GU-UNC basketball game lights up Riverfront Park

As of this writing, the Gonzaga men's basketball team is ranked second in the nation — a status they cemented with Wednesday night's 94-81 victory over North Carolina. Yet as impressive as that win was, almost as impressive was the Hooptown USA-sposored Watch Party that was held at Riverfront Park.

Hundreds of basketball fans — Jared Brown of The Spokesman-Review estimated at least 1,000, event organizers closer to 1,500 — stood in freezing weather, eating and drinking but mostly watching the game on big-screen TVs set up under the brightly lit, revamped pavilion.

Few felt the chill, at least not during the second half with GU began to pull away from the injury-depleted Tar Heels. It might have been the second-best spot to watch the game, ranking just below having snared a ticket to the McCarthy Center.

And it showed the potential, not only of Hooptown — the nonprofit that, along with The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club, hosted the event — but the new version of the park itself.

It'll be fun watching the future unfold for both.