The Southwest Regional of the NCAA men's tournament is here in San Antonio. I decided I'd buy a ticket to the two Sweet 16 games and the Elite 8 game as well. I had big aspirations of the high seeds making it here (I'm looking at you Notre Dame, Purdue, and Louiville). As we all know, Cinderella is most busy in March and upsets do occur. Thus, I found myself preparing for a Kansas/Richmond, VCU/Florida State game. I realized I had never been to a Division I basketball game before. (This is only half true: I have been to a few Illinois State games, which technically is Division I, but.... well, let's be serious). The excitement of all of this culminating into one big day of basketball had me downtown 4 hours before the game started. Minor mistake, but I'm glad I made it.
I parked near La Villita, which is a cool little 'village' of Mexican shops. I have been here before, but this trip I bumped into some Mexican dancers. I watched mostly in confusion at the nimble moves of this man in the hat. I wasn't sure what it was for, but I assumed it had something to do with it being Friday. That's when I met Katie. She worked at the shop we were outside of and she told me these people live in Mexico and are the ones who make a lot of the stuff in the shop. They had driven here to perform for the weekend. The name of the city they are from is eluding me right now, so I will get back to you. She said the dances are spiritual things, similar to rain dances or sun dances.
Close on the Friday thing.
After roaming around the city for a bit, I headed to the Alamodome to wait for the doors to open. While waiting, I met two very nice older couples. They were very nice looking people--very put together, not in jerseys and t-shirts like everyone else. I wouldn't have labeled them basketball fans. After talking with them, I found out they weren't really. Ironically though, they traveled to two cities each year to watch college basketball games during the tourney. They said it was mostly just an excuse to travel with friends and enjoyed the people watching. One of them women used to live in Champaign, Illinois, when she was young. One of the couples was from San Antonio, and the other from North Carolina. While chatting with them, two older men sat down on the other side of me. I began thinking I was not at the game at all, but at a Bishop's Buffet.
The gentlemen proudly wore Richmond Spider t-shirts. I asked if they had traveled from Virgina and they indeed had. One of the men had worked at the University of Richmond for 20 years and 2 of his children graduated from there. His other son graduated from VCU. I learned the Richmond and VCU campuses are only about 5 minutes away from each other. (Sidenote: my favorite thing about Richmond was when the cheerleaders would shout "We are!" and the fans would respond "U R!" Get it? We are. You are. But it's also the abbreviation for their school? Genius).
The doors finally opened and we all began walking away-- some faster than others. I wished all of them luck and they did the same.
Inside the game was AWESOME. It was a very small crowd for the number of seats they had. This, of course, due to the fact small, underdog schools from very far away had made it here. An entire section of seats was emply right next to the tunnel from which the players came and left the court. I decided to hop over there and have a seat. I was not disappointed. I felt 8 years old again slapping the hands of college students-- all of which were younger than me. Also exciting was the scuffle between Kansas and Richmond before their game. Another sidenote: Richmond had originally asked me to dance in their huddle, but for security reasons, I had to stay in my seat. (I have a video of this, but it won't let me upload it? Try again later).
Besides just the players and coaches, a lot of cool media people walked feet away from me. The names included people like Kansas and NBA great Danny Manning. Steve Kerr called the game with Marv Albert. I had the chance to shake Steve's hand at the end of the night. Pretty nice guy. Craig Sager was also there. Craig is a sideline reporter known for his crazy dress antics. My first impression of Craig was "Wow, what a jerk." He was literally standing right below me and I yelled his name to say hello. He didn't even give me the time of day to turn around. Later in the evening I met another fan at the game and we talked about Craig's purple suitcoat. The fan said to me, "Hey did see Craig Sager and his coat? That guy's crazy!". That's when it hit me. Earlier when I thought I was yelling his name, I was actually calling him Marv Albert. I had gotten the two mixed up and was calling Craig by the wrong name. It all made sense now. I wouldn't respond to someone yelling "Hey Marv Albert" either. Later, I said hi to Craig again and he happily greeted me. Now the impression was, "Wow, I'm an idiot."
Anyways, sitting by this now infamous scuffle tunnel, I caught a lot of TV time. Thanks to my new pal Craig "Don't call me Marv" Sagert, I was able to be in the background of a couple of his interviews. After the game I found this website that was ragging on Craig's tie selection of the night. Thankfully they didn't say anything about the good looking guy wearing the yellow tank top in the background (me).
All in all, the day was awesome. I met a ton of great people and had a blast watching basketball. The best part is, I get to do it all over again Sunday for the Elite 8. This time I will be fully prepared with correct names.
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