journey to 351

Game #123 of 362 33% complete

The University of Dayton Arena is the site of the annual “First Four” part of March Madness.  The four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams playoff with the winners advancing to the next round. The most notable team coming out of the first four was VCU in 2011 who made it to the Final Four succumbing to Butler in the semi final.

The team has an phone application that most major college teams have. During the player introductions, fans were instructed to go to the app and activate a flashing light. This was pretty cool to see and a first in my travels.

Grambling State was overmatched right from the start. Nate Santos, a transfer from Pittsburgh, was on fire tonight. He was the high scorer with 26 points. He went 6-7 from three point range. Santos was hardly used at Pitt last year so I wonder what the story was there. He certainly looked like an ACC caliber-level player to me.

I thought it odd that the scores of the the individual players was nowhere to be found on the scoreboards.

The 20 minute walk from the overflow parking was invigorating in the cold breeze. I like to walk but admittedly the confusing and usually outdated parking instructions on the college web sites led me to keep on driving ’til I saw the last available parking lot. This lot is mostly reserved for the frugal fans who do not want to pay $20 for parking.

Obi Toppin was voted the top national college player of the year in 2020. He was drafted in the first round by the Knicks (my favorite NBA team) and floundered for two seasons before being traded to the Indiana Pacers. As happens with most Knicks prospects when they are traded, he is experiencing a rejuvenated career averaging 13 points a game.

I am trying to make it a habit to continue exercising on my Operation 351 trips. I am in the hotel exercise room looking out the back window. I see a few horses running around a track. I had no clue that the hotel was next to a race track. On Saturday night after the afternoon game, I visited and lost a few bucks at the the racetrack. It was however very cool to be positioned at the start and finish lines watching the horses run.

The mama and bay hippos swimming underwater and the huddled African dogs were my two favorite pictures from my visit to the Cincinnati Zoo.

On to the University of Cincinnati!