If one were to have taken a stroll down Jim Calhoun Way on Monday night, they likely would have heard the faint sound of cheering leaking through the glass wall at the front of the Toscano Family Ice Forum.
Walk another hundred steps, past the small hill across the street from the Forum on top of which a small gathering of students attempted to peer in through the oversized window, and a different buzz would have begun to dominate the soundscape.
The overwhelming noise would be flowing out of Joseph J. Morrone Stadium, where rows upon rows of squealing basketball fans shouted at two small screens at midfield.
With the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team preparing to face off against the University of Michigan over 800 miles away in Indianapolis, thousands of UConn students gathered back in Storrs for a pair of watch parties.
Traditionally held in Gampel Pavilion, the watch party was split up and moved to both Morrone Stadium and the Toscano Family Ice Forum due to the ongoing renovations at Gampel.
Inside Toscano, the atmosphere felt a lot like it would had the Huskies been playing in person, even if the floor in the middle of the crowd was made of ice rather than maple.
“It feels like we’re at a basketball game, honestly,” said Grace Maria, a sixth-semester real estate student.
Indeed, many aspects of the Toscano watch party mirrored the typical Gampel gameday experience, besides just the long concession lines.
In addition to a greatest hits list of UConn Athletics sponsors giving away free merchandise to attendees, including both Aquaphor and Dunkin’, the UConn Pep Band and the Dance and Cheer teams made their presence known throughout the evening.
“I think all of us want to go and have our team win another natty, and I think we’re all just ready to go and bring it,” said Hayden Watts, a second-semester trombone player, before the game.
Even before the seats at Toscano filled up, the Pep Band got the energy going, playing as students filtered into the seats.
“I feel like the pep band kind of stands for the energy inside the crowd,” Watts said. “Sometimes, [the crowd] can be a little bit quiet. I definitely think that just us being here and having some kind of energy with some bangers that people love, I feel like that just hypes everyone up to a whole other level.”
Though it took a bit of time for both stadiums to fill as the two lines that stretched down the street filed in through security, there wasn’t a single empty seat by the time tipoff rolled around.
“We got here really early,” said Maggie Carley, a sixth-semester biology major. “We were a little nervous if it was going to fill up or not, but it’s super filled and everyone gets super hype.”
The seconds just prior to the national anthem were one of the final moments of silence across the rest of the evening.
As soon as Michigan players began to be shown on the four-sided jumbotron hanging above center ice at Toscano, the crowd erupted in boos. The jeering shifted to cheers as soon as the images on the screen changed to images of Dan Hurley and the Huskies. The waves of boos and cheers largely drowned out the sounds of the national anthem as they echoed off the walls.
Though it was more of a grassroots operation at Morrone (two portable screens had been set up on top of the Husky logo at midfield and facing opposite sidelines), that didn’t stop students from finding ways to make it feel like a traditional UConn game day at the outside party as well.
As Michigan’s starting lineup was announced, students screamed “sucks” after each player’s name, with some turning their backs to the field. Chants of “defense” and “let’s go Huskies” staggered between the two sides as the sound traveled across the field. After big baskets, a few especially energetic students went sprinting down the aisles handing out high fives.
Fans also dressed in their finest game day attire. While some resorted to a basic jersey, others opted to don UConn flags as capes and even break out the face paint. Those decorating their faces in school colors included Maria and Carley, who are teammates on the UConn Women’s Volleyball team. The pair painted their faces with red and blue stripes to go with matching overalls.
“We’ve painted our faces every year,” Maria said. “This year, we decided to get the game day bibs and they had stripes, so we decided to go with the stripes for our faces too.”
Also in the crowd at Toscano was fourth-semester student Braden O’Marra, known amongst UConn basketball superfans as the first student waiting in line for the Arizona game back in November.
“They gotta put a little run together here, but being here is nice,” O’Marra said during the first media timeout of the second half. At the time, Michigan led by seven points.
Though it remained a close game and the crowd stayed loud throughout, UConn’s second last-minute comeback of the tournament came up just short, as Michigan held onto a 69-63 victory.
As deflated crowds drained out of the two facilities, flooding onto the roads and past the signs with taped-over M’s, the night might have seemed over. However, for those who stuck around after the game had ended, the evening kept going.
Some students remained out until the wee hours of the morning, mourning UConn’s season but celebrating the effort it took to get there and the valiant effort they had just shown.
While the outcome was forgettable for UConn fans, the energy of the evening will be a lasting memory for many.
“We’ve been loud,” O’Marra said. “We’ve all been yelling at the refs in unison, so it’s been fun.”