A Clockwork Orange
2022 Cali Winner (Overall Record)
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- Aug 14, 2011
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For anyone interested here is my recap of Day 1 at the Garden: LINK
On Day 1 my wife and I made our way to Stout for pregame libations. We went a bit more upscale for Day 2. My wife used to work with a big time Syracuse fan that was in the city for this Garden party. She and her husband are staying at the team hotel, and ended up taking us out to lunch at the Waldorf Astoria. Replete in our orange and blue sweatshirts, we stuck out like sore thumbs among the suits and ties littering the place. They didn't serve alcohol either. Don't get me wrong, the company was absolutely fantastic and the place was very nice, but I'm a simple guy I guess. If you twisted my arm I suppose I'd take Stout over the W-A if we were going head to head on this thing.
We were whisked across the city in a nice black Caddy, and ended up getting into MSG about six minutes before the game. Our seats were in 114 and we were surrounded by middle-aged Georgetown fans. The one thing I notice about G'Town fans is they seem above wearing their team colors. It's truly an odd phenomenon that they are all dressed in khakis and button down shirts. They could be your family accountant instead of a diehard basketball fan. It must be a holdover from the Escherick era when they didn't want people recognizing them as G'Town fans.
In any case, they were surprisingly cordial, and were hoping Pitt won. They said continually they did not want to meet SU three times in one season. One of the muttered "if they win, it will be 70-30 SU fans tomorrow."
The crowd was electric in the first half. It's an odd sensation, having watched so many games in the dome. When the fans get rocking at the Garden it's almost like this frenzied, wave of emotion. I got chills a good half dozen times from it. The dome is more sedate, and only really gets up for the BIG moments. The Garden crowd is a smart one, and knew when the team needed a pick me up. Very cool crowd yesterday.
As a side note, for my phone at least the Garden is a black hole. Midway through the second I started trying to come up with a plan for tix. I was going to price out Stub Hub, but can't get a signal in there. In any case, we had two great SU fans sitting in front of us who were also going nuts trying to figure out tix. The G'Town fans around us were starting to wear out their welcome at this point. They continually got up to go to the bathroom, obviously a sign of some unknown prostate issue that has attacked the whole fan base.
When the game was over, it was relief and elation. Happy and drunk SU fans slapped high five out in the corridor, but everyone seemed to have one thought on their mind: Find hapless Pitt fans and pounce on their tickets. I was lucky in this, in that my wife is my secret weapon. She will literally talk to anyone, anywhere about anything. She is also a Pittsburgh native, so she speaks their dialect.
She walked up behind two unsuspecting Pitt fans who were making their way to the exit, nestled in between them, put her arms around their shoulders and said "gents, would you happen to have any tickets to sell?" The guys said they did, so my wife then said "Well let's head right over here to this table and finish this deal." They obliged. My wife had only had a half flask of vodka to drink at that point (smuggled in from outside) so she (being a Pittsburgher and an SU fan) was completely sober. I'll be honest, I kind of felt like her ticket hawking pimp at that point. One G'Town fan came up and told the Pitt dudes he'd pay double what my wife was paying. My wife, God bless her, turned to him and said: "you're making every G'Town fan look like the douche bags we all know you are."
We got the tix for a ridiculously low price, and proceeded to be kicked out of MSG by the staff there, as we'd taken too long in hanging around after the game. On our way out my wife met John Wallace and got her pic taken with him. I got the chance to tell him that the '96 team was my all time favorite. He was a nice guy, talking to everyone who was interested in talking to him. My wife was on an all time high at that point. She loves good deals while shopping, and she just brokered one of the all time doozies. Then she met John Wallace. For a BET newbie, she was on Cloud 9.
That's the Big East Tournament though, if you're a people person it's the place to be. Even though we may dislike Pitt and G'Town, fans at MSG all have a mutual respect for each other’s team. Except Rutgers, everyone hates them. Trash talk is fine, because there is this underlying respect. I wonder if we'll have that in the ACC. The fan base as a whole is giddy down here right now, excited about having another crack at Georgetown and beyond that just happy for another day at the party.
On Day 1 my wife and I made our way to Stout for pregame libations. We went a bit more upscale for Day 2. My wife used to work with a big time Syracuse fan that was in the city for this Garden party. She and her husband are staying at the team hotel, and ended up taking us out to lunch at the Waldorf Astoria. Replete in our orange and blue sweatshirts, we stuck out like sore thumbs among the suits and ties littering the place. They didn't serve alcohol either. Don't get me wrong, the company was absolutely fantastic and the place was very nice, but I'm a simple guy I guess. If you twisted my arm I suppose I'd take Stout over the W-A if we were going head to head on this thing.
We were whisked across the city in a nice black Caddy, and ended up getting into MSG about six minutes before the game. Our seats were in 114 and we were surrounded by middle-aged Georgetown fans. The one thing I notice about G'Town fans is they seem above wearing their team colors. It's truly an odd phenomenon that they are all dressed in khakis and button down shirts. They could be your family accountant instead of a diehard basketball fan. It must be a holdover from the Escherick era when they didn't want people recognizing them as G'Town fans.
In any case, they were surprisingly cordial, and were hoping Pitt won. They said continually they did not want to meet SU three times in one season. One of the muttered "if they win, it will be 70-30 SU fans tomorrow."
The crowd was electric in the first half. It's an odd sensation, having watched so many games in the dome. When the fans get rocking at the Garden it's almost like this frenzied, wave of emotion. I got chills a good half dozen times from it. The dome is more sedate, and only really gets up for the BIG moments. The Garden crowd is a smart one, and knew when the team needed a pick me up. Very cool crowd yesterday.
As a side note, for my phone at least the Garden is a black hole. Midway through the second I started trying to come up with a plan for tix. I was going to price out Stub Hub, but can't get a signal in there. In any case, we had two great SU fans sitting in front of us who were also going nuts trying to figure out tix. The G'Town fans around us were starting to wear out their welcome at this point. They continually got up to go to the bathroom, obviously a sign of some unknown prostate issue that has attacked the whole fan base.
When the game was over, it was relief and elation. Happy and drunk SU fans slapped high five out in the corridor, but everyone seemed to have one thought on their mind: Find hapless Pitt fans and pounce on their tickets. I was lucky in this, in that my wife is my secret weapon. She will literally talk to anyone, anywhere about anything. She is also a Pittsburgh native, so she speaks their dialect.
She walked up behind two unsuspecting Pitt fans who were making their way to the exit, nestled in between them, put her arms around their shoulders and said "gents, would you happen to have any tickets to sell?" The guys said they did, so my wife then said "Well let's head right over here to this table and finish this deal." They obliged. My wife had only had a half flask of vodka to drink at that point (smuggled in from outside) so she (being a Pittsburgher and an SU fan) was completely sober. I'll be honest, I kind of felt like her ticket hawking pimp at that point. One G'Town fan came up and told the Pitt dudes he'd pay double what my wife was paying. My wife, God bless her, turned to him and said: "you're making every G'Town fan look like the douche bags we all know you are."
We got the tix for a ridiculously low price, and proceeded to be kicked out of MSG by the staff there, as we'd taken too long in hanging around after the game. On our way out my wife met John Wallace and got her pic taken with him. I got the chance to tell him that the '96 team was my all time favorite. He was a nice guy, talking to everyone who was interested in talking to him. My wife was on an all time high at that point. She loves good deals while shopping, and she just brokered one of the all time doozies. Then she met John Wallace. For a BET newbie, she was on Cloud 9.
That's the Big East Tournament though, if you're a people person it's the place to be. Even though we may dislike Pitt and G'Town, fans at MSG all have a mutual respect for each other’s team. Except Rutgers, everyone hates them. Trash talk is fine, because there is this underlying respect. I wonder if we'll have that in the ACC. The fan base as a whole is giddy down here right now, excited about having another crack at Georgetown and beyond that just happy for another day at the party.
