#95. Sweet Sixteen (Friday, March 29, 2013)

#95. Sweet Sixteen (Friday, March 29, 2013)

What was your best day…of being part of a group success?

Canadian college sports for the majority of students is a side curiosity that maybe occupies their mind on only a handful of days in their university career1. It cannot even be spoken in the same sentence as U.S. college sports – which is a multi-billion dollar industry that drives the competitive balance in the pro sports leagues and the waves of alumni donations those schools are so reliant on.

So, when I got to Duke for my Master’s in the Fall of 2012, I was in for quite a new experience. These students took their school pride seriously – especially when it came to the basketball team. Some classmates even did the whole campout thing at the start of the year: i.e. line up for three nights to get into the draw for season tickets2.

This was the last season where Krzyzewski didn’t sell out and have a bunch of one-and-dones on the team. And the team centered on the senior Mason Plumlee, with a supporting cast of Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly, and Rashid Sulaimon (who since got kicked off). They had been ranked first overall for a good part of the early season, but later tailed off and now were heading into March Madness as a 2-seed in the Midwest Region.

For the first week of the tournament, I watched with a completely new level of excitement as they dispatched 15-seed Albany and 7-seed Creighton3. And on this Friday they were going against 3-seed Michigan State for a spot in the Elite Eight.

So the MA Econ house crew – Jason Simonsen (my best friend during my Master’s), Colin Garcia, Jack Salvador, and Isinachi Ebute – organized a party that Friday night at their place to watch that game. And on that day, it was packed.

First, we watched the absolutely insane ending of the Kansas-Michigan game4. The one where Kansas had an 11-point lead with a minute and a half left; before Michigan made a furious comeback (aided by Kansas missing free throws) to tie it, and then won it in overtime.

Then came the main event. And every play of it was just heart-stopping in that environment. Every point, every good play, we all just exploded inside that house. It a wild night of just pure sports fandom and school unity.

Plus the result: Duke 71, MSU 61, was pretty good too.5

  1. In the case of Waterloo football: (1) the game that capped off orientation week; and (2) the day it was announced half the team got busted for steroids.
  2. Typically, the only reason to go through all this trouble is to get a ticket to the Duke-UNC game (and maybe the Duke-NC State game, they were supposed to be good that year). Every other game, it’s typically easy enough to get through the secondary market.
  3. I recall feeling especially nervous in the lead-up to the Creighton game on Sunday night, like I had this strange emotional connection to the team.
  4. Kansas fans, you may want to skip to the next paragraph.
  5. Unfortunately, Duke then lost to Louisville in the Elite Eight two days later in the game where Kevin Ware got his leg snapped in half in full view of the Duke bench (those who are squeamish may want to skip this too).