THE
SEMI-FINALS
Day
3
Saturday, March 31,
2018
We all wake up flummoxed on the events of yesterday, and
a little tired as it was a long, long day.
But that is OK because today is all about the basketball. We have semi-final action between Loyola and
Michigan, followed by Kansas versus Villanova.
As much as this trip is about friendship, camaraderie, having fun and
good cities – the purpose is basketball, and that starts today.
6:30 – Road to the
Final Four 5K registration.
8:00 – Road to the
Final Four 5K race begins.
7:30 – 8:40 – We all
wake up. Thus, once again we missed the
Road to the Final Four 5K. Congratulations
to all participants who helped to raise money for the Coaches versus Cancer
charity and other pediatric oncology servicing organizations.
8:51 – Hopps and Tony
make a coffee/breakfast run. Some days
breakfast sandwiches just taste better.
9:41 – Sinickal and
Tony just now receive the text that Hopps and Pepster ducked into the Republic
of Texas last night.
9:47 – Hopps screams
out Oh My God! Nobody moves, turns
around or in any way acknowledges Hopps.
Sinickal notes that we should be worried that nobody even flinches when
he does that anymore.
10:13 – SportsCenter showing
the Cleveland Cavaliers highlights, specifically about LeBron breaking the
consecutive games record for scoring double digit points. Hopps, at the dining room table behind
everyone in the living room, exclaims that LeBron has three people above
him. After a brief pause, Pepster turns
his head, rolls his eyes and says, “OK, I’ll bite. Who are the three?” Jordan (of course) Russell (Hopps is a Boston
homer) and Magic (at least he didn’t say Bird).
[Ed. Note – Not a bad three, but if Chamberlain switches places with
Russell, the Celtics probably have 15 or 16 championships in a row, and
although Magic is great, he might not even be the best Laker. See
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem.
11:00 – We turn on
Thursdays episode of the Dan BeBatard Show just to hear his live call of Ian
Happ’s home run on the first pitch of the entire MLB season against the
Marlins. The call consists of massive
laughter, screaming, the phrase “Welcome Derek Jeter” and “That concludes our
Marlins coverage for the season.
11:10 – We decide to
watch Friday’s episode of the Dan LeBatard Show because he is hilarious. The highlights, Stugotz’s rant on Sister Jean
which concludes by him saying, “If Loyola makes it to the Championship game, I
guarantee she makes it into the Basketball Hall of Fame” (then under his breath
“Mo Cheeks”) . For those that don’t
know, former Philadelphia Sixer Very Good (I cannot call him great) was just
elected into the basketball Hall of Fame, along with such luminaries as Dino
Radja and Charlie Scott. Another
highlight of the show is LeBatard’s interview with Ice-T, who admits that
growing up he robbed banks. When
LeBatard tells him that he might want to disclaim that and say he was just
joking on the air, Ice-T mentions that “We have a wonderful thing is this
country called the Statute of Limitations.”
11:13 – In the
entrances and exits of the Dan LeBatard Show, the camera pans out from a
picture of the beach. Today – or actually
Friday’s show, we clearly see a red and blue flag hanging from the lifeguard
tower, which Pepster points out generally means no swimming because of rough,
or rip tides (red) and Portuguese Man-O-War (blue). Tony the exclaims that he hopes President
Trump doesn’t find out the Portuguese are getting into the country via the
shore. And this concludes the political
portion of the show.
11:30 – Pepster and
Sinickal struggle with which 30 for 30 to watch on demand. Settle on something basketball related, and
decide not to watch any of them because we don’t want to get stuck going down
that rabbit hole and end up missing the games.
12:40 – Leave for
downtown.
13:19 – Lost Hopps
already.
13:21 – Strong Michigan
entry into the Riverwalk
13:30 – Pop into the
Thirsty Aztec. Young college-aged kid
wearing a Villanova Scottie Reynolds jersey exits the establishment saying
loudly, “I didn’t realize until I just realized”.
13:42 – Walking down
the Riverwalk and see a guy in a powder blue shirt that says simply “Duke sucks”. Since we virtually have to walk single file
on the RiverWalk, Sinickal sees it first and toasts him. Tony toasts him. Pepster toasts him. Hopps toasts him. Then other people we don’t know behind us
toast him.
13:50 – Head into Tex’s
Sports Bar for some food because it has a good punny name. And an available table which is not the norm
at the restaurants along the Riverwalk.
In fact, one restaurant even had a sign “We are no longer taking names
for our Wait List”.
14:07 – Four guys
settle in at the table next to us all wearing Villanova gear. Start up a conversation with Sinickal since
he is wearing his Syracuse shirt and the former Big East rivalry between to two
clubs. Guys assume we all went to
Syracuse, not noticing Tony’s Texas shirt and Hopps’s BC pullover. Sinickal tells them Pepster went to an
Ivy-covered school near Boston. Guys
obviously missing Sinickal’s context cluse reply, “Which one?”
14:26 – Pepster and
Sinickal engage in a conversation about the old Big East. Noting that Villanova has a great history
with the league, Pepster queries if anyone from Villanova even makes an All-Time
Big East squad. Without going into much
discussion of the bench, Sinickal and Pepster, settle on a starting 5 of: PG – Pearl Washington (Syracuse); SG – Ray Allen
(Connecticut); SF – Chris Mullins (St. John’s); PF – Derrick Coleman
(Syracuse); C – Patrick Ewing (Georgetown).
Others on the team would be: C - Alonzo Mourning (Georgetown); PF –
Jerome Lane (Pittsburgh); PG – Allen Iverson (Georgetown) (who would start
except his college career was only 2 years);
PG – Kemba Walker (Connecticut).
OK, I guess we did discuss the bench.
14:51 – Hopps is
astounded at the number of people wearing Loyola gear. Sinickal explains to him that Chicago is the third
largest city in the country, and has no natural college affiliation like places
we are used to, and that the City of Chicago is supporting Loyola as a city,
regardless of college affiliation. Hopps
is struggling to believe him. (By the
way, if Northwestern ever makes a final four, that city will be inundated with
purple).
14:54 – Young,
twenty-something wearing Loyola gear asks if he can sit at the table recently
vacated by the Villanova guys. We tell
him yes and then start discussing the Final Four. Guy admits he did not go to Loyola, but knew
someone who dated someone that knew someone who did. Hopps becomes annoyed (well, even more
annoyed than usual).
14:57 – We realize that
our food has not arrived yet. Hopps is
even more annoyed (as are the rest of us).
This is a bit of foreshadowing on service for the day, only we didn’t
know it at the time.
15:26 – Food FINALLY
arrives.
15:58 – To the
Alamodome.
16:17 – Pass by an NCAA
Final Four employee carrying a sign with a question mark on it. Sinickal asks him, “What does the sign mean?” Employee answers “Information.” Sinickal responds, thanks, I just was looking
for that information”.
16:18 – Sinickal to
Pepster, “Those guys hate guys like us.
Just asking them purposefully dumb questions every two minutes”.
16:23 – After the off
ramp from the walkover to the stadium, Army band is Playing Michael Jackson’s Rock With You.
16:28 – On the
Alamodome campus. The way they are funneling
people here and there and splitting up the crowd entering the campus is
logistically great. Makes things a lot
easier, and no long lines, even through security (which was set up well outside
the perimeter of the stadium.) Unfortunately
the people and the signage that make for great entrance logistics ended up
making horrible exit logistics.
16:32 – See a guy
wearing a hoodie that says, “I DISAGREE.
But I respect your right to be stupid.”
16:33 – And Loyola
takes the lead.
16:38 – Seeing two more
Loyola fans, Hopps exclaims, “That’s Chicago”.
This we are sure will not come off anywhere near as funny as it was at
the time.
16:47 – Settle into
seats for the games.
16:59 – Great rendition
of the national anthem as the NCAA did it right this time. They had one student from each of the four
participating institutions. Each student
sang two lines solo, then finished the song together. Michigan’s grad student clearly studies opera
and dominates the end of the song, but it was amazing.
17:09 – Tip-off to Game
1.
Radio Silence (mostly)
during the game.
In the first half
Michigan shoots 9/31 and Loyola shoots 10/25.
Not good basketball. Second half
is much, much better and played at a faster pace.
18:12 - The spirit
teams for Michigan and Loyola are not very strong at all. Not a whole lot of spirit going on.
19:45 – We head to the
concourse for some nourishment between the games. Concessions are out of almost everything
meaningful.
Radio silence (mostly)
during game 2.
Entire game: Villanova is ON FIRE from three. In fact, we see security running toward the
extinguishers.
21:02 – If I ever have
to answer the question “Do you remember the worst version of Jungle Boogie that you ever heard”, the
answer is “Yes I do. March 31, 2018 at
21:02 by the University of Kansas Pep Band.”
21:15 – Kansas band now
butchers Cameo’s Word Up. Hopps remarks, “The Kansas band has no soul”.
Villanova shows why
they are easily the best team in the NCAA right now, and have been all year
long. They should be a heavy favorite
for the championship game.
22:20 – After trying to
coordinate a meet-up all afternoon, we run into Christy and her friend Kat to
say hello after the game.
22:22 – Say goodbye to
Christy and Kat as we go our respective ways for dinner.
22:41 – We have
comfortably vacated the Alamodome vicinity and outside of the crowd. There is NO chance we hit the Riverwalk
tonight as it is hard to maneuver down there with just a light crowd. We can only imagine what it will be like with
77,000 people vacating the game just blocks away.
22:56 – Hit La Gloria
for dinner as we hear that San Antonio has pretty good Mexican food, or at
least Tex-Mex. That statement is
accurate as our dinner is really good.
In a continuation of today’s lunch problems, service is really
SLOW. Unlike lunch, this place is
staffed correctly for a big event as there are employees everywhere; ours is
just slow. Food comes up fairly quickly,
so we don’t mind the rest of slowness too much.
00:09 – On the Lyft
ride home we end up in a discussion in which Tony recounts some of the weirdest
situations that he has ever been in, concluding with “In my past I have had
some unsavory friends”. Sinickal
responds with, “I have too”. Pepster
adds that “some of them might be in this car”.
Hopps, “Come on guys, I am sitting right here!”
00:17 – Off to
bed. We have another tee time tomorrow.
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