My entire life, I have loved basketball more then any sport. And it would make total sense to the casual reader that I have been to numerous March tournaments. Well, I have never been to a single “Dance.”
Until this year.
About a few months ago, my good buddy Matt approached me with a proposition. He had tickets to the sessions in Dallas but needed a place to stay.
I graciously accepted his offer. Here is our story.
ARKANSAS/BUCKNELL: First game of the day. We arrived at American Airlines Center at about 10:15 a.m. Everyone knew how giddy I was about this day and almost immediately, I was getting phone calls. A lovely lady calls and asks how the game is going. I said that the games didn’t start for another hour. She asked why I was at the site so early then. I said cause I was really REALLY giddy. She called me insane and hung up.
So Matt and I take our seats, way the heck up in the nose bleeds. But we don’t care. Almost immediately, the Arkansas fans start their hog chants. If you think that Texas A&M is crazy with all their cheers, well, you
haven’t seen Arkansas play. It was a good game, but Bucknell took over at the end with their incredible three point shooting. Hog chants cease.
MEMPHIS/ORAL ROBERTS: The big 1/16 game. Could Matt and I witness the first ever #16 over #1 upset? The game was tight until the last eight minutes of the second half. Then Memphis pulled away. And by the way, Matt and I agreed that this was a way underrated team. No surprises here if they make it to the Final Four.
Highlight of the game: Matt and I cracking the “I’m gonna kill that John Calipari” jokes all throughout the game. High comedy, trust us.
CAL/N.C. STATE: Great game. State hit a three pointer with 30 seconds left to get the win. Also, we met Adam, the lead singer of the Counting Crows. He was all decked out in Cal gear. Poor Adam.
TEXAS/PENN: Wow, what a game. It was nice to see that Texas was out-hustled, out-coached, out-played and out-everything else. At the end of the first half, you could hear a pin drop.
Unfortunately, the football team’s luck must have rubbed off on the basketball team and Texas got all the breaks. And I do mean all the breaks. Anytime Penn would dive for a steal, or muscle their way in for a rebound, the ball would always bounce to a Longhorn. It was so sickening that Matt and I left with a couple minutes left in the game because we knew that Penn was getting hosed. And the Longhorns ate up every minute of it as if they were trailing someone in the Final Four and made a miraculous comeback. But, they were playing an Ivy League school that had lost to Princeton in the last game of the regular season. Total balderdash.
Moral of the story is this: I had a blast, and I wouldn’t trade my date with madness for anything. Thanks Matt.