A Department of Public Safety sedan, with Officer George Wazen at the wheel, swings onto Walnut Avenue shortly before midnight Friday, its headlights illuminating five young men crouching together in the middle of the street.

A thin stream trickles away from the group and down the road. One young man quickly rises and tosses a crushed can of Keystone Light away, onto the sidewalk. Wazen slows his 2013 Ford Explorer to a crawl. He recognizes “shotgunning” when he sees it — students sucking down a beer through a punctured hole in the can, a quicker way to consume a beverage than taking it from the top of the can.

As the group stands to leave, one young man, soaked, neckline to belt, turns from the cruiser and begins to walk away. Wazen rolls down a window and shouts after him, “How are you doing tonight?”

The young man replies, “Absolutely fantastic,” in a voice rising to an enthusiastic scream.

Riley Bunch | Photo Editor

With a parting call, wishing the group a good night, Wazen turns the Ford toward Marshall Street. He pronounces the night — less than 24 hours before Syracuse University’s first Final Four game in three years — as “totally dead.”

By contrast, he remembers the nights before the men’s basketball team’s most recent Final Four appearances in 2013 and 2003 as “absolutely crazy.”

What may have helped keep public emotions in hand in 2003, Wazen said, “was because we were expected to do well, and it wasn’t as much a surprise.”

SU has lived a Cinderella story run this season, he said, adding that more people might be drinking and partying in excitement and anticipation, as they did in 2013.

Both the Syracuse Police Department and DPS have taken measures meant to ensure that crowds do no damage to Marshall Street businesses.

On Saturday, parked in the middle of the road at each end of Marshall Street, marked SPD cars with two officers apiece stationed themselves to close traffic to the street. About halfway up the road, two DPS cars parked in the middle of a ramp leading to the parking lot adjacent to Huntington Hall.

“People could try to drive through the parking lot to get past the police cars,” Wazen said.

Riley Bunch | Photo Editor

Amid the police blockade, about 12 pedestrians meandered in different directions. Noticeably absent were metal trash cans, removed to prevent them from being set alight or hurled through plate glass windows. Metal frames used to cover the trash cans were bolted to the ground, the cans replaced with smaller, plastic substitutes.

The trees, leafless but with numerous low hanging branches, glistened with an artificial coating, applied just for the occasion. The slippery substance is rubbed on the trees so people can’t climb them, Wazen said.

Throughout Walnut Park, orange event cones were laid out to prevent cars from parking on the road. Folded and scattered across the historic district, wooden protest fences lay on the ground.

The parking lot at 1201 Harrison St., commonly referred to as Castle Court, was filled with parked cars. That represented an encouraging sign for crowd control, where “one clear sign that something is going to go down is if that parking lot is cleared out,” Wazen said.

The social scene was seemingly dim on the eve of the game, but the next day might be another matter.

“Win or lose, we will probably see crowds that most people have never witnessed before on campus,” the officer said.

Editor’s Note: Over the past month, The Daily Orange has collaborated with the Department of Newspaper and Online Journalism at Syracuse University on a series of stories relating to alcohol culture on the SU campus. Multiple stories will appear in The D.O. in the coming days.

Published on April 6, 2016 at 12:11 am

Contact Tyler: tmzschac@syr.edu