College basketball game pageantry

You don't get just a game anymore when you attend a pro or college basketball game. You get pageantry -- music, cheerleaders, dancers, mascots, half-court shots by fans during timeouts ... and streamers, banners and flags, oh my.

So I thought I'd put some effort into capturing a bit of those sidebar festivities for the blog Thursday at Hinkle Fieldhouse, on the campus of Butler University, where I shot the Bulldogs' 80-41 exhibition game victory over Hanover (Ind.) College.

Here are those images.

A wide-angle lens helped me capture this perspective of the ceiling lights reflecting off the shiny basketball court before the game started. 
 

Where the players went when they needed a tool of the trade to warm up before halves.

 Blue II, the Butler mascot, strikes a pose during pregame warmups.

The Butler cheering crew adds to the pregame festivities with a running parade along the perimeter of the court.

Another pregame ritual is for Blue to go dashing from one end of the court to the other to grasp the toy bone from the hands of a waiting accomplice. That's what Blue is going after here.

 Blue congratulated for another grab, well done.

Above: This is "Hink," the human-in-bulldog-costume version of the Butler mascot, getting down during a musical interlude.

 

The Butler pep band featured in the first of several shots. 

   

 

 

Above and below: During a cover of the Doors' "Touch Me," The front and back rows of the band swayed in opposite directions during the soft lyrical bridge "I'm ... gonna love you ... till the heavens stop the rain. I'm ... gonna love you ... till the stars fall from ... the sky ... for you and I." Above, back row turns right, front row leans left.  

 

Above: Back row turns left, front row leans ... um ...er ... left. Oops.
 

Above and below. I included these frames because I felt bad for the cheerleader with the ankle brace (above). She sat right next to me on the floor for most of the game and wasn't able to participate in any of the strenuous routines with the other cheerleaders. I could sense that she was missing not being involved except for the stand-up-only cheers such as the one above. So ... I decided to try and grab a close-up of her face with the Bulldog tattoo (below) ... so there would be evidence that she, indeed, was an important part of the pageantry, at least ... as I observed it. 

I missed what this cheerleader used the tube for; I saw this only as she sprinted toward me at the conclusion of whatever she was using it for during one of the timeout breaks.

Blue II making an early exit midway through the second half.