Nov. 28, 2008
OSC DAY 1 -- CHRIS DAUGHTRY: BASKETBALL PROGNOSTICATOR
The Disneyfication of college basketball begins with the music.
We're a long way from Jay-Z in the layup line, from T.I. backing your team's lineup introductions. My first indication that this was...well, a family event I suppose...came as I walked through the Wide World of Sports parking lot to the full-blast loudspeaker strains of: The Beach Boys.
There would be no Kernkraft 400 (some of you know it by the name "Zombie Nation," others by its lyric--"OH") before tipoff in the land of Mickey and Minnie either. Instead, Hoya and Shocker fans got psyched to the tune of Disney-approved punk-rock outfit Good Charlotte (at least they went with a DC-area band).
Strangely, the Milk House sound producers used the same progression of songs for timeouts during the Georgetown-Wichita State game as they had for Tennessee and Siena. Which means I got to hear Kanye West, Timberland, and Rihanna's entire discography two times over.
However, sometimes the sound guys get it right. Moments after WSU's David Kyles hit a deep three pointer from essentially my lap to pull Wichita State within 26-22 at the half, above the eager cheer of the yellow-clad Shocker fans one could hear the faint strains of American Idol-approved alt rockers Daughtry singing their radio hit "It's Not Over". Now, Daughtry is in fact singing about mending a broken relationship (NOTE: I can't be completely sure having not read the lyrics--but 95% of songs are about mending broken relationships, so we're in Jon Wallace territory for certainty here) but here we had beaming down from above a musical reminder that, in fact, there was unexpectedly work to be done in the second half.
Indeed, as I suggested after a trip to South of the Border yesterday, this was a very real potential trap game for the young Hoyas, who struggled both from three point range and in keeping at least one hand on the basketball on offensive possessions. Wichita State never led, but on three occasions midway through the second half missed a field goal that would have tied the game or given them the lead, and on two heart-stopping possessions late in the game saw three point attempts go halfway down before spinning back out.
When was the game finally in hand? I personally was put at ease during Georgetown's final timeout with 1:03 remaining and the Hoyas leading 50-46. Sitting about 10 rows directly above the Hoya bench, I'd been paying attention to the team huddles during timeouts throughout the afternoon. On this particular occasion, I noted something interesting--John Thompson III was smiling and laughing as he addressed his team. Eight consecutive free throw later, Georgetown had pulled out another close victory with poise down the stretch. We all know where it comes from now.
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"Georgetown's Here!" beamed the ticket taker at the Milk House as I arrived a few minutes into the Tennessee-Siena game on Turkey Day afternoon. How typically Florida: sunny and seventy. And that's just the people working at the arena (bad-um cha!).
My ticket lady was on to something. As I walked from my car through the parking lot, it was if I'd been magically transported to East Lansing--or at the very least a parallel universe where green track suits were in fashion (I'm assuming this universe is somewhere in New Jersey). Michigan State fans ruled the roost outside the Milk House, a point drilled home when I was nearly run over by--I kid you not--a Disney Cruise Lines motorcoach carrying a group of MSU fans.
Most of the Spartan fans were relegated to the opposite side of the arena, as the Old Spice Classic follows the convenient for promoters but hassle for fans "General Admission" policy that suggests sections for each school's fans to occupy. I was unaware of this until today--but that the "G" logo our athletic teams use apparently means "Overflow Section" to Tennesseans. Must be a "soda" versus "pop" kind of thing.
The upshot is that I've had fewer battles with undergrads during six years in the MCI/Verizon Center student section than I did wading and elbowing through departing Siena fans, relocating Volunteer fans, and families of Georgetown fans in a mad rush to stake a claim to their own personal corner of Section 115.
How could you possibly stay in an aggressive mood for long in the Milk House though? Most college arenas are named after famous alumni donors or telecom companies (until they go bankrupt)--the Old Spice Classic venue is named after the cornerstone of level two of the food pyramid.
The perimeter walls of the arena itself are lined with motivational-poster ready words like "Intensity," "Passion," "Dedication," Agility," and "Endurance"--it's enough to make you want to say your prayers and eat your vitamins. If that isn't enough, instead of championship banners (Dairy never could get past Meat/Poultry/Fish in the Food Pyramid playoffs) the Milk House hangs banners featuring various athletes--A-Rod, Serena Williams, Freddy Adu and Jason Kidd to name a few--in Milk Moustache commercial form. Easily the highlight of my day was walking past the snack bar to see a dairy mustachioed Carmelo Anthony ready to throw down on the condiment stand.
All in all though, the Milk House though very G-rated is an excellent venue for a pre-conference tournament. The relatively low capacity of 5,000 is amplified by very good acoustics and the close proximity of opposing fans that creates a tournament-like feel. It's as if one was at a first/second round NCAA venue--if the RBC Center, for instance, was co-hosting a youth soccer tournament at the same time on the back lawn.
Biggest props go to the sightlines. You'll see somewhere in the vicinity of this paragraph a wide shot of the Milk House Court. I didn't zoom in or crop that photo--but I did deliberately seek out the worst seat in the House (back row, bordering a wall, no leg room) to take it. That's as far away as you can get form the court...pretty impressive.
At the end of the day, it just felt so weird--on Thanksgiving day, in a monument to calcium, with kids playing five a side on a miniature soccer field out the window--to be nervous. But I suspect it's far from the last time that will happen this season, and it's only a positive to have gotten the result the first time.
Now...how will it feel to be nervous before a game tomorrow? Having watched Tennessee run up and down and sometimes over the Siena Saints this afternoon...well, I wouldn't want to go forty minutes against the men in Orange. Fortunately, Greg Monroe, DaJuan Summers and Co. are more athletic than me, and I get the pleasure of watching how the handle it.
Want to watch it yourself? Here's the info:
Old Spice Classic Day 2, Game 6
Date: Friday 28 November
Time: Appx. 1:00pm
TV: ESPN
Radio: ESPN980
Off to eat more leftovers...we'll be catching up with you later with recaps from the Hoya Hoop Club sanctioned turkey extravaganza at the Coronado Springs, and more action from the Calcium Palace.
John Hawkes (SFS '04)
Proud Member of Generation Burton
