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News and
Notes from the Final Four By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer
BIG CROWD, BUT NOT ALL GOOD SEATS
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As fans made their way up to the third
deck of the cavernous Superdome, they were met with an ominous sign on the
wall: binocular rentals.
The entire upper deck had a clear view of the court, but the
distance from some seats was in the neighborhood of a Sammy Sosa home run,
or about 420 feet, according to Superdome spokesman Bill Curl.
The cheapest seats in the upper reaches had a face value of
about $100.
While most fans were excited just to be in the building, for
some, there was no hiding the disappointment of being so far away that it
was hard to read the numbers on the players' jerseys.
``They should have never even put these seats up for sale.
It's absolutely ridiculous, just look at this,'' said Ron Barclay, who
traveled from Boise, Idaho.
He's a casual fan with no allegiance to any particular Final
Four team.
``You look at the stadium chart, and you think that if
they're actually selling them, they're going to be usable.''
Barclay and his friend, Denise DeCoster, brought their own
binoculars, so they didn't have to pay $10 for the rentals.
Curl said the first time such seats were sold for basketball
in the Superdome was back in 1982, the year Michael Jordan's North Carolina
team beat Georgetown for the title.
``We had 61,000 people here for that game and only eight
complaints, that's when we decided we could host this as a full stadium
event,'' he said.
Back then, the cheap seats cost $18.
``They should have stuck with that,'' Barclay said.
Attendance was announced at 54,432, the fourth-largest NCAA
basketball crowd ever.
BIG 12 KILLERS
Syracuse will face Big 12 regular-season champion Kansas for
the national championship after the Orangemen beat Big 12 teams in three of
their last four tournament games, including Saturday night's 95-84 victory
over Texas.
Some Big East Conference members might find a source of
pride in that, given that the Big 12 has provided half the Final Four field
both this season and last.
But not Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.
``It's totally irrelevant,'' Boeheim said. ``I don't care
about that stuff. We're playing Kansas — doesn't matter what conference.
They could be in the WAC.
``If you just understand there are six or seven really good
conferences and stop arguing about it. I stopped 20 years ago. I realized 20
years ago I was stupid because I was trying to say, 'Well, we can do this,
our conference won this game.''' he said. ``I woke up. I figured that out.
Some other people should figure that out someday.''
Syracuse's two other victories over Big 12 teams in the
tournament were over Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
SOAKED
The timing couldn't have been worse for a heavy tropical
shower that rolled through town Saturday night. It hit while lines were
backed up at outdoor security checkpoints.
Fans, who hustled into the dome with soaked shirts and water
dripping from their hair, said the lines at the checkpoints seemed to speed
up when the rain began.
``They would wave that magnetic wand over you and just
shout, 'Go!''' said Marquette fan Brian Pieper of Boulder, Colo. ``They were
still doing a good job, patting everyone down pretty well.''
WARRIORS
One of the more popular T-shirts among Marquette fans was of
the unofficial variety. The shirts read ``Warriors,'' the school's nickname
before it was replaced by ``Golden Eagles'' about a decade ago.
On the back, the shirt displayed a quote from the Elwood
Blues character in the film ``The Blues Brothers.'' It said: ``We're on a
mission from God.''
Marquette is a Jesuit school.
SHEDDING THE LEATHER
This is the first Final Four to use a synthetic basketball
instead of a leather one.
The new balls look about the same, and 58 of 64 tournament
teams used synthetic balls during the regular season anyway. They are less
expensive and supposedly last longer than leather.
``I love the new ball, the last one we played with was hard,
I didn't like the last one,'' Kansas' Kirk Hinrich said.
Hinrich was 6-of-13 for 18 points, including three
3-pointers, in Kansas' win over Marquette in Saturday night's semifinal.
THE SHOES
Whenever Texas guard Royal Ivey looked down he sought to
draw inspiration from his shoes.
With black marker, Ivey covered his white game shoes with
expressions ranging from ``Q Borough'' (a reference to Queens in New York,
where he grew up) to expressions like, ``There is no tomorrow,'' and ``40
minutes all out.''
On top of the toe section read ``KTF,'' which Ivey said
stood for ``keep the focus.''
Ivey said he likes to see the reminders when he looks down
at the free throw line or even when he dips his head to wipe his brow.
``It's just being different, being creative. My parents are
artists and I can't really draw so I decided to write a couple thoughts down
out of my mind,'' Ivey said.
Meanwhile, Kansas guard Keith Langford dropped his
superstition of changing shoes at the half after Kansas ran up a huge
halftime lead on Marquette en route to its 94-61 semifinal victory.
``You know, if something isn't going offensively, I can try
to step up as far as defense or rebounding,'' he said. ``So I really tried
to grow out of that and keep on the same pair of shoes the whole game.''
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:47:05 AM
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