Indy Trip Report
I drove to Indianapolis on Wednesday unsure if I would just be staying one night or 3-4 nights. This was my first time in Indianapolis and at an NCAAM Tournament Event.
The first game was a very cool and special experience. It felt surreal being at an actual tournament game. The one thing that really disappointed me was that Colorado State out traveled Michigan. Regardless, it was a really fun time, and with one exception the fans on both sides seemed to be great.
I stuck around for the first half of the Tennessee-Longwood game, but left because it was no longer a game and I was very hungry. I ate at Fogo De Chao and was watching the Kentucky game on my phone. When I saw it was tied at half I decided to buy a ticket for $15 and walk in at half. That was an amazing second half experience and I was very fortunate to witness the biggest upset of the tournament in person.
On Friday I stayed in and watched tournament games for the beginning of the day. I decided to check out the movie X (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_2022) which was actually so good that I'm going to watch again while it's still in theaters. Afterwards I got a steak at Ruth's Chris and went back to watch some games.
The game Saturday was probably my favorite basketball game I've ever been to, topping the game in Columbus this year. It was truly an amazing experience. For the first half I watched alone and the Michigan and Tennessee fans around were amazing; unfortunately the row in front of me had a family of Indiana fans who were very obnoxiously rooting for Tennessee, and a dad who decided instead of parenting would encourage his kids to turn around and take videos of the Michigan fans every time Tennessee took the lead. I was actually going to explain to the dad how poor his and his kid's behavior was, but they got up with a minute to go at half.
For the second half I met up with Indy Pete (who I had a great dinner with on Wednesday evening) and Indy Matt. The second half was a much better experience because I didn't have that obnoxious family directly in front of me, Michigan won, and because I also got to share the experience with Pete and Matt. Afterwards we stayed for the second game and saw a very exciting 15 seed advancement.
I have to give Indy Pete a shout-out as he let me stay at his house free of charge after the games. That was unbelievably generous.
All in all that was possibly the best vacation I've ever taken. I encourage more Michigan fans to start getting out to road stadiums and for neutral events. These are amazing experiences that you need to experience yourself. Go Blue!
I said this in the other thread about Indy, but I go to Indy quite often since it is a quick drive from Chicago. I went there mostly for work years ago, but I go there for sporting events more recently. I was that the games on Thursday and Saturday.
Indy is an interesting city to visit that can be done in 3 days IMO. Never had a bad experience there, and the food scene is underrated. I mentioned St. Elmo's in my previous post, but I remember going several other fantastic foody places. A couple of weird tourist things to do:
1. The Le Merdian hotel next to St. Elmo's was the hotel that Mike Tyson was accused and convicted of raping that girl that got him in prison. It was called something else back then.
2. Go to the Butler basketball stadium and yell "Hickory!"
Addendum to #2. Catch a game in Hinkle if possible. Bonus points if it’s a day game and sunlight is streaming in. Very cool experience. Bring a tape measure too just to make sure the rims are 10’ like they are at home.
Awesome you got to watch the UK game in person. I ended up making a day trip out down on Saturday from metro Detroit. Lots of driving but worth it for sure.
I was pretty surprised by the relative lack of M fans compared to the Tennessee contingent. It seemed about a 60/30 split with neutral fans filling the rest. Great place to watch a game though!
Keep in mind, UT had its best season in forever and was a trendy pick to win it all, while we were a bubble team.
Not sure where you were seated, but I would not agree with the assertion that Colorado State traveled "out traveled" Michigan, unless you are building in some kind of relative-to-expectations factor. There were Colorado State fans there, sure, but from what I saw there were many more Michigan fans. That was true for the concourses and anywhere near where we were sitting. I think it may have sounded more pro-CSU (particularly in the first half as CSU was raining threes) because the neutrals--both Tennessee and Kentucky fan bases who were well represented and the local Indiana and Purdue fans--seemed to be largely rooting against Michigan, but once we got our footing and started chipping away at the CSU lead, I thought it was pretty clearly a pro-Michigan crowd both in terms of sheer numbers and noise level.
[edit: I would not say the same for the Saturday game, where there did seem to be more Tennessee fans than Michigan fans. Part of it is 90%+ of them wear orange, which pops visually compared to our navy blue and smattering of maize, but even taking that into account, it seemed to be notably pro-Tennessee for the second game.]
I would agree with the 60/30/10 assessment of the crowd. A bit disappointing since Michigan fans almost always outnumber the opposition. But it was still a great environment and even better ending. Especially enjoyed the street performer playing the Michigan fight song on his sax outside the arena immediately after the game
The great season that football had coupled with the disappointing regular season that basketball had may have tempered some enthusiasm among the fanbase for traveling to games away from Ann Arbor. Tennessee's fans, on the other hand, have probably gone all-in on the whole "we're a basketball school now" thing, so they're probably more eager to travel to games away from Knoxville.
TV audio can be deceptive, but it seemed to me that the crowd in the CSU game was loudest when we were playing well.
Agree on the 60:30:10. We had tickets way up high where there were other families around. Interestingly we sat next to a Texas Tech family. There was a ~12 year old next to me. I asked him who he was cheering for and he said UM even though he picked Tennesse to win in his bracket. I said, me too. Haha.
Attending the NCAA tourney in any round is an awesome experience and it is even better when we win at least one of the matchups, let alone 2.
We really enjoyed our years in Indianapolis and it's an ideal place for events like this. It feels more like a big town than a small city. Just walking down the sidewalk people actually make eye contact and smile at each other-shocking eh.
So Indy Pete is running a boarding house for visiting UM fans whenever they're in Indy? That's pretty awesome...
Glad you had a good time. The NCAA tourney is one of the very best tournaments in all of sport - especially the opening 4-day weekend!
absolutely no truth to the rumor that benvom moved into indy pete's house and was enlisted to 'motivate' indy matt. simply not true...
j/k benvom, couldn't resist.
Haha I love Chris
Sounds like a great trip. I'm glad you were there to support the lads!
I've long felt that Indiana basketball fans (at least in "Assembly Hall") were annoying, but what the OP described takes it to another level.
I wouldn't worry about them -- their team will be watching alongside them next weekend!
I am old. My only NCAA tournament was the Final Four in 1978 when I was in college. Back then they had a lottery to buy tickets months in advance of the event. Michigan made the title game in '76 and was ranked #1 for a portion of '77 so we were hoping Michigan might make it. My Dad won the lottery that enabled him to buy tickets.
It was held at in St. Louis Arena (a.k.a. The Checkerdome) which was a dump. It featured Kentucky Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils, Arkansas Razorbacks and Notre Dame Fighting Irish. My main recollections were that the most annoying team yell is "Wooooooooo. Pig. Sooie!" that Notre Dame fans swear more than all other fan bases combined.
Also if you see a color guy on TV named Jim Spanarkel - he was a guard on the Duke team - This was Duke before Coach K. Arkansas had a fun team to watch. They has three 6' 4" guards - Ron Brewer, Sidney Moncrief, Marvin Delph - two of which went early in the 1st round of the NBA draft.
Kentucky beat Duke for the championship. Back then they played a consolation game and Arkansas beat ND (#$@^%$^%$ said the ND guy in front of me) in the consolation game.
Interesting watching games without a rooting interest.
Purina! Loved that place-- caught many a Blues-Red Wings game there back in the day!
Sounds like an awesome trip. I would've gone, too, if I would've known about the slumber party at Indy Pete's house!
who decided instead of parenting would encourage his kids to turn around and take videos of the Michigan fans every time Tennessee took the lead. I was actually going to explain to the dad how poor his and his kid's behavior was, but they got up with a minute to go at half.
Perhaps better to just smile at them and make a point of showing them you are taking selfie videos that include them and their actions that you are going to take great pleasure in posting should UM win.
Politely telling douchebags that they are being douchebags, especially ones that are publicly training their children in douchebaggery, rarely results in any meaningful reduction in douchie behavior. Usually quite the opposite. Much better that following the end of the game they get to chew on the fact that somewhere, someone has posted video that makes them look like complete asshats, i.e. "here's the family of Indiana fans that thought it was a good idea to take video of this UM fan so they could better savor our victory later."
Better yet, perhaps ask them who Indiana plays next and simply enjoy whatever response they come up with for that, a follow up question might be, "so you just buy tickets to come here and take video of fans that root for winning teams?"
How did you walk anywhere after Fogo, I usually need a nap. Downtown Indy is a pretty good spot, should’ve definitely went to St Elmo’s or Harry and Izzy’s for steak though
March 21st, 2022 at 10:31 PM ^
Yeah, I never plan anything after Fogo. Food coma.