INDIANAPOLIS – More than 35,000 people are expected to be in Indianapolis this weekend for the Sweet Sixteen games at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Fans have already started pouring into the Circle City ahead of the madness.
For a group of eight guys, their friendship is coming full circle as they are in town from all over the country celebrating their friend Brian Baehl’s bachelor party and their shared love of the game.
“I think Midwest basketball is a lot of tradition, and a lot of roots from that,” said Baehl. “You know, you have Hoosiers, Purdue has been great in this area, so just really good basketball tradition here. We wanted to come somewhere where the atmosphere is even a little bit more special.”
Baehl and his friends will be watching the games this weekend at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The group played basketball together when they were younger and getting to spend this time together now makes their love of the sport even more thrilling.
“I’m super excited because I’ve never actually seen a college basketball game. I’ve been to plenty of like NBA and stuff like that, but I’ve never been to a live college game other than Brian, so I’m so hyped up,” said Aaron Soifer.
Even though they were teammates, there was some rivalry about who they think is going to win it all.
“Florida Gators. Their point guard is the best in the nation,” said Josh Dickerman.
“I think Duke’s winning the whole thing,” said Baehl. “I think Coach Scheyer’s got those guys rolling and they’re very talented, so a lot of good teams in the tournament we’ll see how it strikes out”.
“I’m going Houston for sure,” said Jack Clark. “I mean me and Brian, we’re at the top of our bracket pool, right? Where, if Houston wins, I win. If Duke wins, he wins, so it’s coming down to those two.”
At the end of the day, win or lose, the group just said it’s about comradery and the brotherhood of basketball.
“It’s like the perfect combination. We’re all together because of basketball. It brought us all together in the first place and now we get to come watch the sport at the highest level. It’s just the perfect storm,” said Dickerman.
