Saturday, April 6Well, today is the day for basketball. It is the reason that we all headed to Arizona. Sure the scenery is beautiful, the camraderie and laughs are plentiful, and the drinks are flowing, but this trip's primary focus is basketball, and today is the start of The End of the Road (cue Boyz II Men!) But, we have lots of time before the games, so let's see what the day brings, after coffee, showers, some work, some phone calls, and, of course, jokes.
5:58 - Pepster arises. Body must still be on Eastern Time.
7:00 - Sinickal comes out of his room
7:43 - Kev-O exists his room, all showered. Realizes that he found the one flaw with our AirBnB lodgings - hardly any window treatments in the rooms. How did he find this out? Sun blaring first thing in the morning. Good thing his body is still on Eastern time.
8:27 - Tony out of his room, not yet showered. But, he also was probably the first one awake.
8:43 - First Bloody Mary's. Pepster is pissed at himself for forgetting to buy Worcestershire Sauce; compensates with chili flakes and black pepper that he finds in the pantry.
9:13 - Tony - while telling a story and talking with his hands. Knocks over his coffee and says, "That's why you don't bring an Italian." Pepster retorts, "Yeah, that's why."
9:29 - Venture out for breakfast, after taking 10-15 minutes to try to determine where to go.
9:33 - Somehow we end up lost in the parking lot; while still in the car and not yet arriving at a breakfast spot.
9:36 - After getting our bearings, exit parking lot, immediately see a place called Zorba's Adult Shop. Not sure why we thought the name was so hilarious. Perhaps it is because we didn't know that there were so many Greeks in Scottsdale. Well, we know of at least one, as he is entering as we pass.
9:41 - Arrive at U.S. Egg, where you can order your coffee with extra patriotism and your omellettes with a side of jingoism.
9:45 - Pepster has way too long a conversation with the waitress about their Bloody Mary's. Orders a Sunrise Mimosa. Tony and Sinickal order Bloody Mary's, and Kev-O orders a Screwdriver.
So, U.S. Egg is a diner-style breakfast and lunch place just draped in US paraphernalia, inlcuding this map on the wall.
9:57 - After staring at it for quite some time, Kev-O starts up a conversation with everything that is disturbing about the map. Let's recall some of the highlights:
The White House is somewhere near the Delaware/Maryland border;
The Liberty Bell is near State College, Pennsylvania;
Los Angeles/Hollywood is basically in San Diego;
The Space Needle is near the Oregon border;
The random Hawkeye logo - and not any other colleges; and
Two Mardi Gras symbols, one appropriately over New Orleans and the other - in Shreveport?
Kev-O stresses that the second Mardi Gras should be over Mobile, as they have the second largest Mardi Gras in the U.S.
9:59 - Pepster notices the peach over Georgia as that will likely have to change given that peach farmers are starting to convert to growing grapefruits because of climate change. Noting that the change is not so warm enough to grow oranges, and that grapefruit are a little more tolerant.
10:00 - Kev-O states that now grapefruit are probably the most tolerant thing in Georgia.
10:10 - Food arrives. Delicious!!! Pepster and Kev-O agree that the omelettes have a great egg-to-items ratio. The crew rounds out the order with a chicken fried steak, and a hearty skillet. Would recommend.
10:32 - Head back to the crib to wait for Big Wigg.
10:48 - 48 Hours is on television - prime Eddie Murphy comedic-acting.
11:16 - Big Wigg arrives from Tucson.
11:30 - Another 48 Hours comes on television; nope can't stay to watch this one.
11:56 - Head out to Glendale for the games.
12:42 - Arrive in the parking lot of the Tanger outlets near the stadium, slide in to park as we recalled that was the easiest egress last time the Final Four was here. Pay the parking fee, and the lady tells us "Thank you, just drive forward and turn right." The only allowable turn was left. But, she was right.
12:50 - Enter Twin Peaks, which just happens to have four seats next to each other.
12:51 - The Marlins are on tv!!!
13:28 - They change the station to the Reds game. Oh well, the Marlins were going to lose anyway, and Kev-O is a Reds fan.
13:29 - 14:15 - Discuss the UConn-Iowa illegal screen call. (Who are we kidding, this went well into the night.)
13:46 - We have now seen 4 Alabama fans - TOTAL!
13:53 - While Kev-O stepped outside, he saw three Purdue guys walking by; one wearing a gold lame' tie and a second announcing that "We 'deserve' to make the finals." Kev-O decides to cheer for North Carolina State.
14:10 - Pepster discusses the role of Gabby Marshall of Iowa in drawing the illegal screen foul call.
14:19 - While walking into the restroom, two guys are talking baseball, and one guy announces that he once drove a golf-cart for Willie Mays in Bali during a golf tournament. Pepster asks, "Who's Willie Mays?" After the laughter stopped, Pepster continued, "I'm kidding. Isn't he the guy that played for the Mets?"
14:26 - We just realized Zach Edey went to IMG Academy.
14:29 - Guy wearing a customized Purdue jersey with the name on the back reading "Not a Dime Back". Huh?
14:30 - Leave Twin Peaks and walk to State Farm Stadium.
14:35 - There really is a Barkley Blimp!!!
14:43 - Who had "Someone wearing an 'Obama' jersey on their Bingo card?"
14:46 - Enter State Farm Stadium.
14:48 - After ingress we head to the escalators for our trek upward. Guy stops Sinickal and says, "the players' entrance is the other way."
14:50 - On one of the two parallel escalators, guy in an orange Illinois pullover on the escalator next to us grabs Sinickal's attention to ask him what the "S" on the back of his shirt meant. Sinickal, who is an alumnus of Syracuse University answered, "You know you are wearing the wrong color orange or you wouldn't have said something!"
15:08 The ball is tipped...
Radio silence during the game.
15:25 - Who are we kidding with "radio silence". After a Purdue player trips on a fast break, Sinickal remarks, "You can see the first-down marker that popped up and tripped him!"
15:56 - Half-time: NC State played horrible, except for DJ Horne, gotten next-to-nothing from DJ Burns, and are only down six.
1st half-note. Really sloppy game. Purdue point guard received not 1, but 2 over-and-back calls while just dribbling. We wonder what the Final Four record is? Also, Purdue is here IN FORCE. More Purdue fans that the other 3 schools combined. Here is the student section during the game.
16:19 - Guy walking up the stairs with a shirt that says, "College Sports."
16:36 Crowd boos the announcement of Kelvin Sampson as Division 1 Coach of the Year. Sinickal says, "You know you have done well when a whole stadium stadium at the Final Four is booing you. [Ed. Note - Almost this entire stadium is for Purdue. Sampson spent two seasons as the head coach at Indiana.]
17:07 - Game 1 ends. Twenty-Eight minute wait until game 2.
Alabama students did not fill up the student section.
18:10 - Stadium plays Sweet Home Alabama during intros. Pepster asks, "How many Alabama fans know that Lynryd Skynryd is from Jacksonville, Florida?"
18:46 - 4 point game at halftime.
First half notes - Alabama is in this game having at one-point shot 83% from three-point range. They cannot keep up this pace.
19:14 - The first country song played by the Alabama band.
19:16 - UConn should have way more students at this game. They have even less than Alabama.
20:03 - Exit stadium.
20:05 - Game two ends.
20:26 - Enter Buffalo Wild Wings. There is supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour wait, but we walk up to the bar as we don't need a table. Within minutes of our arrival, and before we received our beers, a group of 6 people at the bar leave. Apparently they came to Buffalo Wild Wings for a drink as they were waiting 2 hours for a table at Yard House.
[Ed. Note - Yes, we know that Twin Peaks and Buffalo Wild Wings are uninteresting chains, but there is only one real entertainment complex near the stadium, so we are captive from that stand point. We will do much locally better as the weekend/week progresses.]
20:42 - For some reason Sinickal brings up the fact that Kev-O was supposed to find sugar for his coffee this morning, and failed. Kev-O calls Sinickal "Sweet Nuts."
20:52 - See two UConn furries. Well, at the very least they are two girls wearing a head-to-toe Husky costume, with ears, and tails, and all. At least they have the head undone so they can see/breathe. One of them has a sign that reads, "Stick to football and marrying your cousin."
21:01 - Danielle and Trey enter Buffalo Wild Wings. Trey, a Purdue alumnus, is absolutely giddy, and we are here for it!
22:08 - Vanessa, Sinickal's friend through work that lives locally arrives at Buffalo Wild Wings. Her thirty minute Uber took over an hour.
22:17 - Big Wigg arrives, his 45 miunte Uber took him almost an hour and a half. He is refreshed after a nap, some good Pho, and watching basketball. Catches up with a double Casamigos on the rocks. He notes, "Gotta sip on something."
Note that once Big Wigg arrives, our group is now 8 and we own our own little corner of Buffalo Wild Wings, and we have about 4 conversations going at once, with all of us participating in all of them.
22:39 - Sinickal is trying to describe a girl named Phoenix that he knows, and somehow ends up describing one of Pepster's law school girlfriends.
22:47 - Leave Buffalo Wild Wings.
22:59 - Kev-O regales us with North Carolina State's DJ Burns' interview from after the game where he was asked the major difference between him going up agianst Zach Edey. Burns' response was, "7 inches is a lot." Then thinks before he finishes, "No Diddy."
23:00 - 23:30 - Lots of hip-hop barebecue. It was on fire!
23:31 - Arrive at our home.
23:31:30 - Kev-O goes to bed.
23:31:42 - Tony retires.
23:46 - The rest of us call it a night.
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