omg we r #1!

This post is going to cover a lot. Of basketball. And a little birthday. And some snow. And basketball. I will warn the faint of heart that there is a lot of sportstalk in this one, but then again, SYRACUSE BASKETBALL IS NUMBER ONE IN THE COUNTRY. That felt really good to type. So here's where it starts. Saturday. Because as far as I'm concerned, it was such a wonderful day that everything before it kind of got wiped clean.

Just kidding. It actually started late Friday night. I somehow got it in my head that staying up as late as humanly possible was the best way to prep for a day in which I would be standing for about 12 hours. Smart, right? So I went to a friend's room in a dorm near the Dome and we hung out for a while. And as a harbinger of Syracuse's athletic excellence, what would be on ESPNU at 2 in the morning but a rerun of Cuse's comeback win in last year's national championship game that was nothing short of miraculous. Go here for the synopsis. It's awesome, don't worry. Unless you go to Cornell.

So after some excitement and whatnot, we bedded down for the night around 4. 2 hours is enough to sleep right? Well, I ended up getting about 20 minutes worth. But that's all I need. Wake up at 6:20 AM, get ready, go to the Dome around 7. We get a good spot in line, so there we stand. At 7:45, the security people came through the line and kindly (not really) informed us that backpacks would not be allowed inside. He gave us some options.

• Put them in someone's room
• Hide them
• Throw them on the roof of the Dome and climb up for them after the game

One of those was not an option. Leaving hiding them in a bush literally what the guy told us to do. Oh and I should mention that this problem was left to be dealt with until 15 minutes before we were let into the Dome for the pregame festivities. Well, we of the National Honors fraternity do not take problem solving lightly. We were quick thinkers and took the 4 backpacks of the group to the gym to put them in a locker. 2 of us left and 4 stayed to fight the bloodthirsty hordes who would try to steal our spots. Funny story, gym wasn't open for another hour and a half. So I take the four backpacks and sprint across campus to my dorm and sprint back. I got back with 5 minutes to spare and was so overheated that I couldn't bear to be wearing more than a t-shirt in the 30 degree weather (and pants of course).

8:00 comes and goes. We are not let in. My heroic Sprint for Justice and ESPN College Gameday is wasted. Turns out that the security at the Dome hated kids (at least for Saturday) and we don't get in until 9:30. Once we're in, we get our seats and I find my MIA brother and we rejoin the group. Gameday was a lot of fun, but there were two things wrong with it. First was the lack of creativity on them telling us what to do.

"Guys, we're taping a 30 second promo to air during SportsCenter. We're gonna need you to go crazy!"
"Guys, we're going live on SportsCenter. We're gonna need you to go crazy!"
"Guys, Gameday is on now. We're gonna need you to go crazy!"
"Guys, Jay Bilas remembered to get dressed this morning. We're gonna need you to go crazy!"

Second, there was a bit of visual miscommunication between my brother and me and the majority of the structure in which we were temporarily housed. To put it bluntly, this was our view:
That orange hat belongs to the jerk with the gigantic Brandon Triche head. Not a great view to say the least.

After Gameday the Carrier Dome thought it would be cool to, you know, not let us stay in after they already let us in. So we got kicked out. Into the snow. And rain. For another 6 hours. Not cool. The thing that got us through the day was the fact that there was no shortage of people willing to bring us food. I don't put names in here, remember, so bear with me. I'd like to thank the first couple people who brought us Varsity pizza, the second couple people (including my big) who stole enough food from the dining hall to feed an army, and my roommate who brought us some Domino's pizza. On behalf of my entire group, I'd like to thank you all very very very much. Other than the food, some other highlights of the looooong wait to get in included (another list of stuff!):

• My ongoing feud with the friggin' event staff guy with the friggin' mustache
• An ongoing and heated debate of whether or not Crocs footwear is edible
• My trip to a sink to boil my hands to regain feeling in them
• People getting tossed out of line for cutting
• Thoughtful and desperate prayer that we didn't lose to Nova and negate all of our hard work in turning into human ice sculptures

Now comes the fun part. We got in around 6ish if memory serves. Only 3 hours to tip-off! We got our seats and sat down for the first time since noon. Several of us took naps and then me and my main man started scheming to try to sneak people into the student section. It turned out not to happen once we figured out that 4 people couldn't fit into about half of a normal person-sized seat.

Tip-off finally at 9. We promptly take control and decide to not miss any shots ever. We cruise to a 46-36 halftime lead, score 75 points for free tacos on an Arinze Onuaku freethrow of all things. The outcome was never in doubt. Of our players who played, here were our point totals: Rick Jackson 19, Arinze Onuaku 17, Kris Joseph 16, Scoop Jardine 16, Wes Johnson 14, Andy Rautins 12. Oh, and Brandon Triche 1. Apparently our freshman point guard was who Nova thought was the lynchpin of our offense. Well, they stopped him pretty well. But putting 5 defenders on one guy leaves a few other people open.

What did Kris Joseph do, you ask? Well, he scored 16, we covered that already. He slashed, he dashed, he made amazing plays all over the place. And. He made a 3. Most I've ever yelled in my life when that happened. Also, Kris did a little of this too:
That was the back page of the DO (basically) which ended up on the greatest birthday card ever a few days later. But we're getting to that.

Birthday time. It all started the day before my birthday...I guess that's a trend this week, things starting a day before they actually start. Well, I was minding my own business making this sign for the basketball game on Tuesday:
My roommate tells me to come out into the common room for a second. And apparently I'm so unobservant that about 15 people can sneak into my room without me looking up or hearing anything. Touche. It was at this shindig that I received said birthday card from one of my best friends. It was an auspicious start to the day.

Lunchtime on my birthday is when things started heating up. Like my friend's oven. To make chicken nuggets. Oh yeah. Chicken nuggets. Eating chicken nuggets + watching How I Met Your Mother = awesome. Multiply that by 2 for the amount of awesome people I was hanging out with and you get 2awesome. After a couple uneventful classes, I went to go over to the Dome to wait to get great seats for the game with my brother and my main man. We get in, and we get the idea (from my main man, you know who you are) that we should wait by the tunnel and get some autographs when the players walk out for warmups. Well, in short, it paid off. I now am the proud owner of a hat signed by Andy Rautins, Wes Johnson, and Arinze Onuaku. Even better, my #32 shirt got signed by KJ 3-2 himself! And even better better, I have my brother to thank for both his camera wielding skills and candor. On my camera's absolute last gasp of batteries he said "Hey Kris it's my brother's birthday, can you take a picture with him?" And this is the result, if you hadn't seen it on Facebook already:
Best. Birthday. Ever. Best. Week. Ever.