I Ate Dinner In 5 Seconds For This?!

Yesterday I had one of the experiences you know will be impossible to top. I attended my first Syracuse vs. Georgetown basketball game. The game where the animosity reaches biblical proportions. Well not quite, but Cuse fans were ready to start throwing rocks at every passing GTown fan. I'm pretty sure they used to do that in the old days when the Vandals played the Romans at lion killing or something. But seriously, nobody was spared. A family of Hoya fans was booed as they passed the students' section. The reason I say family is because I saw a mom. A dad. A 5 year old kid. I never thought I'd see the day when the "Asshole" chant was directed at a kindergartner by thousands of angry students. In the middle of the game an elderly woman was taken out of the stadium on a stretcher because she fainted. If she was wearing blue and gray I'm pretty sure she would've gotten booed too. I'm just trying to set the scene, but to be more accurate I have to go back a couple hours.

The time is 5:05. The place is Syracuse University. 3 intrepid students convene at a sanctuary of modern learning. Battle plans are hurriedly drawn for the coming 7:00 onslaught while one of them changes into battle attire. After a minimal rest, the fellowship departs in hopes of obtaining sustenance for the war brought on by invaders from the Village of George. Reaching an inn only slightly off the path to battle, the warriors hurriedly feast on legs of lamb and drink mead. They then depart at a frantic pace to reach the battlefield before all of the good spots in the ranks of the Orange Horde were occupied.

So in modern language: Two friends and I met at my dorm room. I put on a bunch of Cuse stuff. We went to the dining hall and ate mad fast. We went to the Dome in hopes of not having nosebleed seats. You're right, the first version sounded much better.

So on to the actual game. We were packed in like sardines because we managed to get in on the lower level along with about 100,000 other students (or so it seamed). We start the game yelling, we yell in the middle, we yell at the end. We yelled when GTown got out to a 14-0 lead on us, we yelled when the Cuse came storming back. We yelled when there was a foul. We yelled at the timeouts. We yelled when a little kid came out to mop the floor. We yelled when we made a good play. We yelled when the refs made a bad call. Just to sum up, we yelled. My throat was about to explode, yet I always felt I could be louder. The team needed me! So, in conclusion, the game was loud regardless of the score. It's just that sometimes it got extra loud. PS-Kris Joseph scored 15 points and is fast living up to the cool new nickname I gave him: Kris "The Greatest Basketball Player Who Has Ever or Will Ever Live" Joseph. I could shorten it a bit, I guess. Kris "TGBPWHEOWEL" Joseph.

One last note on that. Those jersey t-shirt things are selling like hotcakes. I saw a ton of them at the game. Regrettably, I only saw one Kris Joseph #32 shirt (mine's in the wash because I played pickup basketball in it). There were a bunch of Scoop Jardine #11 shirts, which is good because he deserves a good amount of credit for taking over point guard duties when our starter decides to fold like a lawn chair. What surprised me the second most was the numerous Theodore "Mookie" Jones #3 shirts. When given a choice, I decide not to dress like the ugliest man in college sports.Believe it or not, this is a flattering picture of him. But anyway, on to the biggest surprise of the jersey shirts. A Nick Resavy #2 shirt was spotted not too far from me. Nick Resavy is a short, pudgy, white guy who hasn't gotten into a game in recent memory. Unlike Brandon Reese, he is not a fan favorite because he does not look like he is 12 years old. So, for grand totals, we have Kris Joseph on one hand- 10.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game for 21 games. On the other we have Nick Resavy- 0.3 points and 0.3 rebounds in 1.3 minutes per game for 8 games. The commonality: both had one jersey shirt present that I could observe at the game. Looks like KJ still has some fans to win over. Well, next game he will when he scores 20 points and picks up 9 rebounds. Quote me on that, it'll happen.

In non-sports news (but really it's still sports news), my SOC 318 (quantitative methods) class just got roughly 5693.23 times better. How's that for quantitative. It started with me sitting next to one of my top 3 favorite Cuse football players. Unfortunately, I think he's either dropped the class or has been struck with amnesia and is wandering around Peru or something because he only went to the first class. However, my angst (love that word) has been alleviated (that one too) and the malevolent (that one's my favorite word of all) presence of ennui (keeping it going with vocabulary far beyond what I need to use) is all but vanquished (last one, I promise). We got a new kid today. 6'9" forward, starting for the Syracuse Orange out of Philadelphia and now sitting behind me in sociology, Rick Jeeeeeeackson! I was so excited I couldn't concentrate on the class. Afterward, I walked by Rick as I was leaving and the following exchange took place:

Me: "Nice game, man."
Rick: "Thanks, man."

Easily the most fulfilling conversation I've had this year. Who knows? Maybe he needs a tutor. And I teach him sociology and he thinks I'm the coolest thing ever and introduces me to Kris Joseph. And I get to sit on the Cuse bench during the games. And I win $10 million. And the Broncos, Twins, Magic, and Orange (in football, basketball, and lacrosse) win national championships every year for the rest of forever. And they make ultimate an Olympic event and make me the captain. And I lead them to gold medals until I get too old to play and I settle down and set up a professional ultimate frisbee league. And all because Rick Jackson was in my SOC 318 class.

Contented sigh.

I can dream, can't I?