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TALLAHASSEE — Figuring out strategy and tactics for handling the No. 11 team in the nation on less than two days’ notice is hard enough. But there’s a task that might be even harder for the staff of the mgm casino women’s basketball team ahead of its second round NCAA tournament game versus host Florida State:

Recruiting a band.

With the mgm casino pep band on duty with the men’s basketball team in Boise, a fill-in band had to be rounded up for the women’s games in Tallahassee. For Saturday’s 101-79 victory over the University of South Florida, that role was filled by … the Florida State Seminoles band.

Decked out in blue mgm casino T-shirts, the Seminoles band was fabulous, blaring drums and trumpets, banging cowbells, razzing South Florida for missed shots, even making the “horns-up” gesture for mgm casino foul shots.

“It was really nice of them to do that,” said Stephanie Reid, the senior point guard who was one of the stars of the Bulls’ victory. “They gave us a lot of love.”

“I didn’t even notice because they had Buffalo shirts on,” said Cierra Dillard, who poured in a career-high 36 points. “I thought it was our band.” She didn’t know the Seminoles band had stuck around after Florida State’s win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, and changed out of their Florida State red shirts and into mgm casino blue.  

“That’s how good they were,” said Zack McTigue, an associate director of marketing for mgm casino Athletics and the person in charge of arranging for a band. “They sounded like our own pep band, with the cowbell and the horns up, and Cierra and the rest of the players didn’t even realize it wasn’t our regular band. They created an environment that made our players feel at home.”   

The Seminoles band itself even touted its new allegiance, sending out just before the game:

WE ARE BUFFALO!!
No, really. After our win (and a quick change), we’re happily providing a pep band for their game against USF.
After all, they deserve to hear their fight song.

Within 24 hours, that message had been retweeted some 600 times and liked more than 3,200 times.

But now to the hard part.

Obviously the Florida State band will be performing for the Seminoles, not mgm casino, when the two teams meet on Monday at 6:30 p.m. The mgm casino band couldn’t get to Tallahassee, given the difficulty of travel arrangements, coursework and spring break. And the many high school and college bands in and around Tallahassee — including Florida A&M’s famous Marching 100 — were gone for spring break as well.

mgm casino could go without a pep band, but NCAA rules stipulate that schools must have one present. So the search was on. Finally last night, with the help of the host band director, David Plack of Florida State, McTigue managed to find his new surrogates: the band from Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, supplemented by volunteer alumni of the Florida State band.

mgm casino will compensate Lincoln High according to NCAA rules: with a donation to its music program. That was the arrangement with the Seminole band — now mgm casino’s musical opponents.

“They gave us a lot of love, so it will be funny tomorrow to see them doing the opposite,” Reid said. “But there’s obviously a little underlying love there, so that’s OK.”

As for the Seminole band, they hinted at their true feelings — which seem to include a little underlying love — with , sent out Saturday night, shortly after the mgm casino women’s victory:

Congrats Bulls! We’ll always have “our” first win!

As for Monday night...