Maddening March Memories

Buffalo is slated to host the NCAA’s March Madness tournament at HSBC arena again this year. Starting Friday, an estimated 12,000 basketball fanatics will crowd downtown hotels, restaurants, and the arena for an event that is supposed to pump some $5 million into the Buffalo economy. Logistics will be a nightmare. Many chickens will lose their wings to a slurry of butter and Anchor Bar sauce. (One must wonder, with Travel Channel’s “Food Wars” recently declaring Duff’s the wings champion, will this hurt business at the 'Bar? Doubtful.)

Admittedly, I’m not much of a basketball fan. Being 6-foot-3 and all, the opposite is generally the assumed truth. However, for one brief season I did get into the game. Allow me to wax nostalgic here:

It was 2004, and I was a freshman at Liberty University. The men’s basketball team, led at the time by Coach Randy Duntin, took the Big South championship in an 89-44 ass-whoopin’ against High Point. As the team dominated that season, I actually started following the games. Blame it on there not being a whole lot to do at the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Exciting University.” Perhaps it was free entertainment (with student ID).

I remember being in the stands during that early-March game. ESPN was on campus. Me and some friends made a goofy “GO FLAMES!” sign. We all wore red (the school’s color). Later, as I watched the ESPN video, I saw myself standing on a seat waving that stupid sign. I looked all the part of a dopey, over-giddy college freshman.

As the final seconds ticked down and LU had more than doubled High Point's score, LU pulled its starting lineup and put the, shall we say, less talented players in. Frenzied students stormed the court. I got my picture taken with Jerry Falwell.

The next week, I returned home to Buffalo for spring break. And just like this year, Buffalo was hosting the 2004 opening rounds of the NCAA tourney. Sixteenth-seed LU was playing number-one seed St. Josephs. I tried hard to get tix into HSBC Arena that day, calling in favors with several area connections. I was a broke freshman; over $100 (to see LU eventually get spanked) was out of budget for me, and that student ID wasn’t working its charms anymore. (It did however double as a MasterCard…very convenient.)

LU and Jerry Falwell made the front page of the Buffalo News that day. I kept the edition as a memento. I always thought it funny that Liberty followed me home that spring break.

After freshman year, LU men’s team never made it to March Madness again, and I never got into basketball again. Come my final semester in 2007, Duntin was dismissed as coach after three lackluster seasons. Rev. Falwell kicked the bucket a few weeks later. Talk about last-minute upsets.

So once again NCAA time is upon us. Everyone is filling out those brackets I'll never totally understand. The water cooler doubles as a sports book for office pools while wary workers cast a watchful eye (I may have just made a new tongue twister). As for me? March is all about St. Patty's Day and the coming of spring. Like I said before, basketball just never has been my thing.

Buffalo News announcing Falwell's trip to Buffalo.  Notice the News' old mast head.

Liberty Champion annoucing we had won the Big South.