Missouri Valley Conference 2012

On March 4^th 2012, I attended was the Missouri Valley Conference basketball game with ISU playing against Wichita State.  The night before the game, I was talking to one of my friends and he asked me if I wanted to go down to St. Louis for the weekend to see the game.  Since he had an extra ticket, I thought it would be a great idea.  Later that morning, we drove down to St. Louis and the tournament was held at the Scottrade Center.  When I got to the center, I was shocked by how huge the building was.  It was like walking into an airport terminal.  Walking to my seats, I knew this was an important game for Illinois State to win.  Winning this game will advance Illinois State to playing other teams for the championship.  Just walking into the stadium you could feel the energy of everyone cheering for his or her team.  This wasn’t just any other basketball game, but this was an important game that everybody goes all out dressing up for each other’s team colors.  When I got there I was all out in red, with a school shirt that I brought that could differentiate me from the opposite team.   Everyone, especially with the group that I was in was screaming the whole game cheering for Illinois State whenever they made a basket. Throughout the whole game, the point deficit was little to none.  If Illinois State made a mistake, then the whole game could be turned around and they would have ended up throwing the game away.  When Illinois State started pulling ahead of Wichita State, I enjoyed the blare of energy that other Illinois State fans contributed to.  I may not be the biggest fan of basketball for our school, but when I was there, I felt like I made a difference in supporting my team.  It was a fun experience, watching players from our basketball team shoot three pointers, dunking, and defending.  Overall, I thought the game was really fun and I enjoyed going out with a bunch of my friends to support our basketball team.  To watch them advance through the bracket was fun and it was disappointing to see them lose in the next round.  If I had another opportunity to see the Missouri State Conference tournament, I would definitely take the opportunity and encourage anyone else who may be considering it to go because it is a fun time and great opportunity to support your school.