Una Fiesta in South Padre

November 26-27, 2010. Part of our 50-50 joint custody arrangement with the boys deals with us rotating certain holidays - one of which is Thanksgiving. So this past November, Amy got the boys that weekend. Because of that, I decided to head down to the South Padre Island Invitational to watch the BYU men's basketball team in a Friday-Saturday tournament. [For you non-Texans, South Padre Island is a popular Spring Break/winter home/beach resort town at the very southern tip of Texas.]

The tourney was extra fun to attend because (1) the gym (the South Padre Island Convention Center) was very intimate - probably smaller than my high school gym even and (2) BYU fans far outnumbered any of the other teams playing. The primary teams this year were BYU, St. Mary's, Texas Tech and South Florida. We got treated to two days of fantastic basketball (and one afternoon of nightmarish football when BYU blew their game against Utah...which we were watching in one of the restaurants down there on Friday in between games...but I digress). The Cougs won the tournament by defeating South Florida 77-75 in double overtime (on a last second shot by Noah Hartsock!) and St. Mary's 74-73 (thanks to a 3-pointer by Jimmer with 11 seconds left!). I was apparently caught on TV during my exuberance singing the fight song at the end of the championship game - a less than flattering moment caught by my friends, the Elliotts, which they then felt compelled to share on Facebook. (And which their son still laughs about when he sees me.)

Just a couple of pics from day 2 of the tourney...

This shows how close to the action I was in my front row seat (which I rarely sat down in). Which means I technically didn't have to yell that loud. But let's be clear...I did anyway.

Post-tournament award ceremony. Hartsock, Jax and Jimmer were all-tourney, and Jimmer was the MVP.

Me with the MVP (and soon-to-be National Player of the Year?!?) Jimmer Fredette.