SPOKANE, Wash – It may
be a blustery almost-Spring day in Spokane, but there's one thing heating up:
excitement about the #1 ranked, #1 seeded Gonzaga men's basketball
team.
"Some of my friends,
[they used to say], ‘You're going to Gonzaga?
Where's that, how do you pronounce it?' and now it's like, ‘You go to
Gonzaga? That's so cool!'" said Kennel
Club President and Gonzaga Senior Connor Cahill.
For Gonzaga students,
Monday was the first day back from Spring Break. But for many, they're turning right around
and leaving for Salt Lake City to cheer on the team. About 40 student tickets were released online
Monday morning, and they were snatched up quickly.
"It means the world,
the guys have been working really hard, the whole community is excited, and it
means so much that a small Catholic school up in Spokane, Washington, can get a
#1 seed," Cahill added, who is also heading to Utah. "Hopefully we win on Thursday, and hopefully
there's a great game on Saturday, and hopefully next weekend I'm heading to
L.A."
The excitement isn't
just on campus; an accounting firm in downtown Spokane is taking team spirit to
a whole new level by dressing up as star player, Kelly Olynyk, with his
unmistakable long hair and headband.
"We found out at some
point Kelly Olynyk's an accounting major, actually has an accounting degree at
Gonzaga, and we started throwing around this idea that maybe if we dressed up
like him, he'd come work for us," said Marshall Bratton of Moss Adams
LLP.
The whole office is
dressing up Tuesday – wigs, jerseys, and all – and the best-dressed employee
wins $100. The managing partner of the
firm is a die-hard basketball fan, and helped co-found Hoopfest, the largest
3-on-3 basketball tournament in the country.
The office plays some
basketball together, and said maybe, just maybe they'd let Olynyk join
in.
"Provided that he
could do it at this level, maybe we'd let him play on our basketball team,"
Bratton joked. "We'd definitely let him
try out."
About 100 NCAA tickets
were released to Bulldog Club members at noon Monday for the second and third
round games.
If you're still
looking for tickets: as of Monday afternoon, there were a few left on online
ticket selling websites, like stubhub.com, but they were going
fast.
