Notes on attending the Final Four in Indy this past weekend...
I am just about to turn 40 years old, and for the past 30 years I have been a huge, massive, possibly psychotic college basketball fan: my first memory of the college game was Indiana's perfect season in '76, when I was only ten. Also, Rutgers was undefeated going into that Final Four (Jammin' James Bailey and Fast Eddie Jordan leading the squad.), the first Eastern team in a few years to have a national impact (not that I was aware of that at the time). Can remember watching May, Benson and Buckner finishing off whomever was their semifinal opponent and then going out in our driveway in Amherst, NH and pretending to hit every shot (no, obviously I was not pretending to be Buckner...I guess I thought I was Scott May.) For some reason, basketball was the sport I loved first, and, as it turns out, for the longest and with the most passion. Maybe it had something to do with not needing anything but a ball and the crooked, 9 foot 10 inch rim and backboard my dad had lovingly erected in our driveway some time before that spring of '76. Our driveway, which at the time seemed as big as a football field, has apparently shrunk significantly over the years, as I can remember visiting the old house on Fairway Drive back in the early '90s (we moved away in '84) and being shocked that one could take about three steps out of the living room and shoot a layup. You mean to tell me that all those 35 foot game winners I took when I was a kid that won the National Championship, NBA title, whatever were not even of free throw length? Ack, the agony of growing up!
Through the years I have collected warm and vivid memories of each and every Final Four, albeit through the filter of a television screen. I remember Larry Bird's 30+ point game against Depaul in '79 and his disappointing effort against Magic and MSU two days later (this was after Bird had been drafted by the Celtics, so the Boston channels showed a bunch of ISU games that season.....little did we know HOW good he would be..), the Doctors of Dunk in '80 ("the 'Ville is going to the 'Nap!"), the shocking ending to the NC State v Houston game two days after Phi Slamma Jamma had torched an outstanding Louisville team and been proclaimed as the greatest this and that ( a point guard who could at least hit the rim on free throws and they win that game easy.), 'Nova over the best college team I have ever seen in Georgetown, 1985, in Lexington (of course, their ballhandler was coked up, or at least claims...wonder if that helped him get over the disconnect of being guarded by MICHAEL JACKSON...(" oh my god...THE gloved one is guarding little ol' me!!"), the bitter disappointment of the '89 Seton Hall team being robbed of a deserved championship by a call that still stinks many years later (And I don't think that Rumeal Robinson ever hit another free throw in his basketball career....seriously. That's karma.), Duke's regional final against UK in '92 (not a FF game, but the most exciting college game I've ever seen.), Donald Williams (Donald Williams? Donald freakin' Williams?) winning it for Dean in '93, the great Kentucky teams of the late '90s winning two titles, and UConn's wins in '99 and '04 along with the Cuse's win in '03: the three of which made this Big East fan very happy!
And this year, 2006, I got my first chance to attend the sacred event. We had won tix in the lottery last summer, knew we'd be in the nosebleeds, but didn't care: WE WERE GOING! And fully expected UConn to be there, or at least 'Nova or Boston College, my other favorite teams. Well....they didn't get there. But hey: WE WERE GOING! LSU, Florida were there, their fans taking time out from spring football talk to go to or watch their school. Who cares: WE WERE GOING! George Mason, a school with no tradition located somewhere in, I believe, Virginia, was gonna be there? No matter cuz WE WERE GOING! Little did I know that, as Bob Ryan wrote in the Boston Globe, there was widespread discussion on Monday night among the media, post Florida victory, that this was the worst Final Four ever.
I do not know if that is true (going to have to give it some thought), but yeah, the games were not competitive aside from the first 18m of the Mason/Florida game. I mean, LSU played with the passion of Jim from "The Office" after he gets back from lunch and waits out the hours 'till 5pm/quitting time: they just looked like they wanted to be somewhere else. The way UCLA dominated that game fooled me into expecting them to beat U of F handily on Monday night: the Bruins were seemingly everywhere on Saturday; making steals and blocking shots, with Jordan Farmer making jumpers and drives whenever the 35 second clock was winding down. In the early game, Mason actually (IMO) was in the game mentally as well as on the scoreboard until they gave up the last 5 points of the first half. Then, of course, Lee Humphrey, from the relative safety of the RCA Dome's locker rooms about 100 feet from the basket, hit 3 3's to open the second half and that was it. Nothing to do for the approximately 200,000 George Mason students who had descended on Indianapolis but to hit the bars and get friggin' drunk (believe me, they did).
As far as the Hoosier Dome (much cooler name than RCA Dome, so I'll stick with it), man, they can't tear that sucker down fast enough! The new Dome is being built across the street and judging by the size of the hole in the ground that is there now, the new place is going to either seat 400,000 people, or will have a bathroom available for each and every ticket holder...I mean the footprint is big! They have until 2010 to get it up and going, so I suppose four years is enough time to turn the biggest shitload of dirt I've ever seen into a first class 21st century domed arena (which will then be demolished in 25 years after the Irsays and the NCAA and folks like me complain about how old and decrepit it it...such is progress.). But the current place has actual aluminum benches in the entire upper deck: for folks with the disease known as "Bigfatamericanassitis", six hours of sitting can be a wee bit uncomfortable. I was actually looking forward to the media timeouts in the second half of both games so I could stand and stretch my back and give my ass a break. And, not that it matters to us po' folks, but the Dome has just one row of luxury boxes: you know that the NCAA brass and CBS Sales staff glommed on to most of those, leaving just a few for the billionaires of the world to separate themselves from the riff raff (ah..that would be me and, presumably, you). Most new arenas and stadiums are basically 80% luxury boxes or preferred seating and 20% steerage/"loserville"/standing room. I expect Indy's new dome to follow that blueprint to a T.
The redeeming fact of the weekend, along with the fact that WE WERE THERE AT THE FINAL FOUR(!) was the unrelenting cheerfulness, helpfulness and friendliness of all the volunteers and most of the paid staff of every event we attended. Wow! Coming from New England where, as I said to someone today, if someone smiles at you really hard and says "Hey!" you think they are on drugs, want to sell you drugs, are going to kill you, or all of the above, it was nice to have some good old fashioned hospitality and cheerfulness! (Not that I don't think the people in Indy weren't all on drugs, same as I would have had I been back in New England, I'm just assuming their dealers are Phizer and Eli Lilly and so forth instead of the puerto rican guy down on outer Congress Street who wears that old crappy Brooklyn Dodgers hat.
All in all a terrific time. And I would do it again in a heartbeat....soon as they get rid of those damn aluminum ass pinchers!
Through the years I have collected warm and vivid memories of each and every Final Four, albeit through the filter of a television screen. I remember Larry Bird's 30+ point game against Depaul in '79 and his disappointing effort against Magic and MSU two days later (this was after Bird had been drafted by the Celtics, so the Boston channels showed a bunch of ISU games that season.....little did we know HOW good he would be..), the Doctors of Dunk in '80 ("the 'Ville is going to the 'Nap!"), the shocking ending to the NC State v Houston game two days after Phi Slamma Jamma had torched an outstanding Louisville team and been proclaimed as the greatest this and that ( a point guard who could at least hit the rim on free throws and they win that game easy.), 'Nova over the best college team I have ever seen in Georgetown, 1985, in Lexington (of course, their ballhandler was coked up, or at least claims...wonder if that helped him get over the disconnect of being guarded by MICHAEL JACKSON...(" oh my god...THE gloved one is guarding little ol' me!!"), the bitter disappointment of the '89 Seton Hall team being robbed of a deserved championship by a call that still stinks many years later (And I don't think that Rumeal Robinson ever hit another free throw in his basketball career....seriously. That's karma.), Duke's regional final against UK in '92 (not a FF game, but the most exciting college game I've ever seen.), Donald Williams (Donald Williams? Donald freakin' Williams?) winning it for Dean in '93, the great Kentucky teams of the late '90s winning two titles, and UConn's wins in '99 and '04 along with the Cuse's win in '03: the three of which made this Big East fan very happy!
And this year, 2006, I got my first chance to attend the sacred event. We had won tix in the lottery last summer, knew we'd be in the nosebleeds, but didn't care: WE WERE GOING! And fully expected UConn to be there, or at least 'Nova or Boston College, my other favorite teams. Well....they didn't get there. But hey: WE WERE GOING! LSU, Florida were there, their fans taking time out from spring football talk to go to or watch their school. Who cares: WE WERE GOING! George Mason, a school with no tradition located somewhere in, I believe, Virginia, was gonna be there? No matter cuz WE WERE GOING! Little did I know that, as Bob Ryan wrote in the Boston Globe, there was widespread discussion on Monday night among the media, post Florida victory, that this was the worst Final Four ever.
I do not know if that is true (going to have to give it some thought), but yeah, the games were not competitive aside from the first 18m of the Mason/Florida game. I mean, LSU played with the passion of Jim from "The Office" after he gets back from lunch and waits out the hours 'till 5pm/quitting time: they just looked like they wanted to be somewhere else. The way UCLA dominated that game fooled me into expecting them to beat U of F handily on Monday night: the Bruins were seemingly everywhere on Saturday; making steals and blocking shots, with Jordan Farmer making jumpers and drives whenever the 35 second clock was winding down. In the early game, Mason actually (IMO) was in the game mentally as well as on the scoreboard until they gave up the last 5 points of the first half. Then, of course, Lee Humphrey, from the relative safety of the RCA Dome's locker rooms about 100 feet from the basket, hit 3 3's to open the second half and that was it. Nothing to do for the approximately 200,000 George Mason students who had descended on Indianapolis but to hit the bars and get friggin' drunk (believe me, they did).
As far as the Hoosier Dome (much cooler name than RCA Dome, so I'll stick with it), man, they can't tear that sucker down fast enough! The new Dome is being built across the street and judging by the size of the hole in the ground that is there now, the new place is going to either seat 400,000 people, or will have a bathroom available for each and every ticket holder...I mean the footprint is big! They have until 2010 to get it up and going, so I suppose four years is enough time to turn the biggest shitload of dirt I've ever seen into a first class 21st century domed arena (which will then be demolished in 25 years after the Irsays and the NCAA and folks like me complain about how old and decrepit it it...such is progress.). But the current place has actual aluminum benches in the entire upper deck: for folks with the disease known as "Bigfatamericanassitis", six hours of sitting can be a wee bit uncomfortable. I was actually looking forward to the media timeouts in the second half of both games so I could stand and stretch my back and give my ass a break. And, not that it matters to us po' folks, but the Dome has just one row of luxury boxes: you know that the NCAA brass and CBS Sales staff glommed on to most of those, leaving just a few for the billionaires of the world to separate themselves from the riff raff (ah..that would be me and, presumably, you). Most new arenas and stadiums are basically 80% luxury boxes or preferred seating and 20% steerage/"loserville"/standing room. I expect Indy's new dome to follow that blueprint to a T.
The redeeming fact of the weekend, along with the fact that WE WERE THERE AT THE FINAL FOUR(!) was the unrelenting cheerfulness, helpfulness and friendliness of all the volunteers and most of the paid staff of every event we attended. Wow! Coming from New England where, as I said to someone today, if someone smiles at you really hard and says "Hey!" you think they are on drugs, want to sell you drugs, are going to kill you, or all of the above, it was nice to have some good old fashioned hospitality and cheerfulness! (Not that I don't think the people in Indy weren't all on drugs, same as I would have had I been back in New England, I'm just assuming their dealers are Phizer and Eli Lilly and so forth instead of the puerto rican guy down on outer Congress Street who wears that old crappy Brooklyn Dodgers hat.
All in all a terrific time. And I would do it again in a heartbeat....soon as they get rid of those damn aluminum ass pinchers!
posted by joe sweeney at 10:58 AM
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