Most students were watching the final four games on Saturday from their dorm rooms, or maybe, if they were lucky, at a house with a high definition TV. Freshmen Andrea Warzecha and Lauren Webb, however, were watching the Final Four games right where the action was, the Georgia Dome.
Warzecha and Webb won the drawings of the two Final Four tickets on March 2 after the men’s basketball game and were both allowed to take one guest with them to Atlanta.
Warzecha and Webb flew out of Searcy early Saturday morning on the Harding plane with their guests and Alumni Relations Director Liz Howell. They arrived in Atlanta at 9:30 a.m. and explored the Georgia Dome before meeting for lunch with men’s head basketball coach Jeff Morgan and his son.
After lunch, Webb and her guest, sophomore Sam Acuff, parted from the group and went to a Macklemore and Ryan Lewis concert, which was one of many concerts lined up for the weekend’s festivities. Webb and Acuff also went to Bracket Town, which had basketball goals, a batting cage and footballs for visitors to play with.
“We saw the lineup for the concerts that day and freaked out when we saw Macklemore on the list,” Webb said. “There was no way we were missing that concert. Out of all the people to be playing in the middle of the afternoon at a free concert … that was great.”
Tip-off for the Louisville vs. Wichita State game was at 6 p.m. Webb was rooting for Louisville while Warzecha was rooting for Wichita State. Louisville won 72-68. The second game, between Michigan and Syracuse, tipped off at 9:20 p.m.
“The atmosphere was crazy the whole night,” Webb said. “In the first game, both of the teams’ fans and student sections were very excited and loud. In the second game, no one could out-do the student and fan sections of Michigan.”
Although the teams she hoped would make it to the final four did not, Webb was happy for the teams that made it, with the exception of Wichita State.
“My favorite part of the trip was seeing all of the people,” Webb said. “Fans and students dressed as crazily as they could. It was fun seeing all the creative clothes they showed up in.”
