FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Congratulations to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team, the 2009 NCCA Champions.  Following this, I feel this is as good a time as any to recount my story of a trip I made earlier this year to see what ended up being their first loss of the year.

Sometime in November or December, I (a diehard BC fan) along with 3 of my friends (UNC fans of varying degrees of fair-weatherness) decided that road tripping from Massachusetts to North Carolina to watch BC play at UNC on January 4 would be a good idea.  Once we realized the Celtics (who we all root for) would be playing in Charlotte a mere two days later, our minds were made up.  We bought the tickets, made the hotel...ahem...motel accommodations, and the plan was in motion.

We left at 10 PM on January 3, and about 12 hours later, we arrived at the Red Roof Inn in Durham, NC.  We only made a few stops along the way, the most memorable of which was at a White Castle in Elizabeth, NJ at 2 AM where we saw The Fast and The Furious re-enacted outside the window as we ate inside.  Eight hours after that adventure, we were exhausted from the long drive, but at our destination.  We tried (without much success) to catch a few hours of sleep, then it was off to the game.

We parked a few blocks away from the famed Dean Dome, and although we didn't know where to go, it was pretty simple: we followed everyone else.  This is when I noticed something.  It was sixty degrees outside and some people were bundled up like it was six below.  I, meanwhile, used to the winter New England weather, was wearing shorts and my yellow BC t-shirt.  It was a shirt that I had gotten, ironically enough, two years earlier when, with the same friends, I went to a game between UNC and BC in Chestnut Hill, their first battle as ACC foes.  Now I was 700 miles away, in Chapel Hill, hoping for a different outcome.

Another thing I noticed, while walking to the Dean Dome, is that I was the only BC fan there.  And it didn't change once inside the arena, whether it was walking around the concourse, standing in the bathroom with still has a trough-style urinal (even Fenway got rid of those!), or even once I sat in my seat in section 215, row R, seat 1.  Sure there were the usual players' families sitting behind the BC bench, but in terms of actual, non-related fans, I didn't see a single other one.  I wish I had thought of asking one of my friends to take a picture, because I was the lone yellow shirt standing out in a sea of 22,000 in Carolina blue.  Needless to say, I was a little outnumbered.

It was the ACC opener for both teams, so I had no clue what to expect from BC.  Sure they had beaten some bad teams, but with their playing a fairly light non-conference schedule, I had no clue what to expect. (As it turned out, this was a theme for the whole season, as it was a very inconsistent team that seemed capable of beating or losing to anybody.)  I remember before the game just hoping that BC wouldn't get embarrassed in a blowout.

Of course, what happened wasn't a blowout.  It was a closely contested game that went back-and-forth.  In the first half, BC hung in there due in large part to their strong offensive rebounding.  They shot well throughout the game and came up big in big moments.  I remember two distinct points during the game where UNC seemed poised to take momentum as the fans rose to their feet to urge the team to a defensive stand.  Each time the Eagles responded, the first time with a three pointer and the second time with a wide open dunk on a botched defensive switch.  When you are a fan, on the road, to have 22,000 standing fans silenced so quickly like that -- twice -- is just about the best feeling you can get.  The only thing better is winning, which is exactly what BC did.

It was the second time in their history that BC has beaten a number one ranked Tar Heels team.  In fact, the Eagles have never lost to a UNC team that was ranked first overall.  

This year's BC season ended in a disappointing -- and ugly -- fashion, losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament to USC.  It was an up and down year for the Eagles.  They were upset by Saint Louis and Harvard.  They pulled off their own upsets of Florida State and Duke.  And of course, eventual champion North Carolina.  And I was there to see it.