Day 8: Howard Bison at Navy Midshipmen

Alumni Hall (capacity 5,710)
Annapolis, Maryland

The Result: Navy 79, Howard 75 (2OT)
The Midshipmen and Bison served up two extra scoops of hoops at Alumni Hall tonight. I took special interest in this game since Navy is a Patriot League rival for Bucknell. As a Bison fan, I had an “uh-oh” feeling in the early minutes as Navy crisply and confidently executed its offense. Then the Midshipmen went almost five and a half minutes without scoring a point. The first overtime was primarily a free throw contest. Navy pulled away pretty easily in the second.

Venue Rating: C+
Facility: B. It’s a little on the big side, but still feels pretty cozy in the lower level. It’s an interesting place to stroll around, with mounted crests representing each of the graduating classes, and nifty displays like giant model ships.

At most venues, the ushers are kindly older folks out for some spending money and an interesting evening. At Navy, the ushers are midshipmen in formal uniforms and white gloves. For a moment, I felt underdressed.

It’s a treat to visit another Patriot League venue because I know I’ll see a Bucknell banner hanging from the rafters. At Alumni, they have the eight school banners hung in pairs, two in each corner in alphabetical order. An interesting result is that archrivals Lafayette and Lehigh share a corner. I was seated opposite the Bucknell banner, and by either benign accident or divine intervention, it is the most brightly lit of the eight.

I would have given Alumni slightly higher marks, but the scoreboard leaves much to be desired. A gift from the Class of 1957, it looks like the bottom half fell off. The board is modern, but doesn’t identify who is in the game, their points or fouls, or even the number of timeouts each team has left.

Attendance (961): F. Filling less than a fifth of your seats is bad enough…but Navy fans abandoning ship when the game went to overtime was almost more than I could take.

Each night, I ‘ve been pulling for overtime. So imagine my shock when the end of regulation prompted several Navy spectators to head for the door. “See you next time!,” I heard one of them say to a friend with a smile. Worse, another small wave washed out at the end of the first overtime. I have never seen this happen before.

Their departure took the wind out of Alumni Hall’s sails. (Yes, I’m unleashing a veritable bombardment of naval metaphors!) Instead of the venue building to a bigger frenzy with each extra session, it became quieter and quieter but for a few key moments.

Basketball Environment: B. It’s hard to judge this attribute without some carry-over from the attendance. There’s nothing worse than peace and quiet during a basketball game, and there was plenty of it tonight.

On the plus side, the academy pep band is easily the best I’ve seen during my tour so far. They did a very good job of cheering throughout the game, and played a wide variety of songs very well. (Even Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” Sounds good all brassy!) The cheerleaders were also the best I’ve seen in the past eight days of traveling.

Fan Face-Off: Middies Win the Battle
Three Howard fans seated behind me yelled during free throws late in the game, but it wasn’t enough to capture the victory. The Navy pep band carried the day, along with some rowdy midshipmen in one corner, and an energetic fellow over in mine.

Applying their military training, the cheerleaders changed tactics when battle conditions warranted it. Specifically, when the game went to overtime, they redeployed themselves throughout the stands to better motivate the fans.

I like classy fans, and was right in anticipating that Alumni Hall would be an environment devoid of crass fan behavior. Military discipline goes a long way: I imagine if a midshipmen tried chanting “bull****,” he would have to drag an anchor around the Yard for a few days.

Best Mascot: Midshipmen.
I was put off by Howard’s imagery, which is a cheap knock-off of the Buffalo Bills logo.

Graduation Success Rate: Navy 100, Howard 17
Navy’s resounding academic defeat of Howard is even bigger than Bucknell’s thumping of UNI (100% to 22%). Perhaps Howard athletes should audit a few courses at the academy—they might learn how to navigate to a classroom.

Life on the Road
I enjoyed dozing til 9:30 this morning, then rode a Metro train to the Pentagon where an old Army buddy bought me lunch and gave me a tour. Geoff Ballou and I were fellow second lieutenants at Fort Polk, Louisiana in the early 1990s. He’s now a lieutenant colonel responsible for managing gazillions of tax dollars.

My Pentagon visit featured many interesting moments, but the one I’ll always remember was when I stood at the place where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building on September 11.

Before arriving at the academy, I set up a temporary camp in my car in the parking lot of a Days Inn outside Annapolis. I used their wireless internet feed to catch up on messages.

Driving onto the Naval Academy was interesting. Invariably, as I arrived on each of the other campuses, the first thing I saw was jogging students. After clearing the academy’s security checkpoint, the first thing I saw were midshipmen dressed in sharp black uniforms and hats, walking to a beautifully lit dining facility with huge windows and a high ceiling.

Total Miles To Date: 2,244

Next Game: It’s Ladies' Night, Oh What a Night: I'll support the Bucknell Lady Bison as they visit the Delaware State Hornets.