A special UConn Men’s basketball game

On March 3rd, I went to the UConn men’s basketball game at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on campus. When I got into the building, the seats were full of people because today there would be a jersey retirement for UConn alumni Ray Allen. The audience were UConn students or local people - who are as enthusiastic about basketball games as the college students. Everyone was so excited about the game, even before the game had started, you could feel the passion for the game from the crowds.

The starting five was not the one we were familiar with, due to the injury of UConn’s senior player Jalen Adams. Jalen Adams is the captain for this UConn men’s basketball team. For the last four years, he led UConn Huskies for a couple of wins. Without him, the game would be a hard one for UConn. After the whistle blew, the game started, University of South Florida (USF) won the jump ball, so they had the first opportunity to go for an offense. Meanwhile, all the Husky fans stood up to cheer for UConn, “defense!” After UConn made a good defense, people yelled, “Let’s go UConn!” However, UConn also did not score in this turn. So, none of the audience sat down, we were all standing to cheer for UConn. Unfortunately, both teams still had not scored after the first minute so the crowd continued to stand there to encourage the home team. No one sat down and the whole of Gampel was covered by a good basketball atmosphere. In fact, we remained standing until 18:48 in the 1st half, when Josh Carlton broke through the score drought with a dunk. Everyone went crazy for that, people sat down and clapped for this moment. The whole of Gampel went insane about that. This was the first peak for the whole game. Through the remaining 18 minutes, UConn and USF both made some good plays. UConn once had a 20-12, 8 points lead. However, there is no easy win in sports, USF tried to fight back, nd by the end of 1st half, they had minimized the UConn’s leads to 1 point. At half time the score was 28-27, and the crowd cheered for UConn’s performance.

After that, the whole Gampel turned the lights off, and a spot light moved towards the player entry. It eventually stopped moving and focused on a guy with gray suit. When the lights stopped on him, everyone clapped and yelled out for him. That man was the UConn alumni, Ray Allen. Meantime, the big screen started to play the highlights of Ray Allen. People clapped and cheered to welcome the legend’s coming back. This was the second peak of the whole game. After 30 seconds’ crazy yelling, he walked to the center of basketball court and raised up his hand to show his friendliness to crowd. At the same time, there came another spot of light shooting at ceiling of the Gampel. Inside the light circle was a black cover. After introducing the honor of Ray Allen, the black cover dropped off. A big white band with blue number 34 and Ray Allen’s personal signature. People cheered again, we were all showing him our congratulations. As he thanked the passion of crowds, the whole of Gampel fell silent, people were respectful to his upcoming speech. Alongside him, were his wife and his four kids. First of all, Ray Allen thanked his family, and UConn. Then he shared what he learned outside of basketball with the crowds. After his speech, the audience showed their respects to him with another wave of applause. As he moved away from the center, the lights turned on again.

With another whistle blow, the 2nd half started, since USF took the first offense opportunity in the 1st, it was UConn’s ball this time. After a bunch of ball movement, the ball came to the center Josh Carlton, he tried a hard layup to attack the rim. Even though he missed that with the assistant defense of USF, he showed aggressiveness to the opponents. Then the home team made several rounds of good defense and offense, so they got a few points leads. Every time when USF tried to chased the point, Huskies always put more pressure for USF’s offense, and made shot to keep leads. Around 6 minutes left, David Collins passed the ball to LaQuincy Rideau for a wide open three. With that three point, USF got their first lead since the 2nd half. UConn immediately called time out. The whole of Gampel turned to a serious atmosphere, people felt worried about UConn’s team, because it was obvious that USF now had their momentum, and if we could not stop them, there would be a loss for UConn on such a special day, in front of the retired UConn legend.

When the game started, people stood up again and yelled harder to encourage Huskies to fight back. This was the third peak of the game. Every time, when USF got a free throw, people tried to interrupt their free throw with shouting or some strange movements that takes away the attention from the free throw shooter. And when home team got a free throw, the audience cheer for them and motivated their fighting will. With such a good atmosphere, UConn took a 3 point lead when there was 30 seconds left. USF went hard for the next play and got a foul inside. After David Collins made both 2 free throws, UConn’s lead was reduced to one point. Then USF made a quick foul on Alterique Gilbert with 2 seconds left. After he made the first one UConn had 60-58, a two points leading. Everyone got breathless for the next moment, because it was such a big shot that might affect the later game. Unfortunately, he missed this one, and USF got the rebound, and called a time out. With only 2 seconds left, a win or lose would come soon, audiences were all nervous about that since USF could go for a three and sent a loss to ruin Ray Allen’s jersey retirement. When the ball came in, Alterique Gilbert read the passing route, and made the steal to redeem himself and bring a win to Huskies, and Ray Allen’s jersey retirement. People were all cheering and yelling out loudly for this happy moment. The last peak of the game happened with so many satisfied smiling faces. This was not just a normal win, because it made the legend consecutive. The last time Ray Allen walked in Gampel, he had won hundreds of games for UConn, and today he still brings his winning legend to UConn.

I felt that I was so lucky to see UConn legend Ray Allen in person and I was proud that I am a husky just like Ray Allen. This basketball game meant so much to me, I was satisfied with the good basketball performance, and it impressed with the jersey retirement of Ray Allen. More importantly, it made me so proud to be a UConn student, because “Student today, Husky forever”.