Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Feels good to be a winner...

Ty Lawson is my hero.

Go Heels! 2009 NCAA National Champions!! The game was terrific, not too thrilling, but such a solid performance. It was great to see them all playing so well, especially all these seniors who stuck around after last years disappointing final four loss to Kansas.

The whole town was abuzz yesterday. It was kind of rainy but didn't prevent folks from camping out in front of Top of the Hill to get the best seats. Our building was pretty quiet, most people left in the early afternoon to claim a good viewing spot. I left around 5 and was checking out places when I saw Deirdre and a couple other folks in line at Milltown. The doors opened at 5:30, so it was perfect. We got a table outside and started waiting! More and more folks showed up, we ended up being about 12 total but we rotated in and out. Trent came from practice, I went home to let the dog out and get a coat, it was pretty mellow.

And then it was game time!! I guess it would have been more exciting if the game was close, but there was no question that we deserved to be the national champions. They kept the pace fast and played hard but fair. Everyone was great, but the seniors who could have easily left last year for the NBA, played the best. And even our second string got to play for the last few minutes. Terrific. I loved seeing all the celebrations at the end, Tyler Hansborough crying nearly had the whole place in tears. They wanted this SO much.


The bar got pretty rowdy, lots of high fives and cheering. We immediately joined the trek down to Franklin and Columbia. They had the streets closed off, everyone was running and hugging and celebrating. We made it all the way to the thick of it.. and soaked it all in. No climbing up street poles or jumping over fires for us though.

Saw lots of friends and then made our way back home. Got to the house around 1am. Exhausting, but so much fun. Deirdre and I had breakfast on Franklin St this morning and everyone is wearing Carolina Blue and thrilled. And luckily, the partying on Franklin St didn't get too out of hand, I didn't see too much damage.

Check out this time lapse video to get a feel for the immediacy, and immensity of this celebration! GO HEELS! It will be fun to see where they get drafted in the NBA after that terrific season. And we have a few good freshman.. so maybe in a couple years we can do this again!

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