In my senior year at Saint Louis University the Billiken basketball team is in their first NCAA tournament in twelve years. I’ll be attending the tournament as a completely biased fan and will share the experience in this multi-part feature. 

Wednesday, March 14th

6:40 AM

I wasn’t thinking about basketball when I woke up. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about anything except why the hell my alarm was going off at such a painfully early hour. I threw some water on my face and grabbed a duffle bag. I found five blue SLU shirts, put them in a bag and I was ready to go. Now a few minutes later my buddy Donnie and his friend, Ben, are outside my apartment ready to drive to Donnie’s hometown of Cleveland. Ben is going to Columbus to cover the tournament for Fox Sports. So we start heading north in Donnie’s Honda Element complete with two journalists, one professional journalist, and me.

1:00 PM

I assumed that the road trip would provide a lot of hilarious hiccups and crazy situations, you know, like that movie, Road Trip, but it turned out to be a big disappointment that was easily forgettable, kind of like that movie, Road Trip. Luckily, we passed the time with deep conversation and an odd combination of Lil’ Wayne, Tom Petty and Master P.

As we drove through Indiana, I had expectations of talking with strangers about the departure of Peyton Manning, while comparing brackets with Reggie Miller and Ron Swanson, but it turned out that the only thing that I said to an Indianian was, “Uhh, I’ll take a Jr. Cheeseburger, a five-piece nuggets, and a chocolate [shake.]”

We finally passed the Ohio state line and I was surprised in the similarity between farms in the two states. It’s almost like they were competing in plainness. A few hours later we pulled up to Donnie’s house and were greeted by an extremely friendly, all-American family who treated us with the utmost hospitality. Donnie’s mother attempted to murder me with an over-abundance of cookies, rice-crispy treats, and sloppy joe’s. As usual, I persevered.

7:00 PM

After dinner we put on our party pants and got ready to show Cleveland a night like it had never seen. To be honest, I don’t think that I can even write about half the stuff that happened after we hit the bars, but I can tell you that Drew Carey’s house will never be the same. I haven’t seen the movie Project X, but I assume it is tame compared to my first night in Cleveland.

To be even more honest, none of this actually happened. Nine hours of travel and excessive eating made us quite exhausted and I’m pretty sure we were all in bed (my sheets were complete with a flower design) by eleven.

Thursday, March 15th

9:00 AM

After a shower and some Eggo waffles, we took the car for a quick look at the city and a visit to Donnie’s grandparents to wish Donnie’s grandfather a belated happy birthday. This trip turns into two hours in the living room of two genuinely nice senior citizens complete with some funny stories and a few, “I’m pretty sure that’s not offensive because they’re old” moments. As we pulled out of their driveway I wrote “Call my grandpa” in the calendar of my phone.

On our way home we hit up a local bar/restaurant to get some BBQ just to make sure that I didn’t go four hours without gaining a pound. At that point the NCAA Tournament started and we remembered the point of this trip. The NBA trade deadline and NFL free agency became irrelevant. We raced home and put the TV on one of the games. We were in heaven.

After one game my bracket was busted. I had Colorado State making a run to the Sweet Sixteen. Turns out, that was stupid. And that’s where I find myself now; lying on a couch watching four basketball games at once. The games are intriguing, but I can’t stop thinking about tomorrow when I will attend my first NCAA tournament game. And then I’ll attend three more.

We kick off tomorrow around noon with North Carolina State versus San Diego State, which should be a thriller. About six hours later I’ll be watching my school compete against Memphis. I suppose I should make a prediction. I have been waiting for tomorrow for four years, so why not make it a four-point game?

SLU 72

Memphis 68

Go Team