cto
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Just got home, so this will be kind of quick.
Crisler Center at the University of Michigan is a very nice on-campus arena. I gather it seats only about 13,000, but it felt bigger. Very large and active student attendance; students (including their band) had the entire area behind our basket and also the section behind the visitors bench (in back of the first four rows which are given to the visiting team). Students act like Duke wannabes, doing that crazy jumping up and down thing, along with choreographed hand motions.
I have always liked "The Victors," Michigan's fight song, but after tonight I would be happy if I never heard it again. The pep band (which was very good) played it incessantly... at every break in the action. Aside from another Michigan song (the alma mater?) played at the end of the game and the National Anthem, it was the only song they played all night. BTW, Tomcat, the band had at least 12 tubas... more than our marching band! And the tuba players went onto the court at halftime to do a little concert of their own. Tom, you would have loved it.
It was nice to see both Dave Bing and Derrick Coleman there together... perhaps our two most reknowned players. However, when Derrick tried to take one step onto the court at halftime to say hello to one of our players, an armed woman police officer forcibly stopped him and started to push him off the court. "He's Derrick Coleman," I brightly said. "I know," she replied, "and I don't care." Of all the security folks at all the arenas I've attended, she had the most prominent firearm strapped to her body.
At the comparatively small restaurant prior to the game, I ran into Bayside. What are the odds of that? He was there with some bigs from the State of Michigan government.
The 80 or so Syracuse fans with whom I was sitting (essentially from the Syracuse and NYC areas) had pretty much the same reaction to the game that I quickly perused here on the board. Happy with the comeback, but frustrated with the inability to take advantage of those three wasted opportunities at the end ... where we did not get off a single shot. But they chalked it up to inexperience .. especially the 19 turnovers. It sure felt good when we came back from a 10-point deficit ... but very deflating when we were not able to finish anything at the end.
We drove past "The Big House," which I had never seen before. It sure is BIG and very impressive looking from the outside. And all of the campus we saw during our quick visit seemed very attractive ... with a much bigger version of Marshall Street in the middle of it. All in all, it looked like a very nice place to go to school (in addition to being one of the nation's premier public universities).
Finally, the chartered plane the 12 of us flew from White Plains to Ann Arbor was painted maize and blue (the colors of the charter company, as well as the Michigan colors). Some of us thought this could not be a good omen. It wasn't.
Crisler Center at the University of Michigan is a very nice on-campus arena. I gather it seats only about 13,000, but it felt bigger. Very large and active student attendance; students (including their band) had the entire area behind our basket and also the section behind the visitors bench (in back of the first four rows which are given to the visiting team). Students act like Duke wannabes, doing that crazy jumping up and down thing, along with choreographed hand motions.
I have always liked "The Victors," Michigan's fight song, but after tonight I would be happy if I never heard it again. The pep band (which was very good) played it incessantly... at every break in the action. Aside from another Michigan song (the alma mater?) played at the end of the game and the National Anthem, it was the only song they played all night. BTW, Tomcat, the band had at least 12 tubas... more than our marching band! And the tuba players went onto the court at halftime to do a little concert of their own. Tom, you would have loved it.
It was nice to see both Dave Bing and Derrick Coleman there together... perhaps our two most reknowned players. However, when Derrick tried to take one step onto the court at halftime to say hello to one of our players, an armed woman police officer forcibly stopped him and started to push him off the court. "He's Derrick Coleman," I brightly said. "I know," she replied, "and I don't care." Of all the security folks at all the arenas I've attended, she had the most prominent firearm strapped to her body.
At the comparatively small restaurant prior to the game, I ran into Bayside. What are the odds of that? He was there with some bigs from the State of Michigan government.
The 80 or so Syracuse fans with whom I was sitting (essentially from the Syracuse and NYC areas) had pretty much the same reaction to the game that I quickly perused here on the board. Happy with the comeback, but frustrated with the inability to take advantage of those three wasted opportunities at the end ... where we did not get off a single shot. But they chalked it up to inexperience .. especially the 19 turnovers. It sure felt good when we came back from a 10-point deficit ... but very deflating when we were not able to finish anything at the end.
We drove past "The Big House," which I had never seen before. It sure is BIG and very impressive looking from the outside. And all of the campus we saw during our quick visit seemed very attractive ... with a much bigger version of Marshall Street in the middle of it. All in all, it looked like a very nice place to go to school (in addition to being one of the nation's premier public universities).
Finally, the chartered plane the 12 of us flew from White Plains to Ann Arbor was painted maize and blue (the colors of the charter company, as well as the Michigan colors). Some of us thought this could not be a good omen. It wasn't.
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