It’s been a longtime question, just hanging out there somewhere in the sometimes-particulate-ridden winter air here: Are Utah residents basketball fans, or are they just Jazz, BYU, Utah, Utah State, Weber State fans? And a closely related question: Do the locals love the game or just the teams for which they root?
The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament held at the Delta Center on Thursday and Saturday partially offered answers. And on account of that, this is a shoutout to basketball fans in this state. They showed up in strong numbers for those games, even though neither of the instate teams that qualified for the tournament played in Salt Lake. BYU lost in Omaha, and Utah State won in Indy, then headed into Sunday play there against 1-seed Purdue.
No matter what was happening in the Midwest, the fans on this side of the Wasatch came to watch March Madness in spite of the fact that most of them had no connection to the teams playing on the Delta Center floor. The place was loaded up on both days, loaded with energy.
Many of those involved in the action — coaches and players — made note of that fact.
Granted, Arizona and Gonzaga, the winners on Saturday, and Kansas and Dayton and Long Beach State and Samford and McNeese and Nevada fans showed in impressive fashion, too, as would be expected. But just from walking around the arena, it sure appeared that there were a lot of Utahns in the building.
What they saw and experienced were some memorable moments, both in the positive and the negative, foremost among them a now infamous blown call at the end of the Kansas-Samford game, a foul on a blocked shot that was not a foul, underscoring the fallibility of human refs and the stupidity of the way certain review rules are constructed. Many folks like to root for the Cinderellas, or potential Cinderellas, and the fact that Samford was shown the door the way the Bulldogs were is most unfortunate, but it is an undeniable part of the game.
Dan Monson’s departure as coach after 17 years at Long Beach by way of its loss to Arizona was encouraging, actually. The way the coach handled that defeat and his exit was the definition of classy, regardless of how classless the manner of his firing was. The coach talked about all the things that should matter most in college sports — his relationship with his players, their growth as humans in his program, the importance of education, even as, in this case, basketball gets the headlines, and his vision for the players he’d been privileged to mentor at the Beach. Just as classy was the appreciation his players expressed for their coach. No question, you’ve got to win at the upper end of the college level, at every end of every level, but the immediate aftermath of LBSU’s loss and Monson’s ouster indicated that the winning that’s done isn’t always reflected solely in the imbalance of the numbers up on the board.
Dayton’s comeback against Nevada, obliterating a 17-point deficit on a 24-4 run down the stretch against the Wolfpack was remarkable for the Flyers, devastating for Nevada.
The marquee matchup of the weekend had to be the Gonzaga-Kansas capper Saturday afternoon, a game between two blue-bloods that was played, in the first half at least, at a high level, reaching early entertaining heights, especially given what was at stake — a trip to the Sweet 16 on the one hand, a trip home on the other.
That’s what gives — gave — the atmosphere in the Delta Center so much of its luster: do or die. Every bounce of the ball, at least in theory, meant something. Every mistake. Every bit of success. Every trip at both ends.
A tight game that breathed in and breathed out with each possession before the break saw separation at the start of the second, what with Gonzaga making smart plays, inside and out, and Kansas making boneheaded ones here, there, everywhere.
At the 15:55 mark of the back half, the Bulldogs pulled ahead, 58-49, and that lead grew into the 20s from there. The Zags went on a 15-zip run, and Kansas heaved and lunged to a lopsided short end — 89-68.
Who knows? Maybe the Jayhawks played with a kind of guilt hung around their necks for the officiating blunder made in the first game, the goof that enabled them to play another day. Or perhaps Gonzaga is just flat-out better than Kansas. Both explanations made sense.
Either way, the fans were the real stars of the madness here, ones from faraway places and particularly the ones who came undecided about which teams to root for, fans from Spanish Fork to Ogden, from Vernal to Wendover, and everywhere in between, all of whom demonstrated, busted brackets or not, a passion for watching hoop that meant something with every bounce.
