After a tough loss at Akron it was time for my final home game ever as a UB Bull.
In one of the most epic senior night celebrations of all time, six of us - plus a senior manager - would be honored before the game. Needless to say, the game against Ohio would be starting a few (well, more like 15 or 20) minutes late.
But wait, there's more.
Prior to the Senior Night festivities and the game, the pregame clock wound down to just over a minute to go. The next thing I know I glance up and the clock has jumped back to six minutes remaining. I remember thinking, "That's funny." But didn't think much of it at the time.
Then, approximately five minutes later, the clock wound back up to six minutes again. At this point we've had over ten extra minutes of warmup.
I don't want to get tired, so I take a walk to our bench for some water and discover en route that there was a malfunction with the sound system. Apparently, just before we took the floor a fuse blew or something, releasing a deafening shriek from the arena speakers. I heard peoples' ears started bleeding (okay, that's an exaggeration).
Luckily, a few minutes later the MC, Jerry, announced that the problem had been fixed.
And the crowd...goes...wild...
With the speaker SNAFU taken care of, it was time for Senior Night and the annual senior walk, parents in hand, to midcourt. The experience was surreal; I can remember Senior Night the year I was a freshman here at UB. Time really does fly.
Amid the commotion and the ceremonies, there was a game to be played. And in typical Senior Night fashion, we won a doozy, 72-69.
But Senior Night is over, and with one regular season game left we're in position to get a bye in the first round of the conference tournament. The focus is on sealing that bye with a win at Miami of Ohio.
And with the Olympics over, it's time for everyone to watch college basketball again. I mean, it's March now. Let the madness begin...
