Cal v. UNLV 12.9.12 Photo Essay

Well, then. That game was exciting, exhilerating, exsomething or other. But, sadly, we didn't win. SPOILER ALERT. I probably shoulda put that SPOILER ALERT line before the preceding sentence. Oh well, now you don't have to read the rest of this post. You are welcome!

Even though Cal lost, it was actually quite a fun afternoon. It started outside Haas where Cal Athletics set up a food truck experience. Honestly, I'm so domesticated, I don't even know if food trucks are still hot. Isn't it all pop up all the time now? I can't keep track of all this stuff. Since I'm so bad at food, I never really got into the food truck thing. But hey, it's here, it's outside Haas, hopefully people had a good time.

Also, outside Haas, new Cal coach Purple Stuff. Nah, just joking, it's Sonny Dykes. I got an opportunity to briefly chat with him. Seemed like a nice enough fellow. When I walked up, his daughter lept behind his legs, presumably in fear. I have that effect on children.

I managed for the first time in a while NOT to embarrass myself in front of an authority figure (also, non authority figure). I just wished him well. It was quite brief, really. While there wasn't much of a line when I got there, it started to get packed quickly. I'd like to take credit, because I tweeted out a photo of the Big D and perhaps our millions of followers immediately rushed out to see him.

So, again, you are welcome. Sensing a theme here.

I did manage to have an awkward moment when I saw Fiatlux in the crowd. He waved at me. So, I waved to him and started to walk towards him. I thought "Hey, we're about to have a moment! Surrounded by the legions of fans, yet alone in our special moment of waving and walking towards each other"

As it turned out, he was waiving to Sandy Barbour (who was standing behind me in the crowd) and was not walking towards me as much as he was walking towards her and I happened to be reasonably close to her. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Band, cheerleaders, doing their thing. That thing includes rooting for California, moving in some sort of synchronized fashion and generally allowing air to expand through the brass or wood of their instruments at varying frequencies. Also, percussion.

MicMen doing what MicMen do. Which is yelling, screaming, and carrying on. They must get really good at yelling and screaming, qualities that'll serve them well in every one of their many marriages.

When we got into Haas, the team came rushing out to warm up.

Presumably warm, they were ready for tip off! I think we got the tip off! We won the battle, but sadly not the war!

Cal was shooting lights out early on. They ended up shooting some ridic percentage for the first half, like 60%. But they were missing free throws early on. Would it come back to bit us in the end?

Yes, yes it would. SPOILER ALERT. Dammit, I keep doing that! Put the Spoiler Alert first, Twist, put it first!

They brought Sonny D out fairly early in the game to give a quick rousing speech. His wife wore red pants. Wearing red pants to a Cal game is like WEARING RED PANTS TO A CAL GAME. You don't need a witty analogy, simile, or metaphor for that. It's fairly self-explanatory.

Apparently, Coach D left after halftime to get back to work. Admire the work ethic, but he missed out on a helluva game.

They did the Bear Roar. That's where they parade three young children out in front of the fans and force them to yell like a bear. It's all very cute. And terrifying. The young girl who won actually had a fairly poor yell (sorry, it's the truth and I gotta speak truth to power!). But people loved her and they clapped loudly and she got a stuffed bear that will most likely give her nightmares the same way that my giant stuffed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle used to give me nightmares. And by used to, I mean still does. And by still does, I mean OH DEAR GOD MICHAELANGELO IS ON HIS WAY, HE'S A PARTY DUDE, RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

Shareef Abdur-Rahim was there! I actually saw him walking around outside Haas prior to the game, but I couldn't put a name to a face. I recognized him, though. What do I win for that???????

This free throw was when Crabbe got called for the Phantom Elbow (easily, the worst Star Wars yet). His feet got tangled up with the UNLV player and the UNLV player fell over slash flopped. As this was happening, Crabbed moved his torso in a manner such that it appeared like his elbow was moving towards the player. So, it seemed like Crabbe was hitting the player with his elbow.

But if you watch the replay, there is not any contact. The player falls down before the elbow gets close to him. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The refs had a rough go of it on Sunday. They eventually made a make up call in Cal's favor on something ticky tack, but it was a fairly big swing in the game. Flagrantly bad flagrant call!

Cal's best scorer Sean Lampley was there. He is in the blue and white striped shirt there. I think I was at the game where he broke the record. It was so long ago I cannot quite remember. WHAT A GREAT STORY, I KNOW! HOW FASCINATING, TWIST! YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN AT A GAME. WOW! THIS IS WHY TRADITIONAL JOURNALISM IS DYING IN AMERICA!

You can also see the ESPNU crew there to the right of Lamps.

This was a humorous moment when the ball got stuck there behind the basket. The humor there stems from the complicated physics that are required for the ball to be perfectly still behind the basket there. The pure random chance there is funnier than anything I've ever written. Times two.

THURMINATION!

Nice air by Tricky Dick Solomon here.

Solid turn out for the game. Not a sell out, maybe 7-8K. They've moved the band and rally comm around. They moved the students behind the basket. This is presumably because the band and rally comm together were generally not enough to pack the space behind the basket. Not only does that spot get a lot of TV attention, but it is key "Let's distract the free throw shooter territory."

You can see that the student turn out was quite great. Not only was that section there next to the band packed, but the other section behind the basket was packed, too. There were tons of football players there.

This actually was the start of a rather thunderous dunk by the UNLV player. Sad to say. The UNLV fans went CRAZZZZY after this. Even though there were only a few hundred fans, they made a decent amount of noise. Also, the noise that they make at the top of Haas gets reverberated throughout the arena, so it sounds louder.

Until MicMan13 took this poster across the court, I could barely read it from across the Court. I thought it said #AnythingIsHashable, which, while true, seems irrelevant to the game. But now I can see what it says.

Cal was down 7 heading into halftime. Even though they were outboarded by UNLV and couldn't hit a free throw to save Kenny from South Park's life, Cal actually came storming back in the 2nd half. We even took the lead late.

But with 1.2 seconds left, UNLV threw in a putback off their own miss to go up a point. All those missed free throws came back to haunt Cal. Wallace and Co. tried a desperation heave as time expired, but it was blocked and never came close to going in. *sobs*

D'oh!

Oh well, fun time still had by all. See all y'all at Creighton!