NCAA Tournament Day 1 Blog

I spent most of the 4 day weekend in a constant state of inebriation and exaltation while submersed in the most basketball-concentrated weekend of the year. I started Thursday off having still been a tad intoxicated from Wednesday night’s events and promptly grabbed a beer upon returning from class at 11 am.

Next came phone calls and a migration of sports fans to my apartment. We drank for a while, and soaked in the first round of games. Nothing too exciting, as Kansas put the smack down on Portland State, and Georgia’s magic ran out against Xavier. Kansas will be a difficult team to deal with down the road.

Enter- leftover sloppy joes. Definitely not a great party food, but delicious nonetheless. The numbers in the apartment are now 7 guys, and our 1 girl roommate. Not very good for us, so we devise a plan. Bikini’s bar & grill. Genius. Girls, games, grub. The traveling party is as follows- me, two of my roommates, a buddy from high school, another buddy who isn’t particularly interested in sports at all, a buddy from Massachusetts, and his two crazy friends who are down for their spring break. They’re already drunk, and downing Shiners quicker than I can even notice.

We just found out that our friend from Mass that goes to UT got mono. Our other roommate has mono. If 2+2=4, then I can only conclude that the two had either watched a little too much Brokeback Mountain, or some saliva was swapped during a recent beer pong match in the apartment. This would be the bulk of our non-Eric related jokes* for the day.
*-Eric is our easy-target roommate, normally the brunt of 95% of our jokes.

Half of our party is tipsy and the second round of games is at half, with Michigan State and Marquette with leads. We depart north, and settle into a VERY empty but inviting Bikini’s. Our party makes up half the patrons in the establishment, and easily being 20 years younger than the next patron, the waitresses flock to our group.

Seated on the extremely comfortable couches in front of two plasma TV’s, we try to fight off sleep as we take in Baylor/Purdue and Kent State/UNLV. Neither is thoroughly entertaining, so we find entertainment in the drink specials. Texas Teas. Our waitresses, clad in bikini tops(hence the name) and blue jean skirts are friendly with their conversation for day-shift workers, and that also helps us get through Pittsburgh’s drubbing of Oral Roberts. Josh Fields of Pitt had a monster game, and will be the sole reason they advance as far as they do.

After finishing our food and a tall beer, we set out to get back to the apartment. Trouble- it’s rush hour. So while trying to weave through traffic, we listen to the games on the radio. Terrible idea to try and drive and mentally construct an image of a basketball game in your head. We manage to escape down some back roads and make it back in relatively good time, before the whiskey shots we took right before leaving set in.

So we get back, crack open another beer, and I start to lose interest in the games all together. As a Red Sox fan, I’m more interested in picking the brains of the Bostonians. And just generally listening to them talk mess to anything that moves.

Nevertheless, we’re out of brews. Corner store time, and everyone wants to go. We pile in the truck, but no one wants to ride in the cab. So, windows down, I drive with 6 in the bed and 1 in the cab. Loud 90’s rap sings through the radio this time, instead of play-by-play radio. Side note- it is still very early in the day. Possibly 4-5 pm. Lots of foot traffic through west campus.

When we get back, the only game on is the west coast game, and we don’t get it on CBS. That only means one thing- time for beer pong. We each take turns selecting which tournament team we will be, and then play as Stanford vs Pittsburg.

After a few games, I decide to devote some time to our female roommate, who just so happens to be having her birthday on the manliest day of 2008. A friend of mine and a group of hers go to Dirty Martins, within walking distance, but we hitchhike anyways. Duke/Belmont is on, and Duke is sucking something fierce. Duke will not last the weekend. Mark that down.

The burger and fries hits the spot, but not as much as the Austin Amber for desert. We stumble back to the apartment. The Bostonians apparently kept the party going while we were out, and now they’re passed out after having tried to start a fight with our door and ruining their friend’s carpet with the contents of their stomachs.

There’s still basketball on, so we settle in and watch A&M struggle with mighty BYU, who lost by 29 to UNLV in the regular season. The most intriguing match up of day one requires some serious concentration, since the winner of this game will be the one to knock Duke out of the Tournament. I’ve got Arizona, and it seems as if the rest of the place has West Virginia. I root quietly, but not so quietly since I’ve now had a few more beers since being back.

We spend 5 minutes making jokes about last year’s NIT championship shirts West Virginia received. They were spelled West VIRGINA, fyi. To my surprise, a few lady friends have stopped by. It appears that someone has stolen my phone and sent a text message to every single female in my phone saying “party at our place. Now.” I had to fend off most of the text replies, explaining that it was all a hoax, but some friends of mine were already on their way. I don’t mind, because the one’s who showed up were close friends, too bad they didn’t know what they were getting into.

West Virginia shoots lights out, and kills my sleeper Arizona team. I exchange insults with the WVU fans, and we all have a laugh at Eric to calm the mood. Day 1 comes to a close with a late night trip to South Austin for a party and Sportscenter highlights. Lights out is at 3, and rise and shine will be again at 11am. It seems like it’s been a month, but day one is over. Only 3 more to go…I’M OUT.