Last night, Daniel and I went to the 2005 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Championship at the Pepsi Center to watch UNM and Utah. After a phenomenal basketball game, UNM won 60-56 and we got to celebrate a championship sweep by the UNM men's and women's teams. The Pepsi Center was rocking and was as close to a UNM home game as you will ever see in a conference tournament and the best part is the Lobos are going dancing! To quote the Denver Post, "The Mountain West Conference Tournament moved from Las Vegas to Denver a year ago primarily to provide a neutral court. The predominantly New Mexico crowd of 10,628 was anything but neutral and proved Lobos fans don't have to be in The Pit to be loud." Check out the photos in the photo album.
Tonight in Boulder, Ceal Barry will take the floor at the Coors Events Center for the final time as the coach of the CU women's basketball team. Coach Barry has led the Buffs to a 426-240 record, including 3 Elite Eight appearances, in her 22 years at CU and I had the privilege of being in the building for both her 400th and 500th career victories.
All of her players were always the type of people you wanted to be around and I became friends with a number of them during my time at CU. None of her players were ever the type of selfish athlete you hear about today and they were always appreciative of every fan that supported them. One of my favorite memories at CU was during the trip to Vanderbilt for the 2001 NCAA Tournament. I was up earlier than most of my band friends since I'm a bit of a morning person, and I had come downstairs into the lobby to hang out so I wouldn't wake them up. While I was sitting there Kami Carmann, the only senior on that team, came downstairs early for breakfast and saw me sitting there. At that point, she came over and sat down next to me and we just chatted about the game the night before (and our chanting for her to get in at the end of the blowout of Siena) and life in general for the next half hour or so until the rest of the team came down; something you would never see out of any of the male athletes at CU. The fact that this story is not unusual is part of the reason I always preferred watching the women's games at CU.
I wish Coach Barry the best of luck as she moves on to become the assistant athletic director at CU. The Coors Events Center will never be the same.
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