A dog in an orange Syracuse University sweater and a blue tutu walked onto Harrison Street, right in front of Castle Court at the height of SU’s party before the men’s Final Four game.

“Yo is that a dog?” A student yelled.

A few minutes later a group of students surrounded the dog, petting it as they drank.

“I’ve been drinking all day,” a student yelled. “I f*cking love this school.”

Castle Court was overflowing with students on Saturday night at about 5 p.m. to celebrate before the SU men’s basketball team played the University of North Carolina in Houston. Students also flocked to Castle Court after the men’s team upset the University of Virginia on Sunday in Elite Eight. Although there were more students on Saturday night than on Sunday.

After the Elite Eight game on Sunday, there were about 30 officers from the Syracuse Police Department and the Department of Public Safety. On Saturday, there were only about five officers.

“You know we’ve seen this before,” Nancy Dong, a senior design major said, referring to when the men’s team made it into the Final Four in 2013, when she was a freshman. “But it’s still fun, it’s still great to come here again.”

The celebration, which had over 600 RVSPs on Facebook, even brought in students from other schools.

“This is definitely better than any party at Buffalo,” Rob Lang, a student at the University of Buffalo said. “It’s good energy, it’s a good environment, we’re just rallying behind one team.

“This is a great Cinderella story,” he continued. “It’s great for the city, it’s great for recruitment.”

At this point before the game, no one knew if Syracuse University would win, but everyone was excited to see the men’s team play and most at Castle Court were intoxicated and bringing in cases of beer and holding bottles of alcohol.

“Someone punched the fire extinguisher glass in Haven, I don’t know if he was excited or just really drunk,” said Emily Gallagher, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “But everyone has just been yelling and cheering out of nowhere, it’s great.”

Published on April 2, 2016 at 9:56 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu