Fans take to campus, streets in celebration

And you thought it was crazy on Thursday night. \nAs soon as the scorekeepers called the final tally of 81-69 for IU over Kent State on Saturday night, the screaming started. Horns blasted and cheers echoed between the dorms, filled the bars and poured out onto Kirkwood Avenue. That was only the beginning of IU's Final Four celebration. \n"It was really exciting. I wish they won almost by a bigger lead," said freshman Sam Lofgren on her way to Showalter Fountain. She watched the game with a friend and immediately headed to one of last Thursday's main gathering spots to see what was going on. \nGroups of two, five and more tore across the Main Library parking lot, bounding down the stairs behind the Fine Arts Building, while others dodged to avoid getting run over. The howls of "IU, IU" and "Final Four" could be heard from anywhere near the center of campus.\nThe crowd of hundreds covered the lady of the fountain, its rims, the stairs surrounding and the green lamp posts. Police donned their now-customary post-NCAA-conference-win gear and kept an eye on the crowd from its edges. \nGraduate student Michael Burton watched the game with his friends in Alpha Phi Alpha and brought his handheld video camera to record the celebration. \n"I've been here six years," Burton said. "This is the most fun I've had at IU."\nStudents and community members joined together in rejoicing. Drunken 20-somethings, 5-year-olds with their parents and a lone fellow with a snare drum slung over his shoulder all watched the crowd, turning heads to follow the loudest cheers. The quieter of the basketball team's many followers held close to the edges, avoiding the pulsing mass that some held hands to wade through. \nSophomore Allyson Metz took her father and mother, in town for a parent's weekend, to see the happy fans. They live in Atlanta.\n"We just booked her plane ticket back home," Yale Metz, Allyson's father, said. They planned to find game tickets to IU's bid against Oklahoma.\nSaturday night people weren't just cheering for the players' sweat and three-point prowess. They were also hailing the coach forced to follow a legacy.\n"It's a great win for Mike Davis," junior Brandon Williams said. "Now we can finally forget about Bobby Knight." \nDespite Knight-laced comments and interview questions and the public's voiced misgivings about the new coach, this past week seems to be his validation in many eyes. \nJunior Scott Brian Smith called his stepfather, an IU alumnus, right after the game.\n"He really loved Bobby Knight," Smith said. "He had some bad opinions about (Davis) earlier in the year, but not now." \nAt the fountain, hugs and cheers were mandatory. Teamwork wasn't only seen on the court in Lexington, as strangers offered a hand for the pole climbers to step on. Crazed students also worked together to tear down one of the smaller trees bordering Showalter, set part of it on fire, which the police soon doused, and dragged it to Kirkwood. \n"This is the road to the Final Four!" yelled a tree-limb-brandishing student who led the procession. A trail of dirt still remained on Sunday. It led down Seventh Street, across Indiana Avenue and through the alley behind People's Park. \nOnce at the Kirkwood intersection across from the Upstairs Pub, the thronging crowd raised the trunk stripped of now-souvenir limbs. A T-shirt clad student hoisted himself on its swaying branches, dropping sparks from the magenta road flare he looped through the air until the uprooted tree fell. \nClimbing seemed a disease shared by the crowd at Kirkwood, as students stood on the roofs of Kilroy's, Upstairs and Greetings. Others scaled the street signs, and were hanging from the connecting wires. \nThe more rambunctious of the crowd lit newspapers and clothing on fire, forming a small ring of onlookers, news cameras and photographers. \nIU's win brought out all spectrums of campus life -- from the girls convinced flashing is a good thing and the guys who cheered them on, to the do-gooders who yelled in protest at the arsonists and tree killers. \nSaturday's main melee ended with a troop to President Myles Brand's house, where the crowd was met by a line of police officers standing in his front yard. Students leapt and stumbled across the small creek in his yard and cheered for about 30 minutes before dispersing. This time, a few environmentally-minded students saved the tree chosen to be destroyed. \n"This is the craziest night of my life," sophomore D.J. Zipp said. "I will remember it forever"