Four
As many of you know, the Final Four is this weekend. And my treasured Tar Heels are one of the four teams traveling to Detroit city for the games. My parents are in Chicago (for unrelated reasons) and are particularly excited to come to our place to watch the games (as my dad is also a Tar Heel).
This? Is Not the Life I Ordered author, Ashley, has no qualms telling the world she went to Michigan State (another Final Four team this year, who will not play my Tar Heels unless both teams make it to the championship game, so help me). Which, of course, led to a series of blog comments and emails that went something (or exactly) like this:
Portion of my comment on her blog:
I’m not sure I can cheer for your Spartans this weekend. Because, well, I want my Tar Heels to go all the way. And I definitely DID NOT LIKE the way our teams matched up last time they played in the Final Four. GO HEELS!
Ashley’s response:
I’m going to have to go take a breather and then come back to email you because YOU MUST ROOT FOR MY SPARTANS! Its not like we’re playing you this weekend…we’re playing Uconn!
My response:
I’m telling you, I don’t know.1) Ever since moving to Chicago, I’ve pretty much hated most Big 10 schools. It’s a product of going to an ACC school and moving to a Big 10 city where all we hear is how groovy the Big 10 is.2) My husband hates the state of Michigan (yes, he has his own set of issues). Combine that with #1 and we definitely don’t cheer for Michigan or Michigan State.3) A good friend of mine went to MSU (hi Dana!). When we watched the UNC-MSU Final Four game (and MSU pretty much pounded the Tar Heels), every time that damn Charlie Bell would hit a key shot (and I promise you, there were lots of them), my friend would stand up (in the very loud bar) and scarem at the top of her lungs, DING DONG!4) Which leads to my own little hatred for the Spartans.5) Plus, if perhaps the MSU-UConn game leads to the national champion team, I would fare MUCH better with UConn because there would be absolutely no coverage about it here after Monday night.What’s your convincing reasons why I must cheer for your team? Especially knowing what you now know about my sordid history with them. =)
Ashley’s response:
WELL…..1) Not all spartans are like that.2) UConn needs to have their asses handed to them because I will have to hear about it FOR WEEKS if they don’t (after all, half my friends went there and i hate that school)3) I’m a very lovely spartan and you should root for them for that same reason4) The color green is quite lovely. Especially when mixed with white.5) You can cheer for the color green and everyone will know what you are talking about. I’m all for cheering for my favorite things.6) What happens if UNC doesn’t make it to the finals? THEN who would you root for? Michigan State of course.:) 6 great reasons to root for my boys
in green.
The Final Four. Brings out the best and the worst in fans. One thing is for sure. Both Ashley and I will be watching tomorrow night. And cheering our alma maters. GO HEELS!
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
The funny thing is? that as a Canadian in Oz I have absolutely NO clue what you gals are talking about. I have some vague notion it has to do with basketball (through matter of elimination since I’m pretty sure football is over???)
Canada doesn’t do college sports. And we definitely don’t get behind them like you Americans do. Alas, it’s pretty fricken cool to see an entire country unite in sport like you guys do for football and basketball, and like Canadians do for ice hockey.
Of my travels so far, it rarely happens like that in much of the rest of the world.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
LOL. I know many, many people who went to Villanova so now that my brackets are shot, I was going to root for them. I would be happy to the Tar Heels win, but there is something exciting about seeing an underdog win too.
In any case it is a big sports weekend as baseball also opens up and we have have the open of the 2 new stadiums here in NY. Let’s go Mets!
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Ashley must be busy…because we had our own little emails about the tourney!
Good luck to your heels!
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Villanova(4mi?) are my new neighbors so I must root for them as a nice gesture--and because people here are very excited and that is contagious : )
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Sadly my team didn’t make it past the Elite Eight so there won’t be any sort of NCAA watching for me this weekend.
I will root for the Heels since that is where my brother was born all those years ago =)
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Wooo! Go State. Ashley’s arguements are right on :-)
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Thought you might like this:
http://us.dada.net/audio/4133360/University-of-North-Carolina-UNC-Go-Tar-Heels-Cheer/
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
MSU is good, but UConn is scary good. I’m still not sure of our chances against either team but I almost prefer the odds against MSU. UConn is just so BIG.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I’m not rooting for any specific team, but for once I’m actually excited about watching the final four!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I like A Super Girl. She is my kind of fan! Haha MSU has a very good shot of winning tomorrow and i’m very excited about that. UConn is the weakest of all the Top seeds in the tourney and I have it from good authority that if MSU keeps playing the way they’ve been, they will win!! SO GO MSU!!!!!!
And I guess go UNC. Maybe. Even though you aren’t rooting for my spartans. But think how great this competition will be if UNC and MSU play each other ;)
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
i understand your husband’s hatred for the whole state of michigan. practically every person in Ohio feels the same way. i however, am a strange Ohioan and sort of like the big M (go blue!). not sure how i feel about MSU tho. besides, i don’t really like sports anyway :)
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
i haven’t been putting much time in watching since dayton got kicked out.
but good luck to your team!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Well, I went to Wisconsin, another Big 10 school. There is no love lost between MSU and Wisconsin, but if I can force myself to cheer for the Spartans (which I did last weekend and will do again this weekend), I think you should be able to as well.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Oh, so THAT’S who the guys in green are that I keep hearing referenced.
When it comes to sports, I pretty much live in a cave, far underground. Unless it’s hockey, and occasionally baseball. :)
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I have no idea what that was all about. So… Um… Have a great weekend! And good luck to your team!
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
If this makes you feel better: my BF said UNC would win the whole thing. I believe him.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
GO HEELS!!!! I am so excited! And no way can you root for those dirty Spartans- DOWN with the Big 10!
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
i, uh, didn’t go to a school that plays basketball on a national level. i do not give a darn about this tournament ;-)
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
i have to say, im all about those tarheels.
once my real team went out, i had to continue to root for my adopted school. i lived in carolina for five years and its true, i have the fever :)
go heels, screw michigan state ;)
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
I’m sorry. I understand nothing about this post. Are we talking about hockey or baseball?
April 4th, 2009 at 12:40 am
I hate the state of Michigan too, and I’m from there.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:52 am
i feel so out of the loop up here in canada, eh.
April 6th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hee, hee. I forgot about watching that game with you and screaming “DING DONG!” at the top of my lungs. Ah, good times, good times.