Day 44

"Out upon the swelling breezes

Let our voices ring

As to thee out alma mater

Heartfelt praise we sing

Though the years to come may part us

Friends and comrads true

ISU our alma mater

Here's our pledge to you"

---ISU "ISU Alma Mater"

Today is yet another wonderful day!  My Indiana State Sycamore Men's Basketball team beat out Missouri State University for the title of Missouri Valley Conference Champions!  It has been TEN YEARS since we last won the conference and moved on to the NCAA March Madness games.  This game was extremely intense (especially listening to it online and not being able to see what was going on!)  After a rocky start, down 7-0 in the first two minutes of the game, ISU began to pick up the pace.  The boys came out strong in the second half and pulled ahead by 8 points.  Luckily, the most intense part of the game happened while I was on my lunch break (did I mention I was listening to the game while working in the museum gift shop? haha) and was able to freak out the entire time!  The Sycamores won by 4 points, however, with one minute left in the game they were only up ONE POINT!  With about 10 seconds left, they were up TWO points and MSU had the ball.  A silly mistake by MSU gave the ball back to the Sycamores with 6 seconds left.  MSU fouled one of our players who shot the final two points to give us a lead of 4 points.  This entire time I was pretty much curled up in a little ball just HOPING that my Sycamores could pull it out!  As the game ended, the tears came rolling down my face!  Tears of joy!  My Sycamores were taking home the title and moving on to the NCAA Tournament.  It is a little sad that I am not in Terre Haute to celebrate and I do not have the chance to enjoy this moment with the rest of the band and the team.

Indiana State went on a bear hunt today.  They found a big one.  They were NOT scared...and they took home a conference championship :-)

Day 44

On to the Big Dance...March Madness!  The season is NOT over yet!