"The stage is set; the band starts playing. Suddenly, your heart starts pounding, Wishing secretly you were a star." -- Styx, The Grand Illusion

Wow! The day we've worked for all season is finally here.

It's Selection Sunday.

Fraschilla On The Tourney

For a college basketball program, Selection Sunday and what follows are equal parts excitement and hassle. There are travel arrangements to be made, media requests to be upheld, ticket requests to be handed and -- oh yes -- a basketball game to play. We asked ESPN.com's Fran Fraschilla, who's taken two teams to three NCAA Tournaments, to take us through the week, from getting the bid to getting on the court.

Unfortunately, for the Bristol University coaching staff, there is little time for celebration. Preparations are well underway for our NCAA Tournament bid, should it come.

Here's how we'll handle things over the next week:

Sunday, March 16
Our coaching staffs convenes around 1 p.m. ET and start to organize for what everyone hopes will be the start of a new, six-game season. The first order of business is to check our videotape library's inventory. Our video coordinator has taped every ESPN game and games on other outlets since Jan. 15. Some teams will tape every game televised during the year.

Our players will have study hall from 3-5 p.m. with the Academic support staff and try to get some academic assignments taken care before we leave town. Our team party at the Head Coach's house is set for 5:30 p.m. so we can watch together the Selection Show, slated to begin 6.

Meanwhile, the University Sports Media Relations Director coordinates the media requests and will schedule a press conference on Monday with the coaching staff and the players. It will be the only media event scheduled until we arrive in at our first-round destination, so we can focus solely on basketball preparation.

Already, preliminary planning between the Director of Basketball Operations and Athletic Director has begun regarding the travel party and travel arrangements. The NCAA pays the expenses for an "official travel party" (up to 75 people, which includes the band and cheerleaders), but the excess travel costs must come out of our budget.

	When "Bristol University" was unveiled on the Selection Sunday show, it was time to celebrate at Coach Fraschilla's living room.

At 5:30 p.m., the team gathers for food and camaraderie at the Head Coach's house. Nerves are tense.

At 6:40 p.m., pairings come up on the TV screen. In an instant, we learn who we're playing and where we're going. We learn the other two teams in our bracket are.

Immediately, our assistant coaches (Andy Katz, Jay Bilas, and Brad Daugherty) head back to the office on campus to begin to round up videotapes and scouting reports of all of our possible opponents. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski likes to break down the tournament into three consecutive four-team tournaments. Win them all and you win the NCAA Championship. So, Bristol University is in a four-team tournament this weekend.

The first call is to Hoop One Video, a supplier of game tapes, in East Rutherford, N.J. Our coaches will order from their huge inventory of tapes. Most schools around the country will have Hoop One put the films they request on the first flight out on Monday morning. Since we at Bristol University are close enough to New Jersey, we have the option of sending a team manager down to pick them up tonight.

Each of our three assistant coaches will be responsible for scouting one team. They will call their particular team's prior opponents, looking for information and, hopefully, written scouting reports. We always want to try and get the verbal "play call" of every play in our opponent's offense to give our players an edge in knowing what is coming.

Most conferences have rules against sending out films of teams in their leagues to potential postseason opponents. But friendships usually win out over conference affiliation, so if we know somebody, we can get the tape we need. And, at worst, a coach can often provide a "verbal" scouting report to help us with information.

The coaching staff will begin watching tape on Sunday night and stay until the wee hours of the morning. Bright and early the next day, we'll start all over again on the phones.

Sleep and rest can wait until after the season.

Monday, March 17
This is a typical in-season day for the players with classes, study hall, weight training and practice. The post-practice press conference is not unusual either, since players routinely meet the media after practice during the season.

The coaching staff continues to prepare for the weekend's opponents. Obviously, the main focus is on the first opponent, but each assistant will watch 25-30 hours of film on "his" team.

The Director of Basketball Operations, in concert with the Head Coach, plans the travel itinerary. Among the items to consider:

1. Hotel
2. Ground transportation
3. Charter flight
4. Meeting space at the hotel
5. Meals and snacks
6. Practice facilities and times
7. Tickets
8. Travel party
9. NCAA meeting at site
10. Security
11. Video and editing equipment
12. Band and cheerleaders

The key in doing all this: Eliminate as many distractions as possible, as early as possible, and, in doing so, try to "control the controllable". We want to make this as much like a regular-season road trip as possible.

Our Assistant Athletic Director for Academic Counseling is busy setting up study hall on the road, mid-term exams that may need to be proctored and work that must be completed before we leave. He notifies the players' professors that the players will be out of town from Tuesday through Friday.

There is also the possibility that the team may stay on the road if we win our first two rounds games and are on the other side of the country. If it is a short trip, the team will return home after Saturday's game. For example, in 1989, Seton Hall was seeded in the West Regional and stayed out West right through the Final Four in Seattle that year. They never came home. Obviously, you have to plan academics, packing, etc., a little differently if that is a possibility. You certainly have to budget more for laundry bills.

Tuesday, March 18
Our agenda for the day. Fortunately, we don't have to travel very far:

9 a.m. Leave for game site
11 a.m. Arrive
12:30 p.m. Check into hotel; buffet lunch is waiting
1:30 p.m. Team meeting and Film session
2:15p.m. Leave for practice at local college
6 p.m. Dinner and free time for players

Over the next several hours, the coaches continue to watch film and develop the scouting report and game plan in between team meetings.

9 p.m. Team meeting with film session and "walk though" of opponent's plays
10:30 p.m. Players in rooms
11 p.m. Players lights out. If it were only that early for the coaches.

Wednesday, March 19
8:30 a.m. Wake up for players
9 p.m. Breakfast
9:45 p.m. Short team meeting
10:15 p.m. Practice at local college
12:30 p.m. Lunch at hotel
2:15 p.m. Leave for arena and mandatory "open to the public" practice

	Once at the regional site, all we get is 50 minutes on the court before meeting the media.

Each of the eight teams is required to practice in the arena at 50-minute intervals. Most of the teams use their time to shoot around and get accustomed to the arena. There is a mandatory press conference for the coach -- and, usually, three players -- that will take a half-hour after our practice in the arena.

4 p.m. Free time for players/Study Hall
6:30 p.m. Dinner
9 p.m. Team film session and "walk through"
10:30 p.m. Players in rooms
11 p.m. Players' lights out

Our assistant coaches will continue to watch film and prepare for the other two possible opponents, as well as review early-season tapes of Thursday's opponent. It is possible to find, in a game from November or December, a last-second shot play that they haven't run the rest of the season.

Thursday, March 20
9:30 a.m. Wake up for players
10 a.m. Pre-game meal -- always four hours before game time
12 noon: Team meeting

The assistant coaches leave for the arena early to scout our possible second-round opponent for Saturday. A tournament is one of the few times during the year that you are allowed to scout in person.

12:20 p.m. Team leaves for arena
2 p.m. Tip-off

Each player received a copy of the itinerary for the week a couple of days ago. This way, the players can let their families and friends know when they will and won't be available to spend time with them.

The itinerary always includes winning the first game and the plans that follow. You never want to let the players know that losing is an option, even though, behind the scenes, you have planned for that contingency as well.

4:15 p.m. Bristol University wins, 75-62, thanks to a late spurt that put the game out of reach.

After the team wins and the head coach and the key players in the game handle the perfunctory postgame press conference, the team heads back to the hotel for dinner, a quick meeting with the staff and some free time with their families. Some of the players will choose to watch the evening session's games back at the arena.

By now, the coaching staff's focus is on the next opponent. The assistant responsible for the scouting report has keyed in on this team since Monday and has a mini-report for the staff ready to go. It is likely that the staff will continue its game planning until the sun comes up on Friday.

Friday, March 21
At this point, the players know that is the same basic "day before the game" routine that we used on Wednesday -- and on road trips all season. They have a comfort level with how to prepare and an understanding of what's at stake.

Time permitting, we will set up another study hall and/or a sightseeing trip. We don't need the guys wandering all over the host city, but it is good get some fresh air and their minds off basketball for a couple of hours.

Friday's practice will be very, very short -- mostly shooting and nothing too taxing. Being as fresh as possible on Saturday will be crucial. This practice is closed to the public and to the media, although -- you guessed it -- there's another press conference afterwards.

After dinner and a team meeting, the players are back in their rooms (on the same schedule as Wednesday, as much as possible). Tickets for family members are squared away already. NBA 2003 is the video game of choice.

Saturday, March 22
The game day routine is in place. The assistant coaches head to the arena to scout the game in which the winner will be our first opponent next weekend if we advance. It is a good sneak preview for us. They will be sitting in the designated "scouts' section" where they will watch and listen closely for anything that can give us an advantage. They will also exchange ideas with the losing team's staff to add to our knowledge of our potential next week's opponent.

If we win, the process starts all over again (especially since we'll be returning to beautiful Bristol on Saturday night). More meetings. More film. More planning and preparation.

These are the days we work for all year. And we want to work for as many more as possible.

Fran Fraschilla spent 23 years on the sidelines as a college basketball coach before joining ESPN this season as an broadcast analyst. He guided both Manhattan (1993, 1995) and St. John's (1998) to the NCAA Tournament in his nine seasons as a Division I head coach, leaving New Mexico following the end of the 2001-02 season.