UConn fans are heading to Indiana for NCAA tourney tilt
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — To paraphrase Dan Hurley, “They’re coming.”
They came from Madison, Milford and Wethersfield, from Chicago and New Jersey. They came by plane and by car — mostly by car — and departing for their journey at all different hours: Friday morning, Friday night, 2 a.m. on Saturday, 9 a.m. on Saturday. Some even brought hot sauce.
They are UConn fans, friends and family, and they descended in droves upon West Lafayette, where the Huskies played Maryland on Saturday at Mackey Arena — their first NCAA tournament game in five years.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Madison’s Adolfo Sanzari. Even if that world is in the midst of a pandemic.
“We’re tremendously excited,” Sanzari added. “To see UConn basketball become relevant again is very exciting.”
Mike Mancini, a Hamden native and 2015 UConn grad who now lives in Chicago, planned to head down to West Lafayette at about 2 a.m. on Saturday with three others — UConn grads Aamir Addona of South Windsor and Francis Grover (who’s ironically a West Lafayette native) and Grover’s girlfriend, Molly. They procured their tickets in different ways.
Addona and Grover got theirs from Kevin Solomon, a UConn season ticketholder who had priority access to the school’s NCAA tourney allotment but couldn’t make the trip.
When Mancini, who lives
near Addona and Grover in the Windy City, heard Solomon had tickets, he was surprised.
“Oh my God, are you serious? Can we actually go?,” he asked Solomon.
“Well, I’ve already given them to Aamir,” Solomon replied, “but you should go.”
Mancini immediately hopped on to SeatGeek, the third-party ticket vendor.
“It was instantaneous,” he recalled. “As soon as there was a possibility of like, ‘Wait, we can go to these games? During corona times? And it’s at Purdue, two hours away?’ I dropped everything, bought it immediately. Bought a hotel within, literally, two minutes of talking to each other.”
Ticket prices fluctuated virtually every time Mancini hit the refresh button — $90 one minute, $400 the next. He ended up paying about $280 for two tickets up in the nosebleed section. Face value for the tickets UConn provided was $45.
But Mancini and his friends didn’t care. In fact, they may arrive at Mackey with a little contraband.
“We may sneak in a modest-sized bottle of Frank’s Red (hot sauce) and see if we can get some halftime rally shots going,” reported Grover, in a nod to the “hot sauce challenge” that consumed UConn Nation for a couple of weeks this season.
TICKET PRICES NOT AN OBSTACLE
In fact, prices and money were hardly a factor for the UConn fans making the trip.
Adolfo Sanzari has been a UConn season ticket-holder since 1988, though a couple of years ago switched the account over to his son, Stephen. When it was announced last fall that no fans would be allowed at UConn games this season, season ticketholders were presented four options: donate their entire season ticket money to the school, donate half, hold on to them until next year or get all your money back.
Sanzari chose Option 1. He let UConn keep the approximately $6,000 in seat donation, ticket costs, parking fees, etc. He was told about 300 others chose the same option.
That gave him priority for next season’s seating process, as well as potentially a regular-season Big East road trip. It also gave him priority for this year’s Big East and NCAA tournaments, and while the Big East didn’t allow paying fans, the NCAA is allowing limited seating (no more than 22-percent capacity) in all of its Indiana-based arenas.
For Adolfo, it capped a great week that hinted at a return to normalcy. A Red Sox season ticket-holder, he also got tickets to eight games at Fenway this season.
“It’s the first time since corona started that we actually have live tickets to sporting events,” Sanzari noted.
Ben Lavallee of Milford is also a season ticket-holder who chose to get the full refund and didn’t have NCAA ticket priority. So Lavallee, a 2018 UConn grad, jumped on SeatGeek immediately after UConn’s name was announced on CBS’s Selection Sunday Show. He paid about $215 for tickets way at the top of Mackey Arena.
The following day, Lavallee’s friend Matt Kopec of Somers, a season ticket-holder, was able to land two tickets (which was UConn’s strict, per-person limit) through the school. So, Lavallee flipped two of his tickets back on SeatGeek and will make the trip to West Lafayette with his brother, Jason, fellow Foran High grad Sean Deegan and Kopec.
They were planning to depart Connecticut at around 2 a.m. on Saturday and drive through the night, straight to their hotel. Why not leave Friday? Well, Kopec is an accountant, and let’s just say this isn’t the time of year to skip work for a day.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Of course, it’s not just UConn fans making the trip. UConn’s allotment of 350 tickets includes those for family members of players and coaches.
Javicia Cole, point guard R.J. Cole’s mom and No. 1 fan, has been to nearly every UConn home game this season, plus a road game at Seton Hall and the Big East tournament. She planned on attending with her husband, Robert, and Wayne Peterson — “R.J.’s favorite uncle,” according to Javicia.
Javicia and Robert were flying out, but Peterson was slated to begin a 10-12-hour drive at about 10 p.m. on Friday. A former Navy man, he’s tried to get to as many of R.J.’s high school, AAU and college games as he could over the years, even heading out to Bloomington, Indiana in 2017 to watch one of R.J.’s first college games with Howard against Indiana University.
“We always support the team he’s playing for, and him,” he said. “We make sure we have a presence, and that there’s family or somebody there.”
‘NOT TOO WORRIED’ ABOUT PANDEMIC
Looming over everything, of course, is COVID-19. There will be about 3,200 fans at Mackey on Saturday night, and the UConn contingent will be cautious, but not overly concerned.
“I wasn’t too worried about it,” said Mancini, adding that he and his friends have no underlying health issues. “I’ve seen some of the games with lower capacity and it seems everyone’s pretty well spread-out. I’ll mask up, use hand sanitizer and all that, so I wasn’t too worried about it.”
He admitted, however, that his roommate and his girlfriend, both UConn grads, didn’t want to make the trip due to COVID concerns.
Stephen Sanzari was one of the few paying UConn fans able to buy tickets for the Huskies’ game at Seton Hall on March 3. He and his father, who recently got his first vaccination shot, were slated to begin their trip from Madison to West Lafayette on Friday at 10 a.m. They’ll stay overnight in Columbus, Ohio.
“With social-distancing and all that,” said Stephen, “I don’t think there’s too much worry.”
Peterson attended the Big East tournament and had to provide a negative COVID-19 test before entering Madison Square Garden. No such precautions will be required at Mackey.
“It’s worrisome, I’ll probably wear two masks,” Peterson admitted. “I think the NCAA and Big East have taken very good precautions, especially the Big East.”
“I’ll just be cautious myself, keep washing my hands, wear two masks,” he added, “and pray all is well.”