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The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming The Floor.
You know I write for a site called Storming the Floor. That's because I believe that floor storming, when done at the right time and in the right spirit, is one of the things that makes college basketball so damned fun. When legitimate exuberance spills over after a big win, it's magical.
Of course, sometimes, it all comes off a bit... forced. And that's when the storm has been used for evil instead of good. One such potential crisis was averted last night, when surging Purdue knocked off Michigan State for their second big win in three days. Students had filled the hardwood in the first win, over Wisconsin, but showed admirable restraint following their second major victory. They somehow absorbed the cardinal rule - once is charming, twice is crass.
Here are a few other rules I made up nearly a year ago on my old blog. You may storm the floor if/when:
• Your unranked school beats a top-10 opponent
• Your lower-division school beats a D1 opponent. (e.g. Virginia @ Chaminade)
• You beat your most hated rival in overtime, or on a last-second miracle shot
• Your team breaks a long losing streak vs. a particularly difficult opponent. (See: Kansas State vs. Kansas).
• Your team wins the league tournament in a one-bid conference
• In the NCAA tournament, only a 15 over a two, or the mythical 16 vs. 1 upset really matters any more. If your school wins in the Regional Final or Final Four, storm away
• If your school wins the NCAA Championship. This special win also confers limited looting and pillaging rights
And, speaking of Purdue:
Hummell is Unbreakable. Purdue 60-Michigan State 54. Tom Izzo's one of the more enjoyable college coaches around, and he'll do all right in the dance. But for now, the Big Ten is all Purdue. Boilermaker freshman Robbie Hummell doesn't have the most intimidating moniker I've ever heard, but he sure can play - he put up 21 points to help beat the Badgers, and upped that to 24 with 11 rebounds for good measure in the win over the Spartans.
Foster is Australian for Beeah. Vanderbilt 93-Kentucky 52. Is it fair that this result makes the Kentucky "comeback" look like a fraud? Probably not, but a 41-point spread is tough to argue with. Aussie freshman Andrew Ogilvy had his best all-around game since SEC play began, scoring 19 and rebounding 12. Shan Foster went for 20.
We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight. North Carolina 75-Virginia 74. I hate to see Sean Singletary go out like this. Last year, when Tennessee ended UVA's tournament run, I thought "buck up camper, there's always next year". Cut to last night, and despite 27 points and 7 assists from the Wooden award candidate, the Cavaliers rack up their ninth conference L. So much for my platitudes. All of these close calls have got to be getting to Roy Williams....
Tonight's Big Games
Notre Dame (18-4) at UConn (18-5). Neither team was ranked when the Irish pulled out a six-point win in South Bend earlier this season. What a difference a handful of days make. Luke Harangody is averaging a double-double, and Hasheem Thabeet is UConn's rising star. Should be a thriller in Hartford's XL Center.
Wisconsin (19-4) at Indiana (20-3). Purdue has the momentum right now, but one of these teams will serve notice that they intend to maintain the pace. Which will it be?
What, No Love For... Arkansas at Tennessee? Maryland at Duke? Houston at Memphis?
Eric Angevine writes about college basketball at Storming the Floor, and contributes to Chicago Sports Weekly. He can be reached at stormingthefloor@gmail.com.
Comments
I'd really like to see the 100 student tickets they sell for the final four stage an uprising and take the floor. That'd be something.
Storming the floor while at KU - 0.
Tearing down the goalposts while at KU - 3.
You should've come up with these rules before the Terps won the title in '02. Especially the part about "limited looting and pillaging" part.
The students from Texas also did not storm the floor after upsetting #3 Kansas the other night. But I think they're saving the exuberance for SXSW next month. Keep Austin weird.
I used to storm the floor at every timeout. Ah, the joys of cheerleading.
Before the Kinnick Stadium renovation (and student section relocation), we would rush the field after damn near every game. Even against the out-of-conference cream puffs. Once we did it after a loss, I think.
It was just the quickest way home.
You may storm the floor if/when...
violations of any of the aforementioned rules will be
+ Watch video
Robbie Hummel should be nicknamed the Hamburglar. hummel hummel hummel.
• Looking at the paddle, that's a paddlin'
... oh wait, wrong list.
I got to storm the floor only once. It also provided me the oppertunity to slap Lute's ass.
@Nationalcoholic: My college's gym is more like a high school gym than a college gym. We were so close to the players that more than one student going to get a hotdog could be mistaken for "storming the floor." And, the same thing happened after every game- we'd just cut across the court because it was the closest way to get to the bars.
Roy Williams is doing his best Neo impression by dodging bullets left and right. Duke played the part of Agent Smith last week though.
Never stormed the floor but I did get to rape and pillage the neighboring towns for the remainder of one summer at camp.
@kataroo_kangaroo:
You use to go to the bars in your cheerleading outfit?
@HIV 2 Elway: For a guy so dominant at Scrabble you sure can't spell worth a damn.
@Nationalcoholic: I have never stormed the field at Kinnick. I have at Kinnick North, however.
@UkraineNotWeak: Our team was never good enough to give us the opportunity to tear down the ol' peach baskets.
@HIV 2 Elway: I heart Lute. Alas, he left Iowa before I was old enough to slap his ass.
@SlantedAndDisenchanted: That's a fine example of when not to storm. Texas is at a point where it's not surprising for them to beat Kansas in Austin. To Storm would be beneath them.
@Brazil Thrill: did that make Vitale the Oracle?
@UkraineNotWeak: The lanyards come in handy at that point, don't they?
btw, its fantastic that Sampson has already destroyed Indiana basketball.
@Dany Heatley Speedwagon: Getting the wrong list? You better believe that's a paddlin'.
@Lady Andrea: In 2001 when we tore down their goalpost?
@Lady Andrea: The Silver Fox is one good looking old man.
I once high-fived 7'4" UVa center Chase Metheney when storming the floor. Well actually, I high-fived him and he low-fived me.
yo BTO, that game gave me a coronary last nite. Purdont had the better team and Yes they deserved to win BUT that bs traveling call on Morgan with 2 min left is what makes me hate college officiating
@Storming the Floor:
Yes indeed.
I was very disappointed last season when the students at Syracuse stormed the court after beating Georgetown.
@Rob Iracane: I stood next to UNC-Asheville's Kenny George on Saturday. All I could think to say was "nice belt buckle".
@cowbell204: when don't we tear down the goalposts?
@HIV 2 Elway: I agree, but even if he wasn't, I'd love him for what he's done for Kenny Arnold.
When I was 11, I stood next to Tom Burleson who was 7'4'' and played on the 1974 NC State NCAA Championship team. I think I came up to his belly button.
@UkraineNotWeak: My school has an official drinking song. No one cared.
I rushed the floor when Drake beat Iowa last year. That was a big deal. You can see the back of my head in the picture in the Register next to Klayton.
With the way Drake's playing this year, storming the floor now would be unseemly.
@UkraineNotWeak: My previous experience with tall folk was running into Greg Ostertag in a campus bar, but Big Kenny has a whole extra infant's-length on top of Greggy.
@Andrew: Yeah, the NCAAs is about the only place you need to storm at this point. Good luck with that.
@Andrew: that fits the rule. Didn't that snap one of the worst streaks in college basketball? Also, it was embarrassing for us.
@kataroo_kangaroo: we have one too. "In Heaven There Is No Beer." It rules.
@Storming the Floor:
I nearly walked into Scot Pollard at one of the gyms. Embarrasing I know since the guy is 7 foot and how could you miss him...I did.
Of course that doesn't compare to the time I nearly ran over Keith Langford.
Last times my school stormed the floor/pitch:
Basketball: 2006, v Kansas (the Moody game, and also the night everything came crashing down)
Football: 2003, v Nebraska (first time Mizzou had beaten them in God-knows-how-long...it was cold, rainy, a full house and everyone was drunk and carrying hacksaws under their coats, so they could cut off a piece of the goalpost).
@Lady Andrea: "The Silver Goblet" The school's trying to do away with it, but the alumni love it, and they teach it to all the Student Alumni (the Alumni Association's bitches, basically, and a super fun club to be in) and tell us to go teach it to everyone else. We also are the only students that know the alma mater, and the alumni love getting us drunk at half time and making us sing. One of the reasons I ended my cheer career was so I could join in the festivities...
@tater: Not only was Scot tall, but his fingernails and hair were probably orange. Check your prescription.
I'm afraid I would have been quite angry with you if you had flattened Keith. Me and a few others.
Jim Boeheim once held the door for walking into the Carrier Dome.
@Turd Ferguson: Beating Nebraska is one of the few things Kansas and Missouri fans can agree on. I raise a glass to you, sir.
@ltwinslow: Mind? Blown.
@Lady Andrea: That win was the first one in 28 years. [Times Delphic]
And for what it's worth, I've always liked "In Heaven There Is No Beer".
@Andrew: A Drake fan on Deadspin? Now I've seen everything. Good luck to you guys this March.
I love Drake's
Devil Dogs, Ring Dings, Coffee Cakes, Yankee Doodles...
Oh, you mean Drake University
@TheJizzone:
I absolutely couldn't believe that call (I really try to be as unbiased as possible when Purdue plays MSU). But, consider the following statistics (with the game played at Mackey:
Purdue shot very poorly (38% from the floor, 27% from 3-point range), got called for more fouls, and took/made fewer free throws. That win was all about the absolute defensive smackdown that the Boilers put on the Spartans.
@The Secret Weapon: I'm like a real-life Nessie or something like that.
And I'm not one of those bandwagon jumping assholes who makes it hard for me to get a good seat at the Knapp Center. Until I graduated last May, I'd only missed a handful of games in 4 years.
@BigTenObsession: gotta agree with you there. the forced turnovers were HUGE