Robbie considers the weeks of the conference tournaments a holiday, so he had a well deserved half-day on the first day (Wednesday) of the tournament, as the games started at noon, but I met him at the arena at 6pm for the 2 night games. I missed out on the Washington/Utah game, and the USC/Colorado game. Utah and Colorado were the victors in those games, which I was pretty sad that USC didn't win because I had just bought a USC shirt that I wanted to sport (but I wore it anyway the next day)! The first night game was the defending PAC-12 tournament champion Oregon Ducks vs. the Oregon State Beavers. I really like the style of basketball that the Ducks play, and they won that game, the score being 88-74.
The second game pitted the Cougars of Washington State against the Cardinal of Stanford. This was the first time I got to see Stanford play, and I must say, they have the most unique mascot in all of college basketball, a pine tree with eyes and lips on it. Ummmm......? And they also have 2 players on their team named Brown and Lemons. Haha. Stanford went on to win this game 74-63. Yessssss, I get to see more of the tree!!!
The next day, I met Robbie at the MGM at noon, so we were at the arena by tip-off of the first game. Sidenote...the morning of these games, I worked 6 hours of the opening shift, which was 5am-11:30, covering for a coworker who lives on the east coast. Being it was a late night of basketball the night before and my wake-up call was4:30am, I was running on about 4 hours of sleep for this day of basketball, which went from noon to about 10pm. Whew!!
Despite my lack of sleep, I was ready for basketball! The first game was the Utah Utes against the number 4 team in the nation and the 1 seed in the tourney, the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona was the obvious favorite to win the whole tournament, so they won this game handedly, 71-39. I was embarrassed for Utah. :( And yes, Wildcat fans, congratulations for beating Utah and acting so humble about it (sense the sarcasm). And thank you, Arizona band director, for providing humor by jumping up and down to your students' music in heels. Also, one of the performers from Jersey Boys sang the National Anthem, and he was outstanding!
The second game of the day was a much closer match, between the Bears of Cal, and the Buffalos of Colorado. As from what I saw last year, I wasn't expecting Colorado to make it past the first round, so I was impressed that they won their second game of the tourney, 59-56.
Before tip-off of the night wave of games, Blue Man Group performed the Star Spangled Banner on their drum contraptions, and it really surprised me as to how good their rendition was! The 6pm game was between my 2 favorite teams in the PAC-12, the UCLA Bruins and the Oregon Ducks. I was secretly hoping for a tie, but we all know that that can't happen in basketball. My bracket had UCLA winning this game, and sadly (for my slightly bigger fanhood of Oregon over UCLA), that happened. The Bruins won big, 82-63 all because Oregon forgot how to play basketball in the second half (the score was only 37-35 at half)!!!! Oregon's mascot is still by far one of my favorite in basketball. Oh, his shenanigans!
The last game on Thursday was between the Stanford Cardinal and the Arizona State Sun Devils. Robbie and I both agreed that AZ St. had the best pep band with an exceptional trumpet section!! Unfortunately, we only got to hear that trumpet section once, as Stanford won this game 79-58.
Friday night was the Semifinals, with the first game being Arizona and Colorado, and the second game being UCLA and Stanford. I must confess that Robbie and I had no energy to get ourselves down to the MGM and cheer for 6 hours, and we didn't really want to listen to the obnoxiousness of the Arizona fans. So, instead of going to the games, we planned to watch them at home, and if either game was close, or if Colorado somehow was going to pull the upset of the century, we would go and watch. Unfortunately, both games were blowouts, with Arizona winning 63-43, and UCLA snapping Stanford's run with a score of 84-59. Robbie and I were a little sad that we didn't see these games, but it was really nice following the games at home in our pajamas. I needed the night off, too, as the last 2 days I was practically running on fumes!
So, with Arizona and UCLA winning the night before, this meant the Championship game was between the Wildcats and Bruins. We finally had a really good game to watch, as the entire game saw several lead changes and ties. Plus, if you looked around, it was like a home game for Arizona, as around 90% of the crowd were Wildcat fans. Now, for most of the tournament, we were able to move around the arena as the seats weren't completely full for any of the previous games, but for the championship game, we sat in our assigned seats, and we were 2 of the 10% who wasn't cheering for Arizona to win. Had there been seats amongst the UCLA fans, we definitely would have sat there. It's not that we are super huge Bruins fans either; we just wanted to see a good game. The Arizona fans in our section were not happy that we weren't cheering for their team, and they let us know by asking us why we were ruining their fun, and that they would have us run out of "their section" by the end of the game. Keep it classy, Arizona fans! However, we had the last (silent) laugh at the end of the game as UCLA came out the victors with a score of 75-71!! Also, the Jabbawockeez performed at halftime of this game, which was very entertaining!!
We stayed for part of the post-game ceremonies on the court after UCLA's victory; it's always cool to see the confetti shoot out onto the floor, listen to the pep band play the school song and hear the fans chant U-C-Lllllll-A, U-C-L-A, Go Fight Win, and watch the players deservingly act like little boys again, afterwards!!!
We are pretty lucky because last year was the first year that the PAC-12 Tournament was held the Vegas, and we have had tickets to the whole tourney both years, and we plan to do the same each year that this event is held here. I must say, when the tournament does arrive, the buzz and energy in this city is heightened, and I am glad to be right in the thick of it! Until next year, PAC-12 Tournament!
"It's not the will to win that matters -everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters." -Unknown
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