Believe it or not, I'm still here.
(And, to be honest, I can't quite believe it myself.)
Anyway, we're just a few minutes from tip time between 4-seed Rhode Island and top-seed Xavier. The crowd is very spread out, but reasonably big by the standards set over the last few days. It's very, very pro-Xavier. There's a decent Musketeers student section up above the linescore board at the Horseshoe End, maybe 30 of them.
Oh, they just moved down. To the same corner where the St. Joe's students were last night, between the Musketeers' bench and the basket.
I don't see any Rhody student section (there, I finally said it) as such. But I can already tell who the most annoying fan of the night will be. Of course the guy is right behind me, and his, uh, drink has barely been touched thus far.
Rhode Island starts Bitee Parfait (Jr.) and Jimmy Baron (the head coach's son) in the backcourt, Will Daniels and Kahiem Seawright in the front, and Darrell Harris at center.
Xavier starts former Oklahoma Sooner Drew Lavender and Stanley Burrell in the back, and a frontcourt trio of Justin Cage, Justin Doellman and Brandon Cole. They're all listed as forwards, with Doellman contesting the opening tip.
JoeDeMayo, Gene Steratore and Ray Perone are the refs.
