Seen and Heard at the Final Four: On corporate 'madness' and passion that boils over

GLENDALE — Fans didn’t need a game ticket to join the “Tip Off Tailgate” outside State Farm Stadium, and it was pretty obvious why.

Corporate America apparently footed the bill, in exchange for logos that were strewn up and down the grassy area between State Farm Stadium and Highway 101. Even the U.S. Army contributed to the sponsorship of nine shooting games, multiple beer gardens and a performance stage.

Among the choices: “Bucket Ball” (shooting into five-gallon orange Home Depot buckets), the Max Slam Dunk area (featuring lowered baskets fans can jump to), the Nissan Madness Season (a desert-themed shooting area featuring Wilbur and a few Saguaros), an Invesco buzzer-beater tent (offering animated fans cheer for made baskets), as well as free-form play on the Powerade tent or Nissan Main Court.

There was also the CBS Sports/Paramount+ Dunk Tank, in which fans making three free throws within 20 seconds would dunk a guy in a Purdue or UConn jersey, and mini-basketball shooting areas behind the Beer Gardens.

And anyone wishing to get a birds-eye view of all those logos could also hop on the Max Ferris Wheel. Or they could line up, as Purdue fans did, to watch CBS’ team of analysts tape segments.

The Tailgate, which was moderately crowded during Friday’s practice day and then jammed before games Saturday and Monday, also featured a lineup of speakers, performers and celebrities available for photo ops.

On Saturday, Orange County rockers Young the Giant made a musical appearance on the “Wendy’s Main Stage,” while ASU coach Bobby Hurley was scheduled for what was called “LG Transparent Conversations.”

On Monday, former NBA All-Star Steve Nash had pictures taken with fans in a Nissan area. He invited them to stand with him directly in front of a Nissan Ariya, which was labeled, not surprisingly, as the “Official EV of March Madness.”

Boiling over

In the apparently friendly competition between Purdue and UConn student fans before Monday’s game, the Boilermakers won in a blowout.

Given 700 general-assignment tickets for its student section, Purdue “Paint Crew” students lined up for the best seats as early as 5:30 a.m. At 3 p.m., still three hours before tipoff, all 700 of them appeared to be standing in line between metal barricades, decked out in Boilermaker-style “Game Day Bibs,” gold glitter wigs and or black-and-old gear in many other forms.

By contrast, UConn had about 50 students at 3 p.m., many sitting down.

At one point, the UConn students did try to take a shot at their Purdue counterparts, but even that backfired.

“Ze-Ro Na-tties! Ze-Ro Na-tties!” they chanted.

Less than a minute later, Purdue students responded.

“Ze-Ro Fans! Ze-Ro fans!” they said, cracking up the UConn students.

UConn entered Monday’s game with five previous national championships, while Purdue had none.

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Painting the way

Then again, just to get one of the “Paint Crew” student tickets required passion that boiled over in the first place.

Jaden Brown, president of the Paint Crew, said only the top 500 point-scorers in its loyalty scheme were guaranteed admission, while the other 200 were winners of a lottery in which over 1,000 students applied.

Brown said students acquire Paint Crew points by attending games, getting just one point for big rivalry games but up to three for the lowest-profile ones.

The 700 students were told after the Sweet 16 they would get tickets if Purdue won its Elite Eight game, allowing them to plan travels. While some didn’t wait for that — booking cheaper flights to Phoenix during the season that they would rebook if the Boilermakers would use elsewhere — others resorted to last-minute hacks to save a few bucks.

“Some flew to Las Vegas and rented a car to drive here,” Brown said.

Food trucks

In addition to all the usual concession fare inside State Farm Stadium, fans also had a choice of several food trucks lined up around the outside of the building.

Among them: Rocco’s Cheesesteaks, Ezbachi Japanese Grill, Taco Bros, Taqueria El Sol and Gibson’s Smokehouse.

Mr. UConn

While UConn has players from nine different states and three continents, the Huskies pulled in standout sophomore center Donovan Clingan from just 45 miles away, the town of Bristol, Conn.

Representing his state is never lost on him.

“It means a lot to put that jersey on,” Clingan said. “It’s special to me. This is everything I’ve dreamed of but I never thought it would actually happen.”

Quotable

“You don’t choose how you feel. I always compare it to dreams. Like, why is this person in my dream that shouldn’t be here? You don’t pick your dreams. Your dreams are your dreams. We all understand some of our dreams are nightmares, too. You don’t pick those either.” — Purdue coach Matt Painter, on dealing with tough defeats such Purdue’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson last season.

Photos: (1) UConn champs again with 75-60 win over (1) Purdue, NCAA men's basketball national championship