The game was sold out, I was running late and I did not have a ticket – the worst possible combination when going to a game.

1) When the game is sold out and you do not have a ticket you must buy tickets from scalpers.
2) When you are running late, the number of tickets available from scalpers is limited.
3) When the asking price on craigslist is over $100, there is a lot of room above face value for scalpers to work with.

Since I did not know how much a ticket would be, before parking I drove my car to the area where scalpers sell tickets at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The first scalper said, “I know you. You’re the guy who never wants to pay anything.” As funny as I thought that comment was, I still needed a ticket. I offered her $40 for the ticket. She said everything was going for $60. Since the game already started and I still needed to park I offered $50 and she went to get the ticket. Then the broker who sold me the ticket asked me to give her a tip. A tip! I just paid $50 and you want me to give her a tip. I handed her $1, which she scoffed at but still accepted. Next, I found free parking on the street and ran into the arena.

As I entered the arena, Northwestern was ahead by a few baskets and held their lead throughout most of the game. I had envisions of storming the court after Northwestern won their first Big Ten game of the season. However, Indiana came back to win in their first game after Kelvin Sampson’s contract was bought out. Northwestern forward Kevin Coble scored a career high 37 points after shooting 5-6 from the 3-point arch.