Achi news desk-
PITTSBURGH: Amani Bartlett doesn’t know exactly how she got the job as LSU’s hype woman. She didn’t apply for it. No one asked her to do it. It just kind of happened.
So when the lights go down and the music comes up just before the Tigers’ starting lineup is introduced, the junior forward hits the floor and runs through a quick mental checklist, trying to remember who comes when and—more importantly—who gets what handshake.
Sounds simple. It’s not.
As the Tigers make their way to Bartlett one by one, they offer a glimpse into their wildly diverse personalities.
Reese’s Angel ends with Bartlett placing a “crown” on the star’s head because, as Bartlett put it, her American electric teammate is “the queen.”
Flau’Jae Johnson and Bartlett count to four with their fingers and seal it with a thump on the chest. Aneesah Morrow and Bartlett clap their hands together loudly before swinging them down and dancing.
The whole production takes a minute, maybe less. Still, the ritual plays a small but vital role in getting the Tigers in the right frame of mind ahead of the high-pressure test ahead.
“Like it’s kind of that amp,” Barlett said. “‘Let’s get hype for a second, then it’s time to get into it.'”
In a perfect world, Bartlett would accept the handshake, not give it. That would mean she was starting. That’s not happening right now and that’s okay. Bartlett understands that she offers the Tigers a very special set of skills that she is only too happy to share.
So when third-seeded LSU faces second-seeded UCLA in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Albany, New York, Bartlett will jog to her post to give the five women who take the court a few seconds. n loose before the ball ends. things are definitely getting more serious.
Bartlett is hardly alone. It seems that almost every team across the sport – from middle school to the pros and everywhere in between – has at least one player (sometimes more) who greets the starters during introductions and provides a bit of energy and a splash of swagger.
“It’s part of the culture of basketball,” Louisville guard Merissah Russell said. “I don’t think I’ve ever watched a game where there wasn’t a handshake or anything like that.”
North Carolina State sophomore guard KJ Keatts — who figures he got the gig with the ACC champion Wolfpack because his role is to “make guys laugh, make guys smile” — keeps it simple. All starters are tagged the same.
“We’ve been going 30 something games strong with him,” Keatts said.
Considering the run NC State has been on over the past two weeks to reach the South regional semifinals, hard to fault them.
Kentucky’s Kareem Watkins takes a different approach. The senior team came up with unique handshakes for each member of the team and most of the Wildcats’ support staff.
“It’s just like a brotherhood thing,” Watkins said.
And a chance to stay engaged during a game even when you know your number isn’t going to be called, whether you’re the one giving out the handshake or n serve as your team’s comic relief.
Creighton’s Sterling Knox is redshirting this season. The freshman guard sat near the end of the bench in a light blue long-sleeved shirt last weekend as the third-seeded Bluejays reached the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years.
Knox believes his day will soon come when he is out on the floor. Until then, he is happy to serve as Creighton’s head choreographer/historian of circles.
“I’ll find a TikTok or something, just like old college basketball players and I’ll find a dance to bring it back,” said Knox, whose personal social media accounts are a mix of highlights basketball and only semi-serious attempts at dancing.
When the Bluejays faced Providence in the Big East tournament, Knox found Toronto Raptors star Scottie Barnes’ pregame routine when he was in high school and brought it back during introductions. It’s not the first time – and it won’t be the last – that Knox will dig into the vault to find a way to mix it up.
“It could become a brand,” Knox said with a laugh.
Even if the brand needs a little cultural translation. Creighton senior guard Francisco Farabello hails from Argentina, where whatever you want to call what Knox is doing for the Bluejays is definitely not “What.”
“That’s not something we do overseas, but I respect it,” Farabello said. “The season is getting very long and it’s good to have guys like that, just the simple fact that by dancing they can lift your energy and bring good energy.”
Energy that extends beyond mere gesture.
Oregon guard Gabe Reichel is a senior walk-on who inherited the role before this season and made it a point to take requests from teammates, one of the reasons his handshake varied from what who called “subtle” to John Cena’s “You Can’t”. See Me” facial wave.
“I just go with the flow, whatever they want to do,” said Reichel, who was also clearly the first one off the bench during timeouts to greet the boys who were came off the floor during Oregon’s horrific double-overtime loss to Creighton in the second round. “I have to help them prepare for the game.”
And how they prepare them can evolve at will.
Iowa junior forward AJ Edinger greeted fellow teammate Caitlin Clark with a jump fake followed by a handshake earlier this season.
They have since called off the jump for what Edinger described as more like a formal “business deal,” perhaps fitting for a player currently serving as the face of her sport.
Edinger, Bartlett, Keatts and every other player in their hide-in-sight role wouldn’t mind being the one running out onto the court with the attention focused, however briefly, on them.
Maybe one day it will happen. It might not be. For now, they’re only too happy to fill a very specific need, one that adds a hard-to-quantify but essential ingredient to the kind of team chemistry necessary to thrive in March.
“I love (doing it) every time,” Oregon State’s Susana Yepes said. “I get the chills every time.”
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AP Sports Writers Brett Martel, Anne M. Peterson and Teresa M. Walker, and AP freelancers John Bohnenkamp and Mark Rosner contributed to this report.
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AP March Madness Bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)
