Friday
Six hours from now, the #16 (AP) UVA Men’s Basketball Team will take on #5 Baylor as part of one of the very best things to arise in sports over the last few years, “Feast Week”—an orgy of really good college basketball played in and around Thanksgiving. There are four teams here, with #8 UCLA playing #19 Illinois in the game following ours. Winners and losers play each other Sunday.
I first learned of this tournament at some point last season, and realized then that two things were true. The first was that the 2022-23 team would almost certainly be better than the 2021-22 team, and the second was that the earlier I got it on my schedule, the more likely I would be to attend. So sometime in June—I bought a plane ticket to Vegas and tickets to the game. I arrived yesterday, but not without an O.J. like sprint through the Denver airport to make my connecting flight.
The timing and scheduling of this trip is not optimal, as the Kittens are beginning to converge on the farm for Thanksgiving. Additionally, with games on Friday and Sunday, there’s a whole extra day involved (Saturday) that I probably could have made better use of, and I had to travel on Thursday and Monday. Like most of my personal/entertainment trips, there will be plenty of work done, as my job is pretty portable. Because my system is still aligned to the East Coast, I was up at 0430 and have put in an honest six hours before sitting down to write this. Will likely work a bit tomorrow and Sunday too—not a bad life, getting to work and play.
I do not care for Las Vegas. I do not gamble, I am not drawn to live performances by aging B-listers, there really isn’t much here for me except college hoops. I feel like I am in a city that consists mainly of passengers from 300 budget cruise ships. I am lodged off “the strip” by my own choice in a Marriott property (Platinum Elite, natch) without a casino associated. At breakfast this morning, I saw a few Illinois fans, but as of yet have only run into one UVA fan known to me, and I knew he was coming already. Scott is his name, and he was my Sigma Chi Pledge Class President back in the day. Scott chose to stay in Charlottesville after we graduated, and he’s carved out a great life for himself there. Anything I need to know (or think I need to know) about UVA sports is fact-checked with him, and his record is pretty solid.
Scott and I had dinner last night in a place that screamed “Las Vegas”, where the slicing of the prime rib from a cart in front of you was presented as the height of fine dining (I conceded to Scott that it WAS a step-up from a food truck). I kept looking around for Joey Bishop, but he was nowhere to be found.
I’ve got another work phone call in a little while, and then I’ll track Scott down and maybe head out for a little recon before joining the pregame festivities. More later.
Saturday
It is 1100 hrs. on Saturday, and I have spent a good bit of the last four hours devouring as much of the news and podcast coverage of Virginia’s “statement” win over Baylor last night 86-79. It was glorious. I’ve been very high on this team, if for no other reason than they won 21 games last season and have everyone of consequence back. A great transfer addition and four talented freshmen definitely had me excited, excited enough to make plans for attending this tournament before last season was even over.
But I did not know what to expect last night. Baylor is a great program and has gotten into a rhythm of reloading with top talent from both high school and the transfer portal. They were on a number of final 4 predictions this year, and entered the game a 4.5 pt. favorite. When the first half ended, we were hanging with them, 33-30, although they have a freshman named Keyonte George who really looked like he was not only the best player on the court, and that he might just boat-race us on his own. And then the “Cavalanche” happened, and we went on a huge run, hitting a bunch of 3 point shots (which we were not taking in the first half) and forcing a number of turnovers on defense. Baylor made a great run in the last ten minutes, but the margin was big enough for us to hold on.
My game-buddy Scott—when we were up about 20 on them—kept saying over and over “this is for real, this is for real”, and I gave him a shot in the ribs to encourage him to pipe down. “Nothing is for real until it is over” was my retort. And then it was over.
We then sat back and actually enjoyed a college basketball game, as Illinois beat up on Top-10 UCLA to set up tomorrow’s championship game, evidently the first time UVA and Illinois have ever faced each other. I say enjoyed, because watching good college basketball without any emotional skin in the game is one of life’s simple pleasures. I decided to root for UCLA, as apparently the rigors of the 4.5 hour drive to Vegas was too much for their fanbase to make. It really felt like there were maybe 100 UCLA fans in the building. So in order to give them a little bit of a spiritual tail-wind, I added my support. Also, the Illinois fanbase is here in HUGE numbers (maybe 2/3 of the arena) and they are a spirited bunch. There is a good showing from UVA fans, but it could be better. I was really surprised how few Baylor fans were there.
So tomorrow’s final will be between two teams that feature orange in their school colors, which is a little confusing, but after the game starts there will be little confusion as it will essentially be an away game for UVA, just like the 2019 game vs. Purdue in the Elite 8 where the loudest, best, most rabid fan-base I’ve ever seen witnessed the best college basketball game in history—which their team lost.
Watching Illinois last night was interesting. They are a little chaotic and sloppy, but immensely athletic. I didn’t see much to justify UCLA’s Top 10 ranking; it wasn’t just that they got beat up, it was that they didn’t seem to have any answer for what Illinois was throwing at them. The final tomorrow is going to be a good game. UVA’s backcourt (Reece Beekman, Kihei Clark) are going to have to step it up a bit in the scoring department (17 pts between them last night), and UVA’s big men are going to have a tough time with Dain Dainja, a 270 lb mountain of a human. But no more trepidation on my part—we can win this game and I am going in with a positive attitude.
The rest of the day is free-form—I’ve got some work to do, I need to get my fat ass on the treadmill, and I’ve got a solid steakhouse reservation for dinner. Be back with you tomorrow, likely after the game.
Sunday
It is 1715 hrs on Sunday evening, and I’ve just arrived back at my hotel after watching two great basketball games featuring four great teams. First thing I did when I got in my room was make my Uber Eats Chinese order, second thing was turn on the Kentucky vs. Gonzaga game. I can’t get enough of this sport.
UVA had a tough one with Illinois today, but ultimately won the game 70-61, meaning that my Wahoos took the title. It was a back and forth affair all the way through, and I don’t think I’d like to play Illinois again. Two big wins against two very good teams, and in the second game, Virginia won even though it did not shoot very well—which is a good sign.
I thought about the 2019 National Championship run, and how stressful/exciting those games were. We are a couple of weeks into the season and the two games we played this weekend had March vibes about them. I was as stressed during this game as any back then. The good news was that after our game, I got to sit back and relax while watching two top ten teams (Baylor and UCLA) play. I wanted Baylor to win, mostly because I thought that would make our win over them look better. It was so fun to watch—when mistakes were made, I didn’t care because it wasn’t my team making them. When good shots were made or good defense was played, I cheered, not caring which team was performing them. Baylor won 80-75.
I’m gonna finish this post, get my Chinese food from my new friend Uber Driver Arion, and then relax some more watching Gonzaga v. Kentucky. Tomorrow (when you are likely reading this) I’ll get up early and work for a few hours, then catch a flight home.
The decision last spring to put this weekend on my schedule and then stay with it turned out to be superb. The UVA team is something special—considerably better than any team of the last three years, and maybe even approaching the Natty Team and the UMBC loss team the year before (which was a superb team too).
Tough games against Michigan (away) and Houston (home) are ahead in the next couple of weeks (I did in fact look at my schedule to see if the Michigan game were doable, but it is unlikely), but I like what I’m seeing.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you have a lot of things for which to be grateful—I am grateful for your interest in my mutterings.
Well done getting to Vegas and cheering on the Hoos. Seems to be a different mindset this year. More willing to let it fly early in the shot clock. Commentator said they aren't playing the packline this year (nfi). Maybe it's too vulnerable to the 3pt shot? Anyway, BZ. This year's team will be fun to watch and we just got a teaser of McNeally!
Well written, Bryan. I found myself wanting to watch the championship game and then disappointedly realizing it already occurred. Happy Thanksgiving!