The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Mary Bassett, left, watches her grandaughter, Jessica Chapin '10, right, during the Judges' Sweet 16 game against Muhlenberg College last Friday night.

AMHERST, Mass.-It's Friday, March 13, which means Mary Bassett has a doctor's appointment scheduled back home in Menton, N.Y., near Rochester. She said she had waited a long time to schedule the visit unawre she would have to miss it.

When she learns that the women's basketball team, led by her granddaughter, Jessica Chapin '10, is set to play Muhlenberg College in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, Bassett knows her appointment can wait. Bassett hasn't missed one of Chapin's basketball games since middle school and isn't planning on breaking that streak when her granddaughter takes part in Brandeis' deepest NCAA Tournament run in its history.

"I said, 'I'm not going [to the appointment],'" Bassett says, later joking that "[Chapin] gave me orders last week that I had to cancel the doctor's appointment."

At 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 12 in Healdsburg, Calif., near San Francisco, Evelyn Radunich, 89, prepares to board a red-eye flight to Logan International Airport. Radunich does not have a streak on the line like Bassett, but she tries to go watch her granddaughter, Cassidy Dadaos '09, play as much as possible. Dadaos' parents, Merrilee and Jim Dadaos, join Radunich on the flight, though for them, the trip is far more routine; they have rarely missed a home game this season.

"A lot of parents drive six hours to see their kids play," Merrilee Dadaos says. "The only difference is that we fly."

Bassett and Radunich are just two of the many family members that attended the Judges' Sweet 16 and Round of Eight games last weekend to watch their kids play. The players' relatives made up the majority of the Brandeis cheering section, as the Department of Athletics did not send a fan bus to either game, as they did when the men's basketball team played in Plattsburgh, N.Y. in last year's NCAA Tournament.

"A lot students [sic] told us they appreciated the fan bus option but preferred to drive themselves. So only 11 seats on the fan bus sold in advance. This wasn't enough to cover the cost, and, therefore, we canceled it," Director of Athletics Sheryl Sousa '90 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. She added that she "was pleased with student turnout overall, and particularly on Friday night [against Muhlenberg]."

Continued...

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