WCC Championships Vegas 2012

West Coast Conference Chamionships 2012
Rebecca and I attended the MWC Championships last year, it was such a magical year that we thought that it could never be matched. With Jimmer and Jackson gone we knew it would be different. We had talked about how much fun we had so often that Kerry decided he wanted to join us this year. The WCC playoffs are held at the Orleans Arena instead of the Thomas and Mac at UNLV a little more fair in relation to the home team advantage or at least we thought!

As we turned off of the freeway towards the arena I saw the headliner on the marque that said the "Osmonds" were performing there for the same dates as the playoffs. Not Donny and Marie but the brothers. Was I heartsick that I hadn't know they were playing because I might have missed one of the nights when BYU wasn't playing to attend. I didn't think they were doing shows anymore and it would have been great for this older woman to see these even older men!

I had planned on taking a picture but missed it.
These are where our seats were assigned the only ones in the arena that weren't cushioned and directly behind the backboard. Ironically we were assigned right next to Anita, Janine and Keith. That was a fun discovery. it turns out that we never sat in these seats for more than a minute or two because we were able to move into seats abandoned by other teams fans.
This is the new banner that hangs in the arena, smaller than the others and doesn't even give the entire name of the University like the others do. Part of me wonders if they really don't expect BYU to stay in this league very long.

Rebecca had a long list of things that she wanted to do while we were in Vegas besides the games. One of the things she wanted to do was to go to Serendipity 3 to get a Frozen Hot Chocolate. She had heard how great they were. So between the women's game and the men's we went to check it out.

These two thought that it was really good, I just can't get into them. But the food was really good, huge portions.

The WCC had a twitter and facebook challenge to see which fans responded the most when we got there the first day Gonzaga's flag was up the next two BYU's flew high. Reb was quite excited to see it up.

They had great big brackets as you went it to see where each team was seated. The first night BYU played against Portland we sat in our assigned seats prior to the game. We noticed the BYU players come in to watch the game just ahead and sit close to the door. Janine noticed empty seats across the aisle and she and Rebecca headed to see if they could get close. We watched as they came down into the arena. A few minutes later I noticed them going back up and figured they were on the way back to us. Then I got a text from Reb saying to look behind the players and there they were. I could see her grinning from ear to ear clear across the arena. As the game ended we decided to try and get over by them where the Loyola fans had been sitting before the loss. We were able to sit there through the whole game and give the team high fives and congratulate them at the end. Great Fun. She was also able to mark stalking the team off of her list as well!

The next night we decided to try and take seats from the San Francisco Fans as they exited from the loss. We were able to get really great seats for the game. The seats were better than the game. We learned from the first minutes we walked into the arena that Gonzaga is not happy that BYU is in the WCC and I was appalled by the things I heard and saw throughout the tournament. I thought that I had heard and seen bad things last year, Gonzaga fans were right in the same league.
The girls had played earlier in the day and won and would face Gonzaga for the championship on Monday night. Since the championships were played on Monday we were able to rest a little on Sunday. We tried to go to church but discovered that there are no 1:00 meetings in the Vegas area. We got some lunch and then set out to mark off some of the things on her list. We went to the Vegas sign but I didn't get a copy of the picture. From there we went to the Temple grounds it was almost dark.

She wanted to try and climb the tree, not really. She was just a tree hugger.

The grounds were beautiful and you could smell Stock all over, I love it.

A beautiful place with a beautiful view.

Love these guys.

We love the Belagio Fountains and the gardens but for the second year in a row we were there while they were in the process of changing the gardens so I was sad.
We also went to M&M world for the fun of it.
Too bad this one didn't turn out a little better!
This is the remodel.
The seating for the women's game was open so we got there early to get seats to cheer on our Cougar Women. The game was quite close in the first half but our girls opened it up and won easily in the second it was great fun to watch them.
The champions!
Another things on her list was to ride New York New York but she had to ride it along because I am such a pansie and Kerry didn't dare because of the recovery time from his neck surgery. I felt bad for her. But she was happy. Just ahead of her was several Gonzaga fans still being "very gracious" not!
During the break between games we decided that we were going to be St. Mary's fans for the the final game despite the fact that they beat us in both season games. Our experience with the Gonzaga fans was so negative it was the natural thing to do.
The guy was shocked to see us walk up in our BYU Tshirts and bought three St. Mary's shirts. While in the process three guys were behind us talking about the retro shirts and couldn't see one for Gonzaga and said 'look there are two BYU ones they probably can't give them away." I quickly turned around, they obviously hadn't seen our shirts he just said "oh, oh. oh." I just walked between them and said "excuse me." Rebecca siad the guy looked so shocked and couldn't say anything. We went into the arena with our BYU shirts on and just before the game started we all stood up and put our shirts on and it was noticed by surrounding Gonzaga fans.

The response to him walking around with the hat and the shirt was hysterical. Most of the comments were funny. At half time we went over by the St. Mary's fans to try and get seats but couldn't get some together so we went back. Kerry made new friends as he explained the hat and shirt combination. It was an exciting finish and St. Mary's won in overtime. Kerry wanted to go back and talk to the people he had met, he was having a blast. As we walked through the crowd Janine chanted "it's not your house anymore." Since many of the Gonzaga fans had been chanting "it's our house" throughout the tournament. They had lost both in Women's and Men's and it wasn't their house like it had been for so many years. Many of the looks were pretty bad... The people we talked with from all of the other schools said they were not surprised by our welcome and that it was nothing new. It was surprising to hear some of the stories.

While taking pictures we made even more friends with people from St. Mary's they seemed shocked we had rooted for them..

For our women!

For St. Mary's men.

New friends!!!!!

After the game to same we were silly is an understatement!!! We headed to the Belagio once again and we were met by these Johnny Depp guys. In all of the times that we have seen the water show we have never seen a malfunction but we did tonight. While we were walking to Serendipity to finish up the night a guy dressed as Beetle Juice on stilts was standing by and Janine said if he came near her she would elbow him. He heard her and started to chase her. He had her cornered behind a tree. I was laughing so hard I didn't even think to take a picture of it.

We went to Serendipity and had Nachos and more Frozen Hot Chocolate and just laughed and relaxed. It had been a lot of fun despite the loss of the men's team and rudeness we experienced. It is fun to spend time with Janine and Anita as well.

Saying goodbye to Vegas. Good times, see ya next year. Looking forward to it.