Fantastic day. One of my all time favorite "in person" EMAW basketball experiences. The continued domination of the Chisholm Trail rivalry brings a tremendous amount of joy.
This post has gotten extremely long, but pretty full of
right now, so don't care.
My wife got back from a business trip, and didn't feel like going, so I put my 2 year old boy down for an early nap so that he could wake up in time for us to get to the Drum in time for the tip. We got into the drum about 10 minutes early, but it was then we hit our first snag. A trip to the concession stand was mandatory for us, yet the lines were all nearly "hot dog day" in length and moved at a snail's pace. Finally we got our snacks. Hot dog, pretzel, "small" popcorn (this would prove to be an enormous mistake), and a refreshing fountain Diet Coke for me, and Sprite for the boy.
By the time we walked into the upper deck of the arena, the Katz had already built up a 7-1 lead, and the home fans were obviously feeling tense at being in an early hole to their rival. We got a row to ourselves somewhat quite a bit closer to the game than what our tickets were for. Many horn fans, in obvious anticipation of continued disappointment, followed ksu_FAN's lead and didn't want to watch.
First half:
The hot dog and pretzel were pretty good, the popcorn kind of stale, but the boy devoured it. He ate 1/4 of the dog, 1/3 of the pretzel and 3/4 of the hot dog. Horn fans were never got started in the first half. I was impressed with our D, but more than anything was pretty
since it seemed like we had a lot of opportunities on the offensive end that we let slip by. Was pretty excited that Anderson was hitting his Free Throws though. When the half ended there were a smattering of boos from Horn fans disgusted that they were once again being whipped by their bitter rival.
Half time:
So the boy wanted more
. Pound for pound he's the most impressive popcorn eater I've ever seen. So we go down to the concession stand again, and the lines are worse than they were before the game. By the time we got back into the arena with another popcorn and a hotdog it's about the 16:00 minute mark of the second half. Message from me to "The Drum" concessionaires:
Second half:
More and more obvious displeasure from those around me. Clemente keeps hitting big shots, and the guy behind gets furiouser and furiouser. A
bunch of people left about the 7:00 mark. Have to admit, I was feeling pretty
.
The next 3 minutes of game time seemed to take about 30 minutes of real time. Since I had the boy I was relatively subdued, but at one point after a replay showed that a horn had committed a foul that wasn't called I yelled out "That's a foul". A little bit later when a Kat committed an obvious foul a 60 year old with an orange tie die shirt with hair down to his waist yells over at me "That's a foul" and I'm all, "Yup, it is."
At about the 5 minute mark, it becomes obvious that this game is being played on the right weekend, as this is their Super Bowl. Their fans really start coming to life.
At about the 3 minute mark the boy polishes off the last of the popcorn and the hot dog
. He also decides he wants to go. Also it's also extremely obvious to anyone with a nose that he's pooped in his pull-up. I pretend not to notice.
Was extremely
when it went into overtime. I thought we'd crumble. Also, the boy wasn't smelling any better. Pretty
when Abrams fouled out though.
After the game, the boy yelled "Go Wildcats!" a bunch, and we made it to the diaper changing station to transfer the stench from around the boy to the trash can in the rest room.
Overall, pretty much an A+ day.
