Through a Glass, Darkly

I don’t know if you have heard, but Davidson is kind of a big deal these days. Well, they are still in the Southern Conference with the rest of us peons, but they have this player? Maybe you have heard of him? Stephen Curry? Yeah, I thought so.

So, here’s a confession. While I went to both undergrad and grad school at UNCG, I never went to any sporting events there except for softball games. One of my friends played on the softball team, so I went to support her. But basketball games? Nope. Baseball? No. Soccer? Nah. I don’t even know what else there is: golf, track, tennis? I didn’t go to any of them. I wanted to, kind of, but I didn’t know the process, and I was busy, and you know how it goes. UNCG isn’t really a sports school, and I’m glad that it’s not overtaken by a football team or a basketball team, but I do think I missed out on a little bit of that sort of college experience.

Ever since last year’s NCAA tournament, I have been thinking that it might be fun to see the Davidson/UNCG game when that finally rolled around. And UNCG apparently thought that, you know, a lot of people might feel that way, because they obliged by having the game at the Greensboro Coliseum (the first of many games to be played there). With that in mind, I convinced Mom and Joseph to join me and Mike there on Thursday night. Mom, Mike and I are all UNCG grads, and Joseph went to Davidson. This was PERSONAL. We got a package deal that was four tickets, four hotdogs, and four sodas for $44. (Believe it or not, my mom actually ate her hotdog.)

Since UNCG never has anyone come to its basketball games, they decided to try to do this up right. They had a little “festival” thing in the Pavilion outside with face painting and giveaways and Spaz. People were excited and happy. Sure, UNCG’s record was an appalling 3-17, but we could still show our Spartan pride!

The game was also an opportunity for me to make fun of my brother for going to Davidson, one of my favorite pastimes. Since going to Davidson means you are really smart, this is difficult to do, but I always manage it. Secretly, I think Joseph enjoys the verbal jousting as much as I do. My favorite thing to make fun of is, of course, that Davidson students can have their laundry done by the school’s laundry service. We also got to have some back-and-forth about the cost of his education, such as the time that Stephen Curry traveled and it went uncalled. Apparently Davidson students pay for that extra step. (When another Davidson player traveled later and it was called, Joseph surmised that it must have been a scholarship student.)

Here are some of our pictures. They are all of Stephen Curry. I didn’t even know any UNCG players’ names before we went to the game.

When we walked in to the “Spartan fest,” we were given (hilarious) buttons that said, “I prefer my Curry mild!” Which basically says, “We know how this is going to go, and we are just hoping that he doesn’t beat up on us too much.” As we were leaving, I noticed that everyone was in a pretty good mood, despite the abysmal score. I hope that the deal with the coliseum works out and that UNCG basketball becomes a community event like the Grasshoppers games. It was a fun evening!

Our pictures from the game are here!