There was a snow storm in the forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday. I was hoping that it would be enough for school to be closed on Wednesday, but not too much to prevent me from getting to Brooklyn. I got my snow day even though it probably wasn’t totally necessary. That was important because I got some extra sleep on Wednesday during the week where I get the least amount of sleep each year. I also got extra sleep on Thursday thanks to a delayed opening. For most of the day Wednesday it was rain, but it did change to snow in the afternoon. It probably would have been a pretty rough drive home. I shoveled in the 3:00 hour and there wasn’t too much snow yet. About an hour later, I got in my car to go to the train station. Things had gotten much worse. I pulled out of the driveway and decided that this was not a very good idea. I decided not to go and pulled back in. I was supposed to get a 5:03 train. I probably wouldn’t have made it even if I got to the train station. At 5:21, there was a tweet from the Long Island Railroad that service had been shut down on several branches, including mine. So I watched the game at home. It was not looking good for Notre Dame. We trailed by as many as 21. Our biggest deficit was early in the second half. At 8:15 (which would have been early in the second half), I texted some of my college friends saying “I did not make it to Brooklyn. I’m either missing a really crappy performance or what’s going to be a great comeback.” I had a feeling. And I did miss a great comeback. In fact, it was the biggest comeback in the history of Notre Dame men’s basketball. Oh well, it’s not like I really had a chance.
Notre Dame took on Duke the next night. I was going to one of the tournaments with Vin. I had Big East tickets, but he was trying to get ACC tickets from work. He couldn’t get them so we went to the Big East. I stumbled into some really good seats. I like to sit near halfcourt. In the past, I had bought tickets right away. I didn’t this year, so by the time I actually bought tickets, the ones I would normally get were sold out. So I was looking for affordable tickets that wouldn’t be a terrible view. I ended up getting seats in section 218. It was on the end of the court, but it was the first row of the section. What I did not realize when I bought the tickets was that the first row had TVs for every two seats or so. When I first saw them, I assumed they’d have the same video feed as the scoreboard. Nope, you could change channels. I was planning on trying to watch Notre Dame on my phone, but I didn’t have to. Unfortunately Duke was too much. Notre Dame hung in there for the first half (down four at halftime), but Duke pulled away in the second half.
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| I was five miles away from where Notre Dame was playing. Fortunately, I was still able to watch them. I'm going to try to get similar seats next year. |
I had been a long time since I saw Vin. We ran into Bill Murray on the way out the last time I went to the Big East Tournament together. We didn’t have anything quite like that this time, but we saw some good basketball. I drank some Brooklyn Lager because I drink by mood and Notre Dame was playing in Brooklyn. We saw a pretty easy win for Villanova over Marquette in the first game. I was rooting for that because Marquette was another bubble team and they wear terrible uniforms. The second game was Seton Hall-Butler. I was rooting for Seton Hall because Butler is the only non-Catholic school in the Big East (I definitely don’t dislike Butler because of the Brad Stevens/Gordon Hayward days, but I can’t root for them to win the Big East). We got a great game. The last four minutes had 22 points scored between the two teams and no lead more than three. Seton Hall took the lead with 54 seconds left. Butler took the lead with 35 seconds left. Seton Hall tied it and then took the lead with 12 seconds left on a three-point play. Butler scored the winning basket on a put back with 3.6 seconds left. Seton Hall got a decent shot at the buzzer for the win, but it didn’t go in. I was glad that I stayed for the whole game. It was good to see Vin again.
The train ride home was interesting. I thought I was going to get the 12:14, but I made it to the 11:42. I don’t know if it was something I ate before the games or what (it’s not like a drank a ton or anything), but I felt miserable. I felt fine at the games, it just hit me on the train. I didn’t know what was going on. It kept getting worse and worse. I thought I was going to throw up or something. By the end, I thought I might pass out. I was kind of stuck because by the time I really felt like throwing up, I was just about to get to Hicksville, which is where my car was. If I went to the bathroom on the train, I would have missed my stop. I decided I had to just try to make it off the train. But even if I made it to Hicksville, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it home. My vision started getting messed up. My field of vision started turning white. It was weird and kind of scary. But once I got off the train and felt the cold air, I felt a lot better. Still not great, but good enough to make it home.
I got to sleep that night around 1:45. I set my alarm for 5:45, which is 20 minutes later than when I usually get up. My first thought when I got up was that I had set my alarm, but I didn’t actually have to go to school. Nope, I had to get to work. My stomach was still a little unsettled, but not nearly as bad as it had been. The lack of sleep really wasn’t an issue during the day. The good news was that I was giving tests pretty much all day. I surprised myself with how productive I was in grading the tests as the day went on. I was headed back to the city for the Big East semifinals with Kyle. It was Xavier-Providence and Villanova-Butler. We were in the last row of section 415, not nearly as good as where I was the night before. Friday night is the most expensive night of the Big East Tournament. You should be getting better teams than Thursday night and one more game than Saturday night. So by the time I bought tickets, the last row of the 400s level was the only thing left that wasn’t ridiculously expensive. I was hoping the crowd would clear out and we could move down, but that didn’t really happen too much until pretty late in the second game. It was Friday night, the first game started at 6:30 instead of 7:00 (like the two nights before), and Villanova was playing in the second game. It was not a recipe for people leaving early.
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| Our view on Friday night |
I was rooting for Xavier and Villanova because I thought that would be a cool championship game, but I’m glad it didn’t turn out that way. Xavier-Villanova (which Tom and I saw three years ago) would have been a Villanova home game. Providence-Villanova was pretty evenly split. Anyway, Xavier looked to be in control for much of the game. Their biggest lead was 17, but Providence chipped away in the second half. They tied it for the first time with 3:47 left. Xavier took the lead with 37 seconds left, but Providence tied with with two free throws with 12 seconds left. Providence blocked a game-winning shot attempt with one second left and it went to overtime. Providence took the lead in overtime, but Xavier cut it to one with two free throws with 40 seconds left. Providence missed with 12 seconds left, but J.P. Macura got called for a charge with seven seconds left as he took it to the basket. Providence took a three-point lead with two free throws with six seconds left. Xavier drove the ball inside the three point line. Then they were pretty much stuck with nothing to do. By the time they kicked it out for a game-tying three, the clock expired (the shot after the buzzer went in). Villanova beat Butler easily in the second game. It was over early. Villanova scored the first 19 points of the game. I thought Butler waited way too long to call timeout. It was 16-0 before they finally called one. Kyle left with five minutes left or so. I snuck down to the lower level for the last few minutes, but there really wasn’t much to see as the game was already decided.
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| This was my view for the last four minutes or so. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. |
My dad and I went to the Championship Game on Saturday. After two late nights, I slept until 11:20 on Saturday. It was pretty awesome. My dad and I went in early so that we could go to a vigil mass before the 6:30 game. I wanted to go before the game so that I didn't have to worry about it on Sunday morning with the time change. There are three Catholic churches within three-tenths of a mile of Madison Square Garden. The two closest (which are about two blocks away from each other) both had 4:00 vigil masses (4:30 or 5:00 would have been ideal for a 6:30 game, but we didn’t have control over that). I decided to go to St. John the Baptist because St. John’s is named after him so it seemed appropriate for the Big East Championship (even though St. John’s hasn’t played in that game since 2000).
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| This is before mass at St. John the Baptist. This church and St. Francis have come in handy when I'm in the city on a Saturday evening or Sunday. |
When we got to Madison Square Garden after mass, it was still too early to get in. We heard the bands for both schools perform in the lobby. My dad and I had the same seats that Vin and I had two nights earlier. We used the TV to check out some other conference championship games, but there wasn’t anything too entertaining going on. It was a game of runs early on. Villanova would build up the lead, but then Providence would make a run. Villanova led by as many as 12 in the second half, but Providence took their first lead on a three-point play with 7:49 left. Providence led by as many as four, but Villanova tied it with two free throws with 30 seconds left. Providence had the last shot of regulation for the win, but they missed. Overtime was a bit anticlimactic. It was close for most of overtime, but Villanova pulled away in the last minute to win 76-66. Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges combined for 56 of Villanova’s 76.
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| They have these plaques of people who have played/performed at Madison Square Garden on the floor in the lobby. I found this one before the game. |
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| Big East Champions for the third time in four years. They won the National Championship the one year they didn't win the Big East Championship. |
A couple of final Big East thoughts. The Big East is back. After the conference split up, it didn’t seem to be the same. The first two years of the tournament, attendance ranged from 12,588-15,580. This year’s tournament had a Wednesday crowd (when the four worst teams are playing) of 16,866 (I'm sure having St. John's playing Georgetown helped, but still). The last three sessions (the ones I went to) were all sold out. Villanova has been consistently great (including a National Championship). Even though Notre Dame has had more success in the ACC, my dream would be for Notre Dame to rejoin the conference and be truly independent in football again (it’s not going to happen anytime soon) with Dayton or somebody as the 12th team. That would make Wednesday a much better day. You’d get four games. Right now, you only get two and usually you get three teams that are pretty bad. Since the new Big East was created, the old teams have dominated. In five tournaments, we’ve had an old Big East team win every one (three for Villanova). Creighton and Xavier are the only new Big East teams to even make it to the championship game. Marquette and DePaul haven’t been to a championship game yet and they’ve been in the conference since 2005. Georgetown hasn’t been to the championship game since 2010 and they haven’t won it since 2007. St. John’s last appeared in the championship game in 2000 (which they won). It’s always going to be more exciting at Madison Square Garden when you have the old teams doing well (unless maybe a team like Creighton has a player like Doug McDermott). St. John’s is obviously going to be the most popular team at Madison Square Garden. I would think Georgetown and Villanova would be the next two (even though Seton Hall is closer) and then Seton Hall and Providence. But the Garden was pretty evenly split for Villanova-Providence. My dad's theory was that any neutral fans are tired of seeing Villanova dominate (they’ve been in the championship game four years in a row and won four of them). I really hope I get to see St. John’s and Georgetown be good again. This year’s Big East Tournament was really good, but I think it would be amazing if you had St. John’s really good plus at least one of Georgetown/Villanova and at least one of Seton Hall/Providence. Maybe someday.
It was fun this year after missing a year. The ACC leaves New York next year so I’ll definitely be back for the Big East next year.
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