2022 Indianapolis – NCAA Tradition

March 2022

Day 1

We arrive on Wednesday and can see this fire from our plane and from the airport. Turns out it was the Walmart distribution center and it was still smoking when we left on Sunday.

Dinner at the world-famous St. Elmos in downtown Indianapolis, and yes we tried the shrimp cocktail.

A walk around downtown to the state capital. We made plans to tour it on Saturday but arrived after it was closed at 2 PM.

Day 2

On our walk to the venue, we saw a small part of the St. Patrick’s day parade. (Our second time for the NCAA Tradition)

Let the games begin and great games they were. We witnessed our first 15 – 2 upset when Kentucky got beat by St. Peters in an overtime game. The second evening game also went into overtime and although our games started at 12:15 PM, the night games did not end until 12:30 AM.

Dinner was at Conners Kitchen in downtown Indy.

We also had fantastic short-sleeve weather with highs in the 70’s and no need for coats at all, even at night.

Day 3

Private all-inclusive tour at the Indianapolis 500 and the museum and getting to opportunity to get a ride on the track.

After the race press conference in the media room.

After our private tour and news conference we visited the Indy 500 Museum

A visit to the Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University (used for the filming of Hoosiers for the site of state championships). The NCAA tradition got respect and was able to walk on the court.

A minor league hockey game with the Indiana Fuel at the Indiana State fairgrounds. And yes they play in a fieldhouse which was our third fieldhouse of four we visited on the trip.

Day 4

Breakfast at Charlie Brown’s where race care legends get their breakfast. No pictures since the rich and famous do not allow photos.

A trip to the gym that Hoosiers was filmed in with a very talkative and informative local expert. Leo was anxious to leave to get to the state capital but Dave was cornered by the gym’s historian, yet he would not stop asking questions. This delay resulted in us arriving at the ~~town hall~~ capital when the doors were already locked.

Two more basketball games with two more upsets including the 15 seed St. Peters Peacocks beating Murray State two days after knocking Kentucky out of the tournament.

Memorable Moments

The Malnati’s Pizza Problem
Chol got locked out of the house twice by John when returning home on Saturday night. John had one job to open the garage from inside the house. Chol waited for several minutes and then looked in the window to see the three of us sitting down and eating Lou Malnati’s pizza. After we heard the doorbell, we let him in and John apologized and told him he would open the garage door. John did that but then proceeded to lock the door from the garage to the house. Chol had to once again go back to the front door and ring the doorbell to get in. This fiasco took more than a few minutes and had Chol convinced we were pranking him.

Best Games Ever
Out of six games we witnessed four upsets including the 15 seed St. Peters beating Kentucky and then Murray State. the Kentucky game was the largest and only 15 seed upset we have ever witnessed. The other team to advance to the sweet 16 from our games was Michigan which is an 11 seed. Bracket News breaks down the stats for NCAA Tradition upsets, click on the cover or here to read more.

The Incident at the ~~Town Hall~~ Capital
We showed up at the ~~town hall~~ capital at 3 PM on Saturday to go on our self-guided tour and realized that it closed at 2. In an effort to make our way in we circled the building and tried every door to no avail. Leo kept calling the capital the town hall.

Should have bought Firestone Tires
On the way back to Hartford we experienced two flight delays, without the second flight delay we would have spent Sunday night at a Chicago Airport hotel. The second flight was delayed due to a bad tire that needed to be changed.

Meanwhile, Chol was driving home in his rental car when the check tire light went on. He had to turn around and get another vehicle with a good tire. Coincidence?

Digital Ticket — First all-digital tickets this year. Only slightly problematic.

The Games

3 Tennesee	\|
	\|	Tennesee 88-56
14 Longwood	\|		\|
			\|	Michigan 76-68*
6 Colorado State	\|		\|
	\|	Michigan 75-63*
11 Michigan	\|

2 Kentucky	\|
	\|	St. Peters 85-79* (OT)
15 St. Peters	\|		\|
			\|	St Peters 70-60*
7 Murray State	\|		\|
	\|	Murray State 92-87 (OT)
10 San Francisco	\|
				* upsets

* upsets

Highest Final Seed –