You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
Galen Clavio joining you. It is probably for most of you
Saturday, March 9th. I'm actually recording this at
the very tail end of Friday March 8th as we enter into the
middle part of March. And not great news to start
things off with for IU as the women lose in a bit of a
surprise up in Minneapolis in the first, well, it was the
second round. I guess it would have been
technically the third round of the Big 10 tournament.
A double buy does not do the Hoosiers the favors that they
need. After leading by 16 points in
the first half, they end up losing a pretty significant
margin to Michigan. Big asterisk on the game as
Mackenzie Holmes barely played and only played really because
the game had gotten almost out of control and Indiana was
trying to save it. She could not do a whole lot out
there and Indiana just kind of got walloped at the end by
Michigan as unfortunately the shots just not falling for
Indiana in that game. So Hoosiers will have to wait
quite a while to see what happens in terms of the NCAA
tournament, as at the end of it all it may not matter that much.
A lot of times conference tournament losses aren't really
considered all too closely unless you're a borderline team,
but we'll see what happens with seeding for Indiana.
Obviously the Hoosiers hoping to host first and second round
games at Assembly Hall, which they would do if they were a top
four seed in any of the regions. We'll have to see what happens,
so we'll keep an eye on that moving forward.
But unfortunately for the IU women, their Big 10 tournament
comes to an early close in a tournament where a lot of the
top seeds are lost. Ohio State lost earlier in the
day and Michigan State who was the four seed losing to Nebraska
who was the five S Also not a great week obviously so far for
IU men's basketball or at least a mixed week as the positive
news of IU defeating Minnesota on Wednesday was kind of
cancelled out the next day by IU losing 5 star recruit Liam
Mcneely. So we've got a podcast coming up
with myself and Scott where we'll talk about that and just
kind of the overall situation with IU basketball kind of at
length, but we got a different agenda for this podcast.
Before we get to that, just a quick reminder folks that we are
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right, let's head to the podcast that we have on tap today.
And I'm excited bringing back one of my favorite former
students who's now a very successful media personality in
her own right. Many IU fans out there first
encountered her as Hoosier lists way back in the 2012, 2013, 2014
era of IU basketball. Her name is Alyssa Andrews.
She is a practicing meteorologist working in Boston.
Many of you saw her for a few years in Indianapolis, where she
was a meteorologist there, and we had a long and kind of
winding conversation that touched on a whole bunch of
things. We talked about what her time
was like at IU, what got her into being a content creator,
how she ended up going down the path to become a meteorologist.
We talked for quite a bit about a topic that she and I have
discussed a lot over the course of the years, which is the need
for sports broadcasters and sports broadcasts to pay
attention to the weather a little bit more and understand
what they're talking about. And we also talked about IU
fandom and kind of where everything's at right now with
just, you know, the the whole group of people who came of age
as IU fans in the 20 tens and how they're feeling about
everything. And joining us on the show,
maybe for the first time. I don't know if she was ever on
back in the old days when we would do the show when she was
here, but she's here now. It's Alyssa Andrews.
You might remember her as Hoosier lists.
You might remember her as Alyssa Andrews, meteorologist in
Indianapolis. It's good to have you back.
Great to see you. It's.
Good to be back. Hey y'all, it's Who's your list?
YouTube's number one Indiana fan.
Gosh, I was such a troll even then.
It's it was a great time. We needed that as a fan base, I
think and it's let's start there because I think a lot of people
are in a reflective mood about IU basketball right now that
things are not going great. You were here at IU between
what, 2011 and 2015? Yes.
And so let's go back to that. I mean that was, you know, the
IU was kind of coming out of the darkness in basketball.
And I think maybe first of all, let's like a little bit of back
story on how how Hoosier list ends up at Indiana in the 1st
place. Like where did you grow up and
and why did you come to IU? Gosh, I I think it was just, I
grew up, I went to Center Grove, so grew up right here just north
of Bloomington, and it was just the place to be.
It was like I didn't even know much about any of the colleges
around me. I just always and forever heard
about IU. IU this, IU that.
It's like the darling school of Indiana and that reputation I
think I have. I have to be fair and I'm just
learning. I'm learning more of my recent
Twitter shenanigans as of late because I am a recent I I don't
know all the the old school history of IU.
So it's funny because we're talking about the current
temperature of the fan base and I have this perspective of
basically, I mean I know more now but like 2011 and on where I
find myself. It's so funny because I'm like,
what do you mean we we've been back, we've been back and I'm
like what about what about 2013? And do you know how silly I feel
right now saying well? But no, I think it's a, it's a
valid perspective and one of the things I always try to get
across, first of all, that was a while ago.
I mean that was almost 15 years ago.
How? I know it was a couple weeks
ago. I'm telling you now, they make a
couple years. But you know the fact that
there's a whole generation of IU fans, I mean the different, the
distance between 2011 and now is the same difference for some of
the folks in the in the podcast listening audience, it's the
same difference between 1989 and 2002.
It's the same difference between 1980 and 1993.
Like that. Those seem like huge gaps.
And yet the last 15 years feels like it all happened at once.
But there's a lot of people who became IU fans in that period,
like O 809-1011, twelve. And they came into this kind of
mini renaissance of IU basketball where everything felt
like it was like, well, this is where we're supposed to be.
We're a top level program and we're a one seed or we're
winning Big 10 titles. And so I think for a lot of
people, they have a similar perspective where it's like I
keep hearing all this history, but it doesn't resonate with me
because I wasn't around for all of it.
Right in my my introduction basically to IU basketball was
the Indiana, Kentucky game. The watch shot like that was.
Your freshman year. That was my freshman year.
I had student tickets. Got to rush the court.
I mean I'll tell you I remember this too that I it's it's even
it pops up on my like timeline. Facebook looking back, memories
thing I posted on Facebook and I was like, hey, I've got tickets
to the IU Kentucky game tonight. Does anybody want them?
Like I'll sell them or whatever? And someone commented, they said
if you do anything and you're like, you know, IU career as a
student, go to that game, go to that game.
And I had no idea like, what I mean, I'd heard of IU,
basketball, all these things. But to see it just up close and
personal and just the pageantry of everything, when your eyes
are open to that for the first time, that's a really special
thing. And after that, I went home and
made my first, like, YouTube videos, just talking about I use
sports and stuff. And what was funny about it was
I knew nothing. I knew that.
And that's why it like, worked for me, because I wasn't trying
to talk about the XS and I was like, I wasn't trying to know
all the history, know anything. And so it just kind of was my
own ironic little bubble that I lived in.
And so thinking my fandom grew from the Oladipo Watford Zeller
Holes era, that was that was fun for me and I think as good as we
were then was like good enough for me.
But I know ever for other people and the history of IE basketball
we need a lot more and so I just.
I just feel like in my experience it's.
I loved it from that. Yeah.
Well no. And I think you know for a lot
of people that was that was plenty and and I think to some
degree for a lot of people now it's like wow that would be nice
to go back to just that period of success where you're you're
playing an important games and and you're winning some of them
and and you know you're in the tournament and and winning games
there and that hasn't really been standard for the last
several years. So it's interesting and I think
for the it's tough for me as someone who's obviously lived
through a little bit more of IU trying to reconcile the
different eras of people and what they expect cause like you
know I remember coming to IU when I was a student and it was
the tail end of the night era and it was everything all the
successes were recent enough that it felt like that was part
of that was not just the heritage that was the present.
You look back on it and it's like I was actually that was
already in the past and that's it was great for me coming back
as a professor to experience all of that because it was like this
is different, but this vibe is good.
It's not quite as good now and that's an interesting thing for
a lot of people to process, but go ahead.
Oh well, I was just thinking like being blind to that whole
time before the, as you called it, the mini Renaissance in like
2013. Like not having that first hand,
those those bums, like just being bummed out on the lower
times, like to sit in their sophomore year and it's like
we've got the number two, number four draft pick, like we're
preseason ranked number one. Like I just thought that was
life. Yeah, I hope that was, Yeah.
That's normal. Yeah.
It and as it turned out, it was not.
But it would have been nice. Yeah.
Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah.
Then you then you had the rest of your time at IE.
Well, so let's you mentioned you, you come back from that
Kentucky game and you start making your first videos.
And so this is really where you as a media entity start to
develop. So what was that process like
for you in terms of kind of cultivating an online audience
as a content creator at a time when there weren't a lot of
people doing that, There weren't a lot of places to put your
stuff, and you knew you were gonna be looked at in a certain
way for doing what you were doing?
Mm hmm. Oh yeah.
Well, OK, so I luckily had the invincibility, like, no shame
aspect of being a college kid. Because you knew me when.
I was in college my. Professor and we.
I mean we knew each other and it was like I said earlier it's
like I I just, I cringe. I I like feel who was that but
and it's still me to an extent. But it was fun because people
let me create a space in that because there was already plenty
of people. I mean I use sports is so
popular. There's people talking about all
the things all the big important things.
And so since I didn't I didn't even know I couldn't have
carried a a traditional sports I like, I use sports content based
you know what I'm trying to say? What am I trying to say?
I couldn't have? It would have been hard for you
to do a traditional show or like a podcast.
And I wasn't talking about, yeah, you know, like you were,
you were doing something different.
Yeah, it just just weird stuff. I mean, and it was bizarre like,
I look back and I'm like, none of this makes any sense.
But people like, understood it. People, like, bought into it and
were OK with it. And it was this whole alter ego.
Who's your list? I I talked with this like accent
and and the amount of people that thought, that's either how
I really was or oh, you know what I'm just remembering what
do you remember? Casual Gamer read.
I very much do. There we go.
It was I responded to. He was like.
This was a Kentucky content creator.
Yes, and Indiana basketball is not a real school da da da.
So I just tried to mirror him and we had these this great back
and forth. It was so fun.
And then it was based off of all of that that JMV offered me an
internship to go. And then it turned into
something serious and bigger. And you contacted me to say, you
know, help me get into the sports broadcasting program and
maybe do something with this, which I hadn't thought of and it
just wasn't as big of a thing then.
Right. Yeah.
And it was, it was a different time.
I mean that period at IU was interesting from my perspective
because I mean you know, I, for those who most of you follow the
podcast know all this, but for those who are new add additions
to the audience. I mean I was in school here in
the late 90s, early 2000s. All we had was a radio station.
So you called games but no one could hear them because the the
the station had a six Watt radius, 5.6 watts.
It was. You could not hear it at the
station itself because the transmitter was on the library
and that was four blocks away, which was too far.
There was no television station. There was no video.
And so if you wanted to do something visual, you really
couldn't at IU. And then when I got back as a
faculty member, it was still kind of the same, although IUSTV
existed. So we had a a whole bunch of
really talented people and nowhere for them to go other
than the very basic places that had been there for the last six
or seven years. But then a couple of things
happen. A Big 10 student U happened
where we're broadcasting games and we need play by play, we
need color commentary, we need sideline reporters, and we need
people who are comfortable on air.
And then we also launched IU Sport Com, which was basically
the forerunner to the what's now the Hoosier Network.
And so between those 2 + I USTV, it's like, well, now suddenly
we're cooking a little bit and we've got social media because
Twitter at the time was actually a place you wanted to be.
And you know, I remember. Those days.
Yeah, back in the day. And then YouTube was just kind
of starting to take off. And so I remember, you know, you
were in that kind of second wave of people, 'cause like the first
wave was a lot of people that we've had on the show before.
You guys know, it's like Courtney Cronin was in that
first wave, who's now the ESPN reporter for the Bears.
Trisha Whitaker was in that wave, which is the silent
reporter for the Tampa Bay Rays. Cody Sharrett was in that wave.
Sam Day Wig was in that way. We had a bunch of people like
that. But you were in that second wave
of people where you know when when we first started doing
sideline stuff and play by play stuff with Big 10 student UI,
Remember Jeremy Gray from IU Athletics?
Contact me. We I think we did four games the
first year total. We do 120 now and when you were
in school we it seems. Like you guys are doing a ton.
It was like 30 a year by the time you were a junior.
But it was like, we need people who can be on air.
And it's like, well, I mean, who's your list?
Seems like the type of person that we could get into this.
And you did well, it was like, and then we were just talking
about this upstairs. It's if you understand how
content works and you understand like how to interact with an
audience, you can kind of do that in almost any venue as long
as you're confident and comfortable in yourself.
Yeah. Well look I mean gosh you can
did that in sports for a little bit did it in news doing it in
weather now. So it's you can really kind of
move around quite a bit if you know you get the building blocks
which has been this this program has just grown so much.
It's really amazing the work you've done.
I wish that I we could put the entire conversation we just had
and like filter it into this somehow so everyone but you know
people that know know and and what's crazy is I got so lucky
to come here because I had no idea.
It was very accidental. I mean and and we, you know,
again, it's one of those where sometimes that's how it works
out, where you go somewhere because I'm going to go to that
university because it seems like a where you wish to go.
I know you're a kid from Center Grove.
Certainly you're like, yeah, of course I'm going to IU.
Right, right. Exactly.
But that's the joys of college sometimes is You go and you end
up stumbling into something that you never thought that you
would. And look, I think you, you
deserve a lot of credit because you're while you were in
college, that was a path people weren't taking.
And you figured out a way to make it work at a time when it
wasn't easy. I mean, you know, it's like
everybody's walking around with iPhones now where you can do all
of these things pretty easily. That was not the case in 2000.
13 No, no, no, had to I gosh, I went into yeah, I got got some
equipment, tried to figure it out, just play around messing
around doing whatever. And it's certainly different
now. But gosh, also, I want to say
too, the You sponsored my individualized major before.
Before the media school was the media school, which is funny,
'cause I technically graduated out of here by the time, but it
wasn't wasn't. You know, I didn't go to this
particular school, but I social media, journalism, production
and delivery. I mean, you made it happen
before. It was all really happening
well. You know, and we've got, we
actually have a social media degree now and we've got we've,
you know we've. Got Professors told me
absolutely no and never before I got to.
You. I didn't know that.
When we still have the journalism school and at my
freshman year, I was like, I want to major in social media
and they're like they're they're just absolutely shut down.
No way on earth is that ever a possibility.
You cannot combine media and journalism and TV and like, no.
I I would say more, but I I might get electrocuted if I say
anything here. So I'm just not going to, I'm
not going to say anything that's that's interesting.
It doesn't surprise me. But I mean, look, my thing is.
I'm glad I found you because you made it.
Happen. Well, I'm glad.
I'm glad you did too. And I mean, I think ultimately,
you know what I've always felt is two things.
A technology never stops and social media is just media by
different means. You know what?
What we would have done 25 years ago, we're doing in a a place
where all the media combines now.
Whereas before the the the written stuff was over here and
the video stuff was over here and the audio stuff was over
here. I said, well, we can put it all
in one spot. That's important.
But it's also like, you know, if we're not breaking down
boundaries at the college level and saying, well, let's try
something new. I mean, how do how do new
industries get created? How do new job pathways get
created? I mean, they're not coming, not
necessarily coming from the profession.
They're coming from people coming up who are saying what if
I combined this and this? Well, I'm sure we haven't even
talked about this, but I'm sure I can just guess your position
on incorporating AI into all this somehow.
Because you know how everyone there's people who are certainly
scared of it don't want it to be anywhere near.
But I'm. I'm sure you're finding a way to
use it and. I've had to give this talk
several times and my thought is with AI you know what AI will
easily replace is media content that reports what happened.
What it won't replace is why it happened and who was involved
and what their back stories were in a way that makes sense to
human beings, you know, So, look, to some degree, I think a
lot of what we relied on the basis of media for was this idea
that we need the media to tell us what had occurred.
Well, we still need that, but that's something a computer can
probably do. You know, there's a lot of
algorithmic stuff to fix with that.
But the personal stories, the the the kind of granular
analysis of of situations, being able to make connections and
then describe them in a way that makes sense to other human
beings. I don't know that AI is ever
going to be able to effectively do that.
And you know, that's, I think it's one of the key things with
media school. Like it's it's really about
telling stories and you know. The personal touch and every
it's the same reason why they've tried this in so many markets.
In some places it happens, but there'll be 1 meteorologist that
does the weather for several different cities and they kind
of can get away with. But then once the people find
out that they're not actually local, it doesn't work and then
it kind of falls apart quickly and they go back to having
individual meteorologists in each place.
So it's the human touch. This happened with radio where,
you know, there was a period because when I got when I was
going into radio, you know, you still had a lot of local radio
stations doing things and then you had the clear channels or
the whatever they call them, I hearts now.
And you know the Cumulus and they would buy up these stations
and rather than have 10 DJs, they'd hire one DJ, pay them
$100,000 a year and have them voice track 10 different
stations. And it's like that actually
doesn't work. It may it looks dynamite on
paper to some person in a corporate suite, but people need
content that is personally addressed to them in some way,
shape or form. Whether it's you know
specifically stated, I think it's it's interesting now in
sports and I think it's why what you did with IU content was so
fascinating because if it's tailored to an A particular
audience A niche audience, there's a there's a market there
because you know, I mean what what's the big complaint about
ESPN? It's that they only focus on a
couple of of cities or a couple of teams and everything else
might as well not exist and you know you turn on first take or
you turn on whatever and it's all Lakers or Yankees or Red Sox
and that's great if you're fans of those teams and yes they do
the most business but let leaves everybody else feeling like they
don't matter and it's why this podcast Crimson cast and and our
partners in the back home network at assembly call.
I think it's why they're as popular as they are because it's
about Indiana and it's being done by people who understand it
and it's not people astroturfing in from somewhere else.
You know and that's weather's weather is like the most primal
thing in media because at the end of the day I think people
could give or take. You know, did someone get
murdered across town or does the school board doing something
they shouldn't do What they can't give or take?
Is is it going to rain today or do I need to wear a coat or are
there storms? Who do I go, you know, listen
to, to tell me if there's something going on that might,
like impact. My family And sports is very
similar because that is as much about social identity as it is
about the score or about the athlete.
And you want someone who you trust, who you feel like, OK,
that person knows what they're talking about.
And I know that they have a similar vibe to me in terms of
things. Even if we might disagree on
certain stuff, I know I want that person telling me those.
Right. And that's that's why you see,
you know, there's so many local meteorologist, hopefully people
can find one that they trust. Sometimes I'll say the apps are
good, but other times you just can't rely on that.
And I don't know if now is the time to like go into let's do
that. Well, yeah, since since we're
talking about weather a little. Bit.
Well, so you, I mean, so you know you you did the Hoosier
list thing until you graduated or a little bit before.
Yeah. And then?
Then I had a craving to for some reason I needed to be validated
by serious news or I don't know it's it's hard when you're in
college you're struggling to figure out your identity you're
doing these and it's like at the time there wasn't like
influencers. So you that wasn't a that wasn't
a career path. You know, I was trying to be
serious and grow my content up a little bit I.
Think it was still, like five years away?
And and and like dance videos. So I was weird for doing dance
videos in college. Now like everyone's.
I mean the professional news cat.
The irony of professionals on the news desk doing dance like
trend videos which I don't. I don't even I don't do that
you've. Done your time with that I was.
Like that my that gas pedal was in 2013.
We went, we had our viral time and immediately tried to, like,
erase, scrub all, all traces of myself from the Internet.
But I. Well, so there's one thing about
your so I teach a lot of broadcast students and I have
for years. And one of the things about your
story, I still bring up to people.
So most people, you know, you get close to graduation.
It's not like Kelly. Oh yeah, it's like a Business
School where, oh, I've got a job in like late October for the
following year. Most broadcast students, you're
applying everywhere and you're struggling like just to get
people to even notice your stuff.
You had so much stuff on YouTube at the time.
If I remember correctly, you had people contacting you asking you
to apply for jobs. I didn't realize how how like
maybe uncommon that might have been but at the time and and
that's probably that's the reason why I ended up not even
taking a sports job after college.
Which is funny ironic or whatever because I worked so
hard for that and was like that made that my entire identity and
then went into news reporting just because I was like okay to
the first like news director was like hey you wanna come do this.
And it was close to home. I wanted to be, if you're gonna
have to go, take a small market first job.
Anyways, being close to home was important to me.
So Terre Haute IN I went and ended up being I I can't imagine
not going there now because I met Jesse Walker, my chief
meteorologist. I mean, as soon as I started.
And from getting live shot experience working with you and
the Big 10 student network and the way that you've developed
students to have tapes to be seen to do all this stuff
they're like well you you you do sports you can just just go in
front of the green wall AD Lib a little bit like figure it out.
I'm like trust me I don't know anything about weather do not
put me on I the story this is the probably I'm a degree
meteorologist now so I feel comfy saying this but at I
remember in college this is so bad I called my mom and I was
like it's 60° do we should I prepare for shorts like are we
wearing sweatshirts like what are we doing and why was I
calling my mom and why didn't I just step outside.
So many questions, I promise. And I don't know he'd call your
mom for everything but and so now you know.
So that's I told them I was like, that's the level I'm at.
But I loved it. And then and.
This was not what you went there for originally.
You were like a news multimedia journalist.
Right. And it was it was like a you
know some news some sports and just kind of whatever MMJ job.
And I I really, I don't know why I didn't think about it care
about too much. I was just like sure if I just
felt right, I was like, all right.
It was close to home and it was just where I what I decided to
do and and then and then I fell in love with weather and I went
back to school to get my master's degree in meteorology
after a laundry list of some science and math courses, of
course, because I was an arts major, so.
Yeah, how was that? Because I so I've always said my
biggest regret in life was not going down the the weather path.
There's always time. Well, it's a little late for me,
I think, but I I I grew up loving weather, you know, I
remember I had a transformative moment.
My, it was 7 or 8. National Geographic had an issue
that was all about tornado chasing.
And I remember reading, I read that front to back like multiple
times. And you know, it was just
always, but I never really, I was I loved sports more, so I
went down that pathway. But yeah, you, So you go to, you
go from Terre Haute to Lexington, KY and you're there
and you decide to do the online master's program through
Mississippi State, which is like kind of one of the main places
to go do this type of a degree if you're a meteorologist that's
trying to get a certification, right.
So because most people like you can do weather without having
that, but you can't become like a certified meteorologist unless
you have the Master's degree. Exactly.
So what? So what?
It was another recruiting situation where they were they
were trying very hard to to get me in and I've been very honest
about you know pay in a small market first job it's not a lot
you're you're struggling to get by.
Can I say how much I made? Yeah.
I made $10.00 an hour and I and I would tell everybody I saw too
because it was it was. So I thought that was so
fascinating. Honestly it was it was such a
hard time. Like I was just telling the
story earlier. I would go into work sometimes
with one contact in my eye you guys, because it was saving
money. That's where I was and that's OK
and and it so it makes more sense when you know the reason I
I left my job in Terre Haute was because the news director in
Lexington was recruiting me pretty heavily and she they told
me all I needed to know which was we'll pay for your master's
degree. We'll put you back to school
which at $10.00 an hour. I was never going to become a
meteorologist at that rate because you know you're paying
student loans back you're you're trying to just make rent.
I mean it it wasn't going to happen.
Right. And I also didn't want to be
it's so hard to, like really word this because I don't have
any, I don't have no negative feelings towards people who are
in the broadcast business doing weather that aren't
meteorologists. And I think I, I, I feel comfier
saying that because it was tough on me not being a meteorologist
yet when I was reporting weather.
And it that community can be so Snooty and persnickety.
But I get it because when I went through school, it was like, Oh
my goodness. There's a lot I didn't know.
Oh my. Gosh well and I and and as I
just I always I wanted. My goal was to always come back
to Indianapolis to to be. I interned at Fox 59, did my
sports internship there with Chris Hagan, and it was a great
experience. I went back a couple years and
did that with him. And so my goal was always to
come back home to Indy and I thought it was going to be doing
sports, but ended up, you know, becoming meteorologist, doing
that. So I knew I wasn't going to get
there like the Indianapolis, first of all, the top 25 market,
it's a severe weather market and I mean so we're going to have
tornadoes or thunderstorms and I knew I wasn't going to get a
job. I was not going to get hired in
that at that level without the credentials.
And besides that, I wanted them. I wanted those credentials.
So yeah, so before but before the program would even accept
me, right. I had to take 'cause I remember
my As for undergrad, I gosh, as an arts major, The one science
class. Yeah, yeah, the one thing I had
to get the heck out of there. Like, I mean, I think I took a
one science class about, like, rocks.
Don't remember any of it. Like geology.
Maybe you got to. See.
Who knows what even happened in there.
So I had to prove they're like, oh, like, you know, no way.
Like, you're gonna tell. Here you go.
Here's the list. And so I went all the way
through a series of calculus all went up to Calc 3, differential
equations. There's science, physics, math.
So, so many different kinds of degrees you can do in in
certificates, in meteorology. But I wanted the full like to be
basically to be able to work at the National Weather Service.
So all of your weather courses have to be based in in calc, in
physics instead of just you can learn about the weather or you
can learn about it with like the more technical you know stuff.
So I wanted that went and did it was.
I mean I was I was working full time as a Monday through Friday
morning meteorologist or morning weather anchor.
I was very specific. I said do you guys don't don't
call me because TV stations they'll they'll just advertise
you as a meteorologist. But it was so important to me
and special to me to be able to finally say I was a
meteorologist. So that was really cool to get
that credential. And then I was ready to go to
Indy. So and then now I'm now I'm in.
Boston, here in Boston. Yeah, at the CBS station in
Boston, which is pretty cool because at that level that CBS
owns, it's an O&O and owned and operated and it's not through
like when I worked in Indy, I was a Next.
Star, right, Which is, yeah, kind of an agglomeration of of
stations across the country. Well, you and I have talked
about this a lot on social or on text over the course of the
years is like the need for people doing sports to
understand at least a bit of weather so that they can
describe there was something that happened recently.
There was what? What was what was it that I'm
thinking? Of so and I hate to like call
people there's it's so funny there's so many examples and I
and I don't want to be the person like the The Simpsons
like that old man yells at the cloud because you don't know
what you don't know. And I there's plenty of things I
didn't know but I think I've been comfortable enough to kind
of ask or I'm so scared to Get the facts wrong.
That's just who and who I am. And especially as getting into
like a science field it's I just can't imagine saying some of the
weather things as just Willy nilly.
It was a an IU basketball game recently.
Can I call it out like and say no?
Because it was. It was, it was the recent game
against what was Wisconsin, right?
Yes. Yep, Yep.
Oh, so it was when the fire alarm was pulled or whatever it
end up happening with the fire alarm, people were evacuating
and the announcer is like there was some ports of some weather
in the area, some hail, maybe tornadoes.
It's like are we casually saying there's a tornado in the area
when there wasn't a drop of rain on radar locally in Bloomington.
They end up being some storms later that evening.
But and then he's saying, so we're having people evacuating.
It's like if there was a tornado, we certainly wouldn't
be evacuating people. Believe it or not, the safest
place in a tornado in Bloomington's, probably inside
Assembly Hall, No. And as long as you're not in the
lobby, Yeah. But that was the thing.
I had people texting me, like, what, has the weather bad there?
And I'm like, a, no, there's no weather.
B, if the weather was bad, they certainly wouldn't be evacuating
people outside. But yeah, because.
Because there was like a, you know, one of those severe
weather bulletins, but there hadn't been like a tornado watch
put down or anything like that. The assumption in the lack of
evidence was, oh, well, this is, this has to be one leads to the
other. And it's like, well, just just
the basic understanding of how that should work doesn't really
add. Up.
No. And and you know, it's like you
could totally tell what happened.
It was like someone somewhere heard at some point that day
that like maybe there was going to be some storms in the area.
So just so they see people evacuating, they're like, oh,
probably because there's a tornado outside, which is so
wild to say. And this happens a lot like
you'd be surprised to kind of hear.
Well, it's kind of like so I do in one of my classes, I do a two
day concussion reporting workshop which is actually by
the the Concussion Legacy Foundation which is based in
Boston. And one of the reasons why I
have students go through that is that, you know, there's always
been this trend towards embracing ignorance in sports
broadcasting. Like, it's fun to come across
like you're an oaf that doesn't know anything.
I don't, I don't know what that's all about.
Like, I hate, I've always hated that I'm I'm and I've admittedly
a little more of a cerebral guy. I'm I'm not like, I'm not.
I I don't like the kind of meathead approach to
broadcasting. And I feel like there's a lot of
things like concussions where it's like you need to treat that
serious, like that's an actual injury that somebody's like
that's not someone being weak or not something.
They didn't get their bell rung. No.
They had their brain hit the side of their head, so you
better learn as a student like the differences and how to talk
about it. Even if you don't, you can't
medically diagnose it. That's fine, but you should
still be able to talk about it. Well, weather is the same way
where you'll see, you know, radar reports pop up.
And you should at least be able to know by looking at the radar
and kind of getting a sense of where things are at or having
somebody talking in your ear be able to talk intelligently
about, well, here's where the rain is coming from and here's
when this would most likely get here that.
Sounds like a pipe dream to me, honestly.
I know that. Sounds like a dream because I
think there's so many. When I started to think about
it, I'm like because I feel like I can talk about it forever.
Of course, maybe an 8 week special course on weather and
sports, but like. We've talked, we've talked about
if you were still in indie, we would have already made that
happen. Man, I How cool would that be?
How cool? But like there are so many
things. Actually, the answer is simple.
What I I realize I'm like, coming up all these things.
I'm like, that's that's so in depth.
There's really just a couple of things you can do to to make
sure you don't get yourself in a position where you sound so wild
because that that Snooty weather community I told you about
earlier. Yeah, we're it's it's so crazy.
Twitter is actually where a lot of them live and we're in this
like, weather Twitter community. They're.
Going to come from this is the WX hashtag.
Yes, yes. WX Twitter.
It's a scary place. I I stay away from it.
They scare me. No someone someone's going to
listen to this either and they'll either be applauding
this or they'll be like they'll have notes but we hear about it
we we kind of trade it around and and what you could do is if
you kind of know and this effects baseball broadcasters
most because they're games outside and and I think.
Baseball and NASCAR. Yeah, yeah.
But if you know, typically if it's something's going to be,
you know, a storm is going to affect your your day or your
game. You'll you'll know about it,
you'll hear about it. You could just Google NWS
National Weather Service, insert city name and then and they're
going to be talking about it like just and it doesn't require
much, just a teeny bit of background information.
Dedicate 10 minutes if you're going to spend so much time
preparing for a broadcast. And there's you know that a game
could have inclement weather. Look that up at the real source.
This is I've always, I've had this thing about broadcasting
for a while. There's this feeling that that's
someone else's job in so much of broadcasting like, well, there's
some other expert that we're going to bring in and have do
this and weather's the one place where it generally isn't like
that. But this is where in sports it
ends up being a problem because you're like, well, I we're going
to rely on the weather people for the weather.
I'm just here to call sports and that that didn't really work.
Well, or then just call the sports.
Then don't. Don't say there's a tornado.
Right. That's the thing.
Yeah, you got to have that ballot.
Well, and it also it spills into other areas.
I don't know. Did you see these reports off of
the AFC championship game? So the Chiefs hosted it, Yes.
Or maybe it wasn't the championship, Maybe it was the
game that they played in the first round, but it was freezing
cold. Yep, it was like 4 degree 24°
Wind chill, wind chill. And, you know, you had all these
people with their shirts off and now there's reports like, you
know, a lot of them had like third degree burns and they're
getting like parts amputated. Like that's a part of it as
well, not just the weather, but also like, these are the effects
of the weather. And it's like, well, you know,
that looks great now, but that's going to create problems for you
down the line if you're going to a game in a 24° below windshield
with your shirt off. And I saw, I saw some debate on
their whether like they're like, oh, lawsuits are rolling in, but
it's like, I mean do you go to a game?
I how well was it covered? I don't know how well it was
like warned. I feel like everyone was talking
about it. But I'm also very much in tune
to the weather communications. But it's also the way the media
portrays those. Things because.
Do we show the person that's bundled up occasionally?
Do we show the person that's got their shirt off all the time?
Like because that's like that's a real fan down there?
Well, that fan's going to be in the burn.
Unit after the game. It's like that's that's a big
price to pay for a Wild Card round game, yeah.
Well, in the intersection of weather and sports, the way that
it happened so much and I found becoming a meteorologist, how
little meteorologists are actually involved in a lot of
the day-to-day stuff. So when I worked in Indy and
then any market I've worked in, you'll have a few people.
Like they'll be you know someone who's a leader at a school
district asking you if they want advice on a 2 hour delay or you
know a coach of some game that needs a game cancelled or not or
whatever. And like So what I would say to
some broadcasters, if you're if you're going to be regularly in
a certain city, there's a local meteorologist there and if it's
a big weather day, doesn't have to be you don't have to spend a
lot of time on this. But like if your networking is
so big in this business, anything in media networking
network with a broadcast meteorologist that trust me they
want to give you the info they want to.
Like you can easily text like live on a broadcast, be texting
your friend who you've met or just a local met and be like,
hey is there what is this? They could say oh there's
nothing or oh, there's a severe thunderstorm.
Also, I think you might be more interested in this.
This is a step further. OK.
Have you heard of Radar scope? Yeah, but go on and explain.
It OK, so there's an app. A radar scope.
It's it's the app I open up the most.
I'm going to show you here in the studio too, as I close out
my fantasy hockey. This is top law level
podcasting. You're not gonna be able to see
this, but I will. This will be amazing.
Can see, but you cannot. No, Just as I talk about it to
you guys, I wanted to just show. So it's just this little app,
and of course it's showing some. Lot of rains.
In Indy right now, but it's every meteorologist I know has
it for $10 a month. And I'm not connected to
Radarscope at all in any way, by the way, but.
This is not a stealth radarscope infomercial, I promise.
It's just that good that like it is.
I had the pro version for a while.
I wouldn't recommend it. It's it's expensive and doesn't
really give give you what you can't get elsewhere but a high
resolution radar right in your pocket and so you can see and
you don't even need to know a bunch of radar interpretation.
In fact I remember I'm going all over the place here now but
you're good. The the reason I like who really
cares about how well you can interpret a radar but like say
if those guys had this or even the free government website if
you type in again go back to National Weather Service
Bloomington it'll take you to Indy but like it'll give you
Bloomington information. They have live radars there,
like this is free information. Like then.
I think a lot of people don't realize, like the government.
I mean, I've known that I've done.
I used to go to NOAA dot Gov for years and then they kind of
ruined the app in like 2014 or something like that.
I used to go to that all the time.
And yeah, now there there, there are a lot of good sources for
these things that you should if you're broadcasting sports or
even if you're just going to a sporting event.
It doesn't hurt. I I always remember this was the
2004 Indy 500. It was the one that Buddy Rice
won when he was driving for Letterman and they had to stop
the race because of rain. But that was the race.
I believe it was O Four. I don't think it was O seven.
O 7 had a similar ending, but the O four race, a tornado
formed on the South side of Indy at the end of the race.
And I'll always think about that because I was only following
along with it because I was on the Internet, which was not like
you weren't normally doing that in 2004.
You know, people weren't hopping on to dial up and be like, I
want to go see what the radar looks like.
But I was freaking out because I was like, if a tornado hits the
Speedway when there's 250,000 people there, like that's that's
a real big deal. And there's nowhere to go, as
you know, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Like you're not all evacuating under the bleachers.
That's that's not happening in most cases.
So I've always thought back to that and it's like we're lucky
that that not something bad didn't happen at the Speedway
there because it was so under reported and it was so poorly,
kind of unless you were on radio, if you were listening to
like WIBC at the time, but on television, you would have had
no idea. No, it's wild to think that.
And staying with the Indy 500 thing, I remember I won't.
I won't name names or race teams, but and this and this is
all of them, I couldn't believe just the links that they'll go
to to try to find out weather information but not have any
meteorologists on staff at all. Now the Indy 500 does, they have
got an advisor. I think Kelly Green did it for a
while from THR, but I don't know who does it now.
But there is somebody who advises the the 500 itself.
But all these teams, they're flying drones around trying to
see where the rain is. I'm like OK, a meteorologist
with even a teeny bit of like radar.
You know I've taken of course courses and like radar analysis
and all that. But like I can tell you where
the rain is and or and they got you got a team of engineers
looking up like fake wind maps and stuff.
It's just it's it was nuts to me.
I couldn't believe until I was exposed to it how much it's the
like the facts aren't there and how easy they are to find.
But the with the radar scope I thought it was so funny because
I recalled another tweet as I was thinking about our
conversation and it was an IU softball broadcast and the
announcer said she was like she or he.
I can't remember who. I just remember the listening to
it and and it's like there was a large piece of green on radar
right now and just like kind of the funniest like it.
You know it sounds silly but even that's better than than
pretending there's a tornado when there's not.
Or gosh, there was a again, I won't, I won't name drop the
account but an official IU source tweeted out this is when
I was a meteorologist in Indianapolis.
So I feel that like whenever there's there was egregious,
kind of like weather tweets posted, I'd come back to people
would be asking me and calling in the station and it was a
tweet. I think it was during a football
game and it was like talking about a severe thunderstorm in
the area. I'm like, God, there's
definitely not a lot of storm in the area.
So I'm getting this influx of like severe thunderstorm in the
area and a severe thunderstorm. You have to it's got to be winds
at 58 mph, hail that's at least an inch in diameter, or if
anything has a tornado. It's of course severe, but there
are like certain criteria that you have to meet.
That's a term severe thunderstorm.
It actually means something, yeah.
It's not just not just a it's not a vibe.
And it's like, yeah, exactly. That's almost how it was
treated. And and and and totally not
like. So when I'm feeling these
questions and I'm kind of like not in a criticizing kind of
way, but I was like, hey, I'm getting a lot of questions about
this. Just so you guys know, like,
good news there isn't a I wasn't trying to be snarky at all.
I tried to approach it really. I hope.
I really hope I came across as only like, hey, there's not one.
But. It's tough because you have to
have experts come in at some point because again, I think out
of a lot of times, out of what is intended to be an abundance
of caution and like, well, we want to make sure that we're on
the side of safety and let people know that there might be
issues. A lot of times you'll get missed
terminology or just wrong information.
I know like last year before the women's little 500 broadcast, it
was raining. I was like, well, OK, what's
going on? So I was like doing weather
updates on Instagram and Facebook where I'm like, all
right, well, I've, I've been watching the radar and I, I know
I I'm not nearly as good as you, but I at least understand like
generally how this stuff works. And I can describe it in a way
that that I people understand, but a lot of it was just like,
let's make sure we've got the right information out there.
So people make a decision about are they going to go to the
race, whatever. And everything worked out fine.
They got delayed an hour. But in the absence of
information, people assume all kinds of things.
You know, I I think about like the the craziest weather event
I've ever seen at an IU game was, I believe the first.
I think it was the first game of the 2018 football season when
you had a a Hurricane remnant come in and IU was playing
Virginia and it was like this rain fest.
Like it was just a just rain the whole game.
The wind was coming in. It was ridiculous.
That was the game that Indiana won at the end and like Tom
Allen like kicked the trash can in front of the student section.
But you know that that's one of those where everybody knew it
was going to be raining heavily. But it's funny like you'll get
those random things. I remember one time there was a
tailgate that says it was that same year, actually Penn State
game. That was the game where Michael
Pennix tore his knee up one of the times.
And we're out tailgating, you know, 4 hours before the game
we're over in the green lot. And you know, we had some
friends that sat that would set up their tailgate stuff next to
us in this little depression between the green lot and the
orange lot. And so they set all their stuff
up and they were like, we have to go to a youth soccer game,
but we'll be back later. So they leave.
They've set all their tables up. They're going to come back about
an hour and a half later. About 20 minutes later, IU
events sends these people through on golf carts warning
everybody that there's a Highwind warning that's suddenly
been announced. And I'm like, OK is.
And so I knew something was coming.
And then sure enough, right around when they said that it
was coming through, there was this immense gust of wind that
came through, blew all of the people next to our tailgate
stuff into our tailgate. So we I I lost like 2 canopies.
I lost a crock pot. I, you know, yeah, I know the
crock pot was a real loss. You know, all of our tables got
blown over. Like it was like there was a
second there where I was like this is how I'm going to die.
I'm going to get impaled by, you know, a canopy remnants.
Now that you're saying this, I'm remembering seeing online the
videos and the pictures, Yes. Was it actually a Highwind
warning or did they had it? Was one of those things.
I mean, I'm AI, you know the, I mean cell phone reception in the
tailgate lots is never reliable. But it was, it was.
They came through and said it was a Highwind warning and I I
believe them. And how much, how much heads up
time did you guys get? About 20 minutes.
Oh gosh. See.
And but even if we, even if we and we, we secured our stuff,
but the people next to us had left.
So I wasn't going to be able to secure their stuff and instead
their stuff became our stuff, you know.
So in general, it is interesting how often you know weather plays
a part in whether you're a spectator in sports or whether
you're broadcasting sports. And it is something that just
you'd like to see more crossover just in terms of the basic
understanding of how it all fits together?
Because I got to say, a Highwind warning.
Those like there'd be way more lead time than 20 minutes.
So I wonder how long it had been out.
Everyone just didn't know. It might have been longer.
It's one of those, as I always say.
You know, the COVID destroyed my sense of time where everything
in my brain happened like a minute after everything else.
And it may have been an hour, I don't know.
I give them credit for warning people at the very least.
I mean, yeah, everyone was out there tailgating.
How do you get tailgaters out? That's the thing you're, you
know, you've been if you're 2 hours into tailgating, you're
like when that that actually sounds pretty good right now and
then then then next thing you know you've got a piece of
canopy sticking through your body.
Yeah, it's not ideal. So let's talk a little bit.
I mean you're so you're in Boston now you're you're doing
weather there, but you're you know you're obviously you know
still kind of in a mode where you're you're in touch with the
sports scene a bit you're you're getting into hockey now
obviously. Well, you know, not live in a
hockey, yeah. Absolutely.
You know, but it's interesting you know having seen you be very
close to like the IU sports scene and then kind of move away
from it. You've got kind of a distance
from it now and you were on Twitter a bit yesterday, last
night there were it's not it's not the most stable time in IU
basketball history. But you know you as you said
earlier you've kind of your, your on ramp to all of this was
not that long ago first of all. And second of all was at a time
when things felt fairly good. Yeah.
They they were good for me. Yeah, you know, plus, I was so
close to it. I was a student and you, I was
right there experiencing everything, seeing it all, you
know, unfold in real time. And a lot of those guys were
great friends of mine, you know, and gosh, so many stories, so
many great stories from from all those years.
And so it's weird now to be in a place where I I feel so
disconnected from it. And that's why I'm sitting here
on I'm on fantasy hockey. I've been to more hockey games
than, IE basketball games, which to me I never thought was a
world that would ever exist for me.
What's funny is we were talking about superstitions.
Was it yesterday or something? And so every game I've gone to
since an alumni, we've we've lost.
Every game I watch on TV we lose.
So I I can't watch the games, I can't tweet about them because
I'm not got all these superstitions going.
But it's I think it's another like temperature reading of
where like a lot of people may might be right.
Now especially. Who were casual fans beforehand?
And I I wonder. I I wonder what kind of an IU
fan I would have been had I had, like, not my 2013 like,
Hoosiers. I don't know.
Fandom is interesting because it's not a one way St.
There has to be something you grab onto that makes you,
whether it's a player that that is like really fun to watch, or
whether it's a team that's having success or there's a
particular game or a set of games that makes you feel
emotions in a positive way. And I think about that a lot
because, you know, there's a whole bunch of people since, you
know, really the early 1990s who haven't had a lot of those
moments and maybe haven't had moments at all.
And and so IU fandom for a lot of people has ended up being
something that you're told you should do, but it's not
something that you're organically growing into unless
you grew up with it. And even then, it's like the the
good times are kind of few and far between, comparatively
speaking. And that is a tough, that's a
tough place to come from. And especially, I think for
Someone Like You who's moving around and you know you're in
different markets and and living your own life, it's like, what's
attaching me to this? Exactly.
And what's I mean, I guess just the I'm told to be the whole
reason I went to IU in the 1st place is like everyone in
Indiana is kind of told they're an IU fan.
Like you just see IU everywhere. Like I remember people recently
on Twitter complaining that it was the Pep Pepsi or Cook some
some marketing thing like Kroger or something like.
That it was in Westfield. Oh, OK.
You so you know what I'm talking yeah.
And and and that it was like IU themed and not you know.
Not Purdue themed, right? Well, gosh, I remember being and
that's just like the culture. Like you see it and you're told
your knife and you're told it's great.
And so it must be great. And I I have parroted so much of
that. That was kind of like my
hoosierless brand. Like I, you know, a little IU
fan, cheerleader, whatever. And and a lot of it's trolling
kind of going back to those college roots to sort of fun.
I though I will say my in my my older days, I can't take the
heat as much. When I troll, I'm like, wait, it
used to not bother me if people didn't know I was doing it or
not. And I was like, I don't care.
Like, what are these people saying on Twitter?
I don't care. But now I'm like, I kind of
can't take the heat. I just got to stay out of the
kitchen, I guess, because. It's also gotten meaner, I will
say it's gotten, it's gotten, it's gotten more mean spirited.
Just kind of across the board, gosh is.
It OK, I thought. You're not.
You're not imagining that. Because you know, I'm like,
gosh, even if I have blind IU fandom, I mean who, who cares?
Like who cares? Let me just have my my moment
here guys. But no, I I was like almost I'm
like backtracking. I'm like, OK actually, never
mind never mind. And yeah, where where did where
are we at? Well, we were, I just we were
talking about being online and dealing with on and we were
talking about the perception because you were talking about
the that coke stand in Westfield and yeah, Oh my.
Gosh. Well you know, so OK.
So I've had. I introduced a few people to the
Indianapolis market a couple years ago when I came here to to
take that broadcast job for weather and it was so
interesting because they didn't People who don't who aren't from
here were learning like they're like wait so Purdue is like #1
they're this and but everyone but yet the indie star or this
or that's focused on and even in our station in our station
coverage it was like but I you might be okay.
And so they and it's like how does like it's so amazing to see
IU leading leading Purdue news when Purdue's actually doing
something right now. Right.
Exactly. And I and and me as an IU fan.
I'm just like Yep. Yep.
Yeah. Like you know I'm just feeding
into it. Yeah.
People hate it like I've you know and so and I've tried to
try to learn how to like like reel that in because yeah.
Sure, to be fair, if I'm OK, like, duh.
Any honest person knows that we're not, like, doing the best
right now. But like, I don't know.
It's I don't know what a fan always has to say.
It is, but it's it's there's a whole cultural back story to why
Purdue isn't more popular relatively speaking.
And and look they've they've had by far the better program since
about 2015. And you know the the level of
success they had, it's not unprecedented.
They had a similar level of a success in the the late 80s.
And and but it's what people don't understand is like there's
a fundamental difference between the schools and who goes to
which school and what they're likely to do afterwards.
And I always think about it because I taught at the
University of Miami for a couple of years and the perception that
people have outside of Miami versus what it is there is
totally different from reality where you know, there are no
locals or very few locals that go to Miami.
They're all from the Northeast. They all come down for four
years, go to college party and then leave, you know, at Purdue,
I mean, they've turned themselves into like the
international engineering School.
So a lot of their students, they aren't from Indiana.
They come, they they study, they leave again.
And the ones that are from Indiana, there just aren't as
many of them, you know and and I've always found that
fascinating because it's, you know, the IU almost suffers
because of the overexposure that it gets.
You know there's there's so much media attention in the media.
There's so many stories that are specifically about it because it
it's relevant to a lot of people even if it's not successful.
And to some degree, it when it works like that 2012 and 2013
stretch, it can be like a nuclear chain reaction where it
it becomes one of the brightest shining things in sports where
it's like, I use good and there's this nationwide diaspora
of fans who are just like jacked up and they're going to games
everywhere. When it doesn't work, it ends up
being this thing where people get really agitated because it's
like, well, why isn't it better? Like why?
Why are we not competing at the level of a of a Kentucky or a
North Carolina? And that's yet to be a really
well answered question. I think over the course of time
and a lot of people really struggle with it.
And I think for people like you, it's like, OK, I loved it when
it was good, but I didn't have, it wasn't like that was
ingrained in me forever. It wasn't like, I mean either
the very following year after 2013, I didn't even make the
NCAA tournament. So it's like, what?
What's keeping me here? Well, I mean, gosh, just my my
introduction was the watch shot. I know.
I think of the introduction. Yeah, it.
Doesn't get better than that. It's a nice nice way to start.
And and I was it just last last year we had Trace was that?
The Yeah, it was. Last year, it's like, I know,
OK, that feels like it. Feels like 10 years ago.
Yeah, as close as the Zeller, Oladipo, all that.
It almost does feel that way because I cannot believe how I
how you say and I and this is being admittedly like a more
recent era fan. I I like felt sad whenever he
was like weaving and declaring and I I felt like such a loss.
Well first of all OK he went to Center Grove.
I went to Center Grove. He's a Center Grove kid.
He's an IU kid. I'm you know go Trace.
But I felt such a piece of our team like I thought it was so
cool. All the things that you hear
about like him holding his teammates accountable and the
work ethic and there and just that leadership and I and and
like like right now I literally the the seasons are blending
together. I don't even remember what we
did last year but I felt better about it.
Yeah. No, you should have.
It was a better season. They made the NCAA tournament.
They finished second, the big. But this is for so many of us
like, live inside this. I think it's always great to
talk to Someone Like You who understands it but isn't living
in it. And you're approaching it from a
distance and you know when, it's when, when it's going good.
It's something that people pay attention to and when it's not,
it's like, well, it blends into the background.
Or worse, it just becomes something that you don't talk
about and don't think about, and especially you because it's not
like you're surrounded by IU people.
You're kind of You're on an island, essentially.
No. And then they're like, well,
what about these Hoosiers you're always talking about?
And I'm like. I just just.
Never mind, Don't watch. My partner is a Penn State grad,
so it's sad. It's sad.
Whenever we watch it, we think, oh, let's watch a Penn State
now. You game like, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry. It's going to be so terrible for
you and think, just crush us. Yeah, yeah.
We did a live podcast at at the Upstairs Pub at the beginning of
February and it was the Penn State game like, well, this will
be safe. And it was that was it was not
safe. So, well, anything else any any
memories any specific things from campus to to close this out
on that you you want to share? No, God, there's so many.
There's just so many. It's such a great time.
Again, it all blends together to
some degree, 'cause it's it's, you know, I I also the the great
thing. It was funny.
I was going through an old hard drive the other day and.
I had a bunch. Of pictures of campus that I
think we're taking in like 2012 and it's like, well, the place
looks exactly the same. There's been a lot of changes
since then, but there is a timelessness to kind of the
environment and living in it. Then you could be a student 10
years ago or 20 years ago, and it it's not a whole lot
different now from what it was then.
You know what some things I think about when I think about
some of the best times? Well, first of all, I was
outside of IU basketball. I was there.
We our, our soccer team was winning, Our baseball team.
I went to Omaha to watch them play in the College World Series
like that was awesome. I think about the some of that
silly Hoosier list stuff and how awesome you and some of the
other teachers were to like identifying talents and stuff.
Because when I when I worked for IO Athletics and doing they're
like hey let's do it was actually I did I did some stuff
since been it's been long enough I could probably could say this
I don't know I did some stuff that was on my channel that they
actually like paid for because they're like well we can't let's
not do this officially here But like like sometimes sometimes
some of the stuff was but I there was such great like
wholesome it was like wholesome it just felt like I could go and
do you know talking about all the.
I mean, I mean you got me on this like thinking about all the
great times when well, all the all the access that the kids are
getting now, the kids, the students.
I hate to say that. It's just so natural to say
that. I remember the thing that I was
doing was like I didn't have access.
So I'd be like at the IU baseball game like in the stands
like in in the hilarity of like report Like I would purposely
video film through the through the fence and everything.
And some of those some of those people in the in the bloggers
they didn't they didn't want they were like they they weren't
hiring students usually or specifically not me with my
crazy what the heck are you doing content.
So and and what's amazing is I think it was my junior year.
The beginning of junior year when I had just been told I
wasn't going to do this internship anymore and that's
when Jeremy Gray hired me for IO Athletics, which just was
awesome. That like you you got me in with
the Big 10 student crew stuff. Live shot reporting something
that not having any clue what I was going to do when I went to
IU. Like to to come into all of this
this amazing program that you've built up.
I just, it's being here today and walking around the media
school. I just can't believe how how
great it is. I can't believe it because
that's what you've built. But so many opportunities and I
just think about I'm just thankful that I really didn't
know what I was going to do because I just chose IU and and
found my way to this and it was the best well the.
Best Well I appreciate that and I'm glad and it's it's it's
great that it's grown as much as it has but it's grown because of
of people that came through the program before like you and
others. And you know, I just, I'm
always, I've always very prideful of what you folks have
done once you've moved on from here and that you've found your
own pathways and been successful with what you do.
And it's great that you come back every once in a.
While I love coming back here, come back anytime well.
I appreciate you coming on the show.
This was awesome. Yes, this.
I was nervous. You were nervous and there was
no need to be whatsoever. Nervous.
I was. I was nervous.
Now I'm excited to go to upstairs.
I'm looking forward to it. We're heading over there next.
If people are in the Boston area or online, where do they find
you? CBS Channel 4.
So, yeah, CBS News Boston. There you go.
Alyssa Andrews joining us here on the show.
Great to talk to you. Awesome.
Awesome to talk to you Austin. Be here as always.
All right. Thanks again to Alyssa.
That was a fun conversation, really enjoyed it and always
great to have any of our any of my former students back in town
and and certainly love it when Alyssa comes back, it's it's
great to talk with her about a whole variety of things.
So we will go ahead and wrap up again.
We'll have more podcasting coming up here soon as Senior
Day coming up for IU and you've also of course next week got the
men's Big 10 tournament. So a lot of different things
going on with IU and certainly quite a bit of external noise
around the IU basketball programs and a lot of talk all
over college basketball's landscape, as I'm sure many of
you are aware. So we'll tackle on that and talk
a little bit more about some other things in the future.
Thanks again folks. We really appreciate you being a
part of the Crimson Cast audience.
Again, check us out on Sub Stack, check out home field,
apparel.com. Check out the rest of the shows
on the back home network, Assembly, Call the Doing the
Work podcast, X's and Joe's The Crimson Cast Women's Basketball
show. A little bit of everything for
all those folks. I'm GAIL and Clavio.
Thanks for joining us here on the show.
We'll catch you folks. On the flip side, bring back the
Bison. So everybody.