The Final Four

Buckeyes' first trip to the big dance in 31 years caps off a memorable journey

The media horde waited outside the Ohio State men's basketball team's locker room at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., anticipating the opening of the double doors.

Cameramen jostled for position, hoping to be the first to document the Buckeyes' sadness over the end of their dream season, an NCAA semifinal loss to the University of Connecticut.

Writers scrambled around and readied their notepads, hoping to find the perfect words to capture the emotion of the not-so-happy ending of Ohio State's fairy-tale run to the Final Four.

photo by Jamie Sabau

Freshman guard Brian Brown skies for a rebound tip in loss to UConn in the national semifinals.

Slowly, the doors opened. Coach Jim O'Brien, a bit red-faced but looking as composed as ever, led the way. Star players Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd trailed close behind. They made their way to the golf cart that would hustle them to the press conference area.

But those waiting outside the locker room wouldn't get what they wanted: There were no tears, no visible signs of bitter disappointment. As the cart scooted away, down the long hallway, Redd slowly hung his head, looking more tired than anything else.

The Buckeyes' run to the Final Four was exhausting and exhilarating. But just like that, it was over. A 64-58 loss to eventual national champion Connecticut had brought an end to OSU's miraculous, record-breaking journey.

O'Brien shouts at an official as the Buckeyes walk to the bench for a timeout during the Final Four game.

"I think it was a great opportunity ... the ride we had," Penn said later. "I feel we have nothing to hang our heads about."

"This really hurts, but, you know, I think back on how this whole thing has gone and it's not going to be that bad after we get out of here," O'Brien said.

The players abruptly returned to reality, getting back to Columbus less than 12 hours later -- in time for the start of the spring quarter and an impromptu victory celebration at the Schottenstein Center.

Everyone else slowly came back down to earth, too, carefully tucking Ohio State's remarkable season into their memory banks and cheering one last time.

"This was an extraordinary group," said OSU Athletic Director Andy Geiger. "We should celebrate them. Everybody connected with Ohio State -- we should celebrate the way this season unfolded and be excited about where we're headed."

While the team's turnaround -- one of the most dramatic in college basketball history, going from an 8-22 season a year ago to the school's first Final Four appearance in 31 years -- was an exciting and exhausting trip, it was just as frenetic for Ohio State staff, alumni and fans.

Ohio State's sports information office doggedly followed the Buckeyes' success. After Ohio State beat St. John's in the South Region final to advance to the Final Four, staffers worked until the wee hours, creating a Final Four media guide and making other preparations for the NCAA's biggest show.

"It's been non-stop," said Sports Information Director Gerry Emig. "It's been absolutely non-stop."

Dan Wallenberg, assistant athletics communications director, handled nearly all of the day-to-day communication needs for the basketball team, coordinating team's publicity and setting up interviews. Emig handled the hundreds of media credential requests.

"There's nothing better than going to the NCAA Tournament if you're an athletics administrator," said Emig, who went to six NCAA Tournaments in his previous job at Temple University. "It's neat to just be here. It's a wonderful experience. It's very rewarding and it's something that the student-athletes and the coaches and the administrators remember forever. And it just multiplies with every win. I get goosebumps just thinking about it, quite honestly."

An estimated 3,000 fans joined city, state and university officials at an April 1 celebration for the team on the Oval.

Tour planners and ticket sellers swung into fast action, too, responding to the Buckeyes' success. The University received only 3,500 of the 40,500 seats at Tropicana Field. And they went fast: 1,400 to students, faculty, staff and season ticketholders in a lottery, and the rest to players' families, the coaching staff and University officials. About 750 tickets were set aside for package tours to St. Petersburg, offered through the Ohio State Alumni Association, Buckeye Boosters and Peoples Travel.

The Alumni Association tour -- like the others -- was put together in about 24 hours. "It was very rapid-fire. We had to move quickly," said Donald Dodds of Dodds Athletic Tours, the Champaign, Ill.-based agency that planned the alumni tour.

A lottery was held to determine who could get in on the package, which included four nights of lodging, game tickets for both Saturday and Monday's games, pregame parties, airport and game transportation, and more. The tour included 200 people. Tour prices ranged from $651 to $1,453 per person.

And most Buckeye backers weren't disappointed once they arrived in Florida. Their hotels were right on the waterfront, the bay-area temperatures were in the 70s and 80s all weekend, and the hotel lobbies were welcoming, decorated with lots of scarlet and gray.

While the Buckeyes met their match on the court against Connecticut, many OSU fans met their match off the court -- it was nearly impossible for folks to make their own way to the Tampa Bay area and see the Buckeyes play.

Flights from Columbus to St. Petersburg were completely booked. So were Tampa Bay area hotels. And if people beat the odds and found a room, they had to open up their wallets. Rooms ranged from $170 to $220 a night and hotels required a four-night stay.

Tickets for the sold-out games, meanwhile, were readily available -- if you were willing to pay a hefty price. Scalpers around Tropicana Field sought as much as $1,000 for even the worst seats.

But Buckeye fans who weren't lucky enough to see the game in person shouldn't feel too bad. Some spectators who paid to go to the game still elected to watch it the same way millions did at home: on television.

In an almost surreal scene, some hoop fans sitting in the upper sections on the court's southwest side chose to watch games on the massive television screen behind them, actually turning their backs toward the game to watch the big-screen TV.

UTS controls Melissa virus before it's too late

The recent Melissa virus, which struck Windows computers and mail files, spread rapidly and infected users around the world within hours in late March. Ohio State felt its effects early but quickly contained it, thanks to fast action by University Technology Services staff.

The Melissa virus was spread by a macro formatting shortcut within an attachment file sent to unsuspecting users through e-mail. The virus affected Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, and Outlook files on Windows computers. Melissa hit so suddenly and extensively that it caused replicated e-mail and attachment files to overload e-mail servers and, in a few cases, brought down entire mail systems.

According to Alan Albertus, UTS senior systems administrator, the University's first inkling of the problem came about 4 p.m. on March 26. After receiving several calls from campus users, UTS investigated and determined that a new virus had infected a small portion of campus. It was the virus that would soon become known as Melissa.

By late Friday afternoon, Albertus said that Chuck Sechler, UTS site licensed software coordinator, had located a patch for OSU's site-licensed McAfee anti-virus software, made it available for downloading on the UTS Web site, and notified computing support personnel and consultants through computer mailing lists.

Technical staff monitored OSU's e-mail servers over that weekend but saw no increase in e-mail traffic. They concluded that Ohio State was not hard hit and had derailed a serious infection.

The following Monday, UTS updated the McAfee anti-virus patch, which included the Happy99.EXE and many other known viruses, and added it to the Web site. The UTS Web address for anti-virus software and patches is: www.osu.edu/units/uts/publications/upgrades/stg2win95.html.

The Melissa virus is identifiable by the subject line of the e-mail message, which says, "Important Message From ."

In general, UTS advises users that until they can determine that e-mail attachments are sent legitimately by someone known to them, they should not open attachment files.

OSU appoints Allen new assistant VP for technology partnerships

David N. Allen, director of the Ohio State Office for Technology Licensing since January 1997, has been appointed as assistant vice president for technology partnerships.

In the new position, Allen will coordinate and supervise the Office of Research's two technology partnership offices -- Technology Licensing and Industrial Outreach -- and will share joint supervisory responsibility for the Research Foundation's Office for Business and Industry Contracts.

The assistant vice presidency is a new position in the Office of Research designed to lead Ohio State's increasing efforts to link University-based research with business and industry. Allen also will coordinate Ohio State's role in implementing and managing external technology commercialization initiatives, and assist faculty and administrators who want to pursue technology partnerships.

David Allen

Allen was instrumental in leading development of the Science and Technology Campus plan for the southwest portion of the Columbus campus, which was approved by trustees in December 1997.

The STC will house technology-based companies and organizations that have relationships with Ohio State, such as producing products and services derived from University research.

Allen also has served as coordinator for the University Technology Partnerships Task Force, which is working to elevate Ohio State to a model research institution in terms of engagement with business and industry.

"Ohio State is putting more emphasis on technology partnerships because of the inherent mutual benefits: These relationships will enhance our ability to attract resources and increase the economic competitiveness of the partner companies," said Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost. "In this key administrative post, Dave will help further establish Ohio State as a national leader in putting its research to use in ways that benefit society."

Allen came to Ohio State from Ohio University in Athens, where he was assistant vice president for economic and technology development from 1993 to 1996, and director of the Innovation Center and Technology Transfer Office from 1991 to 1993. Allen also directed OU's Edison Biotechnology Institute from 1992 to 1995.

From 1981 to 1991, Allen was at Penn State University, first in the College of Liberal Arts and later in the College of Business.

Allen earned his M.P.A. and M.R.P. from Penn State, and his B.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University.

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