COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

Want to punch your ticket to the Final Four? It helps if you have this guy.

SURVIVAL GUIDE
Headed to Texas? Experts reveal secrets of Final Four success
By Ian Gordon

Headed to San Antonio for your first Final Four? Fear not, green hoops junkie. The Magazine has enlisted UCLA superfans Alex Budak (co-founder of the Bruins' student section, The Den) and Matt Crisafulli (The Den's 2006-07 president) to dish out lessons they learned while following the Bruins to the Big Dance the past two seasons. First tip from the experts: Root for a team, like UCLA, that's likely to reach the Alamodome in the first place. (Thanks, guys.)

DON'T wait 'til the last minute to book travel. By St. Patty's Day, the cheapest LAX-San Antonio flight was $327, while the best Raleigh-San Antonio fare hit $533and prices ain't getting cheaper. Sure, you can toy with road tripping, but gas prices will kill you.

DO book refundable tickets on Southwest, which is generally the cheapest airline that flies to San Antonio. Why refundable? If your team falters early, you're not out airfare.

DON'T underestimate the amount of cash you'll need. The city is packed, and parking is a nightmare, so you'll use cabs, which are expensive. Also, we've yet to meet a scalper who takes American Express.

DO pack a sleeping bag. Room rates are sky-high during Final Four weekend. Tell the desk clerk at the nearest Motel 6 that you'll be chilling by yourself—then sneak in your five closest friends.

DON'T get stuck at one of the bars or restaurants designated by the NCAA as team hangouts. They're overcrowded and pricey. And lame.

DO turn a nearby hot spot into your team's fan epicenter, then find a mall food court for regular sustenance. You'll thank us later for both.

DON'T buy those hideous, oversize, white Final Four T-shirts. You know, the ones with a bracket and the four teams' logos. Get a replica jersey or a tee in your team's dominant color and contribute to section solidarity inside the arena.

DO show up early, especially on semifinal Saturday. That first walk to the gates, with all the fans in their colors and all pressed up against each other, is the prime time to talk trash. Loudly.

DON'T worry about tickets. Plenty will be available for the title game because fans of the semifinal losers dump theirs. If you buy scalped tickets (which we know you'd never do), avoid the best—that is, costliest—seats.

DO make friends with folks who have student-allotted tickets. Those seats are always in the lower bowl. Sandwich your nosebleed ticket between the primo passes of new pals and sneak past the ushers. Find a spot to settle in for the title game, then take the quickest route to the winning team's hotel lobby, where the real celebration begins.

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images (TOP) | Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images (BOTTOM)

We can only imagine what might have been had these two gone the collegiate route.

WOULDN'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD (JUST FOR THE LOTTERY)
By Elena Bergeron

They traded Dancin' shoes for the NBA lottery, but in March these prep-to-pro leapers live vicariously through their college-bound peers.

LeBron James
"I root for the hottest team to win the championship, but I like when Cinderellas are part of the mix. "I've always watched the Tournament, even though I didn't go to college. Since Akron is out, I root for Duke and Memphis. I spent time with Coach K on the Olympic team, and I like Memphis' up-tempo play. Of course I'm an Ohio State fan, too.
"Our team doesn't do Tournament parties, but we watch the games. I have guys over to my house every day, so you might consider that a party. But we don't bet."

Amaré Stoudemire
"I follow the Tournament very closely, from the play-in until the national championship. I'm definitely an avid fan. It's such an exciting time. "There's a bracket pool in our locker room, and I'm the defending champ. Even though we have Grant Hill from Duke, I'm the biggest bragger about my favorite team, the Memphis Tigers. I was supposed to play for them before I went to the NBA, so I'm a huge fan. "They have a one seed, and I'm following them until they win that title."

Elsa/Getty Images

Victory, how sweet it is.

THE AFTERMATH
by Elena Bergeron

Wolves Rashad McCants (North Carolina in 2005) and Corey Brewer (Florida in 2006 and 2007) know how rocky the road to a title can be—and how sweet the celebration.

RASHAD MCCANTS
"Our whole approach that year was to treat every game like it was combat. So when we got back to the locker room, it felt like "Mission Accomplished." At our hotel, a thousand fans were waiting for us, cheering and hollering. A bunch of us went out in St. Louis with Nelly, Chingy and Lil' Wayne, but no one got overwhelmingly out of control.

"People always remember me from the final game. So many guys got close and never won. I hang my win over their heads; it's a constant joke in the NBA. Every year, we go back and forth about whose team is in it. This year I'm like, 'Ahh, here we are again.'"

COREY BREWER
"The first time we won was the most emotional for Coach [Billy Donovan]. He'd been there before and lost, so he knew how hard it was to accomplish what we did. He started crying, then we all got going. Afterward, it was like, Hey, you're a man; you're not supposed to be crying. But you never know if you're going to be back. The second time we knew to savor it. We signed stuff for fans and talked to them about the game. They had so many stories to tell us. It was cool to hear their side. We wanted to celebrate in Florida, so we didn't even go out afterward. We met up with our families and ate dinner together at the hotel. It was a really special night."

EVEN ODDS
Cinderella teams are most likely to dance at the ball in even-numbered years. Sure, it's coincidence, but it always seems to work out that way. Need proof? No. 11 George Mason reached the party in 2006 and is the only double-digit seed in the past 10 years to play on the final weekend. Need more? See a decade's worth of odd-even discrepancies below.

ODD YEARS
Ten No. 1 seeds, four 2's, three 3's, two 4's and one 5 have made the Final Four since the 1999 Tournament. That year, three 1's played for the title. Two 1's and a pair of 2's reached Atlanta in 2007.

EVEN YEARS
Five No. 1 seeds, five 2's, four 3's, one 4, two 5's, two 8's and one 11 have reached the Final Four since 1998. In 2000, fifth-seeded Florida and two 8's (North Carolina and Wisconsin) made it. In 2006, No. 3 Florida and No. 4 LSU joined George Mason in Indianapolis.

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine