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College Memories

I haven't done one of these in a while. For those who are fairly new, "college memories" is a series of random stories that I write about my college experiences (I went from Fall '99-Summer '03).

This time I'm going to write about basketball games. The college basketball season has started so this is a good time to talk about some of the games I went to and what they were like.

I probably should have gone to more games than I did when I was there. I didn't go to every game, but I went to quite a few. Basketball games at the U of O are very popular with the students, and the teams are usually pretty good. There's always a lot of energy and excitement at a Duck hoops game. The home games are played in the old basketball arena on campus, McArthur Court also known as Mac Court or "The Pit." It's a 1920s-era concrete building with a small court and seating area that holds about 9,000 people. A lot of the building is old - most of the seats except for student seating, bathrooms, stairs, that sort of thing. Some of the seats have obstructed views from posts holding the stands up or other things that get in the way.

The seats are all packed in close together and are fairly close to the court itself, so things can get a little crazy. The effect of getting 9,000 loud and psyched basketball fans in that small space is pretty incredible. Mac Court is known as one of the toughest places to play basketball on the west coast, and if things get wild enough the baskets and scoreboard can sometimes shake from the vibrations of students clapping and stomping and jumping up and down. At men's games, about half the court-level seating is reserved for the student fan group known as the "Pit Crew." This is a group of very loyal basketball fans who show up early, wear color coordinated Pit Crew T-shirts, and get the team and the crowd revved up with their yelling and chants and high energy level. A guy I knew in high school ended up as the "leader" of the Pit Crew for a few years, and he definitely had a lot of spirit for his team. The Pit Crew can sometimes get a little rowdy and controversial, but it's definitely the heart and soul of the Duck game crowds.

Mac Court is definitely a great place to see a basketball game, even if a little uncomfortable at times. One reason I liked it is because it's just a short walk away from the campus dorms, unlike the football stadium which is away from campus and across the river. I've seen many a great game there, especially in the first couple years I was in school. I attended one game against, I think, Stanford with a friend from high school named Jeff who was also a student at the university. It was my freshman year, and we arrived a bit late to the game because I had forgotten my ticket in my room! So by the time I got my ticket again and we got to the arena, there were very few places to sit. We had to trek up a few flights of stairs to the third balcony way up at the top of the building. It was quite hot up there, and the seats were very steep and uncomfortable, but we had a pretty good view of the court! I can't remember if we could see the whole thing though. That was the first and only time I had to sit up on the third level, thankfully.

I also attended many women's basketball games in addition to the men's games. The women's games are a bit different than normal. It's more of a family atmosphere, and fewer students attend so there's not the same noise level. It's still fun to watch them play though. There's a lot of good teamwork involved, and the women play just as hard as the men. I still remember the "senior night" game I went to when the team graduated a very special class of some very special players. One of them ended up in the WNBA. I really enjoyed watching the last game of a great group of talented women.

I also saw the Harlem Globetrotters play a game at Mac. I begged my dad to take me to see them when they came to town, and I did not regret it. They were highly entertaining and hilarious to watch and I had a big smile on my face the entire game and beyond. That's one memory about Mac Court that I'll always cherish.

I also went to quite a few games with my basketball-crazy friend Mike. We always had a great time no matter what team the Ducks were playing. One game I'll remember was when the team played the University of Washington. They are a big rival of the Ducks, so tensions are always high when the two teams play. That night, the game atmosphere was out of this world. The teams ended up playing a close game and the closer the Ducks came to getting a lead, the louder the crowd got. It got so loud it was nearly deafening. The noise reaches a point where it's almost a physical energy pulsating through you from head to toe. Things went down to the wire and there was overtime too. In the end the Ducks lost, but they kept it close and the crowd was loving it. I'll never forget how it felt to be in a crowd like that during a game like that.