| 06 April 2011
HOUSTON- When UConn won Saturday night’s Final Four semifinal, I just knew I’d be in Reliant Stadium for Monday night’s National Championship Game. I didn’t know how I’d get to Houston. Or where I’d find the tickets. Just that I’d be there. It was a surreal feeling, and reminded me of one of those wedding shows on TLC that you stumble across, and see some some bright-eyed girl in her late 20’s say, “The second I just met Jason, I just knew he was the one.” That was me Saturday night. I just knew.
Now understand that the whole trip was about more than basketball to me. Yes I’m a UConn fan. Yes I went to the school. And yes, I’m wildly spoiled by everything the program has done over the past two decades. But it wasn’t about that. Being in Houston Monday night was about this team in specific.
As I’ve mentioned many times before (and I’m sorry, but it needs to be repeated), this is the type of team that as a fan, you hope to root for just once or twice in your life. They were the ultimate blue-collar, hard-hat, “sum is greater than the parts,” group. Nobody cared about stats and minutes, not any more than wins and losses anyway. Being a fan of this specific team, and getting to watch the team all year was like being a computer nerd who wakes up one day and finds himself dating a supermodel. You know eventually things probably won’t work out as you hope. But you still want to enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Beyond that, maybe the coolest part of the whole 2011 UConn Huskies season was how outsiders began to view this team. The rivals that used to hate UConn, hate Jim Calhoun’s outbursts, and hate the swagger the program walked around with, all of a sudden came full circle. I can’t tell you how cool it was to hear Louisville, Syracuse and Kentucky fans tell me all March, “Once my team got knocked out, I’ve been rooting for you guys. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about them that I just love.” It’s hasn't been often that UConn is the scrappy underdog that's somehow relatable, yet that's exactly what they were this year.
So now hopefully you can understand why I decided to go to Houston. It wasn’t just about a basketball team, because really, basketball teams come and go. It was about this team in specific. It was because I realized that if 15 guys could sacrifice so much over the course of six months, the least I could do was sacrifice three days and a whole bunch of money I didn’t have for them. In a weird way, I feel like they’d do the same for me (Corny, I know).
Now, let’s get to the game Monday night. By now you’ve had a chance to swallow it and digest it, and truthfully, we can all be honest here: It was ugly. You know that. I know that. My 94-year-old grandma who thinks basketball is a game with nine innings and three outs per inning knows it too.
Still, the result on the court doesn’t take away from the experience of just being there.
It doesn’t take away from the experience of seeing Reliant Stadium on TV a million times, then walking up a ramp in downtown Houston, turning a corner and being overwhelmed by it in person. It doesn’t take away from spending 36 hours wondering how you’ll get a ticket to the game, finally getting one, holding it in your hand, and just thinking to yourself, “Wow am I blessed.” And it certainly doesn’t replace walking into an empty football stadium, a building that looks like you could land a fleet of 747’s in it, and thinking, “I’m seriously about to watch my team play for a title.”
Speaking of which, the experience before the game was one which I can’t fully describe. Understand that I’ve been going to big-time college basketball games for a long time. I’ve seen fist fights break out over next to nothing. Which is why I wasn’t totally prepared for the lead up to Monday night’s game, an atmosphere I'd call “respectfully tame.” There was no yelling or shirt popping, just a bunch of UConn and Butler fans walking around the concourse in Reliant Stadium, nodding, acknowledging each other and smiling. Nobody was boastful or arrogant, as much as just surprised their team was playing Monday night. It was the most easy-going “Prelude to a Championship,” I can ever imagine.
Come to think of it, walking around as the teams warmed up, I’ve got to admit, it was pretty surreal. Maybe it’s because I’d only gotten into Houston the night before, and could barely get my bearings before heading to the stadium Monday evening. I don’t know. Yet as my friend and I first took our seats, it almost seemed like we were there to watch a basketball game in a huge stadium, not a basketball game to determine a National Champion. I almost had to pinch myself and say, “Dude you’re sitting in the arena minutes before the National Championship game. Get excited!!!!!!!!!”
Luckily that feeling started to change right before tip-off. All of a sudden, the stadium inexplicably filled up to darn near capacity, like some secret side door had all of a sudden been opened, and let 60,00 people in at once. Looking down from the second deck, all you could see was a sea of Kentucky blue, and VCU yellow, and a whole lot of UConn and Butler royal blue, with little blotches of every other color of the rainbow filling in the rest. It really felt like a big-time event a few minutes later, when a giant American flag draped the court, and Leann Rimes belted out the most perfect version of the National Anthem I’ve ever heard. I’m not much of a crier, but the combination of my team, the moment, the flag and the song nearly brought me to tears.
Once the game tipped, well you know what happened from there. It was slow, and when both teams started missing shots early, it took the air out of an otherwise excellent and supportive crowd.
A few things on the pace and play of the game. Obviously it was ugly. I'll give you that. I do think think it was a little overblown though.
Understand that as a team, UConn spent most of the first half in foul trouble purgatory, with Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb and Alex Oriahki each ending the half on the bench with two fouls each. Yes it was ugly, but as I said to my friend at the time, “I’d be willing to bet money that these five guys haven’t been on the court together all year, at least not in any meaningful situation.” And then they were being asked to keep their team in contention in the biggest game of their lives? No wonder they didn’t look so hot. I don't think it's much of a surprise that the offense was much more fluid in the second half.
As for Butler, well what can you say? Things eventually got so ugly that I actually started feeling bad for them. Now obviously I wanted my team to win, but at the same time, I’ve still got nothing but respect for the Bulldogs program. More importantly, I’ve seen them enough to know that if the National Championship Game were played 100 times, in 99 of them Butler would’ve looked better than they did Monday. It just wasn’t their night, which happened to be on the worst night possible for that to happen. Everyone affiliated with the program deserved better than what happened against UConn.
(One quick side note: To all the NBA fans who choose to watch one college basketball a year, and then spend the next 48 hours making sweeping judgments and bad jokes about the sport as a whole, please, just go away. This was the highest rated NCAA Tournament ever, and the most attended Final Four ever. College basketball doesn’t need you.
And by the way, when you get a chance, take that stick out of your you-know-what and get some facts straight. UConn shot 34.5 percent in victory, a number which yes, was kinda, sorta ugly. At the same time, guess what? The Lakers won Game 7 of last year’s NBA Final shooting 32.5 percent.
Thought I’d throw that out there. )
Anyway, back to the game.
As the second half wore on and UConn started making shots and Butler kept missing there’s, it became pretty clear the Huskies were going to win. I went from anxious and uneasy in an upper deck filled with Butler fans, to strangely at ease, and finally at the under four minute time out, my friend and I got out of our seats and made our down to the lower level. It took two escalators, some sprinting through the concourse, and a little cajoling of the ushers, but eventually we ended up about 20 rows off the court for the final few minutes of the game.
From there, it really is just a blur.
Understand that it’s one thing to see your team win a title, and it’s another to be in the building when it happens. But when they win the title, you’re in the building, and the final few minutes aren’t in doubt? It’s pure nirvana. To be able to just clap and yell and hug and high-five, without a care in the world? It doesn’t get any better. To hear the final horn sound, to see the guys on the bench run onto the court to hug their teammates, watch the confetti fall, and to realize, “Good God…We…are National Champions?” What can top that?
Not much, especially when it’s followed by a million other little things you can’t experience watching the game on TV. Like watching the stadium crew quickly set up a make-shift podium at center court. Or seeing Jim Nantz hand your head coach the trophy, only to follow it up with a dumb question that makes you think, “If I saw him walking down the street, would I punch him? Yeh, actually, I think I would.” Or being there as every player climbs up on a ladder and cuts down the nets. Or having the chance to watch “One Shining Moment,” on a scoreboard 500 feet in the air, rather than on a TV five feet off your living room floor? Wow.
And to me, the best and toughest part of the night was sitting in Reliant Stadium after all that, and simply not wanting any of it to end. Long after the game was over, and even after the team had already retreated to the locker room, I was still in the stadium, sitting in a folding chair, drained and trying to take in every last moment. The empty seats. The loose confetti. Everything. I'm not joking when I say that if the cleaning crew hadn't kicked me out, I might still be there.
Eventually we did get kicked out though, and after a long walk, short cab ride, and a bunch of yelling at no one in particular, we made it back to our hotel.
Once there, we didn’t get too wild, and just enjoyed some cheap beer with a few other UConn fans we’d met along the way. We celebrated and smiled, watched replays on Sportscenter, and passed the time talking about everything that’d happened from November through the end of Monday night. It was the perfect end, to the perfect day which capped a completely perfect season, with no one concerned about anything but that exact moment.
It reminded me a lot of our basketball team actually.
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