Almost 7,000 UCLA fans descended upon Pauley Pavilion in a surge
of blue and gold last night, wearing their pride on their chests
and faces for the NCAA Championship game, while many others watched
from lounges and dorm rooms across the Hill.
Beneath 11 national championship banners, students gathered in
Pauley to watch the game on six large screens, used to bring
Indianapolis to Westwood.
From the noise of the crowd, the game almost seemed as if it
were played at home.
Fans threw up index fingers during free throws and 8-clapped as
the game began, showing their support for a team 2,000 miles
away.
On the Hill, other students congregated in dorms and lounges to
show their support.
Some gathered in a lounge of the residential plaza Delta
Terrace, cheering after every Bruin shot, energetically calling to
the players and groaning in response to each Florida point.
“I really want us to win, but we can have good days and
bad days,” said Scott Lafey, a first-year life sciences
student, in the first few minutes of the game. “If we win,
I’ll just be really excited and jump around.”
But in the final seconds of the first half, with the Bruins down
36-25, some of the students already had their heads buried in their
hands.
Two didn’t. Within the sea of faces at Pauley, identical
twins and first-year undeclared and business economics students
Sean and Armon Rohani chose to sport orange and royal blue Florida
gear.
Amid jeers, boos and expletives, the twins sat among a thin
buffer of friends, flushed but unfazed.
When asked why, Sean Rohani answered, “To respect my
dad.”
The twins’ father, who attended the University of Florida,
“raised us to be Gators,” Sean said.
“Florida’s going to win, but we still want UCLA to
do well,” Sean Rohani said.
But many loyal Bruins still had hope for their team to come
back. “I still have faith because we’re a second-half
team. (Coach Ben) Howland knows how to get us out of these deficits
““ just look at the Gonzaga game,” Lafey said.
The second half began with this renewed hope for many students.
But as the game progressed, the fans’ efforts throughout
campus could not save the Bruins. Florida’s lead sapped much
of the energy the crowd had shown earlier, and the attitudes of the
fans began to change.
Shouting and cheers switched to the white noise of chatter in
Pauley Pavilion, interceded by the periodic celebration that
followed dunks or 3-pointers.
Students in the Delta Terrace lounge let out groans of despair
mixed with superstitious warnings not to jinx the players.
With the score now at 45-27 in favor of the Gators, the Delta
Terrace lounge was quiet, the silence accompanying grim expressions
and buried heads.
“I just feel angry and disappointed right now,” said
Shyaam Subramanian, a first-year undeclared student. “I
thought we were going to celebrate tonight.”
In the last few minutes of the game, the students angrily yelled
at the screen. Some yelled at the Gators, others at the Bruins.
Many began exiting Pauley with several minutes left on the
clock, and diminishing hope subdued the already dejected crowd even
further.
When no one cheered after a 3-pointer by the Bruins in the final
minutes, defeat was clear. Not a minute after the completion of the
game, the television with its screaming Gator fans was turned off
and the lounge was emptied.
“It’s been a good run,” Subramanian said.
“It’s just heartbreaking that they’d lose now,
when they got this far.”
Stephen Gallaher, a first-year material engineering student, was
angry at the game’s end, leaving the lounge to play
basketball to work out his frustrations.
“But we have something to look forward to next
year,” he said.