Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

Welcome to another one of those behind-the-scenes insider special reports from the Guru illustrating that journalism isn't always about the preceived glamour of bylines, interviewing notables, and making deadline.

In the modern age, it is also about harnessing technology to work in synch with some of the attributes mentioned in the previous paragraphs.

And after getting a note from our colleague Aditi Kinkhabwala of the Record of Bergen County in northern New Jersey chronicling her nightmares returning from Toronto after covering the Rutgers football team in the International Bowl, there's also the travel element to consider.

Some of you might remember a previous bout with travel she reported during the early phase of the NCAA tournament last March.

But back to our adventures involving a trip to Newark, Del., Thursday night to cover Drexel's attempt to snap an 18-game losing streak to the University of Delaware, dating back to 1999.

The Guru left home at 4 p.m. for the trip south, which already had him in trouble because the time-length down the Pennsylvania side to Newark is quite longer at rush hour with tie-ups at the I-95 intersection with I-476 below center city Philadelphia and then usually a major bumper-to-bumper involving several major merging highways below Wilmington in the Diamond State.

If Jonathan is reading this and would like to use his philly.com magic to provide a link to some map illustration if it is not difficult, that would be great, and if not, well, it was a nice thought.

(Like ">this? It's a really big file, so be forewarned, but it should make the point -- Jonathan)

To continue: The Guru had one solution -- run a wide-out pattern by crossing over to New Jersey and head down the turnpike and thus avoidi the first of the two driving hurdles.

That first move seemed to be a success but our mostly trusty GPS, which gets ongoing updates from the MSN traffic network indicated a major tie-up of some 15 minutes or more 20 miles ahead. When we placed a finger on the screen to get the readout, it was the feared merge where the problem existed.

However, the unit suggested a bypass route. The Guru hit the "Yes" button and sure enough, technology had become our friend in routing us around all the difficulty with only five minutes added to our original time length.

Then the real fun began. Arriving inside the Bob Carpenter Center, the Guru shared the news of his success with some Drexel folks while opening his laptop computer which would send the game report back to the home office.

Upon hitting the start button, some strange beeps, which had been occurring recently, began going off again. Up until now, it only took a couple of extra efforts to kick the windows startup into motion.

But the laptop was having none of it. The Guru remained calm, knowing there was plenty of time, and no sense in getting the folks back in the Inquirer sports control tower nervous that one of their pilots was having engine trouble at 25,000 feet.

The Delaware folks offered one of their unused machines, and Drexel also offered to help.

However, the Guru suddenly recalled a night now legendary when a former columnist who once had a show on ESPN managed to file his work from the NBA draft on his blackberry device.

Well, since the Guru had recently upgraded to the blackberry curve with a full-size, ok, improved keyboard capable of less strokes, he immediately began his composition after Drexel jumped to a 13-2 lead over the Blue Hens.

After all, the Guru already knew what had to be addressed if Drexel finally rid itself of hits longtime hex by its area rival in the Colonial Athletic Association.

But as the Guru typed away, the Dragons' advantage was erased by Delaware, which took a one-point lead at the half.

Nevertheless, the Guru sent by email what he had to the home office to determine if it could be
read and if Drexel went on to win, not much more had to be done except scoring and quotes.

And the Guru said he would write another version during the second half opposite the first report to handle what had to be said if Delaware made it 19th straight over the Dragons.

Right before the halftime break ended, the Guru hit the start button on the laptop one more time to see if the computer Gods would return to his side and sure enough the unit fired up.

The Guru notified the home office and then emailed the early version to himself so he could grab it in the computer and then cut and paste the copy into the writing program.

Viola. It all worked.

So in an effort to save time, since the Guru was somewhat back in a normal mode, he began writing a Delaware version after the Blue Hens twice built a six-point lead in the second half.

But as he worked the new version, Drexel rallied (we'll speak to the basketball part of this in the next item) and took control down the stretch.

The Guru was tempted to return to the Drexel version and start getting it ready, but based on the previous night's experience, there was a fear of becoming bad luck again.

On Wednesday, the Guru had been at the Penn-Lehigh game and the host Quakers held a 44-37 lead late in the game at the Palestra.

The Guru noted to Penn SID Mike Mahoney that it looked like Penn was going to both win the game and score more than 50 points.

``Shhh,''' he responded. ``Don't jinx us.''

He was right. Penn didn't score again until 40 seconds were left as Lehigh went on a 12-0 run to move to a victory.

The Guru then noted, that's the difference between your team and UConn -- they win by 50, you're still trying to get to 50.

Anyhow, Drexel did win the game and the Guru figured to be in excellent shape -- until the postgame interviews began and he noticed that the batteries in his microcasette tape player were dead because the unit had been unwittingly set off in his briefcase.

However, he had a set of replacements and then filed a report that you can find in the print section of Philly.com in the Inquirer sports section.

But you can also stay right here and hit the click to jump to the next item and read another version right here -- if the platform technology is still working.