I love college sports and knew that moving out to Tucson I definitely would go to UA gameS. Went to my first game against Cal Baptist. I wore my UA half zip with my Pitt t-shirt underneath. And since it would cool off after dark I wore my Pitt fleece as my outerwear. I cannot be fully incorporated.
It is nice to walk on flat streets in the sunshine to a game. All of the metal detectors and ticket swiping happens outside. I guess you can have that when it rarely rains.
McKale is interesting because you walk in and the concourse really is the Inside of the arena. You walk to your seats and can always see the court. I did an SMF and bought cheap seats off of StubHub because I didn’t want to pay $36 a ticket for upper level seats to a buy game. LOL. The seating reminded me of Dayton where if you are on the sideline at an upper level you really can’t see the opposite set of upper stands. McKale is larger than the Pete but actually felt more intimate. I am still trying to figure that out. My seats were about five rows down from the top but the view still felt closer than my second row seats in the Pete’s second level.
I also enjoyed being able to get pretty good quality Mexican food at the concession stands, but the $8 sodas with souvenir cups reminded me of DT and his souvenir cups rants from the early Pete days. I drink beer, but never at a game since I hate running to the head fifty times.
The student section was sparse since it is break but the few that were there were pretty organized. I missed “sucks” aNSD “he sucks too” to be honest.
Listening to the intros, UA had only one U.S. kid in the starting lineup. I remember reading that Tommy Lloyd had to go for international recruits because of NCAA punishment levied because of what Sean did but didn’t quite understand that.
The Cal Baptist team also had a lot of international players as well. It seems the new age of college hoops.
A few fan things I found interesting. At the start of the game the entire crowd stands and I figured it would be until UA got the first basket. There were a lot of missed shots early and Cal Baptist actually scored first and everyone sat down. Cal went up ahead quickly and i thought I am really bad luck for this team. LOL.
UA came back and I found it interesting that during each media timeout the UA folks staged something on court that did keep your attention from drifting and they did NOT incessantly announce advertisers for the game. I always hated media timeouts at the Pete because they seemed like one long commercial that just took you out of the game. Also interesting during a team called timeout the arena folks would blast off some historic jock rock type music to keep the crowd hyped about the situation going on with the game. Fans responded well. Overall the fans seemed pretty knowledgable about basketball so responded appropriately and the vast majority of the crowd stood in appropriate situations.
I was interested in half time and what they would stage but to my great disappointment one of the things they did was an grade school team mini basketball game. SO, who is the “Arena Entertainment” Guru in the United States that came up with that idea ten years ago for arenas to adopt?
Second half started and people were on there feet again and when UA scored I sat down but nobody else did. They Didn’t sit down until Cal Baptist finally scored. I guess it is meant to be a crowd intimidation thing. I guess.
UA eventually ran away with the game, but people didn’t start leaving until about 1:23 left in the Game.
Overall, for McKale being an almost 50 year old arena (opened in 1973) it wasn’t bad. Troughs in the bathroom though which was odd to me For an arena. I told my wife I think the arena held up because you don’t have people trudging road salt into the facility throughout the winter.
Anyway it was an enjoyable day to watch old time Big East basketball and Pitt walking away with the W and then seeing my first in person game since Senior Night in March 2020.
I think Arizona has a long and quick team, but they probably will run into a tourney team with wide bodies that cause them problems.
It is nice to walk on flat streets in the sunshine to a game. All of the metal detectors and ticket swiping happens outside. I guess you can have that when it rarely rains.
McKale is interesting because you walk in and the concourse really is the Inside of the arena. You walk to your seats and can always see the court. I did an SMF and bought cheap seats off of StubHub because I didn’t want to pay $36 a ticket for upper level seats to a buy game. LOL. The seating reminded me of Dayton where if you are on the sideline at an upper level you really can’t see the opposite set of upper stands. McKale is larger than the Pete but actually felt more intimate. I am still trying to figure that out. My seats were about five rows down from the top but the view still felt closer than my second row seats in the Pete’s second level.
I also enjoyed being able to get pretty good quality Mexican food at the concession stands, but the $8 sodas with souvenir cups reminded me of DT and his souvenir cups rants from the early Pete days. I drink beer, but never at a game since I hate running to the head fifty times.
The student section was sparse since it is break but the few that were there were pretty organized. I missed “sucks” aNSD “he sucks too” to be honest.
Listening to the intros, UA had only one U.S. kid in the starting lineup. I remember reading that Tommy Lloyd had to go for international recruits because of NCAA punishment levied because of what Sean did but didn’t quite understand that.
The Cal Baptist team also had a lot of international players as well. It seems the new age of college hoops.
A few fan things I found interesting. At the start of the game the entire crowd stands and I figured it would be until UA got the first basket. There were a lot of missed shots early and Cal Baptist actually scored first and everyone sat down. Cal went up ahead quickly and i thought I am really bad luck for this team. LOL.
UA came back and I found it interesting that during each media timeout the UA folks staged something on court that did keep your attention from drifting and they did NOT incessantly announce advertisers for the game. I always hated media timeouts at the Pete because they seemed like one long commercial that just took you out of the game. Also interesting during a team called timeout the arena folks would blast off some historic jock rock type music to keep the crowd hyped about the situation going on with the game. Fans responded well. Overall the fans seemed pretty knowledgable about basketball so responded appropriately and the vast majority of the crowd stood in appropriate situations.
I was interested in half time and what they would stage but to my great disappointment one of the things they did was an grade school team mini basketball game. SO, who is the “Arena Entertainment” Guru in the United States that came up with that idea ten years ago for arenas to adopt?
Second half started and people were on there feet again and when UA scored I sat down but nobody else did. They Didn’t sit down until Cal Baptist finally scored. I guess it is meant to be a crowd intimidation thing. I guess.
UA eventually ran away with the game, but people didn’t start leaving until about 1:23 left in the Game.
Overall, for McKale being an almost 50 year old arena (opened in 1973) it wasn’t bad. Troughs in the bathroom though which was odd to me For an arena. I told my wife I think the arena held up because you don’t have people trudging road salt into the facility throughout the winter.
Anyway it was an enjoyable day to watch old time Big East basketball and Pitt walking away with the W and then seeing my first in person game since Senior Night in March 2020.
I think Arizona has a long and quick team, but they probably will run into a tourney team with wide bodies that cause them problems.
