With the brackets releasing yesterday, nothing but college basketball has been on my mind for well over 24 hours.
This included my irrational attempt of planning a trip for me and my dad, who played basketball in college, to St. Louis to see the Midwest Regional game. I thought I had an edge because there was a good chance my dad's favorite team, the North Carolina Tarheels, would be there, but it's looking like a no-go.
Then I thought about how cool it would be to go to what may be my favorite non-Texas city in the US, New Orleans, to see the National Championship game.
After very quickly realizing that wasn't going to happen either, I began to think about where that might rank on my list of best atmospheres I've been in at a sporting event, which quickly made me realize I didn't have a list.
So here it is, the impromptu list of the 5 best sports atmospheres I've ever been in:
No. 5: Kansas State vs. Oklahoma State football
Regardless of it being ranked at No. 5, this was probably the best football GAME I had ever seen. It was incredible. Back-and-forth scoring and it eventually came down to the wire. This was the first game that came down to the last second for the 2011 team, and it was an absolutely nuts atmosphere. Usually, Boone Pickens Stadium starts emptying out when the game is well in hand, but no one left the stadium until well after the game. That's probably also the loudest that stadium has ever been, especially when the game ended on an incomplete pass in the endzone. It unofficially caused an earthquake that scared the mess out of Kirk Herbstreit.
No. 4: Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat NBA Finals Watch Party
The Mavs were down 1-0 in the series and had one more game before they would head back to Dallas for three home games. Dirk vs. LeBron, Jason Terry vs. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh vs. Tyson Chandler, it was an absolutely incredible series. This game was even better. We rode the train to the stadium, which was packed with Mavs fans, and got into a sold-out American Airlines Center to watch the game on the big screen. The fans lived and died with every call, and erupted when the Mavs pulled off the win. They finally would win the series in 6 games, and I found myself celebrating in Downtown Dallas with the rest of the fans from everywhere in the metroplex.
No. 3: Oklahoma State vs. Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse
Oklahoma State headed to Lawrence, KS as a 12-12 team. Kansas was ranked in the Top 5 in the nation. I was used to the Gallagher-Iba crowds that would fill the building up about halfway and would never really get into the game. This wasn't the case at Allen Fieldhouse. The student sections were full with thirty minutes left before tipoff, and it's the first sold-out basketball game I had ever been to. Even better, I sat courtside at the media table while I got text messages from tons of people saying "You're so lucky, I've been trying to get a ticket to a game there for years." Needless to say, I'll be making that drive again next year.
No. 2: Bedlam football- Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, 2011
With the Big 12 Championship on the line, the Sooners rode north to Stillwater to face off against the Pokes. Boone Pickens Stadium was packed, and 98% full, and the crowd was electric. The game got out of hand quickly and the Cowboys ended up winning the game 44-10 with OU's lone touchdown coming off of a scramble from their backup quarterback. I was in the press box for this game, and ended up watching most of the action from the roof of the stadium. I had to hear the crowd and the hits of the pads, watching from behind soundproof glass wasn't doing it for me. Finally, the game ended and the crowd, as expected, poured onto the field. Two goalposts were ripped up from their cement homes in the Lewis Field turf during the process, and the crowd poured into the streets to celebrate. I met up with my friends by the bars and took in as much of the chaos that I could. It was as if a war had just been one or an evil dictator had been overthrown. It was madness. I loved it.
No. 1: 2010 ALCS, Game 2- New York Yankees vs. Texas Rangers
Without a doubt the best atmosphere I had ever been in. My beloved Rangers, also my favorite overall team of any sport both amateur and professional, were facing off against the Yanks in the ALCS. I had been through twenty years of watching the Rangers be the joke of the MLB. I had seen greats like Nolan Ryan, Pudge Rodriguez & Juan Gonzalez (my favorite players growing up), Rusty Greer and Alex Rodriguez (Ugh) come through the stadium without ever winning a single playoff game at home. I was a freshman at the time, and my mom called saying she had somehow gotten four tickets to Game 2 on Saturday, and was seeing if I could come home. "Uhhh... Yeah, I'll be there. Duh." The Rangers lost the first game on Friday night after blowing a 5-0 lead. The stars were aligning. We tailgated outside on Saturday, and eventually made our way to our seats. Rally towels waved and the crowd roared every time a pitch was thrown. I don't think I sat down at any point during the game. The Rangers eventually won their first ever home playoff game that day, and it took us over an hour to get out of the stadium because of the celebration going on everywhere. "Yankees Suck" chants countered the "Lets Go Rangers" screams with high-fives being thrown in every direction. My adrenal gland probably would've filed for a divorce from my body if it could because it pumped for about five hours straight. Even with the four other games below this, none of them were even close to this game. This was probably the best day of my life.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Catching Up
Hey everyone!
I've been SUPER busy the last few months with the newspaper and school and haven't been able to write in here much, but I figured I would post this to catch up a bit.
This will probably be a pretty long and not too detailed post just because there will be a lot of information and opinions in it, but I'll probably expand on some of these later!
Here we go:
The Dallas Mavericks
I came into this year knowing what it would hold. The Mavs would have a so-so year, probably get to the playoffs but not make much noise.
So far that's exactly what has happened.
The reason? Mark Cuban had to piece together some kind of roster for this year to get him to the HEAVY 2012 free agent class. Obviously, the blueprint is to sign Dallas-native PG Deron Williams and C Dwight Howard.
In my opinion, Howard is the big one here. Last year, the Mavericks signed a franchise center in Tyson Chandler, and I'd say 2011 went pretty well for them considering they hoisted the O'Brien Trophy. Dwight Howard is Chandler with an offensive game, and is extremely diverse with his favorite play being the pick-and-roll.
Deron Williams is also intriguing, as there have been many reports of the two wanting to play together next year. If the Mavs can land one of them, it will be huge, but Cuban will try and make both of them work, but it probably won't happen without both accepting contracts that aren't max (Kind of like LeBron and Chris Bosh did in Miami). If he gets Howard but not Williams, I wouldn't be surprised to see Steve Nash back in Dallas. If he gets Williams and not Howard, Marcus Camby or Jermaine O'Neal could be in play, as well as forward Michael Beasley.
The next step for the Dallas Cowboys: The off=season
After another sub-par year, Jerry Jones is left looking surprised because of his team's underachieving... Or maybe that's just the botox, who knows. But I know I'm surprised.
Now that the off-season is here and free agency is set to explode later this week, here is what I think the 'boys need to do to make themselves a legitimate playoff threat in 2012:
Defense: CLEAN HOUSE in the secondary. Don't even let Terrence Newman come to the facility again, just mail his stuff to him with a card that says "Good riddance." The only guys I would keep here are CB Mike Jenkins, who's young and had the injury bug last year but will benefit from a solid, non-lockout off-season, and Safety Abe Elam, who's a veteran player and a leader in the secondary.
Solution: Make a run at Kansas City Chiefs CB Brandon Carr, who has developed into a great player. I'd even love to see Jerry take a long shot and offer to Houston Texans DE Mario Williams. I'd also like to see a safety taken in the first round to play opposite of Elam.
Oklahoma State football
Right now, the talk of the town is the quarterback situation.
Clint Chelf, J.W. Walsh and freshman Wes Lunt are set to battle it out for the job beginning next Monday.
My pick here is J.W. Walsh. I think he's not only more than capable of slinging the ball all over the field like Brandon Weeden did the last two years, but he can also pull it down IF NEEDED, but is not a run-first guy like Zac Robinson sometimes was.
I also love the leadership quality in Walsh. I mean, he had 2 teammates from Denton Guyer follow him to OSU (Josh Stewart and Jimmy Bean, who both had tons of offers from other big-time schools), and has another coming in 2012 (ESPNU 150 prospect Dominic Ramacher).
I don't understand how you can't love what you get with this guy.
Oklahoma State basketball
The Pokes are gearing up for the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, which tips off tomorrow at 8:30pm with a matchup against Texas Tech.
The team is without five players. Two transfers (Fred Gulley, Reger Dowell) and three season-ending injuries (JP Olukemi(ACL), Le'Bryan Nash (hand), Phil Jurick (Achilles)) and are down to about 5 legitimate rotational players.
Their starting lineup will most likely look like this: Cezar Guerrero, Keiton Page, Markel Brown, Brian Williams and Michael Cobbins, with the Czech Prodigy (er... Something like that) Marek Soucek coming off of the bench. Past that? Mason Cox and Christian Sager, who were playing at the Colvin Center when the season began.
Every OSU fan would hope that the Pokes can pull it off against Texas Tech, who has one win in Big 12 play this year against Oklahoma. If they do that, they'll face Missouri in the second round, and would likely end their year there.
However, the future looks promising for the team. They have five-star guard prospect Marcus Smart coming in from Flower Mound, TX, and he's bringing three-star guard Phil Forte with him. Combine that with the other players coming back from injuries and maybe another key pickup and the Pokes should be a legitimate competitor when 2012-13 tips off.
That's all I've got for this one, I'll try and keep up with this more often. Thanks for reading!
I've been SUPER busy the last few months with the newspaper and school and haven't been able to write in here much, but I figured I would post this to catch up a bit.
This will probably be a pretty long and not too detailed post just because there will be a lot of information and opinions in it, but I'll probably expand on some of these later!
Here we go:
The Dallas Mavericks
I came into this year knowing what it would hold. The Mavs would have a so-so year, probably get to the playoffs but not make much noise.
So far that's exactly what has happened.
The reason? Mark Cuban had to piece together some kind of roster for this year to get him to the HEAVY 2012 free agent class. Obviously, the blueprint is to sign Dallas-native PG Deron Williams and C Dwight Howard.
In my opinion, Howard is the big one here. Last year, the Mavericks signed a franchise center in Tyson Chandler, and I'd say 2011 went pretty well for them considering they hoisted the O'Brien Trophy. Dwight Howard is Chandler with an offensive game, and is extremely diverse with his favorite play being the pick-and-roll.
Deron Williams is also intriguing, as there have been many reports of the two wanting to play together next year. If the Mavs can land one of them, it will be huge, but Cuban will try and make both of them work, but it probably won't happen without both accepting contracts that aren't max (Kind of like LeBron and Chris Bosh did in Miami). If he gets Howard but not Williams, I wouldn't be surprised to see Steve Nash back in Dallas. If he gets Williams and not Howard, Marcus Camby or Jermaine O'Neal could be in play, as well as forward Michael Beasley.
The next step for the Dallas Cowboys: The off=season
After another sub-par year, Jerry Jones is left looking surprised because of his team's underachieving... Or maybe that's just the botox, who knows. But I know I'm surprised.
Now that the off-season is here and free agency is set to explode later this week, here is what I think the 'boys need to do to make themselves a legitimate playoff threat in 2012:
Defense: CLEAN HOUSE in the secondary. Don't even let Terrence Newman come to the facility again, just mail his stuff to him with a card that says "Good riddance." The only guys I would keep here are CB Mike Jenkins, who's young and had the injury bug last year but will benefit from a solid, non-lockout off-season, and Safety Abe Elam, who's a veteran player and a leader in the secondary.
Solution: Make a run at Kansas City Chiefs CB Brandon Carr, who has developed into a great player. I'd even love to see Jerry take a long shot and offer to Houston Texans DE Mario Williams. I'd also like to see a safety taken in the first round to play opposite of Elam.
Oklahoma State football
Right now, the talk of the town is the quarterback situation.
Clint Chelf, J.W. Walsh and freshman Wes Lunt are set to battle it out for the job beginning next Monday.
My pick here is J.W. Walsh. I think he's not only more than capable of slinging the ball all over the field like Brandon Weeden did the last two years, but he can also pull it down IF NEEDED, but is not a run-first guy like Zac Robinson sometimes was.
I also love the leadership quality in Walsh. I mean, he had 2 teammates from Denton Guyer follow him to OSU (Josh Stewart and Jimmy Bean, who both had tons of offers from other big-time schools), and has another coming in 2012 (ESPNU 150 prospect Dominic Ramacher).
I don't understand how you can't love what you get with this guy.
Oklahoma State basketball
The Pokes are gearing up for the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, which tips off tomorrow at 8:30pm with a matchup against Texas Tech.
The team is without five players. Two transfers (Fred Gulley, Reger Dowell) and three season-ending injuries (JP Olukemi(ACL), Le'Bryan Nash (hand), Phil Jurick (Achilles)) and are down to about 5 legitimate rotational players.
Their starting lineup will most likely look like this: Cezar Guerrero, Keiton Page, Markel Brown, Brian Williams and Michael Cobbins, with the Czech Prodigy (er... Something like that) Marek Soucek coming off of the bench. Past that? Mason Cox and Christian Sager, who were playing at the Colvin Center when the season began.
Every OSU fan would hope that the Pokes can pull it off against Texas Tech, who has one win in Big 12 play this year against Oklahoma. If they do that, they'll face Missouri in the second round, and would likely end their year there.
However, the future looks promising for the team. They have five-star guard prospect Marcus Smart coming in from Flower Mound, TX, and he's bringing three-star guard Phil Forte with him. Combine that with the other players coming back from injuries and maybe another key pickup and the Pokes should be a legitimate competitor when 2012-13 tips off.
That's all I've got for this one, I'll try and keep up with this more often. Thanks for reading!
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