Last Saturday, Sam, little Koba, and myself travelled down I-95 for a visit to DC to see some college hoops, with our alma mater, Temple University, versus the school I briefly attended before transferring, George Washington. We got our asses up in the wee hours of the morning, and got to DC before 10am. After a brief stop at the Spy Museum (okay, their giftshop. We didn't want to pay the $30 entrance fee. And Sam has an unhealthy obsession with Joseph Stalin) and a visit to the DC Aquarium (which is just one fucking floor. Seriously, the Camden or Baltimore Aquariums have tanks as big as the DC Aquarium), we headed over to the Smith Center.
They say that basketball is the one sport where the college game is superior to the professionals game because of the teamwork and overall atmosphere. I gotta agree. I have never experienced the electricity of a college hoops game at a an NBA game. Now granted, maybe that's because the Sixers are fourth wheel of Philadelphia pro sports for probably the last ten years...
The Smith Center has a pretty huge and impressive megatron that I don't remember being there from when I was a student. It was a cool arena, though a bit small. Even though the average GW student sucks and unlikeable (as opposed to the average Temple student, who is awesome), the crowd was pretty impressive in how much they cheered on their team. Though, I'm gonna complain a little, because the cheerleaders also used goddamn annoying vuluzela like horns. I didn't hear too much shit-talking during the game, until I wondered down to the concessions during half-time to see if they had some ice cream, when I came upon Temple players waiting to re-enter the court. A GW fan started screaming at him, "Juan Fernandez is a faggot! Argentina sucks! Temple is a state school, so you guys have no future!" Juan just laughed, but one of his teammates said, "You better watch your mouth!"
The Temple Owls started off the game slow, missing shot after shot. "Gdub"'s crowd seemed pretty hyped to me, though it wouldn't last. By the 2nd half, the Owls had climbed back into the game, and absolutely destroyed the Colonials by the end of the game. We observed, besides the stars on Temple's team, Juan Fernandez and Lavoy Allen, some of the undersung players. TJ DiLeo, the son of former Sixers coach and current front office man Tony DiLeo, never even looked to shoot the ball, even seemingly forbidden from taking shots. He seemed to be better at taking hard fouls than anything else. Hey, sometimes you gotta take a an elbow to the gut for the team...
I had a nice conversation with a GW alumni at the end, who gave a yellow foam finger to Koba. He said the Temple was the best team he'd seen, though injuries might derail us in the tournament. I tried to burn the yellow foam finger, but Sam seemed to think it was a better idea for Koba to keep it. It's your kid, Sam.
Fun day. Nice little roadtrip. Hopefully, we can make DC into our playground this summer when the Phillies go down to rock the Nationals.
