E: Is for OSU's Effort

If you hate KU or college basketball in general, no need to continue on from here.  Thanks for stopping by.

This post was supposed to happen a week ago, but life happened.  (Actually, that's a blatant lie.  I've had two snow days since then--as a working adult--and plenty of down time.  I'm just terrible at blogging.)  But this is important, dammit!  It shall not go ignored!

Last Wednesday I took a last-minute road trip with +AJ Sidhu and +Aaron Gillespie to Stillwater, OK.  Why you ask?  To watch KU beat Oklahoma State in double overtime, duh.  I could go on and on about the details, like what we ate on the ride there and talked about on the drive back; about the snow storm we ran away from at 3 o'clock in the morning; about the feelings running through me before, during and after my first-ever KU away game; about how my freshman year Linear Algebra professor went out of his way to say hey to AJ and me after four years of no contact; etc.  But that's not what I'm here to talk about.

While there's no way KU fans can plausibly call themselves unbiased on anything related to college hoops, my analytical tendencies helped me step back (if only slightly) to observe my atmosphere and perform a comparison of my experience against previous, similar experiences.

Here is my [attempt at being]objective assessment of Gallagher-Iba Arena as compared to Allen Fieldhouse.

Arena

• Parking was fantastic.  We paid $10 in a lot across the street less than an hour before tipoff.  Never in a million years would you find that at AFH, in value or locale, that close to game time.
• This is what I saw as I rode the escalator (yes, escalator) up to the second floor of the arena.  I wasn't sure if I was at a basketball game or in a shopping mall.

Gallagher-Iba concourse, or the Oak Park Mall entrance by Barnes & Noble?

• Seating was a disastrous madhouse.  Apparently they sell specific seats within the General Admission section, making GA ticket holders play musical chairs all night.  We had to kick people out of our seats.  Then the people who sat next to us got the boot.  Then a group of KU fans right behind us (which was a bummer).  Then the people on the other side of us.  We probably watched 6 or 7 "you're in my seat" exchanges in the 54 minutes we were there prior to game time, some more tense than others.  You'd think a school from a major conference could find a better way to handle that.  Logistics, people!

Pre-Game

• Speaking of being there 54 minutes ahead of time... We thought we were late, since KU games require attendance at least an hour before tip-off.  Maybe 30 minutes prior if you're on a time crunch, but even that's considered cutting it close.  Apparently extended pre-game rituals aren't the norm for everyone.  This was the attendance with 24:24 before the game started, and at a ranked vs. ranked matchup.  (It wasn't much better with 5 minutes left, but my camera ejected the sim card right after taking that shot so it didn't save.  Boo.)

Notice all of the blue in the sparse patches of people there "on time".

• To get the student sections riled up, the mascot (seen below with AJ and Aaron) would fire a blank out of a gun into the air to start the "Ohhhhhhhhhh Esssssssssssssss U, COWboys" chant.  While I liked the loud attention getter, it was slightly off-putting as it sank in with all the shootings going on over the past year.  But when your mascot has "Pistol" in his name and your traditions include making guns out of your fingers while cheering, maybe that stuff doesn't phase you anymore...? 

Pistol Pete wanted us to make the gun symbol with our fingers too. No thanks.

• Similar to KU's shoot around, music (probably requested by the team) was blared over the loud speakers.  Apparently OSU players prefer underground rap, because that's all that was played.  I didn't recognize a single track.  This doesn't bother me - let them listen to all the pump-up music they want!  That's a benefit of playing on your home court.  What I wasn't a huge fan of was the lack of synchronization with the band.  You'd be listening to, "Got my gold chain, gold watch, gold grill, gol...." when the band would start up the fight song.  Once they finished, the pause button was pushed again and you were greeted with "....d car, gold cat, gold everything. Gold gold gold."  I found it very abrupt and unsettling all five or six times it happened.
• Two pre-game videos were shown, one with about 10 minutes left and the other after the KU lineup was announced.  The first has a highlight video from their upset win over KU earlier in the month.  I can't fault them for showing that, as AFH often features past clips against the current team.  What I CAN fault is the formatting.  When I say "highlight video", I actually mean "video of every single shot made in the 40 minutes of gameplay."  Literally.  Every shot.  "Here's when we went from 0 to 2 points...Now from 2 to 4...Oh look, we made a three and now have 7."  There was no pizazz added, so attention was lost in the first 90 seconds and wasn't regained until the final plays of the half were shown four minutes later.  The other pre-game reel, more analogous to the one at AFH, was rather bland.  There were some nice dunks, alley oops and steals from recent games...but that was all.  Where's the history?  The tradition?  The passion?  The black and white videos of peach baskets?  Anything from more than 30 games ago?
• Oh, the announcer called Gallagher-Iba "the ROWDIEST arena in the country!!!!"  All three of us lol'd.

Fans & Atmosphere

• Seriously, the Midwest is just the best.  We weren't booed for wearing KU garb.  No one threw things at us.  The gentleman behind us asked where we drove from and wished us safe travels on the way back.  Hardcore fans next to us never took their anger out on us and no one ever yelled at us for cheering on our team in their home building.  It restored a little bit of my faith in humanity.
• Since this was my first away game I'm not sure if this was a Stillwater thing or just a not-AFH thing...but I had a really hard time getting into the game.  Don't get me wrong, I still cheered and got stressed out and chewed the crap out of my nails.  But before tip I didn't feel an ounce of pressure or nerves.  I felt completely removed from the situation, even more-so than watching on TV.  I'll chalk it up to being in an unfamiliar environment, but it was worth noting nonetheless.
• After OSU made a basket the noise level rivaled that of AFH's pre-game video.  It got crazy loud in there....but only at the point in the game.  On offensive possessions and defensive efforts it felt like being at a high school game, where only half the crowd is paying attention and the other half is there for a social event.  It was bizarre.  My eardrums were happy I guess, but as a die-hard basketball fan I wanted to see more passion for all 40 minutes, rather than in 10 second spurts.
• I take it back, they were also loud on every OSU foul call.  Regardless of how blatantly obvious the foul was, there were 15,000+ fans screaming "push-it" at the top of their lungs.
• Halftime consisted of a dude with a backward hat and microphone cheering on random fans taking random shots to get random prizes.  I prefer the faceless, omnipotent announcer of the Fieldhouse - it's like hearing from God in a holy place.  I'd also rather watch the Marching Cobras or that bowl-stacking unicycle girl than some sophomore trying to win a $50 gift card to Pizza Hut for a half-court shot.  But I'm getting picky now.

Other

• KU fans are fantastic travelers.  It was such a comfort to look around in the sea of orange and see so many patches of blue around the arena.
• OSU has great fans, large and loud and crazy for their team.  But for me the experience highlighted the difference between fandom and pride.  For a ranked team playing a ranked opponent after beating said opponent on the road, the arena was almost full.  It was loud and wild for part of the night.  The fans' nights were kind of ruined by the loss.  It was obvious that those joining us were happy to be there and wanted a W for their team, but there was no desperation.  Nothing that made me say, "Wow, this is a place any fan of basketball should visit in their lifetime."  I'd say a fair comparison would be to KU's Memorial Stadium.  People go for the environment, school spirit and fact they get cheap tickets...not because there's some deep-seeded theme of tradition and winning that they want nothing more than to be a part of.  Few sporting venues in the country can offer what Allen Fieldhouse does, and I feel so humbled and blessed to be a part of something so sacred and....perfect.

God I love my alma mater.

We're the three best friends that anyone can have.

Spontaneity is the best cure for redundancy.

Closing thought of E:  Would you rather have the ability to walk through walls with a 90% success rate, or the ability to fly with a 10 second delay before changing directions?

1. As a rule, I'm thoroughly intimidated by people
2. Basketball >> football
3. Want to retain employees? Offer a 9/80 schedule
4. America's unfortunate complaint culture
5. People vs. Society
6. The death of vocabulary
7. Doing nothing during free time vs. Doing nothing during work
8. Who likes self-righteous people other than themselves?
9. One Direction? Pshhhhhhhhh. Ain't got nuthin' on 90's boy bands
10. Things that stress me out: passive-aggressive tendencies
11. The Self-Conscious Mind of Danielle
12. God I love being graduated