Basketball fans pack downtown St. Louis during first round of NCAA Tournament 24%
By Sarah Fentem57% Paola Rodriguez0%
3/20/2026, 10:13:55 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 7 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Self-Serving Bias, with In-Group Bias as the most egregious example at 23.4% saturation with 148 hits. Analysis detected 493 faulty-reasoning hits from 633 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 36.8% and a BS Rank of 24% (16,689 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 76.30% of the article peer group.
Downtown St.
Louis teemed with college basketball fans on Friday, supporting their favorite teams during the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
City officials said they expected tens of thousands of fans to flock to games, sports bars and watch parties.
Enterprise Center is hosting four games Friday — including an early afternoon matchup between the Tennessee State Tigers and the Iowa State Cyclones.
Tennessee State fan Hugh Jackson said he was happy to travel all the way from Nashville to watch his team play.
It’s the historically Black university’s first tournament appearance in three decades.
“[St.
Louis] is a fun city in itself, and plus we are big supporters of our team.
We love our heritage and where we’re from ... and plus, we on spring break!”
he said.
Jackson added he’d also support the University of Kentucky during its morning matchup with the Santa Clara Broncos in St.
Louis: “They’re our neighbors.”
(Kentucky beat Santa Clara 89-84).
Fellow Tennessee State fan Gary Pope showed up to the game with blue-and-white hair, wearing bright blue plastic hands, one clutching a coffee and the other a water bottle.
“You call them ‘tough gloves,’ they keep your beer cold, your hand warm, and nobody messes with you, so that's a lot for your money, right?”
he said.
“Stay hydrated, we’re prepared.
We’re underdogs!”
Iowa State fans Claire Deardorff, of New Melle, and Ella Hauf, of Defiance, were also decked out in their favorite team’s gear.
Deardorff sported a signed jersey, and Hauf wore Iowa State socks and gold glitter freckles.
“Our moms went to Iowa State University, so we are kind of like duplicates of them,” Hauf said, “so we're Iowa State fans.”
Deardroff’s mom, Sheilah Oltmans, said she immediately knew she needed tickets to the game when the seeding and location were announced.
“This is just going to be my first March Madness experience, and I'm excited to see these girls get an opportunity to have something I never would have had as a child,” she said.
“[As a kid], I would have watched it on TV, maybe if our channels allowed us to get it,” Oltmans said.
“Being able to actually go in person and experience what it's really like and see up close, I think it's just going to be a memory that they'll have for life.”
Iowa State ended up topping the Tigers 108-74.
Watching the tournament was also a family affair for Tim and Sam Meyer, who were passing the time at the Pitch sports bar near Union Station before the Missouri-Miami matchup at Enterprise.
Tim traveled from Connecticut to St.
Louis to watch the 10th-seeded Tigers take on the Hurricanes with Sam, a current Mizzou student.
Mizzou has historically underperformed in March, and the 1998 grad said he’s tempering his fandom with some realism:
“I think my scars probably run a little bit deeper, but my optimism is actually a little bit greater, which is kind of a weird situation,” he said.
“I think those that graduated in the last 10 years might see it a little differently.”
Sam Meyer said he hoped the Tigers could get a quasi-hometown boost.
“It's technically not a home game, because it's not at Mizzou Arena.
But this is about as close as you can get to a Mizzou Arena environment in a neutral site game,” he said.
“It's St.
Louis, it's the backyard of the Tigers, it's the major metro that's connected to this program.
And I mean, I expect to see a lot of yellow in the arena tonight.”
The Tigers and Hurricanes are scheduled to tip off at 9:10 p.m. at Enterprise Center, the fourth and final game of a busy day of hoops in St.
Louis.
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