For many people, thoughts of the NCAA basketball tournament bring to mind great buzzer-beaters and dramatic victories, but for some Syracuse University students, March Madness meant waiting outside of the Carrier Dome for hours to buy tickets to Friday’s Sweet 16 contest in Albany.

The Orangemen will meet the Auburn Tigers in the East Regional semifinal game. Tickets for the matchup and a possible East Regional Final game versus Oklahoma or Butler went on sale for students who did not buy a ticket to the round one or round two games at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.

A group of students waited outside of Gate A of the Carrier Dome beginning at about 11:30 p.m. Monday and continuing throughout Tuesday so they would have the chance to buy one of the roughly 120 tickets left available.

Sophomore environmental science major Douglas Kellogg slept on the concrete outside of Gate A to get a place toward the front of the line for his friends.

“It was hard for a while, but it wasn’t too bad,” he said. “It’s been a long day waiting in line for my friends, but I have no classes today and one of them had a test, so they weren’t going to wait outside last night.”

Kellogg said that instead of rooting for Carmelo Anthony and company in person, he will be at a party during the game. He was glad for the experience of waiting outside with other students, however.

“This is what college is made for,” he said. “My mom would be so proud.”

A group that was proud of its position of first in line was the brothers of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Kenneth Ashley, a freshmen in The College of Arts and Sciences, was with the group who arrived at gate A at about 11:30 p.m. Monday.

“We are the heart and soul of SU basketball,” Ashley said. “It’s not Carmelo or Warrick, it’s the fans supporting the team waiting outside all night for tickets.”

Those in line kept themselves occupied with music, reading and doing work. Ashley said it was a great atmosphere and experience and even played his guitar during the night to keep his friends from boredom.

It wasn’t just the brothers of PIKE who had plenty of time to kill at Gate A. Chris Kowalski and his friends wanted to be first in line but ended up second. They arrived just after 11:30 p.m. as the PIKE brothers were setting up camp, Kowalski, a freshmen biology major, said.

Although many students took pride in the amount of time they waited for their tickets, others who waited significantly shorter periods of time still were able to buy tickets.

Jim McDonald, a freshman broadcast journalism major, got to the Dome at about 2:45 p.m. and was still able to buy a ticket. About 11 people were able to buy tickets after McDonald, he said. If McDonald had been unable to buy tickets, he would have been very upset.

“There might be a riot,” he said.

Published on March 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm