Carmelo Anthony’s 33-point performance Saturday moved more than his team to a final showdown for the NCAA championship with Kansas.

It moved all Longhorn and Golden Eagles Final Four merchandise to the discount racks. It moved Texas and Marquette fans to check out of their hotels early and learn the phrase ‘need tickets.’ And finally, it moved some Syracuse University fans that did not earlier make their way down to the bayou to arrange transportation to southern Louisiana.

There are no organized trips as there were late last week, said Joe Manhertz, associate director of athletic donation program Orange Pack. He added that he has heard of sporadic trips for people that for one reason or another could not come to see Texas defeated.

For the most dedicated of SU’s student fans, even a drive would still be feasible. If you departed from campus as late as 11 p.m. Sunday you would be able to make the 9:20 p.m. tip-off. This is, of course, provided you did not hit traffic and would be able to garner a scalped ticket outside the dome. A trip might not be such a bad idea with the low in Syracuse on Monday slated at 23 degrees and a 70 percent chance of snow.

‘Doing something like (setting up a package for only the championship) would be very difficult,’ Manhertz said.

The first wave of trips included five flights worth of Orangefans who arrived Thursday. The most difficult part of setting up something for Monday is securing tickets when there was no guarantee they would even be in the game, Manhertz said.

The Hilton Riverside, only a few blocks from the Louisiana Superdome, had several short-term reservations made Sunday from New Yorkers, a receptionist said.

Although many hotels, including the Riverside, imposed guaranteed multiple-night lodging requirements for the initial rush of fans, the receptionist said there would be no such issues for fans now.

Neither the Hampton Inn nor the Hilton Garden, which both played host to several dozen basketball fans, have received any last-minute calls for lodging Monday night. But should the calls start coming, lack of vacancies would not be a problem thanks to another trend.

‘We sure have a lot of Marquette and Texas fans leaving early,’ Barrett said.

Published on April 6, 2003 at 12:00 pm