Blogging the Big East

Somehow, I think this was only my fourth Big East Tournament in person.  I was there in 2003 and 2005 and then I don't think I made it back again until last year.  Last year I was there for two nights.  This year, I made it to two nights again.  And I plan on going back next year.  I just wish Notre Dame would still be there.  The Big East will be different next year, but it will be in a much healthier position.  It will be all about basketball.  It was good for the conference to have Syracuse, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and Louisville for basketball, but the football side of things just screwed everything up for the conference.  The Catholic schools put up with a lot of nonsense from the football schools.  They'll be better off without the football schools.  I know the conference won't be quite as strong, but they won't have to worry about it falling apart either.  I'm excited about Butler converting to Catholicism and joining the Big East.

By the way, this is a good time to mention how I root for teams in the NCAA Tournament.  Obviously, I root for Notre Dame first.  Then I root for the other Big East Catholic Schools.  Then I root for BYU (I love Mormons) and Butler.  And I root against the Big East non-Catholic schools, Kentucky, and most of the Big 10.

But back to the Big East Tournament.  I've become pretty talented at finding good deals on Stubhub.  I knew I was going on Wednesday night regardless of who was playing.  Last week, I kept checking Stubhub and the prices were falling.  They had reached $23, which I was willing to pay, but they kept falling, so I decided not to move.  Then I checked and there was a pair for $15 each ($26 each with fees.  Quick tangent:  Stubhub now lists baseball tickets with fees included.  It's great, you actually pay the price they list.  Why don't they do this for all tickets?)  I decided to jump on that.  The prices started going up after that, so I made a good call.  Even at the last minute, I wouldn't have been able to get anything cheaper.

Vin was supposed to join me on Wednesday night, but he got sick and my dad pinch hit for him.  We got to see Villanova-St. John's and Notre Dame-Rutgers.  Three Catholic schools and Rutgers (the team I saw beat Notre Dame in 2005, not good times).  I was rooting for Villanova in the first game mostly because I still needed tickets for Thursday night and I figured they'd be a little cheaper without demand from the local St. John's fans.  What I was really rooting for was a quick game because I didn't want to have to leave the Notre Dame game early.  It got off to a good start.  It took Villanova more than 10 minutes to get called for their first foul.  But the game slowed down late in the first half and second half.  Villanova got out to a big lead early, St. John's came back, but Villanova pulled away late for 66-53 win.  My cousin/fellow Notre Dame alum Kevin was there with his parents, so we met up with them after the first game and watched the second game with them.  Unfortunately, it didn't start until 9:45 or so.  Notre Dame played a very solid first half.  Rutgers came back in the second half a little bit, but Notre Dame held on for the 69-61 win behind Pat Connaughton and Tom Knight.  Thanks to the late start time, my dad and I had to leave with about five minutes left to catch the 11:42 train.  I figured I'd be able to watch them again the next night anyway.

My view on Wednesday night

On Thursday, I had a half day at work so my plan was to go into the city as soon as possible.  I went in without any tickets for the day.  I was hoping to go to all the games I could (the best case scenario was that I was going to miss the first half of the first game).  I had been checking prices on Stubhub and they were very high with Georgetown and Syracuse playing in the afternoon.  Even at the last minute, tickets never got below $100.  So when I got to the city around 1:30, I took a lap around Madison Square Garden and checked out the scalper market.  There weren't many tickets left and the scalpers were asking way more than I was willing to pay considering the first game was just about over and Notre Dame wasn't playing in the afternoon.  Also, throw in the fact that buying from a scalper isn't exactly as secure as buying from Stubhub and I was going to watch the rest of the afternoon action at a bar.  I went to an Irish bar near Madison Square Garden and ended up watching the Pittsburgh-Syracuse game and talking with two guys.  One was a Syracuse guy and one was a Rutgers guy.  Now, I despise Syracuse.  Between the 2008 football game and Jim Boeheim, I think I have pretty good reasons.  But both guys were good dudes and although I was rooting against Syracuse, I was nice about it.  Syracuse might have led for the entire game, but Pittsburgh made a comeback in the second half and made it interesting in the end.

I had been checking Stubhub all day for the night games.  My brother Tom was buying tickets for the night session and coming up for the games as my Christmas present.  Tom had been nervous in the morning about ticket prices (they were above $90 if I remember correctly), but my advice was to wait and let them drop.  They didn't drop as quickly as I thought they would, but they did drop.  When I saw a pair for $72 each, I thought it was time to make the move.  By the time I had called Tom to suggest we jump on them, they had dropped to $65.  So that worked out well.  I bought them on my phone and picked them up after the Syracuse game and Tom paid me back when he got to the city.  We got a drink and went to Chipotle before the night games started.

We were way up top for the first game of the night, Louisville-Villanova.  Once again, I was rooting for Villanova and a quick game.  This time I was disappointed on both counts as the game dragged on and Louisville won 74-55.  After the game, Tom and I moved from the 400 level to the 100 level.  The Garden had really cleared out the night before after the first game.  This time it didn't clear out as much, but we were able to find seats on the 100 level near midcourt.  The Marquette-Notre Dame game started around 9:40.  Unfortunately, Notre Dame wore ridiculous neon green camoflauge nonsense uniforms.  Why didn't we say no to them like Indiana did?  What's so bad about just wearing blue and gold?  Anyway, this game was the best game of the four that I saw in person.  After a slow start for Notre Dame, it was well played on both sides.  Connaughton had another very good game, Jerian Grant scored 17 points despite shooting 4-15, and Garrick Sherman provided solid offense off the bench.  Tom had a longer trip home than I did and he left at 11:30.  I left just a couple minutes later, but Notre Dame had gone on a solid run and led 59-52 with 3:23 left.  I felt confident that they would hold on to win and they did by a score of 73-65.

Tom and I found this as we were moving to better seats.  It was for Wrestlemania I.  They really should have had a tribute to January 23, 1984 when Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

This was the view Tom and I had for the Marquette-Notre Dame game.  The bad news is that being this close to Notre Dame's uniforms might have caused permanent eye damage.

And with that, I said my goodbye to the Big East as an a alum of a school that belonged to the conference.  I would have loved to come back the next night for the semifinals, but ticket prices doubled with the wins by Georgetown and Syracuse.  I would have had to pay well over $200 for a ticket.  Combine that with the lack of sleep the previous two nights and I was fine with going home after work, taking a nap, and watching the games on TV.  That nap was extended as I slept through most of the Georgetown-Syracuse game.  I set my alarm so that I would get up, but I just went right back to sleep.  I was that tired.  I did get up for the Louisville-Notre Dame game.  Notre Dame was competitive for most of the game, but Louisville pulled away at the end.

I was really hoping a Catholic school would win, but we're stuck with either Syracuse or Rick Pitino winning this tournament (I guess I'm rooting for Louisville).  Too bad.  Hopefully they'll both lose early in the tournament that really counts.  But I had fun at the Big East Tournament.  It really is the greatest meaningless sporting event of the year.