Dec. 7, 2011 By Gregg Bell - UW Director of Writing NEW YORK -New Yorkers love them some Huskies. And no wonder. The Dawgs have spent this week shining the Big Apple. Oh, sure, you saw their 79-77 loss to Marquette Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, by far the better of the two games in the Jimmy V Classic to benefit cancer research. But that last-second loss, after the Huskies had pulled ahead of the undefeated and 11th-ranked Golden Eagles in a raucous second half, earned them respect in Manhattan. And beyond. A 20-something guy in a hoodie with an orange stripe dyed in his dark hair greeted three Huskies as they boarded an elevator in their Chelsea-district team hotel about 90 minutes after Tuesday's game. "You guys were ballin', y'all. For real," the guy told the players, who were recognizable by their height and their black team sweatshirts with a gold W on the chest. "Great game, man." The longer the locals and the fans of Missouri and Villanova - which played in Tuesday night's first game -- stayed in the Garden, the louder they rooted for the Huskies. By the time Terrence Rosswas putting UW back up late in a game that had 19 lead changes, "The World's Most Famous Arena" was roaring for these under-Dawgs in purple. The Huskies' ticket office sold about 800 tickets for Tuesday's game - and another 1,500 for Saturday's 9 a.m. game at MSG against Duke. But it sounded more like 8,000 rooting for Washington against Marquette. "I didn't realize our fan base was that big," freshman guard Tony Wroten, a native of Seattle, marveled in the Huskies' locker room after the game. And the fans weren't just inside the arena. "Washington should be the Class of Pac12 after what (we) saw vs a tough Marquette team." Dick Vitale, who called the thriller for ESPN, tweeted early Wednesday morning: "Washington should be the Class of Pac12 after what Saw vs a tough Marquette team." As soon as the Huskies stepped off the bus to check into their boutique hotel after midnight early Monday morning, an autograph seeker on the sidewalk had them signing a glossy UW team picture. At 15 minutes past midnight. More than 2,850 miles from Seattle. Wroten has even had a fan tweet him asking him to come downstairs into the lobby of the Huskies' hotel here to sign an autograph. Later Monday morning, the Huskies bused to the 9-11 Memorial at what used to be the World Trade Center, before terrorists brought down the twin towers 10 years ago. The security official that greeted the team at the entrance gate looked like he'd just re-discovered his youth - and his favorite team. "The Huskies are here?" the man said excitedly. He then welcomed coach Lorenzo Romar- and explained to him he was born in Vancouver, Wash., and grew up following Huskies basketball. The guy's fellow security guards glared. This being New York, they just wanted to keep the line moving. "C'mon!" one older guard growled at one point past the metal detectors, waving his arms and imploring us to move along. The team was appropriately moved and stunned by the enormity of what happened at the place on Sept. 11, 2001. Many kept shaking their heads and saying, "Can you imagine ...?" Visitors stared up at 7-foot center Aziz N'Diayeas they walked past, whispering at the unexpected sight of a basketball team at the memorial. One elderly man walked up to me with a smile on his face, pointed at N'Diaye and said dryly, "He must be the point guard." DISHING IN TIMES SQUARE The best assists Wroten and fellow Huskies point guard Abdul Gaddyhave had all week - heck, all season or maybe their careers - came Monday night. It had nothing to do with basketball. The team enjoyed a huge meal at Carmine's, a legendary, family-style Italian restaurant in Manhattan's theater district. There was tons of food leftover. Rather than have the food thrown away, the Huskies had it boxed and bagged to go. As the players were leaving, strength and conditioning coach Matt Ludwig asked players to join him on a 16-block walk back to the hotel rather than ride on the team bus. About three-fourths of them joined "Coach Lud," though some were grumbling that the notoriously hard-driving trainer was about to lead them on some ill-timed workout or something. "OK, guys, see all this food?" Ludwig said to the players on the streets of midtown Manhattan. "Let's give it to all the homeless we can find who need it." The players' attitudes 180'd faster than Ross' wowing, alley-oop dunk Tuesday night. They loved the idea. They eagerly distributed the food bags among themselves and set off on a sort of urban scavenger hunt. These guys are no strangers to helping the needy. I was with them in September when Romar led them down to Pioneer Square in Seattle to volunteer as lunch servers at the Union Gospel Mission homeless shelter. "Anytime you can step outside yourself and be concerned about someone else that is a good thing," Romar told me that day in Seattle, while we talked about why he has the Huskies out in community so much. But finding the needy in New York City was harder than one might think. At night, those needing shelter tend to find it. So the players sought to find them. That's how they got to Times Square for the first time. It wasn't just to be tourists. It was to help others who could use a meal and a hand. That's how they got to Times Square for the first time. It wasn't just to be tourists. It was to help others who could use a meal and a hand. Those they fed were grateful. Some talked basketball. All thanked the Huskies for their generosity. "It was great to see that, them thinking of others," Ludwig, married and a father of three, told me Tuesday on the bus to the afternoon shootaround at the Garden. "They realize how fortunate they are, how others aren't as fortunate. We talked about it." This week, New York is realizing Romar's Huskies aren't your average team of college kids. I mean, I thought I was an OK dude when I went to college near here, about an hour up the Hudson River. And I've been to Times Square dozens of times. But I've never done what Wroten, Gaddy and most of the Huskies did there Monday night. A GREAT EXPERIENCE, BEYOND BASKETBALL Wednesday night, the team had dinner at a barbecue spot in Harlem then headed on Broadway to see "Memphis." Kenny Alhadeff, the Seattle-area resident and one of the producers of the Tony Award-winning musical, spoke to the players back at UW earlier in this academic term as part of the for-credit course the Huskies have been taking this term in conjunction with the New York visit. The players were to visit the actors and producers backstage while at the Shubert Theater. Thursday night, the Huskies will attend another Broadway production, "The Lion King" at the Minskoff Theater. How many college teams couple a road trip with academics? None. This week is the first known, regular-season trip for a major NCAA team inside the United States that includes academic course credit. "Domestically, I'm not aware of any other teams doing this. It's pretty unique. I don't know of anyone else that is doing this kind of independent-study course in conjunction with an in-season road trip," Kim Durand, UW's associate athletic director for student development, told me before the trip. "When I've talked with colleagues at other schools about it, they think it's great." "I'm not aware of any other teams doing this. It's pretty unique." Missouri's do. I was sitting next to members of Mizzou's marketing and athletics support staff beside the Tigers' bench during Tuesday's first game. The three of them were envious of and impressed with all the Huskies were doing in New York this week. They and their Tigers were flying in and out, playing one game and then returning to Missouri late Tuesday night. "For us to spend a week in New York is a great experience," Romar said. "And not just in basketball." So sure, you were disappointed with how Tuesday night's game ended. Believe me, the Huskies were, too. They knew but for a blown defensive assignment on that last 3-pointer by Marquette, they would have knocked off the nation's No. 11 team of the vaunted Big East Conference on the nation's grandest sports stage. "We're frustrated," Ross said in the bowels of the Garden late Tuesday. "We realize we played well - until that last bucket. "We played so hard. It's real tough on us." Romar was as cordial, poised and engaging as he always is after a game, win or lose. But he seemed to be burning inside over losing an opportunity for an attention-grabbing upset. Yet as this week has shown to those for whom a basketball game isn't the most important thing in life, these Dawgs are winning impressively, anyway. I don't know what's going to happen Saturday against Duke. No one does, of course. But there is one thing I do know: New Yorkers are going to remember these Huskies. They've already made this trip way worthwhile. About Gregg Bell Gregg Bell is an award-winning sports writer who joined the University of Washington's staff in September 2010 as the Director of Writing. Previously, Bell served as the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He received a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 2000. Gregg Bell Unleashed can be found on GoHuskies.com each Wednesday. Click here to email Gregg Bell. |
