I had waited for this moment ever since I started at Northwestern as a freshman in the fall of 1994 – an NIT game at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The last time Northwestern hosted an NIT game was in 1994. I was a senior in high school living in San Francisco at the time. Thus, I had to attend Wednesday night’s game!
Beg, Borrow and Deal
I went with a friend so we needed to buy two tickets. I was unsure how the secondary ticket market would work for this game since tickets just …

The Ultimate Sports Baby was really sick when I got back from the Blackhawks game Wednesday night. Earlier Thursday morning the Ultimate Sports Baby was admitted to Children’s Memorial Hospital for a respiratory virus. But, the doctor’s said he just needed time to get healthy so there was not much to worry about.
Nicole and I agreed it did not make any sense for both of us to sit around the hospital for 48 hours. Nicole left Thursday afternoon to run some errands. When she got back, I went to the …

Nicole planned to take Dylan to her grandfather’s 90th birthday party in south Texas so I had a weekend home alone in Chicago. Of course, since it is Super Bowl weekend, there is only one sporting event in Chicago – Illinois at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon. This was the first game ever televised by CBS Sports at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Beg, Borrow and Deal
Since I thought I would be late after dropping the wife and baby off at Midway airport, I called Broker Ben and told him I would pay $20 for …

My friend, Todd Sermersheim, called me minutes before he was driving into my neighborhood with an extra ticket to the Northwestern basketball game. At that exact time, Nicole got home so I was free from taking care of the Ultimate Sports Baby. I got ready in five minutes and was off to Evanston. It’s a good thing that game started at 8 pm.
Michigan at Northwestern
John Shurna scored 22 points in the first half as Northwestern rolled to a 74-60 victory over Michigan.
Post Game Dining
After the game, we went to BlueStone …

On October 17, 2008 I drove to Champaign, IL to see the Chicago Bulls play a pre-season game at Assembly Hall for the first time since 1989. I thought this would replace my need to attend an actual Illinois men’s basketball game. But with Illinois hosting Northwestern last night, I decided I wanted to go. However, I had an issue. Nicole was not going to be home and all three babysitters we normally use could not babysit Dylan. Plus, to make matters worse, Nicole needed the car Dylan rides in.
Thus, …

Northwestern was playing their second straight afternoon game at Welch-Ryan Arena. This time it was the men’s basketball team as they hosted Mount St. Mary’s for a 2 pm matinee.
Beg, Borrow and Deal
As I wrote yesterday there is no secondary market for women’s basketball games. So technically, even though the box office price for a men’s game is much higher, it can be cheaper to attend a men’s basketball game than a women’s basketball game at Northwestern. That was the case today as I received a free ticket outside of …

It was a Friday night and my parents were in town. Thus, we all decided to pack into the car and head to Northwestern’s Evanston campus. Nicole needed to prepare for her job interview on Monday and my parents, Dylan and I wanted to attend Northwestern’s first regular season game of the year.
Rather than park for free on city streets, we decided to pay for parking in the parking lot east of Ryan Field. As we approached the arena, there was a ticket scalper with a lot of extra tickets. …

My decision to attend the Northwestern men’s basketball game in the Big Ten Tournament rather than the Milwaukee Bucks game meant I needed to leave earlier than expected. I left my house at 2:00 pm in order to make the first tip at 6:30 pm (Eastern Time). The drive from Chicago to Indianapolis normally takes me about 3 hours, so I should have had 30 minutes to park, buy a ticket from scalpers outside of Conseco Fieldhouse and get to my seat – plenty of time, right?
Wrong! About 47 miles …

The wife has plans tonight.  Whenever she has plans (that do not include me), I always pick out a game to attend somewhere within a reasonable distance – meaning I cannot spend the night in another city and come home the next day (a reasonable request I guess).  Most guys might head to the bar or out with some buddies, but I prefer sporting events (for better or worse).  Once her dinner was official, I planned to attend the Milwaukee Bucks game versus the Utah Jazz in Milwaukee.  I have …

A few weeks ago, Northwestern men’s basketball was on the “bubble” of making the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. However, after losing to Iowa on the road and to lowly Penn St. TWICE, it was official that Northwestern would only have a shot at making the NIT tournament.
Rather than dwell on the negative, Northwestern had a shot to win its most regular season games (19) in team history with a win over Chicago St. – not to be taken lightly after the Wildcats poor play in late February.

Tonight was also senior …