Last month, Xavier men's basketball coach Chris Mack gave college sports reporter Shannon Russell unrestricted access to shadow him for a day.
The result was a fascinating look at the day in the life of the national coach of the year.
Now, Shannon is getting even more access.
She left Tuesday with Xavier on the team flight to Colorado where the Musketeers play the Buffaloes Wednesday at 9 p.m.
Mack and the Xavier program granted Shannon enormous access to the trip to detail the anatomy of a Division I college basketball road trip.
Shannon is live tweeting throughout the experience. You can follow her for updates.
Proof of actual players. Trevon Bluiett takes a shot. #Xavier pic.twitter.com/4JbMhoKUWC
— Shannon Russell (@slrussell) December 7, 2016
In her nine years of covering Xavier, this is the first time she has taken a trip with the team like this.
Here's some of what Shannon wrote on her Facebook page about the trip.
Let me tell you, the first day of the experiment has been great.
I've been a fly on the wall at practice, on the bus to the airport, on the plane, at the hotel and at shoot-around. Well, a fly that talks to players and coaches and others and tries to stay out of the way.
So far about the only that has surprised me is how low key the players have been. It was a long flight, optimal for sleeping, but there wasn't as much chatter as I expected until the end of the shoot-around when they were goofing around with half-court shots.
I'll be here throughout the trip and also covering the game (and Tweeting, which might be helpful for those of you that don't get the Pac-12 Network). I already have lots of anecdotes that will be showcased in a bigger story about the road trip; I'll keep those under wraps for now.
So Xavier fans — or just college basketball fans — follow Shannon on Twitter for more updates. She will also have an analysis Wednesday night on how Xavier bounces back from this weekend's loss to Baylor.
Then watch WCPO.com or Shannon's Twitter feed for the story on what it is like to accompany Xavier on a road trip.
We continue to try to bring you behind the scenes coverage and the story behind the story.
Thanks for reading.
