Cuttin' Down the Net

Last week was stupendous for Pitt basketball fans. Our boys played four games in four days at Madison Square Garden, the biggest basketball stage on earth. They picked this time in the season to be at their peak skill level. WAY TO GO BOYS. I was aching to be in New York City with them. So, after an awesome win against Marquette Friday night, Jon and I made our plan: we would get up at 5 am Saturday morning and head to the Big Apple to watch our team take on the mighty Georgetown Hoyas. We made reservations at a hotel in Jersey City, NJ, right across the river from our ultimate destination. After a short train ride and a transfer to the subway, we stepped into Times Square. I felt like I had landed on The Mother Ship. The sights and sounds of Times Square are so exciting and energizing. I am not a person who usually likes crowds, but the midst of Manhattan is an exception for me. All of the Broadway marquees! Hot dog vendors! Neon lights! Video images sky-scraper in height! STREET VENDORS SELLING PURSES! What a rush!
We met up with our clan, Josh, Hemont, Rose and Charley, and enjoyed the city together. All of this really just to kill time until the big game, the Big East championship game, began.
It was great to get inside scoop from the occasional appearance of Jeremy in our midst, popping by to give us little vignettes on the team: the player who forgot his size 15 shoes; the coach who had to shop at Brooks Brothers because he didn't bring clothes to last four games (where's your faith?); the freshman manager who got left behind at MSG after the first game.
Finally, game time. Jer once again came through with great seats for us at the Garden. We were sitting in the student section with the Oakland Zoo crazies. That meant we had to stand the entire game (cause that's what the student fans do). We were about 11 rows from the floor, so how could I complain?
After being down early in the first half, Pitt started to play with a confidence that made me believe they were going to pull this off. Every time Georgetown made a surge, Pitt was able to dig deep and answer. The Hoyas had an awesome dunk, we went back up the floor and my Ronald Ramon would hit a deep three. It was awesome, it was surreal. So when the buzzer sounded and Levance Fields threw the ball high toward the rafters, we celebrated BIG TIME. Much of the crowd rushed the floor. I was laughing, crying, and clapping, standing on my chair, amazed, until I spotted this: a ladder going up underneath the hoop. I made one giant leap toward the floor of Madison Square Garden, my picture phone in hand. Yes, my eyes were not deceiving me. After each team member climbed the steps and cut a piece of the net, they handed the scissors to my Jeremy. I began crying out, "That's my son!" and the crowd parted like the Red Sea to let me close enough to get a priceless picture of JEREMY CUTTING DOWN THE NET AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. Thank goodness for camera phones or I would have thought it was a dream.