Once a year one of my almae matres (rarely used form of the plural I had to look up so as to avoid using the mundane alma maters), the University of Illinois, sends its basketball team to Chicago for a nonconference game at the United Center. Today’s game was against New Mexico State.

We ate at Park Tavern, a heartbeat away from the stadium. We took a shuttle bus from the restaurant to the game, but afterward walked back to the parking lot, which was actually faster than the shuttle. When I first started going to Bull’s games at the Chicago Stadium, when the team was in its infancy, we parked on the street and payed neighborhood kids to guard our car. Times have changed.

We had great seats near midcourt and the arena, although disappointingly only half full, was a sea of orange, with one major exception. The friend who accompanied me, who didn’t attend Illinois but is a loyal fan because her daughter did, wore a white University of Illinois shirt. Let me repeat that – WHITE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS SHIRT. Who even knew they made such a thing. She was sufficiently embarrassed by her faux pas, so I have omitted her name. Whoever thought that I would be a member of the fashion police?

At halftime we struck up a conversation with two men sitting next to us, one of whom, it turned out, worked where I did in the early 1990s. Another small world story.

The game was not particularly well played. Illinois fell far behind early, but made a valiant comeback, only to lose because of a pathetic inability to inbound the ball twice in the last minute of play, both occasions resulting in a steal and points for New Mexico State. Nevertheless, I’ll go to next year’s game  But I’ll make sure ahead of time that there’s color coordination. White is not the new orange!