Hello,
I was very fortunate yesterday in being able to be at the Energy Solutions Arena for Day 1 of the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City. I was able to see some great games. I almost saw NCAA history made, saw the end of the biggest upset of the day and fell in love with the Shockers. The games in SLC yesterday were #9 Wichita State-#8 Pittsburgh, #16 Southern-#1 Gonzaga, #11 Belmont-#6 Arizona and in what was the biggest upset of the day #14 Harvard-#3 New Mexico.
I was at the ESA working tech support. Due to that I got in the games free, but I also had some work responsibilities. I completely missed the Arizona-Belmont game and only saw the end of New Mexico- Harvard game. So I spent time in the stands but also in the bowels of the ESA. Here are some thoughts from my day traveling all over the Energy Solutions Arena.
1) Probably the biggest celebrity in the ESA yesterday was Pat Riley. It seems he's in town to do some scouting for the Heat. At one point he was just about 30 feet from me. And if you were wondering, no I didn't bother him. In fact most people left him alone. Someone I was working with commented on his gigantic Miami Heat championship ring he was wearing. Probably the next biggest celebrity in the ESA yesterday was John Stockton. He was there to watch Gonzaga, the team he played for collegially and the team his son David now plays for. The announcing crews in Salt Lake aren't the top flight crews and none of the coaches are really big name coaches. There were no Coach K, Tom Izzo or Roy Williams in SLC.
2) Speaking of Gonzaga, I wasn't real impressed with the Zags. Honestly their opponent, the Southern Jaguars, were much more athletic. They kept on blocking Kelly Olynyk's shot. Other than playing with his hair and pulling down the net, I didn't see much that Olynyk was good at. I was very disappointed by his and his teammates performance. I know it's only one game and things can change quickly. However the Zags won't be around long if they play like they did again yesterday.
In fact for much of that game I thought I could be witnessing history. A # 16 seed has never beat a # 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However Gonzaga had ice water in their veins, they calmly hit big shots in crunch time.
3) Now Southern on the other hand I was very impressed with. Not only did their team look every bit as good as the #1 Zags, but their band kicked butt. Their band is nicknamed The Human Jukebox and they were very good. They played a lot of great songs and they really seem to enjoy performing. Also their cheerleaders were anything but superfluous. I think they should be invited back for tomorrow although their team isn't in the tourney anymore.
They have a player named Derick Beltran, I have a feeling you'll be hearing from him again.
4) Going into the Tournament the teams I was cheering for were Gonzaga and North Carolina. Oh yeah and whoever plays the Puke White Devils. The first game of the day was Wichita State vs. the perennially underachieving Pitt Panthers. In watching the Shockers I discovered another team that I'm now cheering for. The Wichita State Shockers are the alma mater of Antoine The Original Big Dog Carr and Xavier McDaniel. Not that either team looked real great and both had trouble scoring the Shockers were clearly the better team. Wichita State has a few great players to watch out for when they take on the Zags on Saturday. Keep your eye on Cleanthony Early, Malcolm Armstead and Tekele Cotton.
It's easy to see where the Shockers fans are. Not only are they loud, but it would be impossible to miss their bright yellow shirts. They love their Shockers and it's easy to see why.
Although I do have three questions about the Shockers. What the hell is a Shocker? What is their mascot suppose to be? Why does their mascot look like he has a muffin on his head?
Other thoughts:
- Media timeouts sure take a long time, they are good to go to the bathroom and get something to eat.
- Due to those frequent and lengthy media timeouts that takes away from some of the magic of March Madness. But watching the games in person has some advantages as well. I was able to see the Southern band play. Also it's fun when the crowd gets behind a team and starts cheering for them. Both Southern and Harvard had a lot of fans adopt them yesterday.
- The Harvard cheerleaders are the least attractive. Also seeing many of the cheerleaders very close, I realized how much make up they wear. They almost take it to the Tammy Faye Baker level.
- I'm not the biggest fan of referees, but I thought they have been incredibly consistent and fair in the games I've watched.
- The U of A, U of A chant that the University of Arizona fans is annoying. It sounds a lot like the USA, USA chant.
Day 2 thoughts:
- I hate the Puke White Devils. It makes me laugh that they depend so much on Mason Plumlee and Bryan Kelly. Due to that I guarantee they won't be winning the NCAA Championship. I watched Creighton today and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. I expect that Duke will get past the Blue Jays. However if Duke somehow make it to the regional final, they won't get past Louisville. I think the Cardinals will make short work of the Blue Devils.
- I enjoyed watching the LaSalle-Kansas State and Creighton-Cincinnati games, especially since both went down to the final minute. I'm not sure what the Kansas State point guard was doing where he ran behind the basket and then forced up a shot.
- I'm very surprised by how boring the slate of NCAA games are on tonight. Other than North Carolina -Villanova I'm not excited about any of the other games tonight.
I'll be at the ESA again for the Wichita State- Gonzaga and Harvard-Arizona games tomorrow. It's highly likely there will be no blog tomorrow. But enjoy some great basketball. Along with what should be two great games in SLC, there is also VCU-Michigan. That should be a bloodbath, two very good teams that seemed to have underperformed throughout the season. After Cal knocked off UNLV, can they beat Syracuse? Butler vs. Marquette could also be a very good game.
themusicaddict
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