DES MOINES, Iowa — The Drake Bulldogs have been watching a lot of upsets in this NCAA tournament, and the team hoped to be the next bracket buster.

Fans who couldn’t be at Friday’s game in Albany found themselves amongst a sea of blue at Big Grove Brewery.

With a busy weekend of basketball and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, Big Grove had this weekend circled on the calendar far in advance.

“We take a lot of time to prep inventory and gear up for the weekend. The beer we have on tap we do brew here in Des Moines, but the craft beer we get from Iowa City so we had a big order this week. Our keg cooler is full of beer and we are ready to serve some thirsty people this weekend,” said Devin Nolte, Assistant Manager at Big Grove.

Drake fans were quick to take over St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, turning the green attire filling the room to blue.

The Drake University Alumni Association asked local Dulldog fans to put on their Drake gear and come cheer on the men’s basketball team game against Miami.

With both the men and women’s teams in the tournament this year, there was an extra buzz of excitement at Big Grove.

“This is so exciting, we have such a huge crowd here for the Bulldogs. this is the first time both the men and women have made the tournament, so we are just excited to see so much support here in Des Moines. There aren’t very many teams that have that, and we are one of the smaller schools that does, and it is just a very exciting thing to be part of history for Drake,” said Mady Nachtman ,the Assistant Director of Alumni Relations at Drake University.

Nachtman herself is a Drake Alumni and said how proud she was to see her fellow alumni come out to support the Bulldogs.

The No. 12 seed Bulldogs lost to the No. 5 seed Miami Hurricanes by just seven points. The final score was 56-63.