{"id":60896,"date":"2018-03-19T09:05:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T09:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=60896"},"modified":"2018-03-19T09:05:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T09:05:21","slug":"umbc-watch-party-celebrating-ncaa-history-cheering-tournament-darlings-studying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/umbc-watch-party-celebrating-ncaa-history-cheering-tournament-darlings-studying.html","title":{"rendered":"UMBC watch party: celebrating NCAA history, cheering tournament darlings, studying"},"content":{"rendered":"

UMBC watch party: celebrating NCAA history, cheering tournament darlings, studying<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

CATONSVILLE, Md. \u2014 Eventually the crowd, expected to be modest because students are on spring break, grew so large that an overflow room had to be opened. So dozens of University of Maryland-Baltimore County fans \u2014 students, alums, neighbors of the school \u2014 streamed over a walkway in The Commons that happened to overlook a display honoring the university\u2019s most storied program: its chess team, winner of 10 national championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

They came Sunday to live and die with the darling of the 2018 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, a Cinderella unlike any in history, their Retrievers (Chesapeake Bay, not Golden, in case you wondered.) They exploded from their seats as UMBC clawed and fought, down 3, in the final two minutes against Kansas State, starting a \u201cU-M, B-C\u201d chant before sagging with a Jairus Lyles missed three-point attempt with 53 seconds left.<\/span><\/p>\n

They clapped and cheered loudly \u2014 yes, seriously \u2014 even as the Wildcats ended their team’s dream run 50-43, and some made plans to stay up to meet the Retrievers when they were to return from Charlotte.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUMBC is not without its sports triumphs — the soccer team made the College Cup recently and the lacrosse team is more than respectable — but these students don\u2019t crave those moments the way they do elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many admitted to hardly following basketball, let alone the team on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet they\u2019d been swept here — hundreds showed up — by the Retrievers\u2019 historic win over Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday. UMBC, tucked away on a quiet, orderly campus just west of the city limits of Baltimore, became the first 16-seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the men\u2019s tournament — breaking a 135-game streak — and everyone noticed. Even the undergraduates, who often joke that the best spot to meet people on a Friday night is the library.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nerd school, yes,\u201d said senior Christian Thompson. \u201cLook around: There are people doing their homework right now while watching this game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More: How UMBC pulled off the greatest upset in NCAA tournament history<\/span><\/p>\n

More: UMBC stuns Virginia to make NCAA tournament history as first No. 16 seed beat No. 1 seed<\/span><\/p>\n

More: Chess team no longer the most famous program at UMBC after NCAA tournament stunner<\/span><\/p>\n

More: Suddenly, UMBC’s Ryan Odom is hot name in coaching<\/span><\/p>\n

Athletes intermingle seamlessly on campus, home to one of the most diverse student bodies in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are aware of the athletes, and of how good the teams are, but it\u2019s mostly a reverence because they work hard in class and they take on that extra,\u201d said Joe Regier, executive director for transit. \u201cThe focus for these students has to be their work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zhen Qi, a graduate student in electrical engineering from Eastern China, spent halftime worrying: about whether UMBC could mount a comeback, but also about the group meeting he had scheduled for the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my spring break plan,\u201d he said. \u201cJust keep working, studying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The most unexpected win in tournament history kept the director of the bookstore, Bob Somers, up all night Friday into Saturday. By 5 a.m., there had been 1,600 online orders placed for apparel; there were 1,500 in the 2017 fiscal year — total. By game time Saturday, nearly 3,500 had been placed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI came in here at 6:30 in the morning, after being on the phone pretty much all night, and we just started pulling out everything we had, getting it out on the rack so we could find it and send it out,\u201d said Somers, who has run the store since 1990 (a life-size cutout of him looks out over the sales floor from a balcony above). \u201cEventually we ran out of UPS boxes, so we just started packing stuff in whatever we could find.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The most sought-after item — something, anything commemorating that unlikely win over Virginia — hadn\u2019t even arrived yet. Erin McGonigle, a graduate of the school who oversees the store\u2019s online sales, worked with vendors at 2 a.m. Saturday to create a shirt saying \u201cWe Are History\u201d and showing the final score of the Virginia game, 74-54. T-shirts were scheduled to arrive late Sunday afternoon but didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

McGonigle wasn\u2019t worried.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know people are waiting to order them online,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we know we\u2019ll be able to sell them forever. We\u2019ve always been known as a great school, a place where anyone can be who they want to be and feel comfortable and safe, but now we have this, too. We\u2019ll always have this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ncaab\/2018\/03\/18\/umbc-watch-party-kansas-state-ncaa-tournament-second-round-game\/436918002\/<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t