Ultimate Final Four Pre-game Party With Mascots And A Whole Lot Of Pep

It’s not very often you see a dancing tree or a dog doing the worm, okay, you never do. But Sunday before the Women’s Final Four Tournament the Mascot Challenge inside Tourney Town wasn’t much like anything you see at your average pregame.

Jonathan of UConn, the Stanford Tree, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish and the Baylor Bear each got a chance to hype up the crowd, then were paired with a group of kids and performed in a relay race. In the end Notre Dame took it, which was a little odd because, it’s really just a person in a funny outfit, but it was all based on crowd participation and man did Notre Dame have that place packed.

Watch Jonathan the Husky in action, including one sweet worm and a booty shake

The Pep Rally followed, where the Pep Band the cheerleaders from each team got the crowd going. I was dancing in the aisles, it was a great atmosphere. That Stanford band is unlike anything I have ever seen before. At one point a dance team member took over on the drums, while the sunglasses-clad drummer danced around. It was immensely entertaining.

Watch some of UConn’s Pep Rally performance