Paul's 2007-08 Basketball Thread

[clarendoncm]

Originally Posted by spokanehound

Paul, are you making these cards? If so are they paintshop or what, they look pretty cool.

[seattlehound]

Originally Posted by clarendoncm

Paul, are you making these cards? If so are they paintshop or what, they look pretty cool.

Thanks for the comment on the cards. I use an old photo program that was bundled with Office 2000, and am way too cheap to upgrade to better software I wish I had been able to integrate feedback on this design from the Card Making thread (making the lightened area parallel with the nameplate) because most players don't know exactly where to sign, and end up just signing over the dark part if I don't get the chance to tell them where to sign (see Brook Lopez, Drew Shiller, Mitch Johnson).

[felixfan59]

Did you go to fanfest?

[seattlehound]

Originally Posted by felixfan59

Did you go to fanfest?

Nah - after looking at the lineup I decided it wasn't worth waiting in line all day...

[seattlehound]

02/02/08: NCAA Basketball – Cal Bears @ Washington Huskies (Pac-10)
Hotel - Bellevue, WA; Bank of America Arena - Seattle, WA

Cal isn't as loaded a team as some of the other Pac-10 schools I've seen in terms of star power, but it doesn't seem to matter, as they beat top-ten ranked Wazzu on Thursday. I had high hopes of knocking out the entire team at the hotel before the game. While I probably didn't have to do the hotel since the arena is easy, I was worried about rain hampering that opportunity (always a constant factor around here). The Bears stayed at a hotel in downtown Bellevue (same hotel used by WSU), and once again the hotel staff didn't care that I waited by the bus even though it was parked on their loop. This worked out almost perfectly - the players came out one at a time and each signed for me. However I still had a little cleanup to do after this - somehow Ben Braun got by me, probably while I was getting someone else. He was wearing a team-issued white/yellow polo shirt, instead of the suit/tie I usually see coaches wear, so that may have been a factor. Current Pac-10 scoring leader Ryan Anderson was the last one out, and signed one of my cards - at that point, a team staffer said "let's go, Ryan...". I let him go at that point, figuring I could knock out the rest after the game. Devon Hardin, who is on the cover of the Bay Area edition of the Athlon annual with Brook Lopez, was nowhere to be seen. During my downtime before the end of the game, I went home and checked the previous game box score, and saw the bad news: Hardin was ill and did not make the two-game swing up here.

Cal won the game against UW, making it the first time since 2004 that UW has lost a two-game Pac-10 weekend series. I got to the arena with about a minute left, and went into the arena as people filtered out. I first went to the Huskies' tunnel, and saw UW football coach Tyrone Willingham signing for some people there. Since I had nothing (not even index cards today), I settled on getting him on the gameday lineup card. Ben Braun was doing a postgame radio interview for the Cal broadcast, and when he came to the tunnel he said he'd be back. In the meantime some Cal players wandered out - including Ryan Anderson. I got him on the rest of my stuff - he was cool about signing for whoever asked. I ran into fellow SportsGraphing.com member luckydog, which was ironic because I was helping him get some custom 4x6s done today - nice to meet you, man!

UW players were also milling around on the court, and I snagged Ryan Appleby on my cards. Some older guy had a stack of five SI's, but Appleby had no problem signing them all. I also knocked out a few more Huskies on custom cards and Tim Morris on a couple more gameday inserts. Unfortunately I didn't see former NBA player Eldridge Recasner, a UW alumnus - he is at games sometimes and I was told he was at the Stanford game.

Overall this was a pretty solid day - although Devon Hardin wasn't on the trip for Cal, I got everyone else along with a good chunk of UW. Jon Brockman is the only Husky I need to complete the UW page of my custom card set!


Cal
Ryan Anderson 1/3 cards/photo, 2/2 card/photo (BaadN10tionzz 1, luckydog 1)
Jamal Boykin 1/1 card
Patrick Christopher 2/2 card/photo, 1/1 photo (luckydog 1)
Harper Kamp 1/1 card
Nikola Knezevic 1/1 card
Jerome Randle 2/2 cards (BaadN10tionzz 1)
Eric Vierneisel 1/1 card
Jordan Wilkes 1/1 card
Ben Braun 1/1 coaches 8x10

Washington
Ryan Appleby 2/2 cards (BaadN10tionzz 1)
Matthew Bryan-Amaning 2/2 cards (BaadN10tionzz 1)
Tim Morris 2/2 gameday inserts
Venoy Overton 2/2 cards (BaadN10tionzz 1)
Joel Smith 1/1 card
Joe Wolfinger 1/1 card

Miscellaneous
Tyrone Willingham 1/1 back of gameday roster

[seattlehound]

02/07/08: NCAA Basketball – USC Trojans @ Washington Huskies (Pac-10)
Bank of America Arena - Seattle, WA

I knew it would just be a matter of time before I had an off-night with one of these teams. I couldn't locate USC's hotel for the life of me, calling every downtown Seattle and Bellevue hotel I could think of that was feasible (I eventually learned they had stayed somewhere by the airport). My only chance would be after the game at the arena. I got there and saw that a good portion of the Seattle eBay contingent had gathered by the visitors' tunnel inside the arena, which surprised me because I thought they would all be trying to go for Hillary Clinton at her event downtown. I still had to get the entire team; hounding inside the arena is good for me if I've done the hotel before, because then it's more cleanup-style. The downside is players don't have to come back out onto the court. I figured Mayo would come out, but wasn't sure who else, so I went outside where only a few people were waiting, figuring I could just pick off the rest of the team and then hopefully get one or two from Mayo (guessing he would be in a hurry, etc).

It started off well enough; after hearing that I missed Dwight Lewis, I got some of the bench guys to sign my cards followed by USC's other freshman standout, Davon Jefferson. They were cool and asked where I got the cards. Taj Gibson walked out fast but stopped and took care of a couple of my items. Coach Floyd added his auto to my Pac 10 composite photo which is coming along quite nicely. After a few more minutes, O.J. Mayo came out with an arena security guard. He took a kid's black pen and signed a couple per since he was in a hurry. He did my SI in the black (which thankfully was still fresh) and then I asked him to sign my card after he handed back the pen, so I got him on blue but the autograph was more rushed. Then the real head-scratcher... Daniel Hackett was the last one out, surrounded by a red phalanx of assistant coaches/trainers, and they seemed in a hurry. Dan said something like "I can't do it now or I'll get in trouble." Gotta love college A.D.'s sometimes. A few eBay guys came out and said that Mayo racked inside, and that Sonic great Gus Williams was at the game somewhere. So I wasn't sure if I made the right call by going outside, because judging by how late Hackett left, he was probably out on the court for awhile as well.

Overall I guess I can't complain about getting Mayo, but missing Hackett and Lewis was not too fun. Now I have to look forward to Sunday when the Bruins visit.

Rousean Cromwell 1/1 card
Kasey Cunningham - didn't see
Taj Gibson 2/2 card/4x6 (luckydog 1)
Daniel Hackett 0/2 - rushed out by assistant coaches
Davon Jefferson 2/2 card, 4x6 (luckydog 1)
Angelo Johnson 1/1 card
Dwight Lewis - missed
O.J. Mayo - 2/4 SI, card
Keith Wilkinson 1/1 card
Tim Floyd 1/1 coaches 8x10

[seattlehound]

02/21/08: NCAA Basketball – Arizona Wildcats @ Washington Huskies (Pac-10)
Hotel / Bank of America Arena - Seattle, WA

Before I post about Arizona, I figured I'd fill in the gap a bit. I didn't post a UCLA story because I was p*ssed off about how it all went down. They had a no-signing policy at the hotel before the game; they were upset by the Huskies and a couple guys signed before the coaches rushed the players out of the arena and prevented most of them from signing. No Love for the hounds... I did get Howland and a couple non-stars but it was about as bad of a clusterfudge as it could get with a normally great signing team.

Anyways, I was looking forward to Zona to erase the memory of the last game, and this one went a lot better. I somehow found time to get down to the hotel in downtown Seattle before the game, and as usual I was the only one there. The players left one or two at a time which made it easy to pick everyone off. Got a couple of nice comments about the cards; since Lute Olson had left the team earlier this season, I printed out a Kevin O'Neill "stub" picture for my coaches 8x10 composite that I can attach somehow to the photo so I at least get the coach who was in the card. As Bret Brielmaier was signing my card, former Wildcat star Miles Simon snuck by. I also missed Nic Wise and Jawann McClellan somehow. Budinger and Bayless came out last (of course); Budinger quickly rattled off two autographs on my cards, skipping the 4x6, while Bayless was one per (however he did wait behind Chase Budinger for a few seconds while I was getting Chase).

With most of the team out of the way, postgame would be easy. Once again the Huskies pulled out a surprising win. I went into the arena at the conclusion of the game and got announcer Bob Weiss (former NBA) to sign a card... very nice guy. After waiting around by the tunnel for a few minutes (and missing Nic Wise again as he went to the bus early), Jawann McClellan came out and signed two cards for me. I was looking over at the Husky tunnel to see if Appleby and Brockman were coming back out, but I figured I had more time so I went out to the bus instead. Boy, am I glad I did the hotel before the game! I heard from the two hounds outside that Bayless had stiffed completely (he had a terrible game). Miles Simon came out and signed the card I had - I thought of tracking down his two different SI's but never got around to it. A few players filtered out who I didn't need, then Budinger came out last. He signed for the other collectors, then signed the 4x6. Right as he handed the pen back to me and was about to go, a team staffer said "No Chase, let's go..." Perfect timing! Me 1, uptight team staffers 0. After the bus pulled away, I hurried back into the arena and luckily Appleby was still chatting with some people. I got him on a few things including an SI for jgnova. Then just a few minutes later Jon Brockman came out to the court and so I got him on my cards and the SI. That completed my cleanup of the Huskies for the season! I ended up skipping Arizona State so this concludes the Pac-10 season in Seattle.

Arizona
Jerryd Bayless 1/3 card
Bret Brielmaier 1/1 card
Chase Budinger 2/3 cards, 1/1 4x6 (BaadN10tionzz 1, luckydog 1)
Daniel Dillon 1/1 card
Jordan Hill 2/2 card, 4x6 (luckydog 1)
Jamelle Horne 1/1 card
Jawann McClellan 2/2 cards (BaadN10tionzz 1)
Kirk Walters 1/1 card
Nic Wise - missed
Kevin O'Neill 1/1 coaches 8x10 stub
Miles Simon 1/1 card

Washington
Ryan Appleby 3/3 inserts, SI (jgnova 1)
Jon Brockman 3/3 cards, SI (jgnova 1)

Miscellaneous
Bob Weiss 1/1 card

[seattlehound]

02/23/08: NCAA Basketball – Arizona Wildcats @ Washington State Cougars (Pac-10)
Hotel - Spokane, WA

Quick unexpected postscript to my Arizona outing. I was in Spokane this weekend visiting my girlfriend and heard from dandickau12 that Arizona was staying at the nice hotel in town and would be hounding them. I swung by the hotel and got Nic Wise on my card, finishing up my set before having to leave.

Arizona
Nic Wise 1/1 card

[GoPhillies23]

Nice job with the PAC-10 Basketball autos Paul! Kevin O'Neill actually has a couple of NBA coach cards.

You should have gone for ASU and skipped U of A though! lol

[seattlehound]

Originally Posted by GoPhillies23

Nice job with the PAC-10 Basketball autos Paul! Kevin O'Neill actually has a couple of NBA coach cards.

You should have gone for ASU and skipped U of A though! lol

Yeah had I not been out of town, I would have graphed them for sure... definitely wanted to get my 9-card set of them done!

[GoPhillies23]

Originally Posted by spokanehound

Yeah had I not been out of town, I would have graphed them for sure... definitely wanted to get my 9-card set of them done!

Yeah I hear ya.

BTW, Your homemade cards are awesome! Keep up the good work!

[jgnova88]

Thanks so much paul! I should have the scottys done soon, bad news about james though i wasnt able to go for him because i was working for espn during that game

[leafschik1967]

Those cards look awesome signed! I really like the coach's project you have going as well.

[sigman101]

Darn I wish I knew you would of been going after Miles Simon as I had 4 cards I could of sent for a 50/50 lol. Congrats on all those pickups man and especially on the Mayo's!!!

What does Miles Simon do for Arizona now???

[seattlehound]

Originally Posted by sigman101

What does Miles Simon do for Arizona now???

He's been an assistant coach for the last few seasons.