A Recap Of One Hoya's Journey to Dayton

[RockawayHoya]

I got back to Philadelphia about 2 hours ago, ending a trip that spanned roughly 1300 miles and 22 hours of being on a bus this past weekend.

And I've spent the last 2 hours sifting through HoyaTalk and smiling as I read all of your posts, all of which are beaming with pride after our Hoyas marched into Dayton and came out with their tickets punched for Minneapolis.

I've decided to write a recap for what transpired this past weekend; the best weekend in Hoya Basketball since '01, and the best weekend of my life. Sorry it won't be FL-like in terms of quality, and I'm going to basically write 99% of this recap off the top of my head (with a little help from CAHoya, H2oyaPolo, and HoyaFinisher). I'll try to keep all the personal stuff to a minimum, but I'm obligated (and have been asked) to at least include a few snippets. I'll make one post per day that we were there.

Hope you all like it.



THURSDAY

Just the day before, I was posting on this board, frantically trying to figure out some way to find a bar that would show the GU-UNI game. In Philadelphia. At the same time as the Villanova-Monmouth game. And now, an incredible turn of events had left myself and a friend with 2 tickets for Dayton I was trying to figure out how to get from Philadelphia to DC to meet up with H2oyaPolo and catch the Hoya Blue bus in under 3 hours. By noon, a travel itinerary had been created on the fly: I'd have to leave my 3PM class and catch a 3:30PM train down to DC. And after arriving at DC at 5:30PM, we'd have roughly half an hour to make it to campus to meet up with Hoya Blue before their charter bus left for Dayton. Any delay in travel and the entire trip would have been sunk before it even began.

I'm still thanking my lucky stars that the train didn't derail.

I made it to the train station in Philly with 7 minutes to spare, and after a short pit stop in Dupont Circle and an extremely stressful drive into the heart of DC traffic, it took some running from 35th and P to arrive at Southwest Quad at precisely 6PM on the dot. 007 spotted me huffing and puffing, and he came over with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, you made it."

After catching my breath, 007 introduced me to several HoyaTalk posters: CAHoya, HoyaBinx, TBird, and StPete. I think I heard a hush from the general crowd when word got out that I was Rockaway. I guess it's a love/hate relationship with me. Oh well, I can deal with that.

What immediately hit me standing in that parking lot/sidewalk area was that you could definitely feel the energy just being there. These kids were just a solid group of fans dedicated to supporting Hoya basketball. But you already knew that. But this trip also allowed me a firsthand look into the "people" that make up Hoya Blue. Not only are they great fans, they are great people (more on this later).

Now, the bus trip to Dayton. Only one word to describe it: LONG. First off, the bus showed up to campus about an hour and a half late. I barely noticed. But I did notice the nearly hour long delay when our bus driver stopped on the side of the road somewhere in suburban Maryland to wait for someone to bring him his cell phone charger. It's a good thing we were distracted by the GU-Duke DVD . Does watching that game ever get old? Did I just ask a rhetorical question?

A few memorable things from the rest of the bus ride to Dayton: 1) intermittent chants of "Let's Go Aggies" as the SyraF'ingCuse-Texas A&M scores were consistently updated on various cell phones and whenever H2oyaPolo's portable TV could get a momentary reception in rural PA, 2) my first time watching "Batman Begins," 3) the clock striking midnight and becoming "The Party Bus" for St. Patrick's Day to the tune(s) of CAHoya's party mix, which included sing-a-long favorites such as Weezer's "Beverly Hills," Tupac's "California Love," Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" (with obligatory Roy chants), NODAK's "HOYA Basketball", and Flogging Molly's "Drunken Lullabies" (for St. Patrick's Day).

And yes, everyone knew EVERY word to HOYA Basketball.

After surviving some extremely dangerous driving (at 40 mph, no less), a 15 minute blizzard in West Virginia (quite possibly the most God-awful place I've ever been to), and taking over a truckers' Burger King, we finally got into Dayton around 5:30AM. Myself and H2oyaPolo were in a big bind, as the hotel that Hoya Blue was staying at was about 20 miles away from the hotel that we were staying at, and we found out on the bus ride that our car ride to the other hotel was not going to be available until about noon. So here's my chance to thank the 3 guys who let us crash on the floor in their room at the Days Inn for a few hours. You know who you are. That's hospitality for you right there: the Hoya Blue way.

COMING UP ON FRIDAY (complete rip-off from FL's recaps): Bob Evan's, crazy Ohio motorists, defeating UNI's only chant, Ashanti's mom, HHC gathering at Champ's, encounter with UNI's Ben Jacobsen at Oregon District, and MUCH MORE, when RockawayHoya's recap continues after a word from our sponsors...

[Coast2CoastHoya]

great post about Thurs - can't wait to read more about Fri, and of course, Sunday!

[RockawayHoya]

FRIDAY

After about roughly 3 hours of sleep, we decided it'd be a good idea to find some form of food before heading over to the arena. We settled on a Bob Evan's, and we were immediately caught by surprise at how packed it was (especially for 11AM on a Friday morning). I guess people in Dayton don't work (or at least during the NCAAs). One middle aged woman who was a Michigan State fan came over to our table and asked if we were really Georgetown students (in a manner that had us feeling like we were rock stars). She then told us that she was supposed to go to Georgetown, but sadly she became a "social butterfly in high school." We got a good laugh at that.

Midwestern hospitality was definitely on display here, as the manager brought out a second steak to one member of our party because he was afraid the first steak he was given was too small.

You never see stuff like that on the East Coast.

On our way back to the Hoya Blue bus at the hotel, a speeding motorist almost hit one of us while driving by (he was probably doing 40 on a side road). After he was almost hit, the kid muttered "A__hole" under his breath (deservedly so), and barely audible to those walking along side of him. Apparently, the driver also somehow heard it, and brought his speeding SUV to a screeching halt, and started threatening us. After we half-heartedly apologized for a bit, he angrily stepped back into his car and sped away.

You always see stuff like that on the East Coast.

If the members of Hoya Blue were feeling the effects of a near sleepless night (as well as some massive hangovers for some ), they sure didn't show it when we boarded the bus around noon to head to the game. In general, there was an electric atmosphere on the bus. And when Gary Glitter's "The Hey Song" was loudly played over the system, Hoya Blue emphatically answered the "Heys" with "Cuse Sucks." Truly a beautiful sight to see.

A few general impressions about the Dayton Basketball Center: really, it's just a glorified high school arena. It actually reminded me a lot of my local community college's basketball arena back home, with the only difference being that there were seats behind the baskets. Capacity was about 9,400, and we were seated about 20 rows back from the floor. When we got into the arena, OSU-Davidson was just beginning the 2nd half, and Davidson was putting up a fight. They were hanging with OSU until about the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half, when Dials started to impose his will on the quickly tiring Davidson frontline and the perimeter guys (mainly Sullinger) started hitting a few threes to help Davidson pull away. A couple of OSU fans sitting behind me kept making fun of one of the Davidson big men (the one who was repeatedly killing them with lefty hooks and threes), remarking that his shot belonged in the WNBA because he kept shooting it from his hip. And then I looked up at one of the side scoreboards and saw that the guy had 26 points. Not too shabby for a guy who was being compared to Rebecca Lobo just a few minutes ago.

It was either during the halftime break or the first TV timeout of the second half when some Davidson students came over to our student section to form a pact of some sorts. The deal was that if we cheered for them, they'd stick around for the second game and cheer for us (if you're wondering, they didn't hold up their end of the bargain). Here's an excerpt from our conversation with them:

Us: So how do you want us to cheer for you.
Them: When we say "Wild," you guys say "Cats."
Us: OK, sure. So for our cheer, when we say "Hoya," you say "Saxa."
Them: What? Saxas? How do you say that?
Us: SAXA. S-A-X-A.
Them: *still confused* OK, we'll try.

I guess there's a reason why they go to Davidson.

For some reason, OSU fans are just perpetually in a Editedy mood. I have no idea why, but their fans argue EVERY single damn call. Granted, I'm usually all over the refs too when they're calling a terrible game, but I was shocked that so many of their fans were just downright hostile for most of the game, even after they had already clinched the win. Then again, if I was in a dogfight with the #15 seed midway through the second half in a virtual home game, I bet I'd be a little irritated too.

Now, for our game. I took one look at the UNI team in pregame warmups and probably thought the same thing our players did: "we are going to kill this team." And then the game started, and UNI broke out of the gates quick, with John Little burying 3 after 3 from the same spot in the corner. UNI raced out to a 27-20 lead, and I swear I have never been more sick to my stomach at a basketball game. Terrible thoughts were going through my mind (call me a pessimist, but being Class of '05, you're going to have to cut me some slack), among them having to make an 11 hour bus ride home immediately following the game if we weren't able to somehow come back against this scrappy team that was getting away with murder in the paint. But we managed to scrape together a few points in the last few minutes of the first half, and managed to survive UNI's early streaky shooting to go into the half down by just 4.

During halftime, arena security came down to our student section and told us that we had to remain seated for the second half. Apparently, some OSU fans behind us were complaining that we were obstructing their view. We finally came to a compromise, basically switching seats with the unhappy OSU fans so that they could sit in front of us. As a result, our student section occupied roughly the last 5-6 rows before the beginning of the concourse. I know there are plenty of differing opinions on this board, but I personally thought it was pretty unfair. It would have been a disadvantage if the UNI student section was allowed to stand and be rowdy while ours was forced to sit just because a handful of OSU fans (whose team wasn't even participating in the game being played) were unhappy with their view.

I also noticed during one of the TV timeouts that Jack the mascot was dancing with the cheerleaders and was holding pom-poms at one point. I don't know what was up with that, but thankfully Jack regained his masculinity for the OSU game.

Anyways, back to the game. Roy started the second half with back to back buckets, and our crowd, although small, came to life after we had tied the game. The UNI cheering section, although much larger than ours, was pretty much silent throughout the entire game, even when their team was shooting the lights out in the first half. UNI's crowd tried to rally their troops with a chant of "U-N-I." We responded to their chant by yelling "s ucks!" During one TV timeout, this went on for a good minute and a half, and left many of the OSU fans near us chuckling at UNI's refusal to abandon their chant and avoid further embarassment. After realizing their blunder, the UNI fans went back to their silent ways, and were barely audible for the rest of the game, save a late three by Little that cut our lead to 3 in the final minutes of the game.

We dodged several open looks from 3 by UNI, who missed plenty of shots that would have changed the momentum of the game. The biggest play of the game in my opinion was Jessie's steal with the score 39-37 or 39-38, when UNI had a 2 on 1 break and Jessie was the only defender back. That preserved our lead (which UNI was unable to take from us after going up 34-32). Aside from Cook's clutch play in the final 2 minutes of the game and Roy's obvious domination in the paint on those plays where he wasn't hacked to death, you could make a case for Jessie being our MVP. He probably had his best game of the year against UNI, hitting clutch 3's, making key defensive plays, and it was his outlet pass under extreme duress that got Brandon his dunk.

I'm sure most of you had the same impressions that I had about the next two plays I'm about to talk about. First, the Bowman dunk where he cradled the ball before throwing it down on the breakway had me absolutely TERRIFIED before the ball went through the hoop. I think my heart stopped when I saw him cradle the ball. Thank God it went down. Second, when we all saw Ashanti's dunk to put the exclamation point in the game, the Georgetown cheering section went absolutely wild. He definitely showed us "a little somethin' somethin'."

Following the game, Ashanti's parents and grandmother came over to the student section to exchange high fives and handshakes. Ashanti's mother was really excited, and her elation probably only grew after we started chanting "Mrs. Cook" over and over again. I hope Jeff's mom wasn't jealous .

My new favorite chant after a basketball game? "Let's keep dancing." I've never had the opportunity to chant it before. It's a great feeling.

I realize my Friday post is getting a little lengthy, so I'll try to keep the non-game stuff short and sweet.

Following the game, a few of us alums gathered at some bar in North Dayton called Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers. We didn't stay there long (as we wanted to make an appearance at the HHC gathering), but I will tell you this much: the mug of beer I drank at that bar was easily the best tasting and coldest beer I've ever had in my life. Call it the sweet taste of victory. ;D

We made a quick but brief appearance at the HHC gathering at Champs. Georgetown absolutely TOOK OVER that place. The green beer was flowing and the bar was being swarmed by people in gray.

After a short reprieve following dinner, some of us decided to head out to the Oregon District, supposedly the highlight of Dayton's nightlife. For those of you wondering what it was like, imagine Adams Morgan in a suburban setting, just without jumbo slices, brawls in the street, and anything posh. Most of the bars looked identical, so we decided to just head to one called Newcom's. Pretty sketchy place, and packed with fans of all teams in the Dayton regional. At some point in the night, HoyaBliu told me that Ben Jacobsen, UNI's star player, almost mistakenly took his Corona at the bar. After apologizing, he agreed to take a picture with our group (extremly awkward, considering we had just beaten them earlier in the afternoon). We later found Jacobsen in the bathroom, where he remembered us from earlier in the night and poured his heart out to us, explaining that this was the 3rd straight year that they had lost in the 1st round and that this was his last chance as a senior. We almost felt bad for the guy.

Almost.

COMING UP ON SATURDAY: A fellow Hoya's dream comes true with the help of a MSU fan, the classic that was Maryland-Manhattan, lunch at Champs, pizza party with the pep band, testing the lacking skills of Champ's bartenders during a 21st birthday party, and MORE during the Hoyas' off day in Dayton, when RockawayHoya returns after grabbing a quick bite to eat for dinner...

[YB]

This is fantastic stuff. My own Friday consisted of leaving DC at 2 am to roll into Dayton at 10:45 with GF of YB. She was sick, making that trip glorious until we arrived, got pumped by the atmosphere. We were scared not many GU fans would be there until the HB folks arrived, late. Cheering for Davidson was fun- their cheerleaders had it all over tOSU's. The GU fans erupted in cheers and applause whenever the GU cheerleaders and band passed by, single file. Cool.

After the win, the sheer jubilation among the GU faithful was unbelieveable. It continued in Champps, all of it was just great. Very cathartic.

tOSU looked very vulnerable.

[3GenerationHoya]

i know this is pointing out a very minor detail, but i think the Dayton Arena announced sold-out crowds of 12,945 for the games. I wonder what the view was like at the very top of the arena.

i had a great time at the games, but Ohio needs to learn what a proper bratwurst is - their albino version was gross.

[DrumsGoBang]

I've been to a lot of places in this great country of ours. Dayton isn't the worst ( I think that might be hartford) but its close to the worst, especially for having it as a NCAA site. No good flights in, a sucky arena with bad site lines, a non-existant downtown, and lots of suburban sprawl. At least Boise was fun. The best quote I heard on the trip was from a band member who said that when his roomate got up in the morning he said "I'm already bored" They did have a kick ass air force musem. But, hey we got planes in buildings here in DC, and a little something called culture. Other notes from Dayton (actually suburbs) I couple of people went to Hooters on saturday to get a beer a watch the game (it was between laser tag and Hooters) . Our busty hooter girl asked us where Georgetown was. We said DC and said we were here for the games. She told us that she doesn't follow football. Hey, at least she wasn't the really pregnant Hooters girl. That was just kinda nasty.
Also have you people seen the sites for next year and the following years? They are getting worse. We even have a chance of going back to Ohio, to Columbus. Wow, thats great. When is Bismark ND going to be a site? Maybe even Hartford.
Big props to Hoya Blue. I had to sneak in with them during the first game because OSu fans didn't like us yelling words in other languages. They also used words like poppycock. Only problem was I couldn't get the chants of "Lets go Blue" or "How many more banners do you have to take down next year " going. The games themselves were fun. I think i really saw some UNC fan wet their pants when Mason won. Go commuter school!!!

[RockawayHoya]

SATURDAY

We all needed a breather after Friday (I bet the players, included). I definitely needed a day to rest my voice. Thankfully there are off days in the NCAA tournament.

In order to make this story make sense, I'm going to have to back in time to Friday night, prior to heading out to Oregon District. I was on the phone with HoyaFinisher, who is a close friend of mine (also Class of '05, like myself and H2oyaPolo). In my mind, there was no single person from our graduating year that deserved to see these NCAA games more than he did, and it absolutely killed me to talk on the phone with him following the UNI game and describe what a truly amazing feeling it was to be in Dayton. I had already been granted a ton of wishes this weekend that had already come true (being able to make the trip, finally seeing an NCAA game, beating UNI, etc.), but aside from beating OSU on Sunday (obviously), the one wish I had was that HoyaFinisher could somehow get a ticket for Sunday.

Another wish was granted.

I found out shortly after waking up that Jacko, a current pep band member, had gone down to the hotel lobby to grab some breakfast, and ran into a Michigan State fan who I assume was about to leave (since MSU had lost to George Mason the night before). The MSU fan had two extra tickets that he obviously didn't want to use and probably didn't want to put in any effort to sell the tickets, so he ended up giving Jacko the tickets for free, provided they would go to Georgetown fans (I guess he must have really hated Ohio State). Jacko called HoyaFinisher at 8AM, and he was quickly on his way to Dayton from Nashville.

As we woke up around 11AM, we realized after turning on the TV to try to watch Sportscenter highlights that the Maryland-Manhattan game was on. There are few things more satisfying in life than watching the Twerps sleepwalk in a NIT game on their home court and get trounced by a mid-major that has no business even playing them. The Jaspers literally had no big men by the time the game had gotten down to the final minutes (they had 4 players foul out, and only 9 dressed), and ultimately the Twerps were done in by the clutch play of some Manhattan scrub who had only been averaging 20 seconds of playing time per game. Special mention must also go out to HoyaTalk favorite Nik Caner-Medley, whose early technical and inexplicable 4th and 5th fouls to get the Jaspers into the bonus with the outcome of the game still in doubt was an extremely fitting way to end his career.

The great thing about the first weekend of the NCAA tournament is that there are games going on ALL DAY. From noon to almost midnight, you can be assured that there is some game going on to watch. I think we would have gone crazy if that wasn't the case, since there is NOTHING to do in Dayton. Several alums had told us that Boise was far more fun than Dayton. Personally, I couldn't see how ANY PLACE wouldn't be more fun than Dayton. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, and I can't even imagine what it's like when the NCAA isn't in town. Thankfully we were only there for 3-4 days.

Being located just across the street from our hotel, we decided to head back to Champs for lunch and to watch the Duke-GW game. This was when we first learned that the bartenders at that particular Champs were completely incompetent. DrumsGoBang, who had joined us for drinks, ordered a bourbon and coke. The waiter proceeded to return with a glass of coke and a shot glass filled with bourbon. I still laugh when I think about DGB asking the waiter with an incredulous look on his face: "So I'm supposed to mix these myself?" (It gets worse later).

I won't bore you with the details of just chilling out and watching basketball all afternoon back at the hotel, but that's exactly what we did. Around dinnertime, several pep band alumni threw a pizza party in the hotel lounge, and invited us to join them (mad props to them). It was there where we saw LSU beat Texas A&M on late three pointer, as well as Washington survive Illinois and Dee Brown's last second shot. Man, I love March SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.

Dinner was later followed by another celebration. One of the pep band member's was celebrating a 21st birthday (how awesome is it to have your birthday during the Hoyas' NCAA run?) at midnight, so we ended up taking him to Champs (again, proximity rules the day). The employees of Champs were obviously not expecting anyone to show up, as the place was dead and they were just all chilling in the back when we arrived with approximately 20 people ready to drink. Much like the brain-dead bartender who served us earlier in the day, these bartenders didn't know how to make ANYTHING. Among the drinks they didn't know how to make: prairie fires, Irish car bombs, mind erasers, Soco and lime (I mean, are you kidding me?), and peppermint patties. If anyone here is from Ohio, please enlighten me as to what you guys usually order at bars.

I don't remember much of the rest of the night (for obvious reasons), but I do remember "driving" into a McDonald's drive-thru on foot to order some food at 2:30 in the morning. The lady working the drive-thru was unbelievably confused ("Oh my god. I totally thought you were in a car!"). They just didn't know... that's how I roll.

COMING UP ON SUNDAY: "Anyone have Bradley in the Sweet 16?," G-Rated Wendy's, the parking fiasco, NoVA represents, sitting with the players' families for a hot second, 300 Hoyas outcheer 9,000 OSU fans, the bus ride home following the Hoyas' march into the Sweet Sixteen, and MORE when RockawayHoya returns from throwing his laundry (and a certain gray t-shirt) into the wash.

[DrumsGoBang]

The two questions after ever great trip is

1. What did you steal?

2. What did you leave behind?


With me I stole peoples hearts and left behind a baby. Maybe....... I was drunk and tired

[RockawayHoya]

3generationhoya said:

i know this is pointing out a very minor detail, but i think the Dayton Arena announced sold-out crowds of 12,945 for the games. I wonder what the view was like at the very top of the arena.

i had a great time at the games, but Ohio needs to learn what a proper bratwurst is - their albino version was gross.

I had also heard about the 13k sell-out crowd too, 3GH. I thought I had heard 9,405 on Friday during the UNI game being announced as the official sell-out crowd, but later that night someone told me it was closer to 13,000. However, on Sunday, I heard the announcer say it the sell-out crowd was 9,405 again. Having seen the arena, I'm not sure that the place could hold 13,000 people. It was TINY. However, I could be wrong.

But like you said, minor detail. Plus, I'm almost positive we couldn't have had more than 300 fans in the building regardless of what the total crowd count was.

[jerseyhoya34]

Methinks OH might be a beer place.

[Hoyabliu]

rockaway, i'm surprised you haven't mentioned anything about the Baha'i faith or trikaidekaphobia.

DrumsGoBang,

you must have heard it from HoyaFinisher, H2oyapolo, rockawayhoya, jacko, or singleu, the 5 people who happened to share one extremely small hotel room (especially when you're not sober) w/ me...I literally woke up hungover and immediately felt bored. When the band arrived at the hotel, we asked the person at the front desk what there was to do in Dayton......literally, no response.

Nightlife wise, the options were sparse. Aside from having Ben Jacobson (not inadvertently) try to steal my booze and then get all teary-eyed in the men's bathroom (a place that was so nasty, i'm sure rockawayhoya could give it it's own post) about losing by 5 points on 3 consecutive trips to the tourney, about the only other non-game highlight in dayton was driving through a brew thru..which I guess would be a highlight no matter where i was...

But thanks to the Hoyas, despite all this, Dayton still managed to be the best place on earth to be in this past weekend...as i'm sure the many hoya blue members can attest to.

Here's to the next stop on Roy's rampage through the Midwest: Minneapolis!!

[YB]

Thankfully, I spent the weekend except for the games in Cincinnati, a MUCH more fun and happening place than Dayton. Went to an authentic Scottish pub, french bistro, an historic cemetery, and generally relaxed, watching several upsets and worrying nervously about Sunday. I'm a bengals fan, so seeing Paul Brown Stadium in person was a nice touch on the weekend.

[hoyafinisher]

Rockaway, great recap. As a view from me: The MSU fan came up extra clutch as my girlfriend was visiting me on her birthday weekend, and thus I could not go up unless we had 2 tickets. We got tickets in exchange for a PRAYER. I guess coming from a Catholic school has benefits sometimes. Anyways, I was immediately awake after a night of St. PaDDy's day celebrating, took my car to get an oil change, and we were on our way. I love March Madness, but I never appreciated it more than driving up to Dayton. That was easily the easiest 5 hour drive I've ever done. I think I almost drove off the road when LSU hit that 3. Anyways, I'll let Rockaway provide all the details after I was there, but I gotta say: as a Hoya fan from Ohio, I have never been so happy to be in my home state as I was this weekend.

[Jack]

hoyafinisher said:

Rockaway, great recap. As a view from me: The MSU fan came up extra clutch as my girlfriend was visiting me on her birthday weekend, and thus I could not go up unless we had 2 tickets. We got tickets in exchange for a PRAYER. I guess coming from a Catholic school has benefits sometimes. Anyways, I was immediately awake after a night of St. Patty's day celebrating, took my car to get an oil change, and we were on our way. I love March Madness, but I never appreciated it more than driving up to Dayton.

Please, please, please everyone now and forever- Patty is a girl's name. The patron Saint of Ireland's name was Patrick, and if it is ever shortened, it is Paddy, not Patty. If anyone should know that it is a Catholic. On a related note, there seemed to be a lot of steak consumed in this thread for a Friday in Lent, although perhaps McCarrick's feast day dispensation carries over to Dayton. Now carry on with the stories.

[hoyafinisher]

Sorry, I'm not exactly what you would call Irish, or Catholic. My heritage is also from an island, but one much farther south (Sri Lanka). But on St. PADDY's day, as Kent Brockman said, "Everyone is a little bit Irish. Except of course for the Gays, and the Italians".

[Jack]

hoyafinisher said:

Sorry, I'm not exactly what you would call Irish, or Catholic. My heritage is also from an island, but one much farther south (Sri Lanka). But on St. PADDY's day, as Kent Brockman said, "Everyone is a little bit Irish. Except of course for the Gays, and the Italians".

Apologies for my religious assumptions. There is nothing I hate more than intolerance. And the Dutch.

[LCPolo18]

hoyafinisher said:

I think I almost drove off the road when LSU hit that 3.

I heard you almost drove off the road when you "accidentally" put your car into neutral while driving on the highway...


And to DrumsGoBang, a certain band member from Minnesota stole shot glasses from Champps to play quarters back at the hotel. Unfortunately I don't think we were coordinated enough to play by the time we all got back.

[hoyafinisher]

To be fair, it wasn't me who put the car in neutral. Also, Ohio is essentially a beer place, considering a lot of the liquor you can find is watered down. I guess thats the trade-off when you can buy liquor at a Rite-Aid.

[RockawayHoya]

SUNDAY

For some weird reason, as I wrote the word "Sunday" above, my first thoughts were of the movie "Independence Day." Admit it, the first time you saw the movie, seeing the words "July 4th" in bold silver type fly across the screen just gave you the feeling that something badass was about to happen.

On Sunday, it did happen.

Supposedly the clock read 3AM when I finally got to bed the previous night. I'm not sure how I didn't fall asleep right away (especially in my drunken stupor), but I was just too excited about the game to fall asleep. As a result, I barely got any sleep, and was a zombie for most of the morning. I almost didn't notice that Bradley was beating the hell out of Pitt in the first half. But there it was, John O'Bryant and BRADLEY of all teams beating up on a Pitt team that looked awfully good in its first round game. I remember saying out loud in the hotel room, "Maybe it's going to be an underdog's day."

Sometimes I hate when I'm prophetic. But not on this day.

After checking out of the hotel, myself, H2oyaPolo, HoyaFinisher and his girlfriend made a quick trip over to Wendy's to get some food. One memorable thing about the Wendy's: there was a huge sign on one of the walls near the counter that read: "This Wendy's is G-Rated. You can expect a family friendly atmosphere from managers, employees, and patrons." I almost laughed out loud when I saw it.

Only in Ohio.

We made our way through traffic, and on the way to the stadium, heard over the radio that Bradley had indeed upset Pitt. When we got to the arena, the traffic cops instructed us to make a U-Turn in order to enter the parking lot through one of the alternate entrances. We did as we were told, and followed a steady stream of cars moving in the opposite direction (away from the arena). As we got to the alternate entrances, we saw the traffic cops instructing cars to enter the parking lot. However, when we got to the entrance, we were told that we couldn't enter the parking lot (even though we could see empty parking spaces in the lot nearby). They told us that we'd have to go back towards the highway and park in the parking lot behind the baseball field. In our rear view mirror, we saw that the cars behind us were directed to enter the parking lot. So yeah, the Dayton traffic cops deliberately screwed us and made us walk 20 minutes to the arena for no reason. But it's OK, because we got the last laugh anyways.

We quiickly got our tickets from Will Call and headed inside the arena. Hoya Blue was already there (apparently they don't sleep, they just WAIT). The UNC-Mason game was just about to start and we scrambled to find a seat.

The following became a recurring theme during the UNC-Mason game: we all had our tickets, but having arrived a little later than Hoya Blue, we ended up having to try to find seats in front of them (that weren't technically ours according to our tickets). So we ended up having to move several times as other fans whose seats we were sitting in arrived to claim them. After moving twice, H2oyaPolo and I sat down in a small section of non-students. A middle aged couple sat down next to us, and the woman proudly showed me a Georgetown banner that she had sneaked into the arena. I remember saying to her, "Thankfully we have more Georgetown fans here. We're going to need all the help we can get today." She replied, "Oh yes, I know." She then proceeded to tap the shoulder of the woman sitting in front of me, and then said "Hi Mrs. Beal, how are you doing?" The reply: "Oh, Hi Mrs. Izzo, great to see you again!"

Then it hit me. But not before Roy's dad (seated behind us) started chatting with Kenny Izzo's dad. It was then and there that me and H2oyaPolo realized that we were sitting in the players' families' section. Major oops. After a few minutes, we decided to move again, and made a quick dash for the aisle.

Mason fell behind early (I think the score at one point was 18-5 UNC), and it really looked like they were going to get blown out. But then, GMU started coming back, slowly chipping away at the lead. It was obvious that Mason was far less talented and athletic than their Carolina counterparts (it was also obvious to Roy Williams, who ended up throwing a chair sometime in the second half because his team was just getting outhustled). But this is March, where effort can override talent and anything can happen. Mason took the lead at some point in the 2nd half, and it was then when the crowd sensed that Carolina was in trouble.

Mason traveled well for the game; by my estimate, they probably had about 600-800 fans for the game. Carolina brought a little less than that, and were far more quiet for most of the game (even when they were leading) than the GMU fans, who were raucous throughout. After Mason took the lead, the Georgetown and OSU fans already in attendance started backing the underdog Patriots, and the Tar Heels suddenly found themselves playing in a virtual road game atmosphere. It was too much for them to overcome, and Mason made enough timely plays during crunch time in order to pull out the victory. The place was going absolutely nuts. It's not every day you get to see an 11 seed make the Sweet 16 in person.

It's also not every day you get to see a 7 seed make the Sweet 16 in person either (I'm fully aware of what happened 5 years ago, but this wasn't Hampton we were playing that day).

Almost immediately after the UNC-Mason game finished, the Hoyas cheering section started up a chant of "Let's Go Hoyas." And we certainly made our presence felt, as boos rained down on us from the very pro-OSU crowd (which only became more pro-OSU after Mason and UNC fans left the arena and more OSU fans started coming into the stadium).

Welcome to the lion's den.

One thing you definitely can't appreciate just by watching OSU on TV is how BIG Terrence Dials is. The man is a monster, and just from his appearance, I was really hoping Roy would at least just hold his own against Dials.

Serves me right. I will never underestimate Roy again.

And so the game started. Ashanti started the game off on the right note with a three, and the Hoya fans got LOUD. We probably had about 300 fans, but it definitely sounded like we had 3,000. We traded baskets with OSU early, but then we started building a decent sized lead, and after about 7 minutes, we had built a 14-8 lead, with Cook and Roy chipping in with 7 apiece. I'm not sure what the OSU fans' reaction was when we were chanting "ROY... ROY ROY ROY.... ROY ROY ROOOOOOOY" after every Hibbert basket, but I can bet you they weren't prepared for it (especially if they weren't in attendance on Friday), and they DEFINITELY tired of it after Roy abused them all afternoon.

After the early lead, Jeff started getting into the act, and all of a sudden we had built a double digit lead, and the opportunity to throw a knockout blow was there. Our crowd could sense it, and we desperately wanted to turn this thing into a blowout so that we could keep the crowd out of the game.

Je'Kel Foster made sure that didn't happen.

On 3 consecutive possessions, Foster hit 3's on all of them, and after each successive three, the OSU fans came to live, making the arena nearly deafening. It's definitely a level of noise I've never ever heard (not even the Duke game) at a college basketball game, and I was praying our guys wouldn't become rattled by the hostile environment.

This was probably the juncture of the game where having played at Illinois, at Oregon, at UConn, and at Villanova probably helped our guys. Whatever OSU was bringing was nothing new to them, the token pressure OSU was offering in the backcourt was barely bothering us, and despite the volume of the OSU fans during their mini-runs, our guys didn't seem to be affected by it at all.

After back to back baskets by OSU cut the lead to 4 and the momentum seemed to be close to turning completely in OSU's favor, Jeff reasserted himself and scored on consecutive baskets to push the lead back to 8, and DJ later followed with two just absolutely back-breaking 3's that put us up by 13 at halftime. Hoya fans were going nuts, and as people made their way to the concessions stands and restrooms during the halftime break, I must have slapped hands with at least 50 Hoya fans walking by. They had nothing but encouraging words for us: "You guys were great in the first half," and "Keep it up for 20 more minutes." We definitely were the most raucous crowd out of all the fan bases at Dayton this past weekend. For one afternoon, the student section and the general Hoya sections was cheering as one. Hoya Blue was cheering at the top of their lungs on every offensive AND defensive possession, and the alumni followed suit, joining all our chants and participating in half of the Hoya Saxa chants. And you could tell the OSU fans were seething because they knew they were getting outcheered, and their team wasn't doing anything to help them reverse that trend. If only it could be like this for every game in MCI...

OSU came out of the gates strong in the first half with consecutive baskets, trimming our 13 point lead to 9, and the OSU crowd tried to rally their team as best as they could. It was then that I believe Ashanti responded with a step back jumper (how many of those did he hit this weekend?) to push the lead back to double digits.

After the two teams traded baskets for a bit, Jeff made two big plays that seemed to define our play in the second half. First, he fed DJ on a sick backdoor cut for an easy layup. And on the next possession, Jeff sank a three after OSU had sagged off of him and pretty much dared him to shoot from outside. After he hit that three, you could tell OSU was very worried, because if Jeff was going to be hitting from outside, they wouldn't have a prayer of guarding Roy without help down low. I even saw one of the OSU players throw his hands up in disgust after Jeff's three, as if to say, "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

As the afternoon wore on, it was evident that OSU was started to wear down physically. Roy and Jeff were beginning to take a severe toll on their frontline, and even if they were getting stops, we'd get the offensive boards and OSU would be forced to play at least another 25 seconds of defense. Meanwhile, on the other end, we were still having trouble stopping Dials, but we were really harassing their perimeter guys (Foster, in particular), and getting just enough stops to maintain our 8-10 point lead.

And then, the dam finally burst, and OSU could no longer keep up with us. They succumbed to the pressure that they had been playing under all afternoon. Jeff had a sick "and 1" play after slashing to the basket and finishing while getting fouled, and after he hit the free throw, you could sense that OSU had had enough. Their collective body language told me that they were finished. The Hoya cheering section began celebrating, and with every OSU foul and subsequent G'town free throw, the cheering grew louder and louder and louder. The lead kept growing, and it finally hit me that we were going to be able to do this.

Around under a minute to go, with the jubilant student section going wild behind me, for some reason, a bunch of memories raced through my head: Jaron Brown's putback, the quadruple OT game vs. ND, the no-timeout game vs. UConn, the Drew Hall phantom foul, Carmelo's breakaway dunk to seal it at MSG. And then, in one instant it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The ghosts of those games drifted away, and any demons that remained were most certainly exorcised as the final seconds counted down towards Minneapolis.

I would never ever have to think about those games again.

We must have stayed at the stadium for what seemed like a half hour after the game, singing the fight song over and over again, doing the "Roy chant" while CBS was interviewing Roy, and chanting "JT3" while Coach was being interviewed. We saw JT3 give his dad (who was sitting behind press row) a hug as the media descended upon them for photos. Ashanti's dad high fived everyone he passed (including myself) and yelled at the top of his lung, "See you in Minneapolis!" Countless alums held up their Georgetown banners and towels, their faces beaming with pride.

So this is what hoop heaven feels like.

If you were to ever look up the definition of "happy" in the dictionary, you might see a photo of the Hoya Blue bus following the game. We left the arena around 7:30PM, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the bus was singing until the wee hours in the AM. Song after song, chant after chant. Just pure ectasy. Among one of my favorite chants: "I said it's good... to be... a Georgetown Hoya."

One of the more underrated moments of the trip. Around 9:30, we stopped over in some random town in Ohio to grab dinner, as the vast majority of us had skipped their regularly scheduled dinner time to celebrate. A few of us decided to cross the local highway on foot and head over to Arby's for dinner. I remember sitting down with CaHoya, both of us wolfing down our Beef and Cheddars as if we hadn't eaten for days. And we spoke for about 5-10 minutes, both of us in our raspy voices. Not about basketball, but just about life. It was just one Hoya talking to another. I think aside from the amazing basketball experiences during the weekend, another thing I will remember for the rest of my life was making new friends with people; people I probably never otherwise would have met if it weren't for Georgetown basketball. Hoya Basketball certainly brought the Georgetown community closer, and it's a great feeling that's really hard to describe.

I thought about maybe a half dozen ways to write an ending to this, and I couldn't find one that I felt would work. So, I have to admit that I can't take credit for this ending (it was CAHoya's idea and I thought it was pretty awesome and a fitting end to a perfect weekend).

The last song that everyone sang together before passing out on the bus that night on the way back to DC was "Sweetness," by Jimmy Eat World.

Hoya Saxa.
















Special thanks to: H2oyaPolo, HoyaFinisher, CAHoya, HoyaBliu, Jacko, Chris I., DrumsGoBang, Mike R., the three kids who let us crash at their hotel room on Thursday night, Hoya Blue, GU Pep Band, Hoya Hoop Club, and especially 007 for making this trip possible and memorable. You guys were awesome all weekend and I'll remember this for the rest of my life. Georgetown Forever.

[RockawayHoya]

hoyabliu said:

rockaway, i'm surprised you haven't mentioned anything about the Baha'i faith or trikaidekaphobia.

DrumsGoBang,

you must have heard it from HoyaFinisher, H2oyapolo, rockawayhoya, jacko, or singleu, the 5 people who happened to share one extremely small hotel room (especially when you're not sober) w/ me...I literally woke up hungover and immediately felt bored. When the band arrived at the hotel, we asked the person at the front desk what there was to do in Dayton......literally, no response.

Nightlife wise, the options were sparse. Aside from having Ben Jacobson (not inadvertently) try to steal my booze and then get all teary-eyed in the men's bathroom (a place that was so nasty, i'm sure rockawayhoya could give it it's own post) about losing by 5 points on 3 consecutive trips to the tourney, about the only other non-game highlight in dayton was driving through a brew thru..which I guess would be a highlight no matter where i was...

But thanks to the Hoyas, despite all this, Dayton still managed to be the best place on earth to be in this past weekend...as i'm sure the many hoya blue members can attest to.

Here's to the next stop on Roy's rampage through the Midwest: Minneapolis!!

I've been typing for about 7 hours today, so I won't post about Ba'hai or Ben Jacobsen. But, in all seriousness, I could probably write about another 10 paragraphs about this weekend if I really wanted to.