Vegas Cougars

(Suzanne, Bill, Me)

In early Feb Suzanne asked me if I wanted to go to Vegas for the WCC tournament to watch the BYU Basketball team.  Of course I did!  It was even better that the tickets were free because she worked at BYU managing the Marriott Center.  As the trip came closer we found out one of the guys in our ward, Matt, was going for work, but had an extra ticket and invited another guy in our ward, Bill to come. This was pretty last minute so Bill ended up driving down and staying with Suzanne and I (long story).

It ended up being such a fun trip except for the fact that BYU's men's team didn't make it to the final game, but since it was free I wasn't as concerned as I would have been otherwise.  Suzanne, Bill and I headed down on Friday morning and after about 2 hours of chatting, a stop for lunch and another 3 hours of a game we like to play called MMM (Murder, Marry, Makeout) we were there.  It was beautiful weather especially since we left snow in Provo.

The first mens game was Friday night.  We first ate dinner at a BBQ joint called Lucille's .  It was delicious, so, so delicious.  We then came back to the hotel and found that one of the cars in the parking lot had been broken into (it was 5pm and light out).  Lovely section of town we stayed in, but it was within walking distance of the Orleans Arena. Because we had such great seats we had to make posters so we could be seen on TV. This is the first time I have every made a poster for any sporting event.

Suzanne and I with our signs.

 

The WCC came to take our picture in the audience for their FB page (my eyes were closed) but we had to take down our "Team Jabari" sign for possible NCAA recruiting violations. But we saw Tom Holmoe staring at it so we've done our part to get him to play here to BYU!

Yes Bill planned ahead and had Suzanne bring the Darth Vader mask for his costume.  He walked through the casino and all the way to our seats with this on and then the usher came and told him "no masks!"  So sad for him.

The game against San Diego ended up being much closer than it should have been, but in the end BYU won.  We sat in such a fun section of a bunch of men in their 50's that were seriously dressed up and super funny.  We were raving about how funny they were (more on that later!).  Back at the hotel Darth was waiting for us, we were so lucky.....

The next day we got up and went for a run and then Suzanne and I wanted to get a pedicure because last year in Denver we did that before the Gonzaga game and then we beat the Zags so we are superstitious like that. Bill didn't want to get one, but we convinced him that it would feel extra wonderful after running 10 miles like he had that morning.  One of Matt's mission buddies (who Suzanne knew a little bit) and his friend came over to join us, but the wait was too long for them to get a pedicure as well. I took this picture of Bill through the mirror from my chair because he was fascinated by the process.

Suzanne and I told Bill he did NOT have to paint his toenails.  Well he did anyways and the sad thing is you have to look twice to figure out which foot is his.  Quite disturbing!

 

We then went to the BYU women's basketball game. It was general admission so all of us could sit together.  Thank goodness we did because all of us (Jared, Matt, Patrick, Suzanne and I) got to witness Bill doing this wonderful dance for about :30 seconds on the big screen.  We obviously found it on BYUTV re-broadcast online.

Between Bill being the most well-known fan for his dancing and Suzanne knowing the whole BYU athletic department I felt like I was walking around with celebrities!

Saturday night BYU played Gonzaga.  I will say that overall I think the Zags have a lot of very nice and classy fans.  Everything was going great.  The funny middle aged "student's" in our section showed up in these outfits.  We were laughing so hard and so excited for the game to start.  Well this excitement lasted about 30 seconds into the game because after the Zags first bucket this one annoying fan of theirs (across the aisle from our section) started screaming and taunting and then the guy with the mask threw his soda on him.  Seriously.  All men involved were over 40 yrs old.  Anyways after that huge altercation and the police and security in our area I looked up and the Zags were up 11-2.....and it was all downhill from there.  So sad!

 

On Sunday we ended up going to Jared's parents house that was outside of Vegas.  It was a very small town and we ate dinner there and then did a little off-roading on the dunes.  This is also where Bill invented a new Olympic sport called sand dancing.  (Yes that is me wheezing on the camera)

We also took a few glamour shots.....