Games bring Hoosier spirit

Imagine if we had lost the game to Duke. None of the students would be at Showalter Fountain, in a group so large that police eventually let them do what they wanted, like climb lamposts and parked buses. I wouldn't have gotten a chance to witness the unity among students. Even amid the crowd surfing, the shouting and screaming, everyone was gathered together for a reason: IU had beaten Duke by one point. We were on our way to the Elite Eight.\nWhat I noticed the day after was that everyone was talking about it. Naturally. I mean, this is the first time in eight years the Hoosiers had gotten to the Elite Eight. Although I wasn't raised in Indiana with love for the Hoosiers already flowing through my veins, I knew it was huge. During the game, people cheered in front of their TVs, jumping up and down in front of it if they felt the need, getting on their knees and sitting real close, because that helps the players and all. I know there were some students who did not watch the whole game, but they could still have IU pride in knowing that we won. The student unity that was felt at Showalter Fountain, on Kirkwood, in the dorms and in apartment complexes was a great, intense feeling.\nBut the Duke game is old news. And the Final Four is in the past, too. We all knew that whether IU won Saturday night, things would be happening on the streets. Things would be broken or torn down on Kirkwood and Hoosier fans would still express either joy or pain and empathize with the team. Everyone would unite somewhere, be it Kirkwood or outside the dorms and react to the game, as we've been doing through the NCAA tournament. \nWhen the Hoosiers made it to the final game, everyone became a basketball fan. To be honest, I never really paid attention to NCAA basketball. But now that all across campus sounds of honking cars and shouts can be heard expressing IU's victories, I'm a basketball fan. Everyone is a basketball fan when his team is in the NCAA tournament. Granted that I do know what a foul is, where the three-point line is and that there are two halves, not quarters, in a basketball game, I'm just generally not really interested in basketball. But when watching the games, I was one of those Hoosier fans, yelling at the referees and sitting closer and closer to the TV screen. I don't really know how it started, that aching inside to win, to show everyone that IU could go further than everyone thought we could go. Part of it could have been because this snobby neighbor of mine goes to Duke. Part of it could have been because some guy next to me was obnoxiously cheering for Kent State. Part of it could have been because my friend was convinced IU would lose to Oklahoma because she had a dream that IU lost the game by eight points. What was it that made me cross my fingers when the other team took a shot, or made me keep my eyes glued to the screen and lean forward when IU had the ball? What was it that made me feel like everyone on Kirkwood was totally unified in our purpose of creating madness and mayhem to show how much IU basketball means to us? Whatever it was, it sounds a lot like Hoosier pride. And I'm proud to have it.