Day 6

Winnipeg, Manitoba - It's Day Six of our SEASON ON THE BRINK production here in Winnipeg. Today, we moved into the Winnipeg Arena. This is the stadium that has been converted from the ice hockey home of the Manitoba Moose (and former home of the NHL Winnipeg Jets) into the famed Indiana University field house known as Assembly Hall.

The art department on this show has done a terrific job of transforming this cavernous arena into the intimate basketball home of the IU Hoosiers. From the long sloping wall with red cap to the big red banners proclaiming all of the Big Ten Championships, the undefeated season in 1975 and the NCAA Championships, you are immediately transported to the Mecca of Indiana basketball when you walk through the doors.

I suppose today's motto should be "it's better to be lucky than good."

The first lucky stroke was that the Winnipeg Arena has red seats. Imagine the good fortune of the producers of this film when they walked into this stadium and discovered that all of the seats were red. No matter what city or stadium they shot in, they never would have been able to replace the chairs. They were stuck with whatever color they happened to be. The Winnipeg Arena has red seats. Lucky.

The second lucky stroke was in the casting of Steve Alford. As many of you probably know, Alford was a junior during the famed "season on the brink" in 1985-86. He led the team in scoring and had a deadly outside shot. A major part of the Knight offense for that season and the following season (when they won they were NCAA Champions) was to set screens to open up free shots for Alford. The young man we cast to play Alford is a wonderful actor from Los Angeles named James Lafferty. He has been acting since he was small. You may recognize him; he played the son of Emeril Lagasse on the short-lived NBC sitcom "Emeril" and is a recurring actor on both "Once & Again" and "Boston Public."

Well, it turns out young Mr. Lafferty is an even better ballplayer than we had expected. His getting the role was contingent on his ability to look natural on a basketball court, but we're just now discovering he can really play. He's deadly from outside. One after another, he drained shots from beyond the three-point arc during several takes today. He looks and shoots just like Alford. It's eerie. Lucky again.

Past Diaries

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5