I should explain that happiness. Sure, I will typically be happy to accept any free ticket to watch college hoops in person, especially when I know both the company and the seats will be good. However, I grew up hating the Hoyas. I'm not sure that I can explain why, other than that they seemed to be the opposite of what I liked in basketball, even at a young age. My perception may not have matched reality, but I thought they can't shoot. No one moves because they don't really run an offense. They play a gahdam zone defense! The Iverson years did nothing but cement my feelings about them, and having Craig Esherick as coach only amplified them. That guy was an awful coach, from my perspective. It was during Esherick's reign that I first accompanied the BHK to the occasional game, and it was perhaps more brutal in person than on TV. On TV, at least I can change the channel. The BHK, a lifelong G-town fan, even discontinued his season tickets for a year as his monetary protest of Escherick. That's how bad he was.
Things started to change once JT3 came along to change things. They still play some zone on D, but I've changed my stance on that over the years. The real key is that their offense is a joy to watch. I've come to root for them, and I generally watch them when it's convenient to do so (i.e. it doesn't conflict with an IU game).
Hmm. Sorry. That explanation got out of control there. The point is that we were watching a very close game, in which I was rooting for the Hoyas. The score was tied as Georgetown got the ball with 39 seconds left. They took a timeout to set things up. They moved the ball around when play resumed, but they couldn't get any open looks. They swung the ball around, nothing. The shot clock was winding down and DaJuan Summers had the ball, saw an open man at the top of the key, and fired it to him. The guy took the ball and launched a 3-pointer. As it went up, I thought we were headed for overtime, because the open guy was Roy Hibbert. Roy Hibbert, the All-Everything center. The 7'-2" All-Everything center. The lumbering, non-athletic, non-explosive, slow of foot, 7'-2"All-Everything center. The buzzer went off, just before the shot hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
The Phone Booth exploded in noise. The crowd went bonkers. It wasn't quite a game-ending buzzer beater, but it was close enough in my book. There's nothing quite like being part of the crowd when the home team hits a huge shot at the end of the game like that. It. Was. Awesome! UConn called a timeout, then came back in and turned the ball over to end the game.
During that last timeout, the Georgetown band started playing Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." In time with the opening sequence of heavy beats, the crowd appropriately chanted/yelled/sang,
Roy!
Roy, Roy, Roy!
Roy, Roy, Roy!
Roy, Roy, Royyyyyyyyyyy
Just excellent, excellent stuff. Thanks to the BHK for the seat. Here's the video (for as long as it lasts on YouTube).
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