions, if you like.

“Duke has by FAR the easiest draw.”

“Baylor could make a run — the Final Four is not out of the question.”

“UTEP could be a Sweet Sixteen team.”

“Richmond could be the most overlooked team in the tournament.”

“Purdue might not win a game.”

And nearly everyone picked Kansas to win it all.

So there you go. After a good night’s sleep, I think I’ll be in a better state of mind to make my picks tomorrow.

P.S. Shameless plug: You should fill out your bracket here.

A very good Friday: OSU beats Tennessee

Just watched my alma mater, Oklahoma State, beat Tennessee 77-75 in the most evenly matched basketball game I have seen in a long time.

The teams were like mirror images of each other. Tennessee can hit 3s, but the Vols also went ice cold on shooting late in the first half, continuing into the second half. Bad Tennessee looks a lot like bad OSU.

But enough about bad OSU. When Byron Eaton drove to make it 76-75 OSU, I about lost it. Nice way to end the first NCAA tournament game of the senior’s career.

I really thought the Cowboys would dig themselves too far into a hole with foul trouble, but somehow they pulled it off. I began mentally preparing myself for a loss when James Anderson picked up his fourth.

Really, the only thing that kept me thinking OSU could win were two very interesting stats that our OSU beat writer, Jimmie Tramel, dug up.

1. Tennessee usually wins when it turns the ball over MORE than its opponent.
2. Tennessee nearly always wins when it outshoots its opponent, and it nearly always loses when it doesn’t.

The final stats? Vols 11 turnovers, Cowboys 12. FG percentages: Vols 42.9, Cowboys 56.6.

So Pitt is next (assuming). I picked Pitt to win it all in at least a couple of brackets. Don’t know much about them, but I am looking forward to the game anyway.

Speaking of brackets, mine are all blown up. I filled out about six because I kept getting invitations, and I thought, why not?

My brackets are like snowflakes this year: Each is unique.

I got way too cute with upsets, even I though I myself said there wouldn’t be too many this year.

One good one I did get away with was Western Kentucky over Illinois. I almost got away with Utah State over Marquette, and I picked North Dakota State over Kansas in five of my brackets. I saw virtually nothing of that game, but the score atop the screen indicated it was pretty close most of the game.

But enough about brackets. They are kind of like fantasy teams; no one cares about yours, just their own.

And while it’s fresh on our minds, let’s talk about the flippin’ sweet OU game last night. If you haven’t heard or seen the flip yet, watch any game today. I guarantee it is mentioned at some point.

For the record, a Morgan State player flipped Blake Griffin over his back, WWE style. Griffin just popped up and smirked after coming dangerously close to having his neck broken.

Obviously, that kind of thuggy behavior and lack of self-discipline has no place in the game. But I have to admit as cheap and dirty as the foul was, it looked kind of cool. (Obviously I can only say that because Griffin appeared OK, for the most part.)

I know a lot of people are tired of Blake coverage and were secretly glad to see a cheap foul like that, but 1) it only gives him more air time (literally) and 2) makes him look like a saint for not retaliating. So there.

Well, I have to run some errands before I go to work today. I am slotting, but the only real late thing we’ll be waiting on is the Tulsa-Auburn NIT game. I really wish it was on TV.

Super Bowl odds and ends

Ah, it is over. I’m kind of sad the Cardinals lost, because without Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin I would not have finished fourth in my fantasy league.

I got my design on on Saturday. I’m not usually a creative person design-wise, so sometimes I get nervous when I’m handed a page and told, “Make it pretty.”

I designed the inside Super Bowl page for Sunday, and I thought it turned out pretty well. Really, I’m just excited I got to put text into the paper upside down. (If you can’t get the PDF to work, I turned the answers to a Super Bowl quiz upside down.)

I’ve turned cutlines upside down before while designing pages quickly (they never made print, thankfully!), but I was really excited when I realized I could put this accidental knowledge to use. Ah, InDesign and its infinite secrets.

I also thought my women’s basketball page turned out clean, if I say so myself. Pages with breakouts, boxes and time/date/places are the hardest.

On Sunday, I got to slot. It was kind of a surprise that I was given that responsibility on Super Bowl Sunday, I think it went well.

In the slot: Days 1 and 2

After my first two days on the job at the big desk, my brain is pretty fried. But it was a good experience. It was nice doing something new.

Thursday went smoothly enough. I finished the day’s budget by 4:45 and promptly printed off seven copies. Immediately after retrieving the copies from the printer, two things happened: First, I got a phone call about one of the original Oilers having died (at 101), and second, I was informed that the front-page column that day was not about the Super Bowl, but TU basketball.

So, I shuffled some things and made a mental note not to print the budgets until right before the 5:15 meeting. Anyway, later that night, Sports made deadline three minutes early for both editions, which was a relief.

Friday started well enough. I had finished cramming 143124 stories into six pages slotting the section by 4:30. Space was remarkably tight (which is newspaper jargon for “too many stories, not enough pages to put them on”).

I called my boss, Mike Strain, over to have a look just to make sure I didn’t screw anything up too badly. I briefly went over each page with him and he said it looked very tight, but still pretty good.

As he walked back to his desk, he stopped suddenly and asked if the record* was on any of those pages. Bewildered, I started rummaging through the page dummies. Turns out I had put it on page 4, checked it off the list, then later decided to put something else on 4 and never put the record back anywhere.

I was frustrated with myself, but Mike told me it was about the kajillionth time someone forgot to slot the record. So, he very kindly sat back down and helped me move some things around. We ended up holding a feature on a TU recruit that had been on the cover, as well as the weekly horse racing column.

Sports made deadline for both editions, which I was very proud of. I even had time to knock out a page (aka, design it expeditiously) at the beginning of the night.

Friday and Saturday nights are generally the most stressful, whether you are in the slot or not, due to all the late copy. But I sent the last page at 11:45 on the button, and I was elated. (Of course, we’ll probably have eight corrections tomorrow just because I have a good feeling about this. So knock on wood.)

The feeling of being in charge is a strange one at this job. Strange, but good. I can’t stop myself from wondering what people are thinking as they walk by our department and they do a double-take as they see a 24-year-old girl leading the sports desk. I guess I just feel conspicuous, as I’m the youngest (by seven years) on a staff of 23.

Responsibility is not a new concept for me. I like to think I thrive when I know people are depending on me. I had a title or office in most activities or clubs I joined while growing up. If I didn’t have an office, it was usually because my heart wasn’t in the resume-filler of an activity (hello, high school Student Council and Greek Ambassadors in college).

I really don’t care what other people think though. It’s not a big deal. Change happens, people sit at different desks, life goes on. Especially in these days of smaller staffs, it is helpful if most everyone can do most everything.

One last thing: The best way I can describe my initial feeling of slotting is that it’s like being very far off the ground. Just don’t look down. And in this situation, “looking down” equates to remembering you’re on the hook if anything bad happens. So just do your job and don’t dwell on scary things.

But like I said, it was a good experience and I look forward to doing it again. It also helps that my co-workers gave a superb effort on both nights, for which I’m very thankful.

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(*The record is the hodgepodge page of tiny print, full of things like scores from different sports around the nation, standings, the latest line, etc. It usually requires most, if not all, of a page and would be bad to leave out.)

Baptism by fire

Update: So, due to some crazy circumstances, my debut was put on hold last night.

Whenever winter weather is forecast, we usually have earlier deadlines. This allows the delivery trucks more time to distribute the paper. Unfortunately, sometimes that makes for a hairy situation on deadline, and last night was no exception. Deadlines were moved up an hour to 10:30 and 11:30. Bedlam was our package on the cover, and a large portion of an inside page was devoted to it too.

The game ended at 10:20, which gave our writers just 10 minutes to get their stories in. Some items we waited for, some we didn’t. (The writers also get a chance to rewrite for the final home edition. They did an awesome job getting their stuff in on time, though!) We were a couple minutes late, but it was OK.

But it’s probably (I say probably, what an ego) for the best that the section was not in rookie hands last night. (Thank you, Sarah.) It didn’t help that it took me an hour to get to work due to the traffic, ice and frequent stopping for emergency vehicles.

We were shorthanded anyway as one of my co-workers got into an accident (she was OK), so we shuffled duties and I went into turbo page-layout mode. It was definitely a three-Coke night. I especially thought Page 4 came out nicely, considering all the stuff on it.

I’m still on the schedule to slot Thursday and Friday, so I’ll be sure to post a recap of those adventures.

P.S. There was a great comment by a reader on our breaking news story about the postponement of the Tulsa Oilers game… “Hockey postponed due to ice? Only in Oklahoma.”

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OK, swinging the blog pendulum from sports back to editing…

I get to slot the section for the first time tonight. Essentially, I get to be in charge. I am a little nervous, but I think it will be fine.

Except Bedlam basketball doesn’t tip off until 8 p.m.

And there’s a 90 percent chance of “wintry mix” tonight.

Gulp.

(For you non-journalistic types, here is a nice description of the duty. At the World, you decide which stories go on which pages, assign the stories to copy editors to read and give pages to designers, communicate with writers and give the pages the final OK.)