Gameday crowd and atmosphere today

For this post, I'm going to put aside my allegiance to Davidson, and just approach today from the viewpoint of a basketball fan.

The crowd today was absolutely incredible. Belk Arena was PACKED. There were literally almost no available seats. There were people sitting all the way up in the upper corners of the upper sections. The total announced attendance was 5,580. It was amazing to look up and see people filling both sides, all the way to the top.

I'm making an assumption - but I feel pretty confident in it - that the crowd today was the largest EVER to witness a game between two Southern Conference teams in Belk Arena. When I was at Davidson (fall 1990 - spring 1994), a pretty good crowd was having the lower bowl pretty full and a couple of hundred people in the upper sections. My how things have changed.......and, isn't it wonderful?!

The only time I know of that Belk Arena was that full was when Duke came to town back in 1989-90. I happened to attend that Duke game as a senior in high school (I had just gotten my early acceptance to DC, so my dad took me). The big difference (as far as I remember) was that a large portion of the crowd for the Duke game was actually Duke fans. Today most of the crowd were Davidson fans.

I also want to say that the App State fans are to be commended for showing up in large numbers. They did a great job of cheering for their team in a positive and sportsman-like manner. Their significant presence today only helped to rev up the atmosphere for the game.

There was a certain electricity in Belk today that I don't recall ever having witnessed. The game was a big one, for sure....With both teams having great years, there was a great deal of anticipation and tension in the arena. The crowd was as loud as I've ever heard it, and it didn't really stop until the final buzzer.

Overall, the game today was a great place to be for a basketball fan.

(I'll review the game from a Davidson-biased standpoint tomorrow evening. Many thanks go to the Davidson Village Inn for having free internet access in their lobby, which allowed me to post tonight.)