I had tickets to go to this game with my brother, who had never been to a game at Hilton vs a Big 12 opponent. Thought it would be a good time to introduce him to the REAL Hilton Magic against a team like Kansas who, let's face it, is the most exciting team we play and probably our biggest basketball rival (sorry Hawk fans).
It was a dud before it even started. With Agbaji out, we knew some of the luster was off a bit. Kansas without Agbaji is obviously still really good, but he is the star of the show. We didn't let it bother us and arrived early enough to enjoy the shootarounds. Maybe 20 min later, a guy shows up in our section with his wife and 2 young kids (probably both under 10) dressed all in blue. He is wearing a tight fitting Kansas beanie on his tiny noggin. They sit in the row directly behind us. This was off to a far less than ideal start.
The first half was one thing. One of tiny head beanie wearing Dad's rugrats was sitting directly behind me screaming in my ear anytime KU did something well, which was especially often in the first 5-6 min of the game. My ears were bleeding before the under 16.
The kids quiet down as Iowa State battles back, bows up on defense and competes more or less for the rest of the 1H. An eruption of "Traitor! Traitor! Traitor" erupts from the student section as Jalen Coleman-Lands charges into George Conditt and both appear hurt. The mom chirps up, "Real classy, ISU" My brother and I roll our eyes.
Halftime hits and ISU has not played well, but my brother has gotten to see small glimpses of Hilton at its finest, only to be conveniently quelled for KU by media timeouts (these seriously ended 2 of ISU's runs in the first half). We were both a little annoyed but still in decent spirits overall. Then, for reasons unknown, tiny head beanie wearing KU dad decides to switch places with his loudest kid and sits directly behind me. The 2nd half starts.
The guy didn't shut up for 20 game time minutes, or 60 real life minutes. He had a comment for everything going on. "Is that their only play?" every time Brockington would pull up from 19' after taking a handoff from Conditt or Jones on a curl in the high post. "What was that?" followed by hysterical laughter when Jones bricked one off the backboard. He also made fun of Jones when he got stuffed on a soft layup attempt, saying "Where did Iowa State find this guy?"
He was very critical of ISU switching to zone when they did, and kept telling everyone in our vicinity exactly how Bill was going to attack it and why it wasn't going to work. He kept shouting "baseline's open!" "Backdoor all day, baby!" etc.
Around the 5 min mark when some ISU fans were starting to concede the victory and making their way out, he goes, "Where's everybody going?" "Is it something I said?" (He repeated this 3 more times until the final buzzer sounded).
This was a terrible first experience of Hilton Magic for my brother, and my worst overall in person. It was bad enough that ISU did nothing to stir our crowd in the 2H, but to have to sit in front of belligerent Jay Hawk Dad took the cake. Horrible experience. I will be back, because I'm a lifer, but I think my brother is out.
It was a dud before it even started. With Agbaji out, we knew some of the luster was off a bit. Kansas without Agbaji is obviously still really good, but he is the star of the show. We didn't let it bother us and arrived early enough to enjoy the shootarounds. Maybe 20 min later, a guy shows up in our section with his wife and 2 young kids (probably both under 10) dressed all in blue. He is wearing a tight fitting Kansas beanie on his tiny noggin. They sit in the row directly behind us. This was off to a far less than ideal start.
The first half was one thing. One of tiny head beanie wearing Dad's rugrats was sitting directly behind me screaming in my ear anytime KU did something well, which was especially often in the first 5-6 min of the game. My ears were bleeding before the under 16.
The kids quiet down as Iowa State battles back, bows up on defense and competes more or less for the rest of the 1H. An eruption of "Traitor! Traitor! Traitor" erupts from the student section as Jalen Coleman-Lands charges into George Conditt and both appear hurt. The mom chirps up, "Real classy, ISU" My brother and I roll our eyes.
Halftime hits and ISU has not played well, but my brother has gotten to see small glimpses of Hilton at its finest, only to be conveniently quelled for KU by media timeouts (these seriously ended 2 of ISU's runs in the first half). We were both a little annoyed but still in decent spirits overall. Then, for reasons unknown, tiny head beanie wearing KU dad decides to switch places with his loudest kid and sits directly behind me. The 2nd half starts.
The guy didn't shut up for 20 game time minutes, or 60 real life minutes. He had a comment for everything going on. "Is that their only play?" every time Brockington would pull up from 19' after taking a handoff from Conditt or Jones on a curl in the high post. "What was that?" followed by hysterical laughter when Jones bricked one off the backboard. He also made fun of Jones when he got stuffed on a soft layup attempt, saying "Where did Iowa State find this guy?"
He was very critical of ISU switching to zone when they did, and kept telling everyone in our vicinity exactly how Bill was going to attack it and why it wasn't going to work. He kept shouting "baseline's open!" "Backdoor all day, baby!" etc.
Around the 5 min mark when some ISU fans were starting to concede the victory and making their way out, he goes, "Where's everybody going?" "Is it something I said?" (He repeated this 3 more times until the final buzzer sounded).
This was a terrible first experience of Hilton Magic for my brother, and my worst overall in person. It was bad enough that ISU did nothing to stir our crowd in the 2H, but to have to sit in front of belligerent Jay Hawk Dad took the cake. Horrible experience. I will be back, because I'm a lifer, but I think my brother is out.
