MINNEAPOLIS - It wasn’t the extended weekend that Spartan fans had hoped for, as their dreams of the NCAA Championship repeat were mauled by the Arizona Wildcats in the Final Four semifinal game.
Some Spartans packed up early Sunday to leave town, while others stuck around to watch tonight’s title game and shop at the Mall of America in Bloomington.
Some were disappointed in MSU’s performance, while others said just to be in the Final Four for the third-consecutive year was good enough.
Alan Borman, a public relations senior, said to see three Final Fours in his four years at MSU was more than he could ever have hoped for.
“No other student at any other school can say that,” he said.
Borman used frequent flier miles to travel to Minneapolis, but he had never planned on staying for tonight’s game even if the Spartans were in it.
Instead, he had always planned on returning to MSU for the “atmosphere.”
“I was going back to East Lansing no matter what,” he insisted.
He estimates he spent about $300 on his weekend in the land of 10,000 lakes. And he has no regrets, even though his Spartans fell 80-61 to Arizona.
“I had a great time - the bars were fun,” he said. “I just wish it was in a warmer city.”
Borman’s friend Brian Parcel, a finance senior, agrees that despite the team’s exit from the NCAA Tournament, the weekend was still fun.
“I’ve never seen so many people rooting for State,” Parcel said. “We never quit cheering - even when it was inevitable that we weren’t going to win.”
But that’s not how Jessica Farr saw it.
The cheerleader and history sophomore said she thought Spartan fans were too quiet.
“I was more disappointed in my fans than anything,” she said. “Our fans were not cheering. In my point of view, the fans should be cheering no matter what because we made it this far.”
The MSU cheerleaders, the band and MSU Motion were all leaving today for East Lansing, but that doesn’t mean they get to take a break. For the cheerleaders, next year’s tryouts start Thursday.
The biggest disappointment for Spartan Brass member Candy Haldeman, a music education junior, was the disappointment on the faces of the Spartan basketball players.
The band, which plays at home and has traveled throughout the NCAA Tournament, is not accustomed to seeing the Spartans not come out on top.
“It was just sad to see them lose,” Haldeman said.
Despite the season’s end, not all Spartan supporters were packing their bags Sunday.
Judd Schnoor, a 1970 alumnus, went to the game with his father, Bob, and son, Josh. The family said it’s sticking around for tonight’s game, which pits No. 1-seed Duke against No. 3- seed Maryland.
Last year Judd Schnoor took his son to several NCAA Tournament games.
But they didn’t go to the Final Four in Indianapolis because Josh, 17, couldn’t miss school.
“I said if they went again we’d go and sure enough
