Having resided in Shorewood, WI for the past 13 years, when I saw that NU was in the words of Big & Rich, "...comin to my cit-a-y-yy," I had to splurge. Sure, it would've been the economically responsible play to pick off some cheap seats on gameday off one of the SeatStubGeekHubApps, but there is nothing rational about being a NU hoops fan. So, once I got the email from the NU Athletic Dept, I went over and gave Ticketmaster my money. Since I don't expect the 'Cats to 1)play 4 miles away from my house, and 2)play in such an intimate setting in front of me and 500 other fans that reside among the North North Shore, I went for the first row courtside seats.
Cousin Carl (my #1 go-to wingman on hoops game attendance not just because of blood, but also because he's coached high school/junior high hoops, so he's a great analyst to have in-person) and I were able to park on the street about two blocks away for free (Free Parking on Sunday!), and grabbed a bite at the one station that was open (only mainstream stadium fare) before taking our seats during the second half of the UWM-Akron game.
In my mindseye, courtside seats would mean I'd eagerly perform the role of Spike Lee superfan, dapping up Nicky Meatballs after every flipper and getting in the defensive stance alongside Matty Nix on crucial possessions. Unfortunately, my lack of fiserv forum layout knowledge (or, let's be real, my unwillingness to use google and actually research these things) revealed that courtside seats meant front row behind the scorer's table. To be specific, right smack dab behind where the official's review microphone is stationed. This meant I also had eyes on the monitor that had six cameras running simultaneously (which meant I knew if/when to mug it up when in-arena bits like "Beach Ball Cam" were running during timeouts.)
However, I was 10 feet away from the UWM bench - and from these seats I could witness the interplay between the assistant coaches, spy what they're writing on the greaseboards, and generally experience the vibes of a squad. For UWM it was going pretty good, and the UWM partisans behind me were doing their level best to energize the team. They were rewarded as after the final buzzer, the victorious Panthers did a lap through. our section to high five their faithful. I crouched in my seat as the fans behind me engaged the players. (Akin to those rare times I go to Catholic mass, and don't participate in Communion.). Anyway, I was hopeful that since UWM was the 'home' bench, that the 'Cats would also be that close.
Alas, as the 'Cats came out to warm-up and did it on our side of the court, a pang hit my stomach as I knew that teams usually played the first half at the basket away from their bench. Oh well.
The upper bowl, as well as the ends of the lower bowl were empty. Scorer table side had the majority of the fans, while the opposite side was probably half as much as us. The crowd was small, but reliably purple. Overall, while the 'Cats led wire to wire, from where I was sitting, it didn't feel that easy. Lance Terry is a guard with electric hops, and he'd hit these bailout stepback 3s after the 'Cats would play hard defense for most of the possession. Barnhizer's offensive inefficiency in the first half left alot of points on the table (and of course, we'd learn later a big reason for why he looked rusty). We seemed to rim out really good looks - we hit half of those in the first half, we could've been up 16-20 and that's likely when we woulda seen the frosh get run. Do the kids need minutes? Sure. However, the 'Cats need to lock down Ws - especially Semi-Home games against weaker P5 teams. Hopefully the starters can extend early leads in the next two non-cons so that our kids can get that precious in-game run. Other random takes:
Cousin Carl (my #1 go-to wingman on hoops game attendance not just because of blood, but also because he's coached high school/junior high hoops, so he's a great analyst to have in-person) and I were able to park on the street about two blocks away for free (Free Parking on Sunday!), and grabbed a bite at the one station that was open (only mainstream stadium fare) before taking our seats during the second half of the UWM-Akron game.
In my mindseye, courtside seats would mean I'd eagerly perform the role of Spike Lee superfan, dapping up Nicky Meatballs after every flipper and getting in the defensive stance alongside Matty Nix on crucial possessions. Unfortunately, my lack of fiserv forum layout knowledge (or, let's be real, my unwillingness to use google and actually research these things) revealed that courtside seats meant front row behind the scorer's table. To be specific, right smack dab behind where the official's review microphone is stationed. This meant I also had eyes on the monitor that had six cameras running simultaneously (which meant I knew if/when to mug it up when in-arena bits like "Beach Ball Cam" were running during timeouts.)
However, I was 10 feet away from the UWM bench - and from these seats I could witness the interplay between the assistant coaches, spy what they're writing on the greaseboards, and generally experience the vibes of a squad. For UWM it was going pretty good, and the UWM partisans behind me were doing their level best to energize the team. They were rewarded as after the final buzzer, the victorious Panthers did a lap through. our section to high five their faithful. I crouched in my seat as the fans behind me engaged the players. (Akin to those rare times I go to Catholic mass, and don't participate in Communion.). Anyway, I was hopeful that since UWM was the 'home' bench, that the 'Cats would also be that close.
Alas, as the 'Cats came out to warm-up and did it on our side of the court, a pang hit my stomach as I knew that teams usually played the first half at the basket away from their bench. Oh well.
The upper bowl, as well as the ends of the lower bowl were empty. Scorer table side had the majority of the fans, while the opposite side was probably half as much as us. The crowd was small, but reliably purple. Overall, while the 'Cats led wire to wire, from where I was sitting, it didn't feel that easy. Lance Terry is a guard with electric hops, and he'd hit these bailout stepback 3s after the 'Cats would play hard defense for most of the possession. Barnhizer's offensive inefficiency in the first half left alot of points on the table (and of course, we'd learn later a big reason for why he looked rusty). We seemed to rim out really good looks - we hit half of those in the first half, we could've been up 16-20 and that's likely when we woulda seen the frosh get run. Do the kids need minutes? Sure. However, the 'Cats need to lock down Ws - especially Semi-Home games against weaker P5 teams. Hopefully the starters can extend early leads in the next two non-cons so that our kids can get that precious in-game run. Other random takes:
- Being that close to the action, I'm struck by power and speed these guys play with in such close quarters. That really was apparent to me in how our guys defended - Ty Berry really worked hard on several sequences and he did some real good things that aren't readily seen in the stat-sheet.
- Damon Stoudamire is a really patient presence. Sure, he'd grimace back at his bench when he'd see his players not execute specific items, but for the most part he was positive. While the post-game dap up between he and Collins was brief, it looked to me genuine.
- Ryan Mutombo is a large dude. Plus, this was the first time all season he got run, and looking at his kenpom history, the longest run since the '22 season when he was a frosh at Georgetown - 22 minutes MP, 10 on 8 shots, 7 reb, 1 blk. I don't know what took him so long to get such run, because he looked the part to me.
- The one play review (the hard screen on Ty Berry) was really brief, and based on what I could see from the ref's review it was hard to discern anything higher than a common foul as well.
