Phillip McClymont was as giddy as a plastic surgeon at the Playboy mansion as he sat in full collegiate glory Monday night outside McDonough Gymnasium, surveying the crowd of fellow Hoyas who came to secure tickets to the culmination of March’s madness: the Final Four in Atlanta. Reclining in a camping chair as buddies popped open brews and enjoyed the gustatory delights of finely-aged Philly Pizza, the junior’s glow outshone even Patrick Ewing’s dog-tag bling.
“It’s good to be alive” McClymont mused, “I feel like Willy Wonka with his golden ticket.”
Hundreds of other Georgetown students got the same warm feeling inside while they crammed the sidewalks and parking lot outside the humble brick gym, each in possession of a slip of paper that personified the prospect of a ticket, tournament magic and full body paint.
Gentle BBQ-scented breezes drifted over the masses sprawled across the scrubby grass. Some rested on air mattresses, some in sleeping bags and some roughed it as only kids from Jersey and Long Island can, with futons, flat-screen T.V.s and, for the ever civilized camper, the occasional coffee table. The scene was one of a refugee camp for a people driven out of the land of milk, manna and Mario Kart.
Though the night air was illuminated by the glow of laptops, video games and for the most studious in the crowd, study lamps, many embraced the celebratory feeling of the evening by playing some hoops. GUSA president Ben Shaw (COL `08) and posse engaged in some three-on-three action. Shaw and sophomore Nick Wertsch both seemed chipper about their decision to brave the ticket line instead of the library, despite an impending theology midterm that morning. Instead, the two laid out their devastatingly simple road trip scenario:
“We’re driving and we’re not stopping ‘til we get to Atlanta” Shaw proclaimed with the determination of an astronaut, “Not even to pee.”
A Sherman-esque plan for blazing into Atlanta seemed to be an anomaly among those in the crowd. Many expressed hopes that the university would offer some means of transportation, which has now been promised in the form of buses, but in true March Madness fashion, practicality was far from fans’ minds.
Instead, excited talk, punctuated by the occasional plunk of tennis balls from the nearby courts, rippled through the crowd as one Hoya after another defended their place as Georgetown’s biggest fan. Sophomore Kris Rodgers ventured to call his passion for Georgetown basketball greater than that of the beloved Felicia Akingube, better known as Jeff Green’s mom.
“She only comes to the games because her son is on the team,” Rodgers posited.
Others demonstrated their enthusiasm for Hoya hoops by detailing their post season superstitions. Wertsch explained the importance of his Final Four talisman, known only as “The Yo Ball.” He and his friends took the ball on their road trip to Winston-Salem, where they were photographed with the ball and various Georgetown personalities, including Roy Hibbert and his mother.
“We take this ball everywhere with us and it brings us luck,” Wertsch stated with confidence, and assured that “The Yo Ball” would feature prominently in Atlanta festivities.
Though the mood of the crowd was generally upbeat, some were annoyed with the process of place-holding checks performed by harassed looking staffers every couple of hours. A burly student in a Hoya Football sweatshirt who would only identify himself as “the bunny” called the system “the worst process ever.”
Others, like McClymont, were simply happy to have a place in line; the junior admitted that his original number in line was 326, and only the first 300 tickets were assured seats in the much-desired student section on the lower level of the massive Georgia Dome. McClymont said he persuaded a few “ladies” who he could tell “weren’t suited to take in the night” to give him their place in line.
“I laid it on thick,” McClymont said, “[I] told them I was doing community service.”
Unlike the silver-tongued McClymont, freshman Sean Hayes began waiting outside McDonough Sunday night, and was rewarded for his enthusiasm with the first spot in line. Tuesday morning, surrounded by news crews and looking decidedly grubby, Hayes emitted an excited yelp and pumped his arms with vigor as he cashed in his place-holding stub for a real live ticket to the Final Four.
Georgetown basketball will be the only thing on fans’ minds this weekend as the team and hundreds of students storm south with hopes of another magical weekend. Wertsch went so far as to say that, right now, Hoya Paranoia trumps the most basic biological urges of procreation.
“I’ve never screamed so much in my life.”
