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Timely shooting good in any time zone
Posted: Saturday March 25, 2000 02:35 PM
By Grant Wahl, Sports Illustrated SYRACUSE -- If you think NCAA tournament games start at ungodly late hours -- which they do; it's no coincidence that the ugliest games have had 10 p.m. starts -- consider the plight of Jan Jönzén , the father of Oklahoma State forward Fredrik Jönzén (jon-ZEE-en). The Jönzéns live in Uppsala, Sweden, about 50 miles outside of Stockholm, and whenever the Cowboys play, Jan will get up in the middle of the night, plug headphones into his laptop computer (so as not to wake his wife, Eva), and lay in bed listening to Fredrik's games, which are broadcast on Stillwater's KSPI radio over the Internet. Friday's East Region semifinal against Seton Hall was special, though, so both Jan and Eva awoke just before 4 a.m. and listened with increasing anxiety as the Cowboys pulled out a 68-66 victory halfway around the world. "We almost had heart attacks," said Jan when I rang him this morning. "In the second half we had the possibilities of making more points, but we missed all the time. Then Seton Hall came back, so I was very nervous when Fred had to make his free throws." No worries, Jan. Your boy came through again, shooting 3-of-4 from the line and scoring 15 points. (Jönzén's 36 points over the past two games are the most of any OSU player.) And today, like any other day following a game, the Jönzéns will talk for an hour or so over the phone. "Sometimes he'll try to give me advice," says Fredrik, "and it's pretty funny when somebody who doesn't know basketball tries to talk basketball. He'll say things like, 'You've got to dribble the ball inside!' but he really doesn't know what he's talking about." Then again, when you listen to every game and read American media coverage over the Internet, as Jan does, you pick up a few things -- as long as the connection doesn't get congested. Most of the time, though, the broadcast comes in just fine. "When you listen to so many games, you feel like you know the announcers," Jan says. "Sometimes they'll say that Fred's dad is listening in Sweden." Amazingly, Jan, an attorney, didn't have a trace of fatigue in his voice, even though his sleep patterns have gone haywire for the past four months. "A lot of the games start at 2 in the morning here, so I try to sleep two hours afterward and get up for work, but it's very difficult to sleep," he says. "It's better when they play at 4 in the morning, because then we can sleep a couple of hours before the game." Fortunately for the Jönzéns, the Cowboys will play for the right to go the Final Four on Sunday at the early hour of 11 p.m. local time. "We can manage," Jan says of the time difference. "And if we win," he adds, chuckling, "there's no problem at all." Grant Wahl is a Sports Illustrated staff writer. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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