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| George Mason University fans were excited about their team playing in the NCAA basketball tournament Friday, even before their team beat Villanova at Quicken Loans Arena. Austin Nicol, Katy Huff, Craigin Winkler, Nikki Robinson and Jennifer Storch joined the crowds around the arena before the game. |
CLEVELAND, OHIO
James Casebere and four friends were up past 3 a.m. Friday driving to Cleveland from the George Mason University campus.
Dan Brown left Syracuse, N.Y., at the crack of dawn to make it here by noon.
And John Caine has nearly a dozen fellow Xavier University fans and alumni camping out in his apartment all weekend.
It was all a trifling inconvenience. It's the NCAA basketball tournament after all.
Thousands of Ohio State University fans descended upon downtown Cleveland Friday to see the Buckeyes play the University of Texas - San Antonio in the second round of college basketball's big event. But diehards of the other seven schools playing here this weekend traveled hundreds of miles and slept on couches and floors so they could add school colors like orange, green, gold and variations of blue to the sea of scarlet and gray.
"I always go to see Syracuse play in the first and second round," said Brown, a 1992 alumnus of Syracuse University who has only missed two of the year-end tournaments since then. "We were going to go to Tucson, Tulsa, Washington or wherever. I just love the atmosphere of eight different teams in the same city."
Caine, a 2008 graduate of Xavier, and his close friends have tried to gather for tournament games the last few years, some traveling as far as Phoenix. This year they came to see Xavier play Marquette University, a matchup of two Jesuit schools.
"Xavier's such a big basketball school, it's almost like homecoming," said the downtown Cleveland resident who has become this year's host. "Now that we don't all live in Cincinnati, it's a good chance to see each other."
Casebere joined a few hundred George Mason University fans who trekked here from Virginia to watch their team play Villanova. The school organized a pre-game party at The Clevelander Bar and Grill near Quicken Loans Arena, feeding "Mason Nation" wings and cookies - they were on their own for beer. The school also passed out green "Go Mason" stickers along with gold and green bead necklaces that would have fit in with the St. Patrick's Day parade that ruled downtown a day earlier.
Casebere and friends were hopeful their team would prevail against Villanova, even if it would only mean facing highly-rated Ohio State in the next round on Sunday.
"We're excited to take them on," he said.
Of course, the tournament tested the loyalties of many fans. Lyndsey Greer wore a necklace of buckeyes over her University of Texas - San Antonio shirt, splitting her support between two teams playing each other. The former basketball player at the Texas school is from Columbus and now works for Ohio State.
Asked who she was rooting for, Greer laughed and said she was hoping both teams played their best.
Split loyalties didn't trouble sisters Deanna and Marissa Ferris, though. They drove from Albany, N.Y., early Friday morning sporting Duke and University of North Carolina T-shirts respectively, even though neither team plays here this weekend.
"We're just huge hoops fans," said Deanna, who said the pair goes to see the tournament somewhere each year. "Anywhere we can go, we're going."
While fans of Friday's winning teams will remain until the next round's games on Sunday, the sisters planned to make the long drive back across New York right after the late game Friday night.
"We've got to work (today) ," Marissa said.
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