The Road to the Final Four!!!

As if everyone doesn't know this already, March in this country has become a month almost exclusively dedicated to College Basketball.  In every office, work-site, school, factory (wait do we have those anymore?... let's make it 'think tank'), or (even) Theatre across our vast land, March Madness reigns Supreme.  It's everywhere you look!  And the brackets are OUT.  Countless brackets are filled out every year in the hopes of filling out that ever-so-elusive PERFECT Bracket!  Basically, everybody starts out on cloud nine with all the hope in the world... and then the upsets start rolling in.  At which point the hope switches to the possibility that your bracket will be just good enough to beat your friends :) I mean, there are only 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible outcomes after all  (Yea, that's more than Nine Quintillion.)  65 teams get in.  One team wins.  It's simply the perfect event in sports.

So, as I mentioned before, the Under Dogs finally made our escape east from Big Ten Land (also known as the Midwest) and the next stop on the trail was Providence, Rhode Island. Home of Ted Berrigan, the Farelly Brothers, and Brown University - where the Ivy Leaguers live... and act smart.  Yea, Providence is a cool town indeed.  But it was about to get even Cooler :)

And as luck would have it, the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament this year were being played in New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Jose, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Spokane, and... Providence.  Yes!  Once again fortune was smiling on us.

I knew we were in for a pretty sweet time when we entered the hotel and were inadvertently welcomed by a NCAA basketball banner!!! A first!!! (I say inadvertently because the banner was most likely meant for the University of Ohio, who was entering the hotel a little later than us… I mean, since they were the ones taking on number 3 Georgetown that Thursday, not us :)  

Just as with the Big Ten Tourney the week before, the UnderD's were able to check out the first round of NCAA action right down the block from the hotel at the Duncan Donuts Center; two more Firsts!!!... my first time ever live at an NCAA Tournament Game, and first time at any arena named after a Donut Brand... well not just any Donut Brand, I guess.  They tell me America runs on this stuff.

America's problems aside, the festivities at the DDC were percolating as we made our way to our seats, nibbling on our Boston-Cremes (just kidding.)  It was definitely NCAA Tourney energy in the air.  From here on out, it was win or go home.  Along for the ride this time was one of our all-time favorites, Honorary Underdog and 101D Physical Therapist, Marissa Chapnick. Although her reputation admittedly proceeds her here, I must sing her praises nonetheless. Hailing from the prestigious (yet oddly Yankee-fan heavy, Staten Island, not only is she, admirably, a New York Mets fan, but marvelously and some would say miraculously, a Florida Gator Fan too!) How does THAT happen??? Marissa and I were the only Underdogs who were able to make the first round that day in Indianapolis and we were in for a show!

The first game was between the heavily favored 2nd seed Villanova and 15th seeded Robert Morris. What a game for underdogs! Robert Morris played a magnificent game and lead most of the way going into the fourth quarter. Only a last gasp come-from-behind effort by Villanova forced an overtime, and then in a heartbreaker for the Colonials, Villanova squeeked out a 73-70 overtime win. We in the stands, and the whole nation breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the first game of the Big Dance almost proved to be a huge bracket-buster! The Underdog in me, feeling the taste of early bracket Mahem so close, was elated at the potential upset (I don't think a 15th seed has ever beaten a 2) so I was kind of devastated that Villanova pulled it out at the end.  Marissa was happy though because all she cared about was preserving her bracket going forward.  It was a futile sentiment.  The Tourney was about to take Doc Marissa (and Everybody for that matter) on a thrilling ride of explosive upsets, impossible to predict!

Take the second game we saw for instance, when number 12 St. Mary's completely outplayed number 7 Richmond. I was blown away by the Gaels performance… I mean, if you google St. Mary's they aren't even the first school that comes up!!! This is St. Mary's, California, from the bay area, and they came to play, people! Their big man, Omar Samhan, was killing everybody down-low and their perimeter players (made up mostly of their five Australians on the squad) was nailing everything in that game. I felt like I was at a basketball clinic of how to work the inside-out game, as Samham was hitting his boys for jumpers all day, when he was doubled. Amazing. And Richmond was baffled.

Of course, St. Mary's went on to stun the world next when they dispatched Villanova in the second round to make the Sweet 16. Samhan and his Underdog cronies continued to turn the NCAA tourney world on its head, but the biggest upset in that first round came later that night from none other than our Hotel-mates - the Ohio University Bobcats. Going up against the number 3 Georgetown Hoyas, the Bobcats killed everybody's brackets by blowing them out, 97-83.  WHAt??? Ohio???  Beat Georgetown?  Nobody saw that one coming!

The next day walking by one of the conference rooms in the hotel, I saw the Ohio coaches going over their game plan for their next opponent, Tennessee of the SEC. And I even had a chance to take a picture with their mascot and cheerleaders in the lobby one night, but I didn't take it. I figured they were overworked as it was and I didn't want to bother them in their downtime. But then why was the guy wearing the Bobcat head?  In the LOBBY?? Aw, I missed my chance! Anyway, their Cinderella story didn't last long, as they got blown out in the second round by the Minutemen. But Butler's Underdog trail did last.

The Butler Bulldogs had played right next-door from our theatre in Indianapolis that previous Wednesday, at the historic, Hinkle Fieldhouse. They won the Horizon League title in convincing fashion against Wright State that night, and assured the extra traffic that we had to get through after the show.  More importantly, that title gave them an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament and against all odds, started their journey that has continued all the way to the final Four!

So here they were, last night, the only two campuses that we played on the entire 101D tour; Butler, from Indianapolis vs Michigan State, from East Lansing. Battling it out to decide who would go to the National Championship game! Who could have guessed that??? Butler's never even been close to this spot before, and well, Michigan State will be playing Goliath in this production :)

And Butler Pulls it off!  The upsets are never ending this year!
Next up for the Bulldogs, an even Bigger Goliath.  Duke in the Championship game!
wow.
You gotta Love the Madness!!!
UnderDogs out

The Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis

So we finally made it out of there!  The Midwest I'm talking about.  GoodNess!... The Midwest is ALL about the Big Ten, people.  I mean, I’d heard the stories but I found out first hand on this trip... it is for Real!  I feel like spending the last two months or so around those parts has had a rather significant affect on me. East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Columbus, and Indianapolis were the last 5 stops on the Underdog Trail, and all of them are, you guessed it, Big Ten towns :)  So it is only fitting, that just before we made our escape back East, that the UnderD's hit up the Holiest of Holy's - Big 10 Basketball style - that's right, the Big Ten Tournament! Held annually now in Indianapolis (Which is also the site of this year's NCAA final Four... Think any of these guys will be lucky enough to make it there?  Everybody in the Midwest does! :) 

Now, I've always heard that Indianapolis a basketball mecca of sorts; the center of the Basketball word, some say.  Or that, simply, Basketball matters more here.  There may be some truth to that… at least on the college side of things.  Even though the NBA's Indiana Pacers certainly had many good years throughout the nineties and even two Championships in the 1970’s (Red White and Blue style (or the ABA if your not hip :), the true colors of Indiana have always been without a doubt, Hoosier Red.  It’s kind of a dark red… or is that maroon?  Maybe not that dark… kinda blood red maybe.  Fitting, because these people Bleed it!  The whole state does.  And that number includes our Cruella, Sara Gettlefinger, who came along with me, and fellow 101Ders Mike Masters and Joe Dellger, to Conseco Fieldhouse that day in Indianapolis.  Even though she did her for-real Schooling at Cincinnati, Sara grew up in Indiana… and as she said, “it’s not like it’s really a choice or anything.  It’s just something that you do if you grow up anywhere within Indiana borders.  You pull for the Hoosiers.”

So on the first day of the Big Ten Tournament, Indiana was the second game in action against the Northwestern Wildcats; Jimmy Ludwig’s Michigan Wolverines beat Iowa in the first game.  (Then later they Almost took out favorite Ohio State in the second round, losing on a buzzer-beating three.  Sooo close!  You would have thought they'd guard Evan Turner a little closer on that final play, I mean what was he going to do?  Drive past you to shoot the desperation three??? ugh… Sorry Jimmy.  Next year baby.) Anyway, naturally Sara was Decked out in her Dark Red IU colors.  (She said she would have painted her face up too but playing Cruella is already pretty demanding on the make-up side of things, so she decided to skip it) Everyone else seemed to pick up the slack though.  It seemed like the whole place was a sea of red.  

Despite the admirable turnout, Sara admitted that it obviously isn’t the same these days as it used to be.  After all, this year the Hoosiers were 10-20 going into that game and not even favored against a less-than-juggernaut Northwestern team (who incidentally, has never EVER been to the NCAA tournament.  I was shocked when my Uncle, who lives near Northwestern in Evanston, told me that.  Northwestern has NEVER been???  It can’t be!  When I checked the facts later it turned out to be true… but then, of course it did… this guy worked for the Encyclopedia Britannica and the World Book for fifty years, I think he knows his stuff.  Hi Uncle Dick!  Great Christmas letter, like always! :)

The Indiana Hoosiers know the NCAA Tournament very well.  Historically, after UCLA and Kentucky, they are third in the number of total National Championships with Five (the last two under… ulp, Bobby Knight in the ‘80’s.)  One of my favorite things to do in life is to ask any IU fan, that I happen to meet, what they think about Bobby Knight… because they all say the same thing.  He is one of those very unique situations, where you honestly both love him AND hate him.  Although he had many winning seasons, Coach Knight’s repeatedly absurd antics on the court (however well intentioned) throughout the years ended up painting him in a pretty bad light, especially in the national perspective.  He clearly loved his players and the game, but his rough edged, un-P.C. approach seemed to have outlived its usefulness by the end of the twentieth century.  Former players always had a mixed bag of things to say about him.  Basically, the tough guys loved him, the soft guys didn’t.  Man, I would have HATED playing for him. :) 

Anyway, It all culminated with his dismissal from the University in 2000, and I remember thinking at the time that it would lead to riots in Indiana.  It was like the Hoosier world tipping completely upside down! But it made sense after all; it reminded me of the old adage, “You can’t argue with success.”  Well by the end of the 90’s there wasn’t much success anymore, and Bobby’s outlandish and oftentimes outrageous behavior was more of an embarrassment to the University than anything.  He looks harmless though right?  Maybe it's because his face doesn't match his sweater in this picture as it usually did.  It's too bad I couldn't find a shot of him famously throwing the chairs on the court in protest, that's my favorite (this is is obviously not my pic by the way.  Hope they don't sue :)  Anyway, when the firing finally went down, as Sara said, Hoosier nation just quietly nodded their respective heads and moved on.  To a 10-20 season in 2010 though.  Nobody could have envisioned that.  Ugh. 

The Hoosiers had won TWENTY Big Ten Tournaments coming into this one, and were representing their hallowed previous generations rather well in this game, outplaying Northwestern for the most part, while clinging to a 5-point lead with 8 minutes to go.  Now, since the first game had gone into overtime, we were watching the clock closely at this point.  We knew that we might have to leave early to get to the theatre for the show that night if the games went long, and that was indeed the way it played out.  Sadly, Sara, Mike, and I had run out of time and we had to leave Conseco… during a close game with a little over seven to play??? ugh, (or maybe I should say, Mike and I had to drag Sara kicking and screaming to her “day job”... she is Die-Hard Y'all!! :)  Eitherway, we left Conseco with about 7:20 to go in the game (Hoosiers up seven,) to head up to the theatre on the Butler Campus.  By the time we got there, Indiana had lost by fifteen!  WHAT???  I only occasionally gave Sara the Iphone-Scorecenter updates along the way as she drove us (through the rain), trying not to upset her too much :)  It was a 22 point swing since Sara had left the building.  They had lost their moxy!  Coincidence?  I think not.  Bobby Knight is rolling over in his GRAVE!... or uh, lazy boy.      

Anyway, everything turned out alright.  Sara got over the loss quickly and went on that night, brilliantly as always, to slay Indy as that lovable nutbar Cruella.  But, it was a bad day for Jimmy the next day when UM went down to Ohio State and even Joe Dellger’s highly seeded Wisconsin Badgers (who we saw blast UM in Ann Arbor) were upset in their first game the following day.  That left it up to Ohio State to take it, and they did, beating down Minnesota 90-61 in the championship game.  My Columbus boys, Ken and Brian were stoked to see the Buckeye resurgence, and equally jazzed about a deep run in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and rightly so, but I wasn’t interested enough to go back to Conseco for the last game.  We had already seen the Buckeyes.  One night when we were in Columbus after the show (thanks to an early show and a late hoops start time), the Lady Underdog and I were able to check out the second half of a game against Illinois.  The Buckeyes looked good and their star player Evan Turner is the real deal, but as we've learned after all... if it's not your team, it’s no fun rooting for the favorite.  Honestly, now and forever... Here we be UNDERDOGS! :)   

Next up.  NCAA in Providence!  March MADNESS!!! :)
Underdogs OUT