Oklahoma, Where the Wind Comes Sweepin’ Down the Plains

Day 1 in OKC

Four games. One double overtime thriller. And an unnerving performance by the No. 1 overall seed. All within a 12 hour period. Needless to say, the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City was fun — yet very exhausting!
The girlfriend — who has been battling a cold — ended up falling asleep on my shoulder during the first half of the KU game, that’s how exhausting Thursday was.
But with KU playing last, I had to push through. And with my sister joining us from Wichita, she made sure I didn’t sluff off in my cheering of the Jayhawks. And they need every little bit of support.

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Lehigh forward John Adams, top, and teammate forward Gabe Knutson, right, try to block the shot by Kansas forward Marcus Morris during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, March 18, 2010, in Oklahoma City.

It’s sad to say that one team that came out Thursday in OKC and looked like a real threat to reach the Final Four was KU’s friendly rival Kansas State. After a slow start to get the jitters out, the Wildcats then throttled their opponents from North Texas.
And in this game, I witnessed first hand the importance of Denis Clemente and Jacob “The Beard” Pullen to this K-State squad. For my money, Clemente was much more impressive in finding and creating his own shot — after all, he did lead KSU with 17 points. But in regards to the absolute leader of this squad, it’s Pullen. During a stretch in the second half when Pullen was in the locker room after falling hard on his back/tail bone, the Wildcats looked lost and what was once looked to be a complete blowout began to unravel a bit. But once Pullen returned, so did the rest of the K-State squad.

K… S… U… WILDCATS!

It was nice to see such a large following show up to support Kansas State in its greatest season in decades. The crowd for the first session (BYU vs. Florida and KSU vs. North Texas) was populated with K-State fans — they were easily the majority in the opening session.
And boy did they make themselves heard throughout the game — especially due to the disparity of foul calls in the first half, when the Mean Green were already shooting one-and-one at the 11 minute mark.
But at the same time, they seemed to a carry a “They’re out to get us” mentality into the second half. Even with a 20 point lead late into the second half, many of Wildcat faithful weren’t happy, constantly booing the refs (quite loudly) in the final 10 minutes. But all-in-all, a rather impressive showing by the K-State fan base!

More than mid-major cheering

Speaking of fan bases, the tiny college of Lehigh had their far share — 10 to 15 that I saw in the concourse — out to support the small school from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Their team didn’t really disappoint the contingent by keeping up with the No. 1 overall seed throughout the first half. But the talent of KU was too much for Lehigh.
But the big boost of cheering for Lehigh throughout the game came from fellow mid-major fan base Northern Iowa, who had beaten UNLV the game before — thanks to a 3-pointer from Norman, Oklahoma by Ali Farokhmanesh.
No surprise that the Panthers would cheer on Lehigh. Who would you rather face in your second round game with the Sweet 16 on the line, Kansas or Lehigh? But with 5 minutes left in the KU game, the UNI fans quieted and began to disperse in order to preserve their voices for Saturday’s matchup with Kansas.

Halftime entertainment?

Not surprising to me, the halftime entertainment for each game showcased the dance teams from the universities that were playing at the Ford Center — except for BYU and tiny Lehigh. And I must admit, wasn’t all that impressed. Most of the dance teams were out of sync with each other and had some pretty lame moves.

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Members of the Kansas State pompom squad cheer their team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against North Texas, Thursday, March 18, 2010, in Oklahoma City.

The reason I say “most” is because there was one dance team that was very impressive: the team representing North Texas. The group of girls moved as one throughout their entire performance and pulled out some slick dance moves — too bad their basketball team couldn’t do the same!
So I decided to rank the dance teams that performed:

1. North Texas Mean Green
2. Kansas State’s Classy Cats
3. KU’s Rock Chalk Dancers
4. UNLV Rebel Starzz
5. Northern Iowa
6. Florida

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