They're Playing Basketball

Basketball is my favorite sport. I love the way they dribble up and down the court.

Sorry. I'll stop. I rap almost as badly as I sing.

I'm not all that into sports, but if there's one sport I know a lot about it's basketball. My brother was always athletic growing up so I was dragged to lots and lots of games. He played soccer and baseball and had a brief stint as a football player, but his main sport was basketball. Unlike soccer and baseball, it was fast-paced and there was a scoreboard with a clock counting down that proved to me this would end in ____ minutes. Somewhere along the line, I learned how the game worked and I was drawn in. Where this knowledge would lead me in high school would likely be a shock to anyone who knows me only as an adult. However, if you ever need someone to keep the official scorebook, keep track of rebounds, assists, and shots taken/made for up to three players at a time, and even run a scoreboard or control the clock, I am your girl. Yes, I traveled with the boys basketball teams for four years as a statistician. My dad also ran a summer league for varsity high school teams at the White Oak Athletic Association, and he had me gather my friends as scorekeepers and schedule their shifts. We each made $2.50 per game, and I normally worked four games a night Monday through Thursday and four games on Saturday morning. That's $50 a week, ya know, for watching cute boys my age play basketball. My friends and I had it rough!

If my love of basketball is not surprising enough, perhaps you'd be even more shocked to learn that my life once revolved around Pitt basketball. When the NCAA tournament rolls around every year, it takes me back to that time when I was in seventh grade. I was a super fan! I knew all the players and their stats, and I never missed a game. Sometimes I was lucky enough to get to go to games with my dad because he and his friend had season tickets at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse. It was a small arena and their seats were in the top row. On the nights when Dad had both tickets, my brother and I would take turns going.  When it was my turn, I'd always wear my navy and gold rugby shirt from Gap (because it was 1989 and rugby shirts were so in). We'd park on Aliquippa Street in the cold and snow, walk the icy streets to the fieldhouse, and by the time we got to our seats we were sweating. It was so hot up there and it only got hotter as the game when on, but I didn't care. It was a blast! The pep band was playing "Hail to Pitt," the Fieldhouse Fanatics were going nuts behind the hoop, the student section bleachers were across from us and they were in constant motion, the fat and wealthy alumni sat in their fancy chairs behind the team benches, and all of us were cheering on our Panthers. My dad would even make sure we got there well before the start of the game so that we could stand outside the locker room as the players came out for warm-ups. They were huge! And so pumped up! It was unbelievably exciting and I loved it. Loved it!

Back then I had two favorite players--Pat Cavanaugh and Sean Miller. Number 12 and Number 3. How do I remember that? I don't even know, but I'm telling ya. This was big. I was obsessed. Eventually those two graduated, Dad didn't go in on the tickets anymore, and we visited Duke and UNC during our family vacation to North Carolina one year. My brother is a die-hard North Carolina fan, but my Pitt basketball obsession turned towards Duke. Blame it on Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, and Coach Krzyzewski. In high school, my friend Melanie and I knew everything there was to know about Duke. She even wrote a letter to Chris Collins asking him to go to the prom with her. He responded! He said no, but he responded! She may still have that letter in a Ziploc bag somewhere.

So yeah, college basketball was big for me then. It's coming back, though, because Sean Miller is now the head coach at Arizona. He followed me. Ha! I'm a Wildcat fan now. Woooo! Go Cats! Bear Down, Arizona! I don't even know what that means. I guess I'm not that quite obsessed yet. I have work to do.