12/20/07 It's Basketball Time in Tennessee

Tony called me up yesterday and told me that he had been offered tickets to the UT vs whoever basketball game, and did I want to go? I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I did want to see Thompson-Boling Arena after the remodel, and it's not like I had anything better to do, so I said sure, sounds like fun.

Oh, and did I mention that the regular owner of our newly adopted tickets just happened to be a certain Senator Lamar Alexander? Yes, since Senator Alexander and I are such good pals (and by pals I mean that I occasionally drive down his highway) he gave us (well, indirectly, and through about 8 other people who couldn't attend a ballgame on a weeknight and therefore kept passing them along) two courtside (row 2 anyway) tickets RIGHT BEHIND the UT bench. It was super snazzy. I took lots of pictures just for you, oh loyal blog fans.

Here's the view of the game from my seat. Yeah, those guys are taller than they look on tv. And louder. And smellier. At one point I leaned over to Tony and was like, "Whoa! I just got a whiff of smelly sweat sock!" and he was like, "Those are the players. They're sweaty". Ya'll, I was so close to the game, I COULD SMELL THE PLAYERS!

Speaking of tall and smelly, it turns out that UNC Asheville player Kenny George, at a unimaginable 7' 7", is difficult to guard, especially if you're a measly 6' 10". King Kong's George's job was to stand next to the basket and block our shots. Despite that, we still managed to pull out a pretty nice win.

The seats are also right in front of the cheerleaders. I always thought that I couldn't understand what the cheerleaders were saying because I was too far away. It turns out that the cheers are muffled even when you're close enough to touch the megaphones. (Unless of course the cheer really is saying "pickled beets!" *Clap! Clap!* "Pickled Beets!")

Here's where my buddy Bruce and I gave the team some pointers. Bruce said something about blocking a back door, and I yelled "Bruce! Bruce! Look this way! Over here Bruce!" My coaching skills are legendary.
Here I am madly snapping pictures while these guys ignore me and try to have a semi-normal conversation 5 feet away just hanging out with some of my player pals. We're cool like that.

As for the actual game, I couldn't really tell ya. They ran up the court, they ran down the court, they ran back up the court again. Ohhh, but to see it up close and personal? That makes all that running a lot more exciting.

Anytime you need someone to take your tickets to the game off your hands, Senator, you just let me know.