Mar 09, 2011 - Mar 11, 2011
UST 5.1 Big East Tourney
The Mini UST That Almost Killed Fred S and Gave His Dad a Heart Attack! (Seriously!!!)
4 Games, New York City, Pneumonia and a Heart Attack
Mar 9 2011: Manhattan, NY. Madison Square Garden. Half of UST Blesses the Big East Tourney
Red was working and Brands came in a day late, so the Wednesday PM sessions were only attended by Truba and Fred S. Not too much to say because the games were pretty much blowouts. Cincinnati beat USF 87 – 61 and Marquette had a small upset against West Virginia 67 – 61. Truba was more excited for the NYC food.
Mar 10 2011: Manhattan, NY. Madison Square Garden. Half of UST See the Best Games of the Tourney
Same excuse for Red and Brands for their absence, so Truba and Fred S of course got to see the best games of the tournament in the Thursday AM session. Some old school teams came to play. UConn beat Pitt 76 – 74 and really started its Kemba Walker fuelled run to the Big East Championship. Syracuse snuck by St. John’s 79-73. Red was stoked for a St. John’s win, so when that didn’t happen it cursed Red’s eventual appearance at the tournament that evening……
Mar 10 2011: Manhattan, NY. Madison Square Garden. Red Finally Shows Up….For Some Blowouts
Red’s expectations for the PM session was high after watching the scores for the AM sessions on his cell in some boring conference room. He arrived and almost fell asleep as Notre Dame beat Cincinnati 89 – 51 (38 point margin of victory! Boo!) and Louisville beat Marquette 81 – 56 (25 point margin of victory! Boo!).
Mar 11 2011: Manhattan, NY. Madison Square Garden. Big East Semi-finals. Both go to overtime!
The mini UST ends on a high note….or so we thought. See what happened below. As for the basketball we got two great games that went to overtime, to give us a little feel for a late night Big East tourney drama as only MSG can provide. Louisville beat Notre Dame 83 – 77 and the number nine seed UConn Huskies rode the hotness of Kemba Walker passed Syracuse 76 – 71. The only downside was watching the Wall Street types in suits showing up to cheer on their alma mater. Less blue suits and red ties would have been nice.
Other Highlights:
The whole UST crew got stuck in the rain after Thursday night’s games. We didn’t know it at the time, but the soaking gave Fred S pneumonia that put him into the hospital for almost a week. On top of that, the stress from having his son in the hospital gave Fred S, Sr. a heart attack that put him into the hospital as well! Holy crap!! Everyone was fine in the end, but half of the UST roster didn’t even know about this for months after it happened. If it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger, thus Fred S should be up for an even more intense trip in the future!
Doing a mini UST in conjunction with a work trip is always a financial pleasure, because the hotel room can be expensed. For those not working they can fly in on points, stay at the hotel for free and that only leaves the cost of the tickets. Great set up!
Truba took the train for 45 minutes to Brooklyn in order to get some super deep dish pizza. It was covered in a swamps worth of tomato sauce and Truba said he loved it. We’ll take his word for it. He’s a pizza connoisseur. Meanwhile, the rest of the UST crew went to Goodburger at West 45th Street. Solid burger, but not quite up there with In-N-Out or Whataburger or Fatburger. No regrets though. Late night/early morning pizza for the UST crew after the Friday games that was a little crispy.
Why has the Big East decided to self destruct? Good thing we caught the Big East Tournament in its purest form. It’ll never be the same without Syracuse and Pitt and whoever else decides to leave.