Anonymous Eagle’s mysterious social media director made an appearance in New York City this year to support MUBB in the Garden.
[ATTENTION!!
This is being posted after my extremely short stint in South Bend with the women’s basketball team, where they sadly couldn’t quite fight off Ole Miss. I didn’t get an opportunity to properly explore the area, so there won’t be an Eagle Abroad article for that.
However, keep your eyes peeled for upcoming Sweet 16 content, since I am heading out later this week to support the men’s team as they face off against NC State! Do you want to see anything specific from travel content? Do you have food or tourist recommendations for the Dallas area, presumably the closer to the American Airlines Center, the better? Sound off in the comments below, and make sure to follow AE on Instagram to see what I’m up to! You can also follow me personally on Twitter and Bluesky.]
I’m going to open up with a quick apology to all our readers here, as this article is extremely belated! I am but a mere college student, and blogging things might’ve gotten away from me in between traveling in and out of the state and staying on top of schoolwork.
For those of you that were here when this series started last year, welcome back! And for those of you who are new readers, happy to have you here. Think of this like a very simple addition problem: I am blessed with the opportunity to travel alongside our basketball teams during tournament play + I am Anonymous Eagle’s social media director = I get given a front page spot to delightfully review whatever city I’ve flown into.
All good? Awesome. Moving on, because like New York traffic, I wait for no one.
“The Tourist is strong with these ones.”
That is a direct quote from one dear friend of mine who I was traveling with in New York, rudely commenting on me and another friend obnoxiously taking pictures of the NYC skyline. I admitted it as we were first leaving our hotel: I was going to be annoying the whole trip when it came to getting pictures. It’s my first time in New York City and I already have a need to fill my camera roll with pictures I’m going to delete in a week.
(It’s at this time that I check my camera roll, which has gone untouched since landing back in Milwaukee. 324 photos and videos of the 1283 that exist on my phone are from this trip.)
My plane to New York landed Tuesday night, almost exactly 48 hours before I would need to be standing in Madison Square Garden when Marquette faced off against Villanova. So, the correct choice* was to dump my suitcase and carry-on in my hotel room and immediately march off to Times Square.
Other than the overstimulation, it was cool for my first ground view of the city to be at night, hustling and bustling. I mean hustling literally, too. I saw too many families get roped into the “Take A Picture With This Guy In An Elmo Costume” scam. The novelty of Times Square wore off really quickly after that, seeing as I had to walk through/around/near it anytime I wanted to head northeast. If we’ve got any native New Yorkers reading right now, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the tourist-y-ness of it all.
After getting a good night’s sleep, my roommates and I arose Wednesday morning and set out to live our New Yorker dreams. First on the docket was to head up on Broadway and pray that we would get our hands on evening show tickets of some kind, hopefully ones that weren’t going to put a permanent dent in our wallets. We struck gold at the Sweeney Todd box office, getting mezzanine tickets for only 80 dollars each—and BOY, was it worth every single penny. Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster had the most incredible stage chemistry, and major shoutout to Heartstopper star Joe Locke (Tobias) as well; I didn’t know he had pipes. Stephen Sondheim created a gorgeous soundtrack and the pit orchestra DELIVERED. I went into the performance not knowing a single thing about the plot, and I came out feeling changed. I could keep gushing for another hundred words, but I’ll spare all of you. If anyone is in the area for a few days, I highly recommend getting tickets if you can—Aaron Tveit is only in the role for a limited time.
Despite only spending a few hours in Central Park, I’m fairly certain I could’ve spent a whole day in there. You know how IKEA’s feel like a never ending maze? Central Park somehow achieved the outdoors version of that sensation. Green hills extended as far as the eye could see and it was a beautiful day on Wednesday, getting up to a high of nearly 70 degrees. We could have a conversation about whether or not that was a comfortable 70 degrees for my sweater wearing self, but it was a nice taste of springtime compared to the once again frigid temperatures of home.
The other item of note I have regarding the day is that I made the mistake of not doing adequate research on the subway system before deciding to use it. I’ll spare the specific details, but I did end up hopping a turnstile, and my Bruise of Shame is still haunting me.
Thursday came quickly, even though I was already starting to feel like I’d been in New York for weeks—and Marquette hadn’t even played yet. Nonetheless, we hopped on the subway (with no mishaps this time around!) and headed to the World Trade Center, and of course, the 9/11 memorial pools. It was very beautiful and serene! It’s smack dab in the middle of the city, but still feels like a place of respite from all the people and noise. Having been born into a post 9/11 world, walking around and trying to imagine what the area would’ve looked like if both towers were still standing was very interesting. It brought up a lot of reflection between myself and the friends I was traveling with about current world events… and also what the water usage impact of the pools might look like.
Having been to the Flight 93 memorial in Pennsylvania as well, I think the interesting part is that the pools felt more focused on the event of 9/11 as a whole, rather than zooming in on those affected, which is what was emphasized a lot to me while growing up. The names of those lost and the first responding crews were included on the ledges of the pools in New York, but it didn’t feel like they were the thing that was being showcased—which is what I got the feeling of when I went to Pennsylvania years ago. I don’t say this to be negative in any way, but rather to just share an observation. Very formative experience nonetheless.
With Chinatown as our final destination, we set off on foot to traverse the many streets along the way. Some notable pit stops included the Brooklyn Bridge, staring at Lady Liberty from afar, as well as The Bull. My skin is still kind of crawling at the thought of all the germs crawling around on its testicles. Is it really good luck to touch them, or are we just all really immature? I also swung by the Stock Exchange building. One could say that I was standing on business.
Finally, we wandered through Chinatown until we made our way into Little Italy for a quick little lunch break before heading back to our hotel and getting ready for the game later that night.
Friday and Saturday both became rest days with a little exploration in between—I bought a pair of Doc Martens, some Croc charms, and a few trinkets in one of the tourist trap stores to pass the time. I won’t be in New York for the tournament again until 2026 for Mysterious Reasons, so I’m glad I left something for next time.
Food recommendations, right from the bird’s mouth.
I’m no food critic, but here are the spots that I hit up that I thought were very good, and that everyone should try them, should they ever get the chance.
Liberty Bagels — Home to the famous Rainbow Bagel, these connoisseurs of carbs did not disappoint. 12/10 — they know how to do a schmear right.
Skylight Diner — I’m going to call out this cute restaurant for false advertising, as there was not a physical skylight anywhere to be seen. But, they did make a mean breakfast quesadilla. Would love to go back and try their lunch and dinner menu! 8/10.
Moynihan Food Hall; Burger Joint — Reminiscent of Milwaukee’s 3rd St Market Hall, the dim lights and coalescing smells of ramen and burgers and coffee made for a delightful little lunch trip. Burger Joint knows how to put a perfect crisp on the outside of a burger patty. 8/10
Gregory’s Coffee — Had a kickbutt iced mocha that honestly made my stomach a little bit more rumbly than I was expecting. 9/10!
Gong Cha — I don’t remember my exact order looking back, but the boba pearls were the perfect amount of chewy, and it was the perfect sweet treat to cool down from the 70 degree weather that day. 10/10.
Ring Out Ahoya, bay-bay.
I’ve been a Marquette fan all of my life, first by order of my parents and now by my own associations with the university. Going to The World’s Most Famous Arena to watch this team gave me an indescribable feeling that I still cannot fully pin down even nearly two weeks after the fact. It has been such a joy to watch these boys get Lost In The Fight and Win Anyway, all season long. We may have fallen short to UConn in the end, but I don’t think I spent a single moment of my trip back home to Milwaukee feeling disappointed. I am just so ecstatic that we have come this far.
All the mushy stuff aside, the ambience inside Madison Square Garden was a thrill to experience. I left the building each night with my ears ringing—all for different reasons each time. From the uproar over everything that happened regarding Kam’s buzzer beater to every single “let’s go Huskies” chant, every moment in the building was absolutely electric.
Although… the UConn fans know they can stop and breathe for a few seconds… right? The dedication to going totally bananas after every point scored genuinely concerned me a little bit.
Despite all the exciting moments and insane plays made during the three games Marquette played, my favorite moment during the entire tournament definitely has to be getting this picture of the Providence dog mascot, and my apologies for the distortion from zooming in from across the court.
…
You okay, buddy?
I don’t want to be mean or anything but… he bears an awfully close resemblance to the 1000 yard stare meme. Is this just an after effect of being forced into an existence of permanent partnership with Friar Dom? Can we get someone to check in on the poor guy?