In The Basket

Kara, Alison, Emily and me next to the NCAA trophy

So I have just returned from my first Husky basketball game and I am still buzzing. It was incredible. I'm not a sporty person; I've never particularly enjoyed watching sports, I just enjoy the atmosphere and the team spirit and all that comes with supporting a team but I usually get bored very quickly. This is largely due to the fact that I don't understand any sport but tonight that all changed - not the understanding part, just the enjoying! For the entire duration of the game I was utterly engrossed! Cheering and clapping and shouting; my eyes were focused on the ball which whizzed back and forth across the court over and over. And the players. OMG the players. One of them,  is 7ft 1! I found myself walking behind him on my way to class the other day and I literally came up to his knees. Even the smaller players (we're still talking around 6ft here!) jump so high and spring about the court effortlessly placing the ball in the net as though it's the simplest thing in the world.

Last year the UCONN Huskies were the National Champions and so I was forewarned that our game against Columbia would probably be an easy win. I was a tad disappointed when I heard this as I wanted to see a good game. By good game I mean one like the game against Syracuse which will be in February. They are rivals from up state New York and tickets for that game are already going on sale for $50/60 (about £30) - crazy huh! And I've already heard talk about people camping out days in advance to get tickets. That is dedication. So I settled with my Columbia game and I was not disappointed! It was incredible. It was fast paced and action packed and there was not a moment of boredom! Although we were quite clearly in the lead from the beginning I would still say Columbia put up a pretty good fight.

Despite this there was the same appalling sportsmanship from the football game. When the opposing teams' players came onto the court, everyone turned their backs and shouted "SUCKS" after each players name was called out, It was horrible I was almost embarrassed. But I have to admit that by the end of the game I found myself booing and cheering with everyone else. Who knew I had a rival sporty streak in me.

There were some definite highlights to the game; one of which I'm not even going to try and explain but it resulted in Jeremy Lamb slamdunking the ball into the net - 'Lamb Slam!'. The other brilliant moments were at the beginning; As I mentioned in my previous blog it's Veterans Day today and so a Veteran led the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the game.... except he said it wrong! Then when they tried to unveil the banner recording last year's NCAA championship win the veil didn't come off... Jonathan the Husky (our Mascot) ended up lifting up a small boy from the crowd to pull it down. It was hilarious.

All in all it was a very good night topped off with a fabulous slice of pizza from the Union. I think I may have just found a sport I enjoyed watching, and it's funny, because none of the players were even that hot...