"Is Syracuse in Buffalo?" and other Verizon Center tidbits

[Orangepace]

Quick story.. I was in 421, 3rd row and had some 9-10 year old kids (3 of them) constantly staring me down, though I never reciprocated. Those same kids broke out in the Harlem Shuffle and I almost lost my drink..

At the beginning of the game, I stood, proud as hell with some others in my section and clapped until the first FG was through the twine. At the time of the first free throws by IU, the Hoosier fan directly behind me yelled down in front. He was in the late 60's age range. I did a quick turn and said, "I'll sit when we score our first FG. Don't worry, shouldn't be long." After the first bucket, I sat and I heard him say to his friend.. "that's an odd Syracuse tradition I guess. Good thing it didn't last all half." At the start of the second half, "again?!?!"

Lol. Otherwise, a fun atmosphere and game. I was wearing Orange loud and proud on the way in on the metro. Lots of SU fans seeing the Orange stopped over to talk and get jazzed up. Great times.

Wash, rince, repeat on Saturday!

Go Orange!

 

[OttoinGrotto]

- Behind me were a bunch of frat boys from UVa who rode up to watch the game. They were rooting for Miami in the first game and completely confounded by the performance. They also booed loudly any time they showed Duke or Carolina on the big screen above center court (at timeouts they showed classic tourney moments). They mocked Tyler Hansborough and said he couldn't talk. One of them in our game took a fancy to Otto. At every timeout he would scream, "Dance, Round Man, Dance!" He also liked it when Otto pulled his arms inside his costume and swung the body part of the costume around like a spherical hula hoop. He told his friends Otto had gone from being one of his least favorite mascots to one of his favorites.

"Dance, round man, dance" really has a lot going for it.

 

[RF2044]

Miami refers to themselves as the 'U', or (more accurately) 'Da U'.

More like "Duh U"

 

[texascpa]

Guilty -- but not to be confused with the Orange fan next to me who was staring down one of those little Indiana kids -- who probably realized for the first time that not everyone is a Hoosier fan -- to which the father asked, "Are you seriously taunting a 7-year-old?" It escalated downhill from there -- and unfortunately the SU guy was completely in the wrong.

I'm taking my "stay calm"s to Section 409 tomorrow.

LMAO, that would have been funny as hell to witness.

 

[Captnhowdy]

Quick story.. I was in 421, 3rd row and had some 9-10 year old kids (3 of them) constantly staring me down, though I never reciprocated. Those same kids broke out in the Harlem Shuffle and I almost lost my drink..

Isn't it called the Harlem Shake?

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Maybe they were fans of the Stones.

 

[Captnhowdy]

View attachment 2873

Maybe they were fans of the Stones.

I find it slightly hard to believe that those 10-12 year old kids knew the Harlem Shuffle. Hell I just turned 24 and I never heard of that.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I find it slightly hard to believe that those 10-12 year old kids knew the Harlem Shuffle. Hell I just turned 24 and I never heard of that.

Still awaiting the invention of the sarcasm font. Smh

 

[Captnhowdy]

I know, I could have used it in my last post also...

 

[310Pigpen]

I find it slightly hard to believe that those 10-12 year old kids knew the Harlem Shuffle. Hell I just turned 24 and I never heard of that.

These kids are on the computer for 30 hours a week you'd be surprised at what they know.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

I like these crowd/interaction stories, anyone got anymore??

Cto...?

Through pure happenstance, the strip I bought for my son and I was in 217, row A.

These seats were right above the lower-level SU section.

As a result, we had a Birdseye view of what was going on below.

It was great to see all the love being shown to DC, Billy, J-Dub and Moten.

DC is like a rock star. He could not walk up and down without being stopped a gazillion times for a picture, handshake or autograph. And huge kudos to him for showing up to a game which had to dredge up so many painful memories.

The best was during one of the TV timeouts in the second half when two Miami fans, clad all in green and obviously in awe of him, asked for pic. Natch, DC obliged.

We had two Indiana fans right next to us - a mother and daughter - both clad in those hideous stripped warm-up pants. Btw, just my opinion but those are the single ugliest warm-ups I have ever seen.

They were very loud during introductions, virtually screaming with glee each time they showed Smart's shot on the Jumbotron, and were very quiet the rest of the night.

On th other side, we had two Miami fans - who also had nothing to cheer about. Did anyone else notice that all the Miami gear looked brand new , like they had bought it yesterday. It reminded me of the one good year Rutgers had in football when brand, spanking new jerseys started making an appearance (and which have all, once again, disappeared).

For those of you from the board in the arena tomorrow, my son and I will be in the same sets. He will be the one in the 'Cuse Santa hat and, if we win, the flag will, once again, make an appearance - like it did last night.

Can't wait.

 

[Orangepace]

I forgot to mention. I was there for the Marquette/Miami game. Marquette fans in every section stood for the entire game. Only sat momentarily when commercial breaks were on.

Hope they don't do that again. If hate to see their legs give out during a blowout

 

[SoBeCuse]

Great stories!

 

[themole]

A brief epilogue: No fratboys today, and in fact the only common neighbors were the quiet SU fan in front of me and the Indiana family behind me who gamely brought back their kids to see the final. New guy, though, was a Nova fan and his dad who drove up from Newport News to watch, and mildly rooted for Marquette. He talked my ear off during every time out and for some reason thought both SU and Marquette were moving to the ACC, and that UConn was joining Conference USA. Which I guess they kinda are.

On a personal note, March 9 was both a good and bad day for me -- good cuz my son turned 2. Bad for the reason one JAB pointed out after the game today. And the kid was going to have a Final Four team either way today, because his other parent is a Marquette grad. Which, as you can imagine, also made for an interesting couple days in our household.

Have fun, those going to Hotlanta!!