On The Plate ... (3/18/04-3/21/04)

The Weekend -- Part 1 of 3

Read Part 2               Read Part 3

(Sorry for the delay. The weekend was a killer and I had to go out of town on business earlier in the week. In other words, I had no time to write. But I'm back now and writing feverishly. Lots on the way.)

Is there any question as to why I love this junk? Seriously, is there? F no. What an unbelievable weekend. Absolutely brilliant. From the first tips (Maryland vs UTEP) to the final buzzer (Kentucky vs UAB), it was nothing but absolute, unadulterated chaos. My buddy Disco and I figured out that from Thursday morning to Saturday night we logged close to 34 hours at the same bar. What bar? Ryleigh's. Why Ryleigh's? I'll get to that later. (The only reason I'm giving a time total through Saturday night is because Disco had to catch a plane early Sunday morning.) I hit a different joint on Sunday because I thought I was going to go insane if I spent any more time at Ryleigh's. Seriously. And my boy, Charm City Bow Wow, was watching the BC game at Mad River for the same reason. Mad River turned out to be a money call on Sunday. More on that later as well. There's a lot to catch up on. Believe me. And I don't even remember it at.

Thursday…The Setup (Yes, I took off of work.)

(Some background: Disco is my buddy from Vanderbilt. He's initially from Connecticut but lived in Baltimore for 2 years after we graduated. Last March, when Disco still lived in Charm City, we both took off Thursday and Friday and watched every minute of every game at the greatest bar in America, Boomerang, which has subsequently closed because it was a dump. Yes, that sentence makes sense. If you know, you know. If not, go with me. And it was one of the greatest bars in America, at least for my personal circumstances. Anyway, because Disco has the illness almost as much as I do, he decided to fly down to B-more for the greatest weekend of the year.)

When Disco got in, we rolled down into Federal Hill to find a bar that had the Tournament Package, aka a joint that got every game that wouldn't mind switching games if we asked them to. First choice? MaGerk's. No package. Pissed. But I had been told by one of the bartenders earlier in the week that he didn't think that they would have it so I wasn't "you'll-never-see-another-dollar-of-mine-again" pissed. Second choice? Ryleigh's. Ryleigh's is a money place to watch Maryland games. So we rolled down to Ryleigh's. No package. What? The owner of the joint proceeds to tell Disco and I that he got the package last year, but that this year Direct TV wants $800 for the weekend and that he definitely wasn't paying that much. So Disco and I leave mumbling expletives under our breath. Why the expletives? 2 reasons: 1) Because we were banking on Ryleigh's having the package and 2) We were now forced to go to Mad River. So what? So what is that Mad River is the joint that bought Boomerang and turned my favorite bar into a friggin' guido spa. In other words, it's a joint where every Charm City jackass tries to out-jackass the other jackasses. I hate it. I could write about this for a while but I wont now. Maybe after the tourney to pass the time. Other than the fact that my boy, Mike, still bartends at Mad River (he's the lone holdover from the Boomerang crew), I have no reason to ever walk through their doors. Except for when no other place in Federal Hill has the damn package. Then I'm stuck going to the guido spa. OK, so we cruised over to Mad River hoping that they had the package. (If they didn't, we would be forced to drive to Canton to Looney's to watch the games. And that wouldn't work. Why? Because after several beverages plus getting a cab/leaving my car in Canton doesn't equal good times. I love Looney's, but not for a marathon, only a sprint.) Well, we walk into Mad River and not only is the place like a morgue but the 88-year old bartender informs us that they don't have the package. At this I think Disco is gonna choke someone, and there's a good chance it is gonna be me. The Texas Tech vs Charlotte and the Florida vs Manhattan games have already started, the Maryland vs UTEP game is about to tip and both of us are really pissed. But I didn't fly in from Connecticut. So I tell Disco that Ryleigh's is a good place to watch the Terps game while we figure out what the hell is going on. On the walk, Disco says to me, "What f'in jackass of an owner wouldn't pay $800 to have the package for 4 days? I mean it'll f'in pay for itself. 8-10 guys will spend $800 before the night games even tip off. You, me. Let's round up some dudes." I'm game. This is brilliant. I even throw out the idea of both us just buying the package for the damn bar. We'd both get our money's worth. A gimme. So we walk into Ryleigh's, order a beer and start watching the MD vs UTEP game as we are making calls to friends / owners of other potential bars that might have the package. I mean as much as I would have liked to have dropped $400 for Ryleighs' to have the f'in package, and I would have, I really didn't want to. While we're doing all of this, I notice two dudes sitting at the bar in front of us. I see that one guy has a Syracuse T-shirt on and the other guy is reading the New York Post. Ironically, I have a St. John's T-shirt on and Disco is wearing a UConn T-shirt. Big East central. Anyway, we get to talking with these guys and they are huge Orangemen fans. Huge. I tell them that they aren't going to get to see the BYU vs Syracuse game that tips at 2:30 because it is head-to-head with the Wake vs VCU game. And although we were a little slice of the Big East in the corner of the bar, we were in ACC country and that meant that the Wake game would be on the local channel. Needless to say these cats didn't take too lightly to the news of not being able to watch the 'Cuse game. The solution? The solution was we had to get the owner of Ryleigh's to get the package. Period. So we all start talking about throwing some money at getting this damn package. And we are talking about how we'll be at Ryleigh's all weekend long if they get it. Not only us, but all of our friends too. Luckily for us, the owner of the joint was standing within earshot (in all honesty in wasn't luck, it was because we were talking at quite an animated decibel level) and came over to us. "Do you guys want the tournament package?" "Yes." "I'll call right now." Boom. Done. Money. Giddiness pie. I was giddy. Disco was giddy. The 'Cuse guys were giddy. Everyone giddy. A half hour later, after we informed him that his bar was the only joint in Federal Hill to have the package and while one of the waitresses was changing the sign out front from "See MD vs UTEP" to "WE HAVE ALL THE GAMES", the owner was giddy too. So giddy in fact that he came up to me and asked me if I wanted to watch the St. John's game. I looked at him and said "Hell no." St. John's? What? After he had walked away, I realized that he was trying to be polite (because of my T-shirt) and thought that St. John's was playing. He had just put the St. Joe's game on one of the TVs and was clearly confused and clearly not a hoop fan. I felt bad for only a second for my quick response. Why? Because I thought, "What a jackass. A jackass that should thank me, Disco and the two 'Cuse guys for raising enough Cain to convince him get the package and in turn make himself tons of bread over the weekend." (Which he did, by the way.) And so the weekend began, drinking $2 Marble beers at Ryleigh's watching my pesky Miners from Texas-El Paso give the Terps all they could handle, waiting for the 2:30 'Cuse, Wake, St. Joe's and 'Bama games to start on different TVs. Happiness pie.

Thursday…The Action

There ain't no way I can recap every game. Not only was I watching 4 different TVs at a time, but at this point I don't remember everything about every game. Also, the TVs weren't right next to each other so it wasn't like I was parked in one seat for 12 straight hours. I had to get up to get certain scores. This actually turned out to be a good thing because I could pace around and not look like a friggin' psycho. And it kept my blood moving. Anyway, I'm going to throw out a few tidbits on each game in chronological order (hopefully) to try to recap my thought process and experiences. There will definitely be some stories mixed within. You will notice that as the later the games start the less I really have to say. Sorry. I was in the zone. Hope you enjoy.

Maryland vs UTEP - I was just that close to being able to write I told you so. Coincidentally I was the only one rooting for the Miners in Ryleigh's and the only one getting some serious glares. But the $2 Marbles were flowing and I didn't care. Actually, the 'Cuse guys weren't exactly rooting against the Miners b/c they would have been happy to see UTEP in round 2. But I think they wanted to see 'Cuse/MD even more. Great game.

Florida vs Manhattan - Florida was awful. Awful. This one got me really nervous for Vanderbilt. Was the SEC soft? The wheels started turning early. Is it wrong to think that the "tennis ball-sized blister on Matt Walsh's foot" story was either 1) a made up story because the Gators knew they were going to lose, or 2) a cover up for why Walsh sucks so bad? I was happy for the Jaspers. And happy that the Gators were going home early again. Does anyone outside of Gainesville not hate the Gators?

Texas Tech vs Charlotte - Pissed that the package wasn't up and running to watch this one. Pissed that I had Charlotte beating St. Joe's in round 2. Happy for Bobby Knight that he got off of his recent first round jinx. Embarrassed that I called Conference USA "Chevy Tough." (This turned out to be the theme of the weekend.)

Alabama vs Southern Illinois - A gem of an ending. First "team with a shot to win at the buzzer" game. Glad I picked the Tide. I was the only one in the bar who had them. After starting 0-3, it felt good to get a W on the board. 'Bama's win also helped ease the pain of the Gator loss in terms of Vandy vs WMU.

Syracuse vs BYU - Everything I had predicted for this game happened…except for McNamara going nutty for 43 on 9 3-pointers. What? I had said that McNamara wasn't the same shooter this year that he had been last year. Yikes. Gerry Mac kicking the CSG squarely in the junk. I'll be sure to never talk bad about McNamara again. But to my credit, Aroujo was awesome and the Cougars' guards ripped it up from beyond the arc. It was fun as all hell watching this one with the 'Cuse guys. They were insane which got the whole joint insane. Totally good times. Do you have any idea how many "Let's go Orangemen" I heard during that game? A lot, and I didn't mind it. We were Big East reps in ACC country. It was cool.

St. Joe's vs Liberty - I don't think I watched more than 5 minutes of this one.

Wake Forest vs VCU - This one had some people on their toes. Including Disco. The kid had the Deacs in the 4. A first round loss wasn't in his agenda. Needless to say, he buried a few rockets during the waning moments of this one. That's the beauty of the tournament. Random people were in Ryleigh's for lunch and going nutty at the TVs because they had Wake going to the 16. All they knew is that Wake needed to win to keep their brackets intact. And so they were yelling and yelping and screaming and cheering. Amazing. Personally, I thought the ending was kind of weak. Levy makes an uncontested layup and then VCU has a horrible possession. I don't know. Maybe I was drunk. Oh wait, yea…

Stanford vs UT-SA - I was at MaGerk's eating a cheesesteak during this one. Needed some grub for the nightcap.

Duke vs Alabama State - I don't even think this one made it onto a TV.

Texas vs Princeton - For a 5-minute stretch in the first half, I panicked because I thought the 'Horns were going to somehow lose. Maybe it was because the score was like 8-6 after 13 minutes, but I just had a gut feeling that Texas was going to "UCLA it" from a few years ago. And I wasn't happy about it because I have UT in the Four. And I'm not too Princeton friendly. Whatever. Everything worked out. The 'Horns figured out that they were light years better than the Tigers in the second half.

UConn vs Vermont - A breeze for the Connies. Disco was chirping.

Michigan State vs Nevada - I have no idea how the Spartans lost this damn game. None at all. They were in control for 35 minutes and then completely broke down. It sucked. It's a damn shame I jumped on the UTEP train and not the Nevada train. Izzo looked like he was going to hack all of his players into little pieces in the locker room after the game. The over/under on Izzo pulling a Huggins in the next few years went way down after this loss.

Gonzaga vs Valpo - I can honestly say that I watched none of this game.

UNC vs Air Force - I was too wrapped up in the 'Zona vs Seton Hall game to care about this one. I did, however, notice that the Heels decided to shave their heads for the tournament. Bad vibes. Very bad vibes. Fatty Sean May looked like a friggin' goof with the shaved noggin. Actually, he looked frightening.

Arizona vs Seton Hall - The most pissed off I got all day was when my buddy, Gouda, came over to me and told me that Seton Hall had just taken the lead late in the second half. I had left the 'Zona / Hall TV to watch the DePaul / Dayton game. And when I left, 'Zona was up 14 and I was pretty happy. Happy about the Pac 10? God, no. Happy that my proclaimed Duke / 'Zona game was going to happen and that 'Zona was going to pull the upset and that I was going to look like a genius. Instead, Gouda tells me the Hall has gone on something like a 20-5 run and now has the lead. Not happy. And it also pissed me off that I was hearing this from Gouda, who knows less than nothing about basketball. I should have been watching. At that moment, I knew I was sloppy. And not proud of myself. Granted it was 11:30 and I had been at Ryleigh's since 12:30, but that's no excuse. I blew it. And of course 'Zona ended up losing. And instead of looking like a genius, I looked like an idiot. As usual.

Dayton vs DePaul - The most fun of the night games. And it wasn't because the game went into 2 OTs. The game was atrocious. 2 overtimes and the final score was in the low 70s? What? Hello? Was this the Big Ten here? The reason the game was fun was because there was a 10 person crew of Dayton fans, mostly made up of girls, in Ryleigh's. They were loud, but fun fan loud, not obnoxious loud. And they loved themselves some Dayton. Loved 'em. Well, I had picked DePaul, hate Dayton and was pissed that this game has jinxed my 'Zona pick. So I was clear about who I was rooting for. To add gas to the fire, the Dayton fans were talking junk to Disco because of his UConn shirt. They kept talking about how the Flyers were going to punk UConn in the second round. So what did we do? We started a "Let's go Huskies" chant among our friends. The Daytons didn't mind it at first, but as DePaul started to pull away in the second overtime and we changed our "Let's go Huskies" to "Let's go Demons", they got a bit angered. After DePaul won, we got called every name in the book by these Dayton girls. They were pretty upset. We weren't mean or anything. Just giving them some wholehearted junk. The exclamation point on the evening came when Disco said to the girls as they approached the bar, "See you in the second round. Oh wait, no we won't. Thanks for coming." It was great. They left soon afterwards. And so did we. Hell of a first day.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the way…