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Post by JohnnyJones on Mar 9, 2021 22:38:12 GMT -5
A bit sad tonight. I know there are others with longer streaks, but tomorrow will be the first Georgetown game in the BET in 27 years where I wont be there in person in the Garden. And this will be only the 3rd tournament in 33 years I wont be there (since 1989, missing only 1993 and 1994). So many great memories and a whole lot of heartache and disappointment. Hard to believe we have only won it twice in all those years. Will be weird watching on TV tomorrow.
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Post by Admin on Mar 9, 2021 23:12:47 GMT -5
There's more than a few of us that aren't used to sitting at home this week. Post your thoughts on tournaments gone by or just talk about what we're missing.
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,308
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Post by SSHoya on Mar 10, 2021 6:58:32 GMT -5
Big East Tournament Championships over Syracuse in 1980, 1984, 1987 and 1989. I was present at everyone of them. I miss taunting Syracuse fans. . .
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Bigs"R"Us
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,642
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Post by Bigs"R"Us on Mar 10, 2021 7:42:53 GMT -5
Too young for ‘80, but was at ‘84, ‘87 and ‘89. These games were events!
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,308
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Post by SSHoya on Mar 10, 2021 8:31:37 GMT -5
Another favorite memory - Roy Hibbert's "I'm a monster game" against WVU in the BET semifinals in 2008. Sadly, lost to Pitt in the finals.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 9:14:31 GMT -5
A significant part of the fun of attending the BET is the crazy buzz that surrounds the Garden for those 3 or 4 days.
Lingering & celebrating in drunken silliness with Hoya family after big wins, stewing in a sea of opposing fans after a loss (but ultimately being civil enough to sell them your remaining tickets), getting irrationally fired up about the down-to-the-wire early game while waiting for the "main event" to happen, seeing classmates you really should remember the name of at The Blarney Stone/McAnns/Cafe31/TirNaNog/Stout...
I've been to #1 v #2 games, Syr/Duke/Uconn epics, NCAA regionals & Final Fours... and though the product on the court is often tremendous, the fun & atmosphere rarely match the intimate regional basketball bacchanalia that is the BET.
Not having that blows.
So let's friggin win so i can at least pretend I'm doing all that in my basement.
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Post by JohnnyJones on Mar 10, 2021 10:35:56 GMT -5
Another favorite memory - Roy Hibbert's "I'm a monster game" against WVU in the BET semifinals in 2008. Sadly, lost to Pitt in the finals. That one is on my list as well. We looked so good in that game. I distinctly remember being on top of the world in the concourse (drinking a jumbo) after that game, waiting for the next game to start [we must have been the 7 pm game that night]. That is the best part abut the BET - if your team wins, in any round, you then have somewhere around 24 hours to just really enjoy friends, beer, other live games, March Madness going on generally, NY pizza, hot pretzels, beer... While the next night was painful, it was just a week later where I was as low as I have been as a Gtown fan. The Davidson loss mighty be #1 on my list in 33 years (again - keeping in mind that my clock starts in 88-89, so I dont have the emotional tie to losses in years prior to that). But that 08 BET WV game stands out for me as one of those games that were super fun to watch and left you thinking - damn this team is good. Some other examples (just off the top of my head without a lot of thought): - almost every game in the winter of 89 up until Princeton - several games early in the 96 season (eg, Temple) and the home Nova game late in 96 season - Duke and Ohio State in 2006 (the Ohio State game is the definition of 2 hours of fun / happiness for me) - At UConn in December Monroe's freshman year I know there are lots of others, but those jump out to me. And please no depressing comments on the fact that the last one was 10+ years ago!  |
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Nevada Hoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 18,432
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Mar 10, 2021 11:55:49 GMT -5
I am set to go with my 1984 Championship t-shirt and my Georgetown sweatshirt over that. GO HOYAS!!!
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Post by FHillsNYHoya on Mar 10, 2021 12:19:25 GMT -5
Will really miss seeing great college friends I met in fall 1988 and thereafter, HoyaTalk Board friends, random acquaintance sightings, and lots of others in Georgetown garb today.
It's been so long since last we met...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 12:25:08 GMT -5
You guys are about to make me cry.
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Post by JohnnyJones on Mar 10, 2021 12:41:01 GMT -5
You guys are about to make me cry. So many tears. Lets not even start to go down the road of those times when I started to already think about the next 24 hours and it got cruelly snatched away. UConn with 4 minutes left in 96 Rutgers in 98 Halftime v Cuse in 06 So many others... |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 12:43:33 GMT -5
You guys are about to make me cry. So many tears. Lets not even start to go down the road of those times when I started to already think about the next 24 hours and it got cruelly snatched away. UConn with 4 minutes left in 96 Rutgers in 98 Halftime v Cuse in 06 So many others... Well at least you guys were there at the games. I've never been to a tournament game. But, but, but, I really enjoy watching the tournament games on TV. You see so much more of the action at home than you would at the game. Plus, you can yell at your tv and even throw stuff at it when your team is down or does something dumb to get you all riled up. |
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SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,308
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Post by SSHoya on Mar 10, 2021 12:46:25 GMT -5
You guys are about to make me cry. So many tears. Lets not even start to go down the road of those times when I started to already think about the next 24 hours and it got cruelly snatched away. UConn with 4 minutes left in 96 Rutgers in 98 Halftime v Cuse in 06 So many others... Not BET but NCAA Elite 8 against Iowa at the Spectrum. . . with my Ann Arbor-based relatives patronizing me on how a small Jesuit school can't possibly knock off a Big Ten team |
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Post by JohnnyJones on Mar 10, 2021 13:03:57 GMT -5
So many tears. Lets not even start to go down the road of those times when I started to already think about the next 24 hours and it got cruelly snatched away. UConn with 4 minutes left in 96 Rutgers in 98 Halftime v Cuse in 06 So many others... Well at least you guys were there at the games. I've never been to a tournament game. But, but, but, I really enjoy watching the tournament games on TV. You see so much more of the action at home than you would at the game. Plus, you can yell at your tv and even throw stuff at it when your team is down or does something dumb to get you all riled up. Next year we are getting you to NYC! |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 13:30:51 GMT -5
Well at least you guys were there at the games. I've never been to a tournament game. But, but, but, I really enjoy watching the tournament games on TV. You see so much more of the action at home than you would at the game. Plus, you can yell at your tv and even throw stuff at it when your team is down or does something dumb to get you all riled up. Next year we are getting you to NYC! Cool beans! I'm with it! |
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Jack
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,411
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Post by Jack on Mar 10, 2021 14:06:39 GMT -5
I haven't been since 2014, which was about three weeks before my younger daughter was born. I did not arrive until Thursday, which meant I did not even see Georgetown play. I had a good time rooting for PC (saw Ed Cooley in my hotel), but with kids that young and extremely limited prospects of seeing the Hoyas advance to even the semifinals, I just haven't had the motivation to be there over the past few years. I have gotten pretty cynical about college basketball recently, and unable to invest the type of emotion into Georgetown basketball that previously caused me to be somewhat less than civil with the Orange hordes after Gerry McNamara and his 9th-seeded compatriots knocked out the Hoyas in '06. Even so, I miss the feeling around MSG, and can't wait to be back next year if at all possible. Some trips down memory lane:
-My first BET in 92, when I was in 8th grade playing hooky for the Friday fiesta. We took Amtrak from Boston to Penn Station. Getting to hang out with my parents and their classmates in NYC at that age was so special to me. I was as big a Georgetown basketball fan as you could find, watched every game on tv with my parents, traveled to games at BC, PC, Ucon regularly, but I had never watched a BET game with my mom and dad, because they were always there and I was at home. Of course, that year marked the first time the Hoyas ever lost a BET final, so I have blamed myself for their heartbreaks ever since. Losing to hated Syracuse surrounded by their fans was a rude awakening, though I was already quite familiar with being in a gym where it felt like everyone was rooting against my team. I was hooked on the BET.
-Too young to drink* at the bars while in high school, I still got to go along for the ride with the adults after the games. I remember being at Runyons sports bar, which was a name I knew because Bob Costas hosted a radio show there, seeing some crazy late night conference tournament finish from the WAC, probably BYU v. UTEP, having the absolute time of my life while nursing a Coke. It felt like the whole city was watching every college basketball game, but I am sure that was just my own excitement for it.
-Weird things that stuck in my mind from going to those games included the mellifluous articulation by the MSG PA man on "Ar-tur-as Kar-nish-o-vas" during Seton Hall's run in 1993 (I could not believe he was recently named the Bulls' GM), and sitting near Franklin Western and Dickey Simpkins of the PC Friars in the stands after they took out top-seeded UCon on their way to winning the 94 tournament.
-Other great memories of being in the city at that age included going to places like Keen's Chop House (where I had the famous mutton chop despite it being a Lenten Friday) or Cafe Une Deux Trois for a pre-theatre steak frites on a Saturday evening (back when the championship was on a Sunday and semifinals were Saturday afternoon). Taking the train back to Boston and trying to find a radio signal that would give us the brackets, then scribbling them out on a yellow legal pad.
-Finally, in 1996, I was a senior in HS, already into Georgetown (although still not completely committed - I needed a GAAP weekend to make it official in April), and the BET was the biggest deal it had been since 1985. I still don't know how Ray Allen's shot went in, or how Jerome missed. It had been an awesome festival of basketball, made better by my dad and his friends buying me a beer or two at the games. When it was over, one of our party suggested we get far away from the Garden to drown our sorrows, found a cab, and headed for *PJ Clarke's. I sat at the bar with them, somehow got to drink a few Buds, learned about "buy-backs" from the bartender, and saw Pete Gillen come in and head for the back room.
Of course, my undergrad years did not feature as memorable a group of Hoya teams, and I only went to the tournament my freshman year as Spring Break and study abroad conflicted. Luckily, I still got to experience the early JT3 years, with 2007 an all time highlight, 2008 being great until it wasn't, and even 2010 being great fun until I somehow found myself in Mustang Harry's, waiting for a late night train during a monsoon while listening to "Country Roads" for the 63d time as a triumphant Bob Huggins came in to the bar. That felt like a low point, but man would I love to be back there this weekend.
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seaweed
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,664
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Post by seaweed on Mar 10, 2021 15:03:45 GMT -5
Will really miss seeing great college friends I met in fall 1988 and thereafter, HoyaTalk Board friends, random acquaintance sightings, and lots of others in Georgetown garb today. It's been so long since last we met... Lie down forever lie down |
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jwp91
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 6,009
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Post by jwp91 on Mar 10, 2021 17:30:52 GMT -5
This round is on me. ;-)
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Mar 10, 2021 17:36:36 GMT -5
Anywhere I can watch the replay? Had to miss most of the game due to clinic.
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Nevada Hoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 18,432
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Mar 10, 2021 18:15:17 GMT -5
I am set to go with my 1984 Championship t-shirt and my Georgetown sweatshirt over that. GO HOYAS!!! OK, wear the same outfits tomorrow! GO HOYAS!!!! |
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