INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Ireland slapped the Arizona logo on the Reese's Final Four bracket with such force Friday that the folks in line behind him couldn't help but turn their attention.
UA fans, from left, Dan Ireland, Stephanie Miller and Dorian Chase projected Arizona would win it all at the Reese's Basketball House on Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Wildcats take on Michigan Saturday night in the Final Four.
Decked out in their Arizona colors, Ireland and his friends, Stephanie Miller and Dorian Chase, flashed the Wildcats "WC" for a videographer in the Reese's Basketball House on the Lucas Oil Stadium concourse.
"We're here to see them win it all," Ireland declared after going through the candymaker's fan games and collecting his prize, a king size Reese's with three peanut butter cups.
The three friends — Ireland and Chase are Tucson teachers, Miller is Tucson High Magnet School's athletic director — have been waiting for the Wildcats to make the Final Four for "a Dorian," Ireland said, referring to his 26-year-old friend.
The last time the University of Arizona men's basketball team was in the NCAA semifinals, Chase was a year old.
"That's why we say we haven't been in a Dorian," Ireland explained.
Miller said she and her friends have seen nearly every Wildcats game at McKale this season. Like her friends, she thinks the team can win it all in Indy.
"My dad used to play for the UA," she said of her father, Charles Miller, who was a Wildcat from 1978-82. "He's so excited."
Reese's was the sponsor for Friday's opening day of the Final Four, which featured each of the four teams — Illinois, UConn, Michigan and Arizona — holding a short shootaround practice for fans filling half of Lucas Oil Stadium.
Reese's had a crew of 30 people strolling through the stadium stands and concourse handing out single packs of candy, including to several hundred Indiana school kids who had come en masse when the stadium doors opened at 9 a.m. Friday.
By noon, when Ireland and his friends were projecting Arizona to win it all, the Reese's crew had distributed most of their candy, according to a spokesman for the company.
