The road to get there was tough. Literally, the roads up to Hoffman Estates, Illinois nearly drained my bank account with all the God forsaken toll roads. Why would it be destiny and why would it be luck? Well I haven't quite figured out the destiny part, but it sounds cool. As for luck, you could say the fact that Michigan State beat number one seeded Penn State made it slightly easier. If you believe that, wrap your mind around the fact that the ladies went Captain Insano on the Spartans and opened up a can of whoop ass in the first half. It wouldn't have mattered if Penn State showed up on Sunday, I guarantee we would've won, just like Joe Namath guaranteed to win Super Bowl III (then immediately went to the bar).
I'll be giving a detailed synopsis of the weekend from the prospective of the RIP Squad, because that's the only prospective I can give you. I think it'd be a good idea to begin the Thursday of the tournament, when I decided I'd be skipping my statistics class the next day (it was a review day for those worried about my academic standing). It seemed like a good idea to go ahead and make the trip up north by myself since I had nothing else to do in West Lafayette. Fellow practice player Corbin Richter would join me at the hotel later that night.
I arrived at the hotel around three in the afternoon. I had been keeping in touch with Sam Ostarello and told her I was at the hotel, which I originally thought was same as where the team was staying. I check in, take my things to my room, and told Sam I was going to stop by her room (which I believed to be right down the hall from mine). The only problem was, Sam wasn't staying in this particular room 411. I should've known something was odd when the maid cart was outside and door wide open (this would not be my only encounter with the maid). You've probably realized at this point at Sam was absolutely not in the room. It was then when I realized I was in a totally different hotel. I wasn't going to complain about not staying in the team hotel. The coaches had booked a block of rooms for some people at our hotel so it wasn't like we were totally alone.
When I stay in a hotel, it never fails that this scene from Seinfeld pops into my head. The first morning provided enough entertainment to last the weekend. It was about 8:30 in the morning, both Corbin and I are still asleep, and I wake up to the sound of someone spraying Windex or something in the bathroom. I sit up wondering what the hell is going on. At first I thought it was Corbin doing...whatever he would be doing. It turns out Corbin is sound asleep in his bed. I'm sitting in my bed for about a minute and out comes the maid. At this point, I'm shocked and couldn't say anything. It was like I had seen Bigfoot for the first time. The maid had broken into my hotel room and took it upon herself to clean a mirror that she had probably cleaned less than 12 hours ago. Apparently she thought I was Bigfoot too because she looked quite terrified herself. She asked if she could come back, and I could only think of the scene from Tommy Boy where David Spade pretends to be a maid. I eventually told her we were fine and didn't need her talents.
This was a great start to the weekend as you can imagine, and it made me want to spend as little time in the hotel as possible. With that said, we spent a majority of our time over at the team hotel with the team and managers. Three other RIP Squad members made the trip up Friday to watch the game and stay for the remainder of the time.
If you would've told me the closest game of the tournament for the team would be in the quarterfinals against the 11 seed Wisconsin, I would have scoffed in your face like I was better than you and told you to lay off the peyote. I'm not saying I don't have confidence in the team, but the odds would favor higher seeds giving us a better game. The odds also favored Georgetown and San Diego State in the NCAA Tournament this past week and we all know how that ended up.
The win against the Badgers pushed the team into the semifinals against Nebraska, a familiar foe in which they've actually played an extra game than records show due to overtimes. We showed up at the arena wanting to go straight to our seats, but we were roped in by the Verizon people. Its like getting caught in a riptide, these people are like wolves. To put it all together, wolves dragged us into a riptide and made us do things we didn't want to do. As far as I know, none of us have Verizon so the whole presentation they were was pointless. I don't care that they gave us all microfiber pouches for participating, I'm not switching to Verizon.
Since we had wristbands, we were allowed to sit in an elite section of fans right behind the bench. We stuck our noses up at the people who had to sit higher up as we were escorted down to our padded seats with complimentary concessions (actually everyone had padded seats and there was no complimentary concessions, so the wristbands really did nothing). We did, however, get to sit front row. This meant two things. One, we had a nice leg rest in front of us. And two, we were going to be on TV every time down the floor. I was more self conscious than a couple on the Kiss Cam that isn't really a couple (this happened to one of our former managers at a home game). People took pictures of me and the rest of the squad looking like death while clapping to the school song on their TV's.
Nebraska didn't put up much of a fight. Their stars Jordan Hooper and Lindsey Moore didn't have great performances and failed to take advantage of the softest rims in the history of basketball. It seemed like every shot that was put on the rim went in. We had to set the tone for the rest of the crowd by being in the front row. So, we did things like celebrating three pointers by pounding three fingers to our head and doing the Marshall Henderson Landshark.
After the game, we joined the team at their hotel to catch the end of the Michigan State and Penn State game. They were ecstatic to see Sparty pull off the upset to say the least, it must be something about Penn State's Maggie Lucas. We joined the managers in their room after the game ended not only to hang out with them, but because they had enough snacks and Gatorade to feed the entire continent of Africa (I mean the wealthy parts, there was more than enough for the impoverished areas). We spent all night there playing cards and conversing with the players as they came in and out to get food and hang with the cool kids.
The day of the championship was one to remember. For one, it was pouring down rain which proves that James Naismith is a genius for making basketball an inside sport. Two, we avoided being kidnapped by the Verizon people again. And three, the girls didn't mess around with Michigan State and brought home back to back B1G championships. The team and fans celebrated like it was 1999, except nobody has an active My Space account (if you do there’s something missing in your life) and Britney Spears isn’t relevant anymore. A stage was brought out for the trophy presentation, and they shot handfuls of confetti out of a cannon. For the RIP Squad, it was a proud moment. We realized that all the work we put in this season paid off. Then again, we didn’t practice with them during the tournament so we really questioned ourselves as if we really matter. But, the coaches and players tell us otherwise so we have to believe them.
After the win, the team and a select number of fans and
family of the team traveled down the road to a Dave and Buster’s. When we arrived, the manager said they didn't have a reservation for the team. Everyone there made it clear that this was their problem and not ours. They decided to take care of us, which was a good decision on their part. Imagine 17 supposed adults running around like six year olds playing vicious games of four-way air hockey and ski ball. We had an unlimited number of
credits to play any game we wanted. Since the point
of going to an arcade is to collect as many tickets as possible, we left with about 6500 tickets. It helps when you find the one machine that
spits out 250 tickets every time no matter what (because it was broke and I wouldn't let little kids play). That sounds like a lot, but
when you realize we could only buy stuffed animals it makes you wonder how much
people have to spend to buy a $15 teddy bear.
It was a great way to end the weekend. The only thing left to do was drive back and give the state of Illinois whatever I had left in my pocket by going through the toll roads again. Their season continues tomorrow night against Louisville with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. They beat Liberty Sunday to get them in this position. Since we don't get to practice with them until they get back from the tournament, all I know about Louisville is they're a five seed playing at home. None of this matters, because the only good things to come out of Louisville are baseball bats and Colonel Sanders. I didn't include Rick Pitino because it's obvious he runs the mafia and we as a society should frown upon that. Tune into ESPN tomorrow night at 7 to cheer on the team.
Boiler Up
