An Attendee's Saturday Adventure at Mohegan
First of all, why are there hundreds of workers in and around Mohegan Sun if they either a. don't try to help people with directions or b. give you directions to a random destination. If I want to go to the Mohegan Sun Arena and the directions on your map are barely visible, can someone help me? Apparently not. After venturing around for 20 minutes around Mohegan Sun, my fellow attendee and I joined the Rhody Ruckus section on the 2nd level of the arena. I liked the enthusiasm from the leaders of the Ruckus section as they chugged their beers but I knew enthusiasm did not guarantee a W, especially not against the Bearcats.
Oh and how could I forget the best part about the seats reserved for the Rhody Ruckus section, we were right in front of Duke fans. I have supported Duke basketball ever since watching J.J. Reddick hit 3's like it was no one's business in his heyday but these three Duke fans all looked like the only things they enjoyed were tripping people like Grayson Allen, giving people dirty looks, and starting arguments. Let's just say, I had a fun argument with these Duke fans and we'll keep it at that.
Now getting into the Saturday matchup between Cincinnati and Rhode Island, I expected a great basketball game between 2 top 25 teams. For the first 10 minutes, all I got was Cincy constantly scoring, URI looking at each other for answers, and unforgettable images of Cincinnati cheerleaders being twisted in circles for 3 minutes straight during commercial breaks. No one told me the circus was in town. All the crowd needed was a clown juggling and Dumbo to arrive, and the cast would be complete.
Finally, Jared Terrell felt like making a bunch of 3 pointers and URI was back in the game at the end of the first half. This couldn't have come at a better time because I was ready to get up and leave the venue or go get a bunch of salty, disgusting concession food like many of the Rhode Island faithful did as they ate their stress away. Then of course, URI's PG and heart and soul of the team, Jarvis Garrett, gets critically injured. I wasn't even as shocked and in awe as everyone else about the freak accident, I just distracted myself by checking out some handy dandy Instagram posts. Shout out to Barstool and their intriguing content.
The second half started and here we go again, where did URI learn to shoot???? I thought basketball practices consisted of running plays and SHOOTING the basketball. I guess URI practices consist of ONLY defense. If I saw another possession where the ball was passed around the perimeter for another entire possession, I would've helped the girl who was struggling to take selfies or the young boy who didn't realize he was holding his URI sign backwards. I've seen better plays run in NBA 2K video games. Can we see a Floppy Base? Your SG and SF will always be found open for a 3, like C'MON.
Fortunately, some defensive stops coupled with hot 3 point shooting throughout the 2nd half sparked a comeback for the Rhody Rams to pull out the nail-biter. WOOOOOO, 3 POINTERS AND FREE THROWS WERE GOING IN DURING THIS SAME GAME. As soon as the game concluded, I wanted to go tell all my close friends and relatives to go buy lottery tickets because it was someone's lucky day.
Too bad I never got my lottery ticket but I did get a calzone from Rhode House, so all was good with the world on this one Saturday.
