The 500 Game Experience

Game #8-054: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Saint Joseph's Hawks November 17, 2011 8:00 pm Charleston, SC BBState Stats/Recap

Back in May 2007 while watching High Point play in the Big South Baseball Tournament on the campus of Winthrop, I began to think of all the sporting events I had been attending. In the past, I thought about recording all the games I have attended into a database. I decided to start actually doing that, and began the database on May 30 with a collegiate summer baseball game in Columbia, SC. Since then, I have input nearly every sporting event I have been to with statistics to compare each game I have been to with one another. It has allowed me to achieve a greater understanding of sports and connects each game I go to with each other. It is an ongoing project to document the games I go to and what happens in each game that makes it unique.

The start of my basketball database coincided with the start of Season 4 on this site with a game between High Point and Charlotte. Since then I have made some interesting observations about basketball games that I have been to. College players take better care of the ball than high school players, and even with a 35 second shot clock possession switches much more frequently in the high school game than in college. Slower tempo games also tend to have better offensive efficiency, as fewer careless turnovers and bad shots occur.

And here in the final game of Day 1 in the Charleston Classic would be the 500th basketball game I have attended since I started recording games I have been to. The 500 basketball games include a lot of games that would not be listed here (above the Red Line, below the Black Line, women's games, high school games combined make up a majority of the database), but that is still a lot of games in just over 4 seasons. I don't travel as much as Kyle did, but between traveling more than your average fan and handling an internship and school I can see why Kyle stopped traveling. I go to sporting events most days all year, and after a while you begin to get tired doing this for an extended period of time. After coming back from the Citadel game and uploading pictures, writing my recap of it here and leaving the next morning for the Charleston Classic, I only got six hours of sleep.

But one thing I have not seen a lot of in all of this basketball is a Red Line Upset. Leading up to the game between Georgia Tech and St. Joseph's, I saw the Citadel, Western Kentucky, and VCU all go down to major teams this week in Charleston. St. Joe's would be the last hope here for seeing a Red line Upset. The only time previously I had ever seen a RLU was at this tournament two years ago, when UNC Wilmington beat Penn State. When one thinks of a mid-major, the Hawks aren't usually the first team to come to mind. They were a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament back in 2004 led by future NBA players Delonte West and Jameer Nelson. But the Hawks were famously disrespected by Billy Packer on CBS after their selection, and play in a smaller arena than any school above the Red Line. St. Joseph's has not fared well in Atlantic 10 play in recent years. They are just one of six Division I schools in a major city with pro sports. So tonight, St. Joseph's was most definitely a mid-major going against the big boys from the ACC in Georgia Tech.

Like the other mid-majors here, St. Joseph's came out struggling on offense but defense kept them in the game, down by 5 at halftime. But unlike the other mid-majors, the Hawks found their wings on offense in the second half. And magically enough, it was the major school this time, Georgia Tech, who folded down the stretch! The Hawks pulled away late for a 66-53 win, and my 500th basketball game had a beautiful Red Line Upset attached to it. Like the first game I recorded in my database of basketball games, an Atlantic 10 (or A-14 as longtime TMM readers refer to it as) team won. This time it was a win to be happy about.

SAINT JOSEPH'S 66, GEORGIA TECH 53 11/17/2011 GEORGIA TECH 2-1 (0-0)-- M. Udofia 8-16 4-4 20; J. Morris 1-7 3-4 5; K. Holsey 6-9 1-2 13; D. Miller 2-9 2-2 6; B. Reed 1-9 0-0 2; P. Jordan 1-3 0-0 2; N. Foreman 1-1 0-0 3; J. Royal 0-2 0-0 0; N. Hicks 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-57 10-12 53. SAINT JOSEPH'S 2-0 (0-0)-- L. Galloway 5-12 3-3 15; H. Kanacevic 3-12 2-2 10; C. Jones 5-11 8-8 21; C. Aiken 3-4 0-0 7; C. Wilson 1-3 2-2 5; P. Ndao 1-3 0-0 2; R. Roberts 2-6 2-2 6; E. Maschmeyer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 17-17 66. Three-point goals: GT 1-12 (P. Jordan 0-1; N. Foreman 1-1; M. Udofia 0-4; B. Reed 0-4; J. Morris 0-2), SJU 9-17 (C. Jones 3-5; H. Kanacevic 2-2; C. Aiken 1-2; L. Galloway 2-6; P. Ndao 0-1; C. Wilson 1-1); Rebounds: GT 27 (K. Holsey 8), SJU 34 (H. Kanacevic 11); Assists: GT 4 (P. Jordan 2), SJU 13 (C. Wilson 4); Total Fouls -- GT 11, SJU 13; Fouled Out: GT-None; SJU-None.