I first must point out the scene in San Jose yesterday. While I have been known to be quite the San Jose basher over my lifetime, I have to admit that San Jose might be the PERFECT place to host such an event. The HP Pavilion, home of the San Jose Sharks, is a great modern facility with super spacious concourses, great viewing angles throughout the arena, and huge bathrooms with no lines. In addition, the arena is about two blocks from “downtown” San Jose, which is home to tons of restaurants and bars, perfect for pre/post-game celebrations.
Another thing that has made me want to apply for a job with the San Jose Chamber of Commerce is that I left SF which was blanketed in fog and emerged in San Jose an hour later to a gorgeous 80 degree, blue-sky day. Perfect California weather coupled with outdoor drinking bars filled to the brim with UCLA fans made me almost feel like victory over Kansas would make the day too good to be true.
The one downside is that San Jose is a bit too far from SF. After the victory, I definitely wanted to celebrate, but the older, wiser me thought better of driving the hour up the 101 after having a few brews and decided to just head back to the fog-belt basking in the glory of another hard-nosed UCLA win.
I would approximate that the ratio of fans at the Shark Tank yesterday to have been about 12,000 UCLA fans to about 3,000 Kansas fans. It was truly like a home game and the place exploded after every Collison steal, Afflalo jumper, and Mbah a Moute rebound. Truly one of the best crowd experiences I have ever been a part of.
I scored seats thru my buddy Derek’s hook-ups through the UCLA Athletic Department. Although we were in the upper bowl, the seats were great. (Unfortunately, this is the one game I did not bring my camera. I didn’t want to get sweated by security in case they don’t allow my size camera in the house and have to trek all the way back to the car. An un-wise choice upon further reflection.)
Our seats seemed to be in the section of some of the biggest UCLA basketball boosters. It was primarily old-timers who probably know John Wooden first-hand and likely give piles of cash to the program. The older woman behind me was super-excited, mentioned that she goes to every game with her husband and you could just tell she probably lived in Beverly Hills or Brentwood or something. The only bummer was when she tapped me on the shoulder to talk a bit of strategy in the first half with the game very much in doubt. “They should go to the middle more, why aren’t they going to the middle and why are they taking such bad shots? We usually do much better,” she exclaimed. She was a nice lady though and I tried to listen without cringing or talking to many x’s and o’s with her, so all I could say was “you know this team Kansas? They’re actually pretty good too.” Alls well that ends well as we exchanged high fives after Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s dunk to finish off the victory.
Great times! I feel like a proud father over the effort the fellas showed yesterday. I remember driving home and thinking how satisfied and content I was over this victory. For some reason, my mind jumped back to having the same feeling when I was in the 4th grade and we won the Catholic school city championship over the Salesian Boys Club from North Beach. (I had 4 big points that day including a driving layup through traffic ala Afflalo. I have the photo evidence to prove it.) Crazy how memories like this come up. I hadn’t thought about that day in years. I guess it takes the glow of the return of the UCLA basketball dynasty to recall the glory days of my own.
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