Imagine nabbing courtside seats for this weekend's Final Four NCAA basketball action . . . and getting paid to sit there.
Such is the luck of Utahn Jeff Gochnour, a buddy of CBS television announcer Jim Nantz since their KSL-TV days in the 1980s.
Gochnour, taking a little vacation from his duties as director of Utah's Division of Business and Economic Development, will be a stage manager, handing 5-by-7-inch promotional-announcement cards to Nantz during breaks in the action.
"I sit courtside with Jim and Billy Packer, and I have on a headset to the (production) truck," Gochnour said. "They tell me at certain junctures of the game to give him a card, like 'give him card one' or 'give him card two.' That's where all my schooling comes into play — where I have to locate two or five. I had to go to graduate school to be able to handle these responsibilities."
All joking aside, Gochnour realizes he's got a great gig. He gets a close-up view of the basketball, his name rolls in the credits after the championship game, and CBS pays for his travel and his game work.
Jealous yet?
"It's a modest amount, but I almost feel guilty taking anything because I've got friends who would pay dearly, pay the network, for this opportunity. I'm not letting anybody know that's a possibility or I would be supplanted," he said.
"Obviously, for a college basketball junkie like me, it's just been an absolute thrill. As a consequence, I look forward to March Madness each year. I joke that from year to year I hope to make the traveling squad."
Gochnour has been helping Nantz as part of the CBS team for March Madness since 1998. After getting his degree in journalism at the University of Utah and working for the sports information office there, plus doing some sports columns and other work for the Daily Chronicle, he became Nantz's sports producer when Nantz joined KSL-TV in 1982.
Two years later, Nantz was off to CBS, and Gochnour went to business school at Duke University, a school with heaps of basketball tradition. Gochnour would hook up with Nantz for a few games when Duke was on the road, "just hanging out, watching basketball and having a good time."
"Six years ago, he called leading up to the NCAA tournament and said, 'How would you like to come and work for CBS during the tournament?' I had to stop and think for about half a nanosecond before I said, 'When do I start and what do I do?' " Gochnour said.
As it turns out, the University of Utah played Kentucky in that year's tournament final — still the highlight of Gochnour's CBS work. "I had to pinch myself to believe I was actually there to watch it. It was quite an incredible experience."
But more experiences would follow, including regional and subregional games featuring the Utes and BYU, plus a few finals with his alma mater Duke, including the Blue Devils' 2001 title.
"I was able to see them win the championship in 2001. That was a real thrill," he said, noting that he had seen them lose three previous times, including once while working for CBS. "I was starting to think I was a curse on Duke. In 2001, it was great to get that monkey off my back and see them win the national championship."
Gochnour said he can keep his emotions in check now, unlike a few times early on when he'd become so engrossed in the action that he wouldn't respond to the truck's calls to hand over a card. "I have to divorce myself from the emotion of the game and pay attention to what they're telling me or I can really goof things up," he said.
The sideline perspective is one he savors.
"You can really feel the intensity and emotion of the game much more than sitting up in the arena," Gochnour said. "You can see what a literally physical war it is between two teams going at it against each other. It's tougher to see plays develop, and sometimes you can be blocked by players and officials and not see a play happen, but the raw emotion of the game is so much more apparent."
Gochnour didn't work last weekend because union labor was required in East Rutherford, N.J., but he left Thursday for San Antonio and the Final Four.
Maybe he'll be seen on the air, as he was during a recent game when he put the table back in order after a player crashed into it. Or maybe he'll make the cover of Sports Illustrated, like he did a couple of years ago — "you had to look closely and know where to look," he said.
He's predicting a Duke title but won't be cheering openly for the Blue Devils. "Believe me, it takes every fiber of my concentration not to do that," he said. "I try to stay calm and collected, although I'm wearing my insides out."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com