Senior Night

Tonight was Senior Night for the Nevada men's basketball team - and for me.

For those who don't know, Senior Night is when fans celebrate and appreciate the contributions of all the seniors for their final home game.

I don't usually get caught up in the emotion of stuff like that, mostly because I don't entirely understand how these players are that much different than any other college student, but, oddly enough, I was a bit sad and reflective in the media work room after the game.

I've been covering that team for four fucking years, and tonight was most likely the last time covering a team at Lawlor Events Center. And as cynical as I am sometimes, I do love college basketball (just not always writing about it).

I got to cover the team during the best four years in program history. The Wolf Pack went to the Sweet 16 when I was a freshman, and I started covering them the next season. They've won 100 games since then, they were in the Top 10 in the nation last season, and they've beaten programs like Kansas, Texas, and Gonzaga.

I've spent four years taking games in from courtside, which has generally been a blast. I also have tons of awesome memories of traveling all over the country on crazy road trips (from nearly getting shot at a gas station in Auburn, Calif., to trying to entertain myself in Las Cruces, NM, to getting absolutely wasted in downtown Boise with Amanda J).

I've covered three WAC Tournaments and three NCAA Tournaments, which is pretty much the premier event to cover in all of sports journalism. Spending last spring break at the tournament in New Orleans will probably go down as my best college memory. We watched basketball all day (including No. 1 and eventual champion Florida) and spent all night partying on Bourbon Street.

In fact, when I look back at my college days, it's hard to imagine anything sticking out as much as covering the college basketball team. As much as I genuinely hate working at The Sagebrush sometimes, I've always liked the parts that involve me and a basketball game.

So, after spending so much time covering the team, it's hard to understand that I'll never cover another game at Lawlor Events Center. Tonight was my last home game, too, and it's really fucking weird to think it's over. And sad.

And because of class, I can't go to the WAC Tournament this year. That's not a huge loss, because, in a moment of unrivaled stupidity, the conference administration decided it would be a good idea to have the tournament in the crap-hole that is Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Las Cruces is a small town with nothing to do and barely enough hotel rooms to host the teams, and it's 40 miles from the nearest airport in El Paso. There's also a general odor wafting off the basketball arena that wreaks of baked beans, cow shit, and burnt ass.

Still, I've got to be honest and say that I'm sad I'm not going. The WAC Tournament is basically four days of high-stakes basketball. And conference tournaments are going on all over America, and it's so much fun to keep track of all the action and upsets that happen each year.

What's worse, this year's team probably isn't going to the NCAA Tournament. While the team is going to be really really good for the next few years, this year the team is young and inexperienced. They're going through the dreaded "rebuilding year." So unless they win the conference tournament, there won't be any NCAA Tournament this season.

We're thinking about going to the Fresno State game in Fresno next week, so there's a chance I'll get to cover one last game.

For Scott, who is also a senior, and I, we're just trying to do anything to keep the dream alive.