This week is a bye week for the University of Illinois men's basketball team.  The team has had a couple of days to catch its breath before the game this Saturday in loud and intense Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.

After the Ohio State game this last Sunday I glanced at the calendar on my desk at work and noticed the only thing basketball-related written on it was the Bruce Weber Radio Show on Monday night.   Then nothing.... until the game this Saturday against Purdue.  I put away my scoresheets and media guides and prepared to watch some of the other Big Ten teams battle it out on television during the week.

Then on Tuesday morning during a morning newscast on WDWS my cellphone rang.  It had a Chicago area code listed on the screen and I figured a Chicago radio station was calling to set up an interview about the Illini and their prospects this weekend at Purdue...or maybe how many wins they might need to make the NCAA field.

I thought about calling back  later in the morning...but I had a couple of free minutes so I checked the voice mail.  Good thing I did.

Turned out it was the Big Ten Network...calling to see if I could help them out with an emergency situation.  Network studio host and  play-by-play man Dave Revsine would not be able to call the Michigan-Iowa game.  Could I get to Iowa City right away  and handle the the play by play in his place?  Tonight?  At 8 pm?

To quote Sarah Palin: "You betcha".

I quickly assembled a scoresheet and jotted down a few important notes on both teams....ran home to grab a jacket and tie... and headed up I-74 to the Quad Cities and then over into the state of Iowa.  Four hours later I pulled into Iowa City....changed clothes at the hotel... and headed to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.  After meeting with color analyst Jim Jackson and the producer of the broadcast....I spent a few minutes getting all my notes organized and preparing for the broadcast.

I never really got nervous.  A television broadcast is different from a radio broadcast in several aspects...but I had done enough TV work in the last couple of years with the Big Ten Network (doing play by play during the Big Ten Baseball Tournament games)... so  I knew the TV drill pretty well.

 I just had to be careful not to say "Illini Sports Network"...or refer to Jim Jackson as "Jerry"(Hester).

Jackson and I completed a brief standup and the game was underway.  It turned out to be a very exciting game as the Hawkeyes and the Wolverines both had big momentum swings.  As it turned out...Iowa missed a chance to nail down the game late in regulation and wound up losing in overtime.

After the broadcast was finished and I had thrown it back to the network studios in Chicago for post-game analysis...I sat and reflected on what had been a whirlwind day.  Little did I know that when I woke up at 4:30 am that morning....I would be sitting courtside in Iowa City that same night at 10:30 pm....  finishing up broadcasting a game on the Big Ten Network.  It had been a great (and unexpected) day.

I spent the night in Iowa City...slept in until 8 am Wednesday morning.... and then made my way back to Illinois... crossing the mighty Mississippi in the Quad Cities and arriving in Champaign in the early afternoon.  

It had been a quick and exciting trip and it was rewarding to be able to help out the Big Ten folks when they were in a pinch. 

The lesson of this story:  Make sure you check your voicemail!

My next broadcast is scheduled to be on the Illini Sports Network this weekend as the Illini battle the Boilermakers at Mackey Arena on Saturday at 3 pm (Central).  Talk to you then.