OT: Operation 351 begins its 6th season. | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Operation 351 begins its 6th season.

Fishy said:
Mount St. Mary’s is a lovely little campus - my daughter has gone there for swim meets. And I second the recommendation about Beacon....my daughter’s swim team actually practices at Beacon High every night.

But that Mount St. Mary’s is DIII.

The DI version is down in Maryland.
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Thank you - I didn’t want to explain it’s Maryland... if Maryland was in West Virginia.
 
WallStreetHusky said:
I hate to be a literal buzz kill, but there are no more bar cars on Metro North. They even did away with the bar carts inside Grand Central. However they do have 2 liquor stores inside GCT. At least that's what I have been told!
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They had bar cars the last time I saw UCONN in the Big East tournament.

Sad if true!
 
You should hit Duquesne on this trip too:

  1. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
 
District-Husky said:
You should hit Duquesne on this trip too:

  1. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
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And St Francis... And Youngstown State....
 
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District-Husky said:
You should hit Duquesne on this trip too:

  1. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
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Duquense is having their arena renovated this season. I will wait for the new arena to open.
 
Greathusky said:
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!
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Doing quick math, you hit about 16/year and presumably, you've probably hit more close ones than far ones, so that's going to take a toll. You have 17 more years at 16 or so per year. I can't imagine a 22 year campaign. I would have given up half way through the first year.

Kudos to your resolve to do this. I would suggest you do Hawaii before Cow Dick just in case.
 
What an odd quest.

The fact of the matter is, of the 351 spots, I have to imagine 20-30% being interesting or “special” and the rest are half empty arenas with meaningless games that simply “check the box”. And those games are usually spent with Greathusky telling anyone who’ll listen to him about this weird journey.
 
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this effort now becomes my top definition for the word ''awesomesauce." in june, I went to a met game where a family asked me to take a pic of them with the Citifield sign above them. they explained that they're from Kansas, and are visiting every mlb ballpark this summer. people like you are inspirational. can do! happy trails.
 
Deepster said:
What an odd quest.

The fact of the matter is, of the 351 spots, I have to imagine 20-30% being interesting or “special” and the rest are half empty arenas with meaningless games that simply “check the box”. And those games are usually spent with Greathusky telling anyone who’ll listen to him about this weird journey.
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I typically head out to the city a few hours before the game to take in any cool tourist spots and search out the local watering hole where the team's fans hang out. In the city of Allegany where the St. Bonaventure lives, I hung out at Burton's for admittedly a great burger and brews to talk with the fans about the Bonnies, college basketball, why the Bills suck and life in general. It is a town that one would drive through without seeing anything special but it was a well spent 2 hours. I have duplicated this effort many times throughout the past 5 years.

This my chance to see America void of the Disneyword pollyana view. I have been to cities whose mansions make you feel poor to the blighted neighborhoods surrounding Coppin State and Fordham. I have talked with folks who political views are so the opposite of mine but I attempted listened with a non judgmental ear and try to understand their point of view. I eagerly wait for each game on this quest as an opportunity to see more of this great country.

So to say that this mission is a visit to "half empty arenas with meaningless games" misses the point of this quest by a country mile.

Happy July 4th to my fellow Boneyarders!
 
Deepster said:
What an odd quest.

The fact of the matter is, of the 351 spots, I have to imagine 20-30% being interesting or “special” and the rest are half empty arenas with meaningless games that simply “check the box”. And those games are usually spent with Greathusky telling anyone who’ll listen to him about this weird journey.
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It's a goal and something that he enjoys. Why Spartacus on the guy's adventure? He's not hurting anyone.
 
HooperScooper said:
It's a goal and something that he enjoys. Why Spartacus on the guy's adventure? He's not hurting anyone.
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I guess it’s because I travel a lot. And most of it is not glamorous. Take Evansville. Home of the Purple Aces. I’ve been there twice for work in the last 18 months. The airport has 6 gates and the last time I was there, I was 1 of 4 people in the entire building. There are no cool bars in the center of town and it looks like a ghost town. I look at this quest and when the cool Payne Whitney gyms with Pepe’s Pizza get checked off, a huge chunk of the 351 are Evansvilles.

Don’t get me wrong. Going to the all time greats would be great....but that’s not the conquest here at all.
 
Greathusky said:
I typically head out to the city a few hours before the game to take in any cool tourist spots and search out the local watering hole where the team's fans hang out. In the city of Allegany where the St. Bonaventure lives, I hung out at Burton's for admittedly a great burger and brews to talk with the fans about the Bonnies, college basketball, why the Bills suck and life in general. It is a town that one would drive through without seeing anything special but it was a well spent 2 hours. I have duplicated this effort many times throughout the past 5 years.

This my chance to see America void of the Disneyword pollyana view. I have been to cities whose mansions make you feel poor to the blighted neighborhoods surrounding Coppin State and Fordham. I have talked with folks who political views are so the opposite of mine but I attempted listened with a non judgmental ear and try to understand their point of view. I eagerly wait for each game on this quest as an opportunity to see more of this great country.

So to say that this mission is a visit to "half empty arenas with meaningless games" misses the point of this quest by a country mile.

Happy July 4th to my fellow Boneyarders!
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Are you telling this story anywhere else? I feel like Rothstein or the One Shinning Moment podcasts would be lucky to get you on their show.
 
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Deepster said:
I guess it’s because I travel a lot. And most of it is not glamorous. Take Evansville. Home of the Purple Aces. I’ve been there twice for work in the last 18 months. The airport has 6 gates and the last time I was there, I was 1 of 4 people in the entire building. There are no cool bars in the center of town and it looks like a ghost town. I look at this quest and when the cool Payne Whitney gyms with Pepe’s Pizza get checked off, a huge chunk of the 351 are Evansvilles.

Don’t get me wrong. Going to the all time greats would be great....but that’s not the conquest here at all.
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I do get what you are saying.

Because I do a little research before visiting, I have an idea about the area and where to go and what to do. If there are no good bars and nothing to do in the area, I may go for a hike in the park or drive a little to an adjoining town to see stuff. Places like Itta Bena, MS (Mississippi Valley State), Vestal, NY (Binghamton) and Jersey City, NJ (St. Peters) come to mind. I have found that places like these are far and few between. For the most part, I always find something to do wherever I go.

Wherever that is no matter how big or small the arena is, I still get a rush when I walk in for the first time and hear the pep band playing and sneakers squeaking on the court.
 
Greathusky said:
For those who don't know me, Operation 351 is my personal journey to visit every D1 college basketball site to see a basketball game. My travels are documented on my blog at www.journeyto351.com. When I started 5 years ago, there were a total of 351 D1 schools. That number has changed over the years. With Savannah State dropping down to D2, the number for the 2019-20 season will be at 352 teams.

As has been a tradition for the past 5 years, I annually repost a Boneyard quote from Fishy that I rate as one of the funniest in Boneyard history as he commented on my mission:

“You have no chance of doing it. But beyond that, you don’t want to. At some point, you’ll find yourself at Houston Baptist watching them host Incarnate Word wondering just why you threw your life away. Then, you’ll make your way back to your $29 a night hotel room in Cow Dick, Texas, and drown yourself in the toilet.”

I am at now 81 games and going strong!

Here are my choices for the upcoming season dependent on weather, scheduling conflicts and life:
  1. Syracuse and Colgate – hopefully in early November or March because of the weather
  2. Canisius and Niagara – ditto
  3. George Mason and Maryland Eastern Shore
  4. Bucknell and Penn State
  5. St. Francis PA and Mount St. Mary
  6. West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Robert Morris – hoping for a trifecta in one visit
  7. South Florida – Against UConn representing my annual Operation 351 trip with my wife
  8. Tulane and (LSU or New Orleans or Nicholls St.) - Tulane is playing UConn. A visit to the Big easy with good friends of ours.
Looking forward to an exciting season for the men and an eventual trip on the Metro North bar car for a trip to MSG!
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I'm Down here in Alabama, if you and the wife need a place to do and extended road trip.....I've got 2 spare rooms. You can hit the Florida schools, GA schools, AL schools and even MS and LA from here pretty easily by car. The invitation has been extended.....
 
UCSouth said:
I'm Down here in Alabama, if you and the wife need a place to do and extended road trip.....I've got 2 spare rooms. You can hit the Florida schools, GA schools, AL schools and even MS and LA from here pretty easily by car. The invitation has been extended.....
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Wow I appreciate that. I will keep that in mind. Difficult for me to take long extended vacations because of a mom in assisted living but Alabama is on my short list. I completed all the schools in Mississippi due to a friend who has a second home there.
 
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Deepster said:
What an odd quest.

The fact of the matter is, of the 351 spots, I have to imagine 20-30% being interesting or “special” and the rest are half empty arenas with meaningless games that simply “check the box”. And those games are usually spent with Greathusky telling anyone who’ll listen to him about this weird journey.
Expand ...

You mean like sitting in FIU Arena in Miami on a New Year's Eve afternoon watching an FIU/Marshall Conference USA game with about 80 people in attendance? :)

Don't hate on the @Greathusky journey. I'm doing the same journey and met him last year at what would have otherwise been a meaningless Colgate @ Cornell game without Jimmy Boeheim randomly sitting in the crowd a section over watching his son play...
 
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ConnZag3 said:
You mean like sitting in FIU Arena in Miami on a New Year's Eve afternoon watching an FIU/Marshall Conference USA game with about 80 people in attendance? :)

Don't hate on the @Greathusky journey. I'm doing the same journey and met him last year at what would have otherwise been a meaningless Colgate @ Cornell game without Jimmy Boeheim randomly sitting in the crowd a section over watching his son play...
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Hey John! Hope to see you on the road again this year !
 
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McLovin said:
  • UCONN (no blog post available)
Come on, man!!
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Yeah sorry about that! I do a blog post for each game attended but I had added UCONN to my conquests before I started the blog. There are 11 teams that fall into this category. Since I always add pictures of the arena or game action to my post, I did not have any UCONN in game pics to share so I felt that a UCONN game post was not "sponge worthy".

Interesting to note in order to prove my attendance to these 11 games, I posted a picture of a ticket stub and/or program for each one of these "lost" teams.
 
@Greathusky, I found your blog today and read through some of your posts. Look forward to reading more of these!

What piqued my interest is your Harvard @ Howard review. Being that you are one of the few Boneyarders who watched RJ Cole live, what are your impressions of him?
 
Hey Adrien! said:
@Greathusky, I found your blog today and read through some of your posts. Look forward to reading more of these!

What piqued my interest is your Harvard @ Howard review. Being that you are one of the few Boneyarders who watched RJ Cole live, what are your impressions of him?
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I loved RJ. He seemed heads above every other player on the court that day. I remember wondering why he ended up at Howard instead of a major D1 school. I also remember him as a very strong player who had a nice touch from the outside. We are very lucky to have him. Had I known he would be going to UConn, I would’ve taken better notes! :-)
 
Deepster said:
I guess it’s because I travel a lot. And most of it is not glamorous. Take Evansville. Home of the Purple Aces. I’ve been there twice for work in the last 18 months. The airport has 6 gates and the last time I was there, I was 1 of 4 people in the entire building. There are no cool bars in the center of town and it looks like a ghost town. I look at this quest and when the cool Payne Whitney gyms with Pepe’s Pizza get checked off, a huge chunk of the 351 are Evansvilles.

Don’t get me wrong. Going to the all time greats would be great....but that’s not the conquest here at all.
Expand ...

I have no interest in doing anything remotely like it, but if you have an interest in travel, meeting people and seeing absolutely every cranny of this country, this would definitely do it.

I do think it's funny that while all of us get to move on, poor GH still has to go to AAC games.
 
@Greathusky Wanted to bump this thread to thank you for inspiring me to check out new spots for games this year. I'm 33, and only went to Gampel, MSG and HCC for games until I went to college and as a UConn student where I also went to the RAC and Prudential Center for Big East games. As an adult, I've been to the Barclays for UConn games and go to a few Sacred Heart games a year and have also seen Fairfield play.

Now that schedules are becoming fuller, I've begun to see where I'd like to go for the first time this year.

Spots I plan to see for the first time this year:

Payne Whitney Gymnasium - New Haven, CT: Yale's exhibition schedule piqued my interest as they play Oberlin on a Friday night. I coach middle school basketball at the school where I teach and I coached one of the players on Oberlin when he was in 5th and 6th grade. He's only a sophomore and didn't play much last year, but it would be the first time I'll ever see a former student I've coached play in a collegiate game. Very exciting! Would also like to see Yale play against Harvard and Vermont.

Carnesecca Arena - Queens, NY: The game I most want to see this year is a 4 PM Saturday afternoon Vermont vs St. John's game. Should be a good one and I look forward to seeing Anthony Lamb play live.

Hynes Athletics Center - New Rochelle, NY: The school where I teach is just 25 minutes from Iona. I've coached against Iona Grammar, but never went to a game at Iona. They play a lot of Friday night games, so that makes a perfect start of the weekend destination. I'm curious to see them play Siena with Jalen Pickett as a legit NBA prospect. I've also always liked how Rider plays and they should have a good team this year so that would make a great MAAC matchup. Canisius should have a good squad too.

Wells Fargo Arena - Tempe, AZ: My in-laws live in Fountain Hills, so Arizona State will play Texas Southern over my winter break. Looking forward to seeing Bobby in action.

Rose Hill Gymnasium - Bronx, NY: A co-worker of mine is a Davidson alum. Would love to see Davidson live and it's a close drive from home.

Reich Family Pavilion - West Hartford, CT: Another chance to check out Vermont play live.

Places I'd like to go in the future and are realistic options:

GCU Arena, Phoenix AZ/McHale Memorial Center, Tucson, AZ. We visit my in-laws every winter, so great places to see a game. Especially interested in seeing GCU arena as their games are absolutely crazy...rave club-esque.

Dunkin' Donuts Arena - Providence, RI: The first time UConn is playing there on the weekend, I'm there!

Other Big East spots, long weekend ideas in descending order of which I'd want to see first:

1) Hinkle Fieldhouse - Indianapolis, IN
2) Cintas Center, Cincinnati, OH
3) Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, WI
 
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