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washingtonpost OP t1_j9g2s4e wrote

From reporter Scott Allen:

Early in his quest to see every Division I men’s college basketball team play in person, Craig Caswell resolved that he would travel to see the last school play at home. Caswell’s wife and most frequent travel companion, Jaclyn Meyer, lobbied to finish the journey in Hawaii, but when the Rainbow Warriors played a nonconference game at Illinois in November 2019 — the program’s farthest trip east in more than a decade — Caswell, who lives outside Dayton, Ohio, decided the opportunity to cross another team off his list without getting on a plane was too good to pass up.

Hawaii, which lost to the Fighting Illini that night, was the 330th Division I team Caswell saw play. Three years and 34 teams later, Caswell completed his quest Saturday at Bender Arena, where he watched American lose to visiting Lehigh with Meyer, his mother and his brother by his side.

“This feels more like a milestone than a conclusion,” Caswell wrote in an email Sunday. “I’ll still go to more basketball games this season and beyond, only now with a fresh air of confidence with this achievement under my belt.”

Caswell’s college basketball odyssey spanned 21 years and took him to 442 games in 131 venues. The first Division I college basketball game he attended was Dayton’s 83-59 rout of George Washington on Jan. 9, 2002, at UD Arena. It was his second game, as a wide-eyed freshman at Bowling Green nearly seven years later, that lit the spark for his impressive and unusual quest.

A Detroit Pistons fan who didn’t pay much attention to college hoops growing up, Caswell, 32, walked into Bowling Green’s Anderson Arena for the first time in the fall of 2008 and grabbed a seat in the front row for a game against Wayne State. He felt a bit like Spike Lee sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden, and he was hooked. Caswell went to most of the Falcons’ home games that season and again as a sophomore, when he made trips to see games at Wright State, Akron and Kent State.

The quest entered Caswell’s mind during his junior year.

“I thought: ‘I love to travel, and I love college basketball. How feasible would it be to see every team in Division I?’ ” he said. “I was determined to basically consume as much college basketball as I could going forward. All the years since have involved a lot of deliberate planning to try to achieve that goal.”

Read more about Caswell's cross-country journey here, and skip the paywall with email registration: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/02/21/college-basketball-fan-sees-every-team/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

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Aleashed t1_j9habfz wrote

Imagine transferring schools that many times and getting into each one.

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weedco1966 t1_j9ianwj wrote

Your attempt at humor was so comically bad that it set a new standard for comically bad. Upvote and by that I mean downvote!

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PhanSiPance t1_j9jhrqx wrote

I spent many hours in Anderson Arena. A lot of bad and some good. Roll Along!

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chaosgoblyn t1_j9kkhlo wrote

Well now he has to start over because they're all different teams by now

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officialtortiseshell t1_j9k3p7n wrote

God bless what people do to fill the void and the women that follow them on their man-baby journey. I couldn’t look my wife in the eye telling her I want to see every best 19-22 year old play basketball with 0 acknowledgement of fans. I’ve grown up with d1 athletes and pros. They don’t give enough of a fuck about you to ever incline me to do something like this. A player would mock this notion and fans don’t get that.

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MediocreFlex t1_j9kab2w wrote

Yeah this person is most likely the absolute dullard in any room

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officialtortiseshell t1_j9kb0bo wrote

‘Yeah, this person is the silly guy and I’m not cause I never could be. I READ things on Reddit man. The villian in the new Ant Man looks cRaZzzy am I l right guys? Who REALLY needs a gun anyways? Definitely not police officers…’

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mutantfrog25 t1_j9kk66f wrote

Do you really believe someone’s motive to do this is to gain the favor of the players? Lol. You’re wayyyy off

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officialtortiseshell t1_j9kkboi wrote

Uh so are you by coming in here with the weirdest interpretation and assumption? The only person who said that was you dude.

You’re following me through threads do you like me?

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mutantfrog25 t1_j9kl0fd wrote

“I’ve grown up with athletes. They couldn’t give a shot about you.” Paraphrasing what you said. That’s the reason you’re giving for why you think this is weird. I am saying you’re off base. Maybe college basketball is a passion or hobby, they have the disposable income and inclination to see different colleges/arenas, and wanted to see every team? This isn’t that weird. You’re making it out to be something totally insane, and your tone and weird unrelated comments about guns and ant man or whatever don’t help your case.

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