Tulsa Wrapup

I fell behind in my daily recaps of the tournament, and I still intend to post them from my palm pilot notes, but I wanted to mention a few things by way of post-tourney comment.

Things I expected to see and did:

1. ORU Men and OU Women as champions (Mid-Con Tourney Predictions)

2. Wonderful treatment by the Tulsa Sports Commission staff (minor complaint about entrance to VIP parking notwithstanding)

3. Another shouting match with a couple of rude ORU fans who think they have a right to stand up for extended periods of time (not just to applaud a great play) and block my view.

Things I did not expect to see:

1. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the VIP parking entrance was no longer accessible straight from the entrance, but we had to drive all the way down to general parking and then double back. I was told tonight that they did this because they had problems last year. Apparently they forgot to do it on Saturday. It helps traffic flow. Which is understood, but it does make it more of a pain to get to, and diminishes the value of the VIP package a bit. In terms of parking, it's easier to just park in general parking, and I don't need the VIP package to do that. There's still the hospitality suite and the free food, and the good seat, although row N is not what I would call a good seat for VIP prices. I'm not saying it would be a deal-breaker, but it would be something to think about.

2. A very young ORU fan blowing a semi-loud horn every time Valpo shot free throws in the first half. He was told to put it away as halftime ended.

3. CSU beat IUPUI to go to the championship game, and VU women clobber UMKC in the opening round. These two games I had as "too close to call". The CSU-IUPUI game was quite close, so maybe I get a half a point for that one, but the VU-UMKC game was certainly not close.

4. Some ORU students booing the Valpo and CSU cheerleaders during timeouts. That was in poor taste, and I don't remember seeing that before. Some of the ORU Maniacs tried to discourage this as much as possible, but the student section was just too big.

5. A couple of VuCru members exhibiting similar poor taste in holding up a sign calling for the firing of Eric Harmon, head of officials for the Mid-Con. They were bitter about ORU thumping VU, and went too far. Since Kristina Peterson, assistant to the Commissioner, had to call in security in order to deal with the situation, I have a feeling a couple of VuCru members, if not the whole organization will be talked to by the VU administration when they get back to campus.

Other trivia:

Mid-Con TV used whatever school radio broadcast it could find for play-by-play with its video streaming, apparently without letting the appropriate announcer tha he'd be doing the game for all fans, not just that school's fans.

Former ORU broadcaster Dave Garrett was in the house Monday and Tuesday, looking very trim and fit. Also, former ORU players Matt Gastel and Luke Spencer-Gardner were in the stands to enjoy the thrashing of Valpo and CSU.

In the midst of ORU's struggle with CSU in the first half, one ORU fan in the end zone nearest the CSU bench briefly held up a sign that said, "Where's Valpo?" I sure hope that game meant more to ORU fans than simply celebrating Valpo's second straight early departure.

The shot clock buzzer on top of the opposite basket kept going into "let's see how long I can hold that buzzing sound before they unplug me" mode several times throughout the tournament. Each time, the staff "re-booted" the shot clock (PA announcers word, not mine).

The 6th seed has now upset the 3rd seed for the 6th straight year. The last 3 have all been pulled off by CSU (over UMKC this year, Valpo last year, and Centenary in 2004). In 2003, 6th seed SUU upset 3rd seed OU. In 2002, 6th seed IUPUI upset 3rd seed OU. In 2001, 6th seed ORU upset 3rd seed Youngstown State. You have to go back to 2000 to find 3rd seed UMKC defeating 6th seed CSU.