Students With General Admission Line Up For IU-UNC Nearly 30 Hours Early

IU senior Danny Axelrod showed up to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall with his general admission ticket about 29 hours before Indiana's 9:15 p.m. tipoff against North Carolina. Security told him and the others getting in line they had to leave.

So they went across the street.

Students with non-assigned general admission like Axelrod are lined up at the corner of North Walnut Grove Street and 17th Street camping out so they can get into the official general admission line first beginning at around 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Crazy? It might be, Axelrod said. But it's worth it.

"Nothing like this has happened in the four years that I've been here," he said. "It's easily the biggest game. It's my last year. Why not?"

IU senior Scott Munson came to wait in line with a folding chair and a laptop so he could finish his econometrics homework. It's a mix of statistics and economics, he said, and he's got to put school first at some point.

He's working on a shift-basis with a few of his other friends. He'll be holding down the fort until he can get in line Wednesday morning and then hand it off to a buddy. He's got class to get to, so he'll make his way back onto campus before reclaiming his spot he spent all night trying to get.

"When else am I going to be able to do this again?" he said. "It's a really good team. It's a really good game. I like our chances."

Charlie Newton, another IU senior, was just finishing pitching his tent when IU junior forward Tim Priller appeared to drive by and honk at the fans hanging out. There were plenty of vehicles slowing down not quite sure whether or not to believe that a group of fans was that dedicated to getting close seats.

Newton has nowhere better to be. He doesn't have class tomorrow, which he said was done on purpose, and plans to keep sleep in his tent throughout the night. It's full of blankets and bedding, but he didn't have access to a generator so he could hook up a television like he wanted.

"We get to come out and watch our Indiana Hoosiers from a pretty good spot," he said. "All the guys out here, all the girls out here, we're all just having fun."

Sophomore roommates Craig Popp, Tyler Begle, and Bryce Harter were hanging out together as part of a group of about eight or so friends hell-bent on getting into the front row for what could be the most exciting game of their time as students at IU.

"It's going to be so electric in there," Popp said. "It's going to be insane."

Added Begley: "We're just diehard IU basketball fans."

There's going to be food, sleeping bags, tents and footballs in the air on that street corner tonight. Tomorrow, those students brave enough to wait through the elements are going to be as close as they can possibly get to their Hoosiers.

So why's it worth it? Why not just show up, take a seat and be okay with it?

"Because it's Indiana basketball," Harter said. "That's what we're here for."