As the Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament unfolded in Washington this week to tepid attendance expectations from league officials, a curious trend took hold inside Verizon Center: People were talking about who was at the games, not who wasn't (which, judging by the largely empty upper decks, was a lot of people).
On Wednesday, Flavor Flav, member of the rap group Public Enemy and former reality-TV star, was three rows from the floor as he rooted on cousin Shep Garner, a junior for Penn State, alarm clock dangling from his neck.