It was a very good day for sports of all kinds, but especially basketball -- March 29th -- Day 17
Max, still suffering from her cold, slept later than usual on Friday morning, and after breakfast we set out on some shopping errands, primarily to buy a replacement for my gloves, one of which had disappeared somewhere between Richmond and Indianapolis. The temperature had risen into the mid-40s, almost balmy by comparison with what we had encountered a week earlier in Michigan, but by this time we were neither of us willing to assume that the cold would not return. We came back to the hotel mid-afternoon, and while getting our game togs on encountered the first good omen of the day. Flipping TV channels we came across a hockey game between a highly ranked team from the University of Minnesota and one from Lara's alma mater Yale. Because they do not offer athletic scholarships, the Bulldogs were considered to be the underdogs, but notwithstanding their amateur status they managed to beat the Golden Gophers 3-2 in overtime. We left soon thereafter for a party organized by the Duke Alumni Association at a local hotel. We sat with a number of people of various ages and backgrounds, including one woman who had been at Duke during part of the time Max was there and then attended law school at Michigan a few years after I graduated. We had dinner of sorts at the party, and then took the short walk to the Lucas Oil Stadium, the covered stadium that is the home field of the Indianapolis Colts where the evening's games were being held. The north half of the stadium was curtained off and the basketball court turned sideways, thus allowing more than 35,000 people to have seats for the two games of the evening. The vast majority of the people there seemed to be wearing the red of the number 1 seed, the Louisville Cardinals, located a short two hour drive south of Indianapolis. The Cardinals took on the Ducks from the University of Oregon in the first game of the evening, and although the Ducks fought valiantly and we and most of the non-Louisville fans in attendance were cheering for them, they were clearly out manned and ended up losing 77-69. Trust me, it wasn't that close. During the break between games came word from Arlington, Texas that the game between Michigan and the University of Kansas had gone into overtime, which was quite a surprise because the Wolverines had trailed by ten with less than 3 minutes left. I found out there was an area on the other side of the stadium where that game was being shown on TV, and arrived in time to watch the last 52 seconds of the improbable 87-85 Michigan victory. You can read a complete report on the game in the Detroit News here. By the time I got back to our seats the Duke game had begun, and we were relieved to see that the Blue Devils were playing much better than they had when we last saw them in person in Greensboro. The Spartans were a tough opponent, and although Duke led throughout the game, it was never a commanding lead, so we weren't able to relax until the final seconds started to count down with Duke ahead 71-61. We walked the few blocks back to the hotel after midnight, but the combination of the elation over both our teams' victories, the adrenalin from the games and the caffeine from the Diet Coke and other junk food consumed during almost 5 hours of watching basketball, I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. But oh, what a day it was! (Unknown to either of us until reading Saturday morning's newspaper, it turned out that the Michigan men's swim team had built a comfortable lead in the NCAA Champsionship meet being held in Indianapolis this weekend as well--go Blue indeed!).
Max, still suffering from her cold, slept later than usual on Friday morning, and after breakfast we set out on some shopping errands, primarily to buy a replacement for my gloves, one of which had disappeared somewhere between Richmond and Indianapolis. The temperature had risen into the mid-40s, almost balmy by comparison with what we had encountered a week earlier in Michigan, but by this time we were neither of us willing to assume that the cold would not return. We came back to the hotel mid-afternoon, and while getting our game togs on encountered the first good omen of the day. Flipping TV channels we came across a hockey game between a highly ranked team from the University of Minnesota and one from Lara's alma mater Yale. Because they do not offer athletic scholarships, the Bulldogs were considered to be the underdogs, but notwithstanding their amateur status they managed to beat the Golden Gophers 3-2 in overtime. We left soon thereafter for a party organized by the Duke Alumni Association at a local hotel. We sat with a number of people of various ages and backgrounds, including one woman who had been at Duke during part of the time Max was there and then attended law school at Michigan a few years after I graduated. We had dinner of sorts at the party, and then took the short walk to the Lucas Oil Stadium, the covered stadium that is the home field of the Indianapolis Colts where the evening's games were being held. The north half of the stadium was curtained off and the basketball court turned sideways, thus allowing more than 35,000 people to have seats for the two games of the evening. The vast majority of the people there seemed to be wearing the red of the number 1 seed, the Louisville Cardinals, located a short two hour drive south of Indianapolis. The Cardinals took on the Ducks from the University of Oregon in the first game of the evening, and although the Ducks fought valiantly and we and most of the non-Louisville fans in attendance were cheering for them, they were clearly out manned and ended up losing 77-69. Trust me, it wasn't that close. During the break between games came word from Arlington, Texas that the game between Michigan and the University of Kansas had gone into overtime, which was quite a surprise because the Wolverines had trailed by ten with less than 3 minutes left. I found out there was an area on the other side of the stadium where that game was being shown on TV, and arrived in time to watch the last 52 seconds of the improbable 87-85 Michigan victory. You can read a complete report on the game in the Detroit News here. By the time I got back to our seats the Duke game had begun, and we were relieved to see that the Blue Devils were playing much better than they had when we last saw them in person in Greensboro. The Spartans were a tough opponent, and although Duke led throughout the game, it was never a commanding lead, so we weren't able to relax until the final seconds started to count down with Duke ahead 71-61. We walked the few blocks back to the hotel after midnight, but the combination of the elation over both our teams' victories, the adrenalin from the games and the caffeine from the Diet Coke and other junk food consumed during almost 5 hours of watching basketball, I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. But oh, what a day it was! (Unknown to either of us until reading Saturday morning's newspaper, it turned out that the Michigan men's swim team had built a comfortable lead in the NCAA Champsionship meet being held in Indianapolis this weekend as well--go Blue indeed!).
No comments:
Post a Comment