On March 18, 2023, Northwestern men’s basketball players, coaching staff and personnel were readying themselves for arguably the biggest game in program history. In under an hour, the Wildcats would do battle with the UCLA Bruins in the Round of 32 from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
If those arriving from Evanston wanted serenity and quietude in advance of their marquee showdown, they got anything but that. The teams that were occupying the Downtown Commons’ court in the matchup prior to Wildcats-Bruins were No. 15-seed Princeton and No. 7-seed Missouri. Before purple paraphernalia could line the arena’s seats, a flock of orange had to leave first — and there was plenty of euphoria to go around.