farewell, tulsa: reflections on four days of peace, love mascot brawls & basketball.

Now that we're a full 48 hours removed from Tulsa, the UMAC and the Summit League Basketball Championship tournament, I've had some time to reflect on the four days of peace, love and basketball. Okay, so Jawz and Eli pretty much tossed out the peace and love part of things. But at least we had plenty of basketball.

The UMAC
The venue itself is outstanding, albeit troubling that the UMAC is a high school gym. There are college programs—cough! IUPUI! cough!—that would kill for this sort of joint. The downside: locals who staffed the event patrolled the arena like stormtroopers. I was instructed by an usher I wasn't allowed to shoot video. Never mind I was wearing a media credential. In years past, fans were ordered to take down signs that were neither profane nor obscene. Someone decided they just didn't like it. And now I'm hearing that people were instructed on how to properly sit in a seat.

In the future, I'd like for ushers and volunteers to get a grip and not over-step their boundaries.

Tulsa, Oklahoma
The good people of Tulsa were nothing but kind to me. I've been there twice and found the locals to be pleasant, polite and downright hospitable. I would hope any future host cities have residents as gracious.

The Fans
Fans are fans. They cheer, they boo, they sometimes get overzealous. No team is immune to that. ORU's fans outnumbered all other fans combined because they weren't living out of suitcases like everyone else. Nevertheless I'm going to call out the ignorance of ORU fans chanting "steroids" at IUPUI's Jernisha Cann during the championship game. That's beyond bush league. It's shameful, downright shameful.

Star Spangled What???
I'm not trying to be mean, but is it asking so much for a guy singing the National Anthem before a championship game to get the words right? A representative from the Tulsa Beacon turned to me following the anthem and said with a beaming expression on his face, "he did a great job."

"Didn't he get the words wrong?" I said, somewhat incredulously. My man from the Beacon didn't seem to much care. He was a nice guy, to be fair, but the Beacon's Web site hasn't published a single new article since 5 March.

IPFW
Welcome to the conference, kid. All this ribbing was a hazing ritual of sorts. Yours is a young D-I program and is still learning how to fit in. IPFW's Pep Band was fun to watch at times, though, because they were obviously just happy to be there. But next time stick to standard Pep Band fare. The jazz power trio thing has to go.

Southern Hills Marriott
Great hotel. Salon E will never be the same after being invaded by the miscreants of press row.

Tulsa International Airport
Seriously, could you be any farther away from anything?

Southern Utah University
I'm disappointed in the program not for its on-court performance, but rather for sending their kids to the tournament with as little support as possible. No Pep Band. No cheerleaders. No mascot. No wonder the women's team looked relieved more than disappointed when they were bounced out by IUPUI. Perhaps SUU doesn't have the aforementioned amenities to furnish its program. If not: GET THEM. End of story.

Pep Bands, One and All!
By and large, they all were....LOUD! I still can't get OU's fight song out of my head. And I know this makes me a cornball, but I still love it when a band plays "Hey Baby," because they sing it. I don't know why, but I love that. UMKC got mad props on press row for Super Mario and The Family Guy. But the JagBand is still my first and only love.

ORU Cheerleaders
I admit I was a bit hard on them for their antics toward IPFW, but that's because I'm protective of the new, weaker kid in class. Don't pick on the weak kid, eh? But the lesson was obviously learned and ORU's kids were model cheerleaders on Tuesday.

The Mascot Melee

Yeah, it's all over the place. And yeah, I had more than just a little to do with that. And yeah, I will take some small measure of credit for being the first to post it on YouTube (158,000+ hits, as of today). So, thank you very much for giving me my YouTube moment. I'll re-cap the coverage this pulled in a later entry.

"Neutral" Sites
At least three coaches--OU's Beckie Francis, IUPUI's Shann Hart and Ron Hunter--playing their final Tulsa tourney games took parting shots on the "neutral site" term, calling the UMAC "neutral," pejoratively. While I didn't hear other coaches say it directly, you know the thought isn't too far from stumbling out in a post-game presser.

It's worth noting ORU men played in four championship games in Tulsa, winning three. The women? Three, winning three. Coincidence? You decide.

The coaches are not wrong, but so what. Lots of fans will bemoan it. But if you want to neutralize the another team's fans, bring more of your own. Period. Sadly, though, Summit League fans just don't travel that far. Valpo's fans did, that's for sure. But it's been so long (four years in Tulsa) that we have no idea how well ORU's fans will travel. We'll find out next year in Sioux Falls(!), South freakin' Dakota.

Post Season
ORU is looking at a possible 13-seed right now. Depending on their draw, they could have a puncher's chance at an upset. Let's just wait and see.

IUPUI should get an NIT bid, but we'll have to wait and see.

On the women's side, ORU is probably looking at a 15 or 16. Double digits in the loss column will keep your draw on the low side of the bracket.

2009 Summit League Tournament
...Sioux Falls? I'm going to Sioux Falls?????? It's going to SNOW there this week!