Live and in Color

After prattling on and on about college basketball all year, I was finally able to go see a game live and in person this weekend. Detroit hosted the Midwest Regional Finals, so I was able to get a ticket to the Kansas-Davidson Elite Eight match-up through a Kansas alum friend of mine. Not that I would have needed the connection to get a ticket, though. The first thing I noticed upon arriving at Ford Field was the enormous amount of people ditching tickets. I’m guessing part of the reason was the fact that Ford Field holds 60K+ people (enormous for a preliminary round game) and another reason was all the Wisconsin and Georgetown fans trying to re-coup some of their losses.

Despite all the available tickets, the Kansas-Davidson game managed to set a single-game attendance record for a preliminary round tournament game. I can’t say that I’m 100% sold on the use of football stadiums for basketball games (you lose the small-gym atmosphere) but overall it was a promising preview of next year’s Final Four, which will also be hosted at Ford Field. I was also initially surprised at the large number of Davidson fans at the game. As you may have heard, the Davidson administration practically gave every single student a free trip to see their games this weekend, including the cost of tickets, travel and lodging. Not a bad deal! So maybe it wasn’t too surprising to see such a large Davidson turnout.

By the end of the game, Davidson’s play had earned them the respect of the crowd and I would estimate that roughly 80% of the crowd was pulling for the upset. Stephen Curry nearly made it happen. From the start of the game, Curry made NBA-range three pointers and acrobatic lay-ups to keep Davidson in the game. By halftime, he had accounted for over half of his team’s points. Unfortunately, that was the only moderately exciting thing that can be said about the first half. The seemingly innumerable TV timeouts killed any momentum that may have started building. Both teams appeared tense and out of sync. In fact, it took over ten minutes for either team to break double digits in scoring. The first half ended at a sloppy score of 30-28, with Kansas leading.

The second half also started off fairly slowly, but about midway through the second half the action started to pick up. The stadium erupted when Davidson took a four point lead after some white guy came off the bench and made three consecutive treys. At that point, Davidson had all the momentum, while Kansas seemed discombobulated and lacking passion. Unfortunately for Davidson, fatigue started to set in for Stephen Curry and he missed a bunch of shots down the stretch, including a number of three point attempts. While Davidson struggled, Kansas, in workmanlike fashion, battled back to take a seemingly insurmountable six point lead with one minute to go.

With time winding down, Davidson needed something special to get back into the game. After a Kansas foul sent Davidson to the line, one free throw went in to narrow the gap to five. The second missed but they were somehow able to get the rebound. After quickly kicking it out to Curry, the legend-in-the-making nailed an NBA range three pointer to put the Wildcats within two. One of the truly amazing turn of events of the tournament quickly thrust Davidson (and the crowd) back into the game, with all the pressure on Kansas. Not surprisingly, Kansas missed their next shot after trying to kill as much time off the clock as possible, leaving Davidson one last chance to make history.

I’m not sure what the designed play was supposed to be, but Curry drove it down the court and appeared to be looking for a three point shot (and the win) but he was double teamed and could not get off a shot. Stephen Curry had to dish to a teammate who heaved a desperation three that never looked close to going in - and thus ended the run of Stephen Curry and the Davidson Wildcats. They certainly earned the crowd’s respect (and mine) and it looks like Mr. Curry will be back next year to try to re-capture the same magic that catapulted a relatively unknown team into the Elite Eight.

So overall, not a bad game to go see, considering I basically got the ticket for free. I got to see history in the making (the first time all four number ones advanced to the Final Four), was part of a record-setting crowd (yey me!) and saw one of the most exciting finishes of the tournament.

With all apologies to Cinderella, now it's time to really get down to business. I can only hope that the Final Four games provide as much drama and intrigue as we've seen in the preliminary rounds.