After weeks of walking into practice and hearing many of my teammates talk about the awesome plays being made at the men’s basketball games, I decided that I just had to see for myself.
When the usher ripped my ticket he said, “You can sit anywhere, if you can find a seat.”
I’ve never had trouble finding a seat before at a basketball game. Could this be for real? Of course it is.
The Pioneers have earned their first national ranking in the mid-major category and are now in second place in the Sun Belt Conference at 10-3.
The key to getting into the NCAA tournament at the end of the season is to win conference and that is looking more likely as the Pioneers continue to dominate conference opponents.
It is also predicted that DU will receive a No. 14 seed in one of the regional draws at the tournament.
With all of this hype, I just couldn’t pass up the excitement.
Looking around, I was absolutely amazed at how the fans are getting into the action. “That was sick,” yelled one fan after one play. “That was a terrible call, ref,” another fan yelled from across the court.
That same fan was coincidentally standing and yelling most of the game.
But fans just don’t get into the game, they need a reason to get excited.
For that the Pioneers have junior Yemi Nicholson who had an ally-oop in the middle of the fist half that left a thoroughly confunsed look on the defenders’ faces and the crowd went nuts.
His dunks throughout the second half didn’t do much to calm the crowd either.
I don’t remember the last time I saw a dunk in a Pioneer game and now I feel that it should be expected.
He was even featured on Channel 7’s Xtra Sports coverage.
The Pioneers also have Rodney Billups.
You know when you are watching football or another sport on television and the cameraman is faked out and loses contact with the ball.
That is how I feel everytime I watch Billups drive.
It is no wonder he seems to stroll around defenders.
My eyes can barely keep in contact with the ball as he fakes this way, fakes that way and goes for the hoop.
Of course it isn’t good enough to cheer for the home team.
It is crucial to be absolutely silent when the other team scores.
I think I heard a cricket chirp when an opposing player hit a three.
We’ve all seen those shots on ESPN of great plays and huge crowds at college games.
Secretly, I’ve wished that I could turn on ESPN and see a play from a game I was just at on the top 10. Now with this Pioneer basketball team it is all becoming a reality.
We have a team that may go to the NCAA tournament and with that comes “sick” plays that find their way to the top 10 list.
I have even seen Pioneer plays on the big video segment of a Fox 31’s sportscast.
That is the time where they chose the top two or three plays of the day from around the country in any sport
It is time for Pioneer fans, who haven’t seen the basketball team for themselves to realize the potential of this team and come see some of the plays live that they will be seeing on the ESPN countdown later that night.
