Everybody has fun when their team is in the Final Four. Those fortunate enough to be on TV get to thump their chest and show some school pride in the process. But having a prominent role on TV and enjoying the celebrity which comes with it doesn’t always mean utilizing that status to take a special trip to cheer on your team.
ESPN’s Jalen Rose has had some fun already on behalf of his Michigan Wolverines, having posted a brief clip of his 100-year-old grandmother to show that Loyola’s Sister Jean won’t be the only elderly cheerleader supporting her team for their Final Four matchup on Saturday.
The former point guard for the Fab Five (who made it to two Final Fours himself) may be in San Antonio when Michigan takes on Loyola (and maybe we’ll get a meet-up between Sister Jean and Jalen’s Grammie), but if the Wolverines prevail and make it to Monday’s national championship game against the winner of the Villanova-Kansas contest, he won’t be at the Alamodome. He’s gotta work.
Who’s up? pic.twitter.com/tfGDbEGoai
— Get Up (@Get_Up) March 20, 2018
Rose’s gig as a co-host for ESPN’s new morning show, Get Up, will keep him from being in San Antonio to cheer on Michigan. Get Up has its long-awaited premiere this coming Monday, April 2, the same day as the national championship game. If Rose entertained any thoughts of jetting to San Antonio after the show and possibly getting back to New York in time for Day 2 of the new morning show (or even perhaps co-hosting the show remotely), that apparently isn’t going to happen.
Among the many anecdotes in a Newsday profile of the upcoming show (if you’re losing track of the articles about Get Up, so are we), Neil Best captured this exchange between Rose and co-host Michelle Beadle, in which Beadle fed her colleague a dose of reality when Rose said he would go to San Antonio if Michigan made it to the national title game.
“I guess you can tell what I’m probably going to wear on the show that day,” said Rose, who initially told colleagues he planned to travel to San Antonio for the game if Michigan made it.
“He thought he was going to go,” Beadle said. “I was like, ‘No, you’ll be here.’”
Second day of a brand-new show in which ESPN is investing millions of dollars (including the salaries for Mike Greenberg, Beadle and Rose) and is already debuting three months later than originally planned? Yeah, no — sorry, Jalen. If only Get Up had debuted on Jan. 2. Curse that studio construction at New York’s Pier 17.
[Newsday]
