Steve, Allen, Dave and I made our way to D.C. last Wednesday to see the NCAA first and second rounds on Thursday and Saturday. We met at the airport and decided to ride the Metro to a station fairly close to our Hotel. After waiting 20 minutes or so with a distinct hunger in our stomachs, this Metro ride cemented itself as the last we would take. We checked in a headed out at about 10:45 pm to grab dinner. The George Washington University was pretty dead and we ended up at Friday’s, where Al surprisingly downed a handful of sliders. We proceeded to a small dive bar downtown where we passed the infamous Mayflower Hotel (see Spitzer, Elliot) and Dave squeeled like a schoolgirl.

On Thursday, we got to see the UGA/Xavier and Baylor/Purdue games in the early afternoon session. Georgia led throughout the first thirty minutes as XU missed a bunch of threes and layups. Georgia wasn’t playing particularly well so I was optimistic they would win. Dave was seriously upset about the game and kept bitching about all aspects. Luckily for him, the refs decided to start calling every foul in the second half on Georgia as XU ended up shooting 33 free throws to UGA’s 5. Suddenly Goodman was all smiles. The second game produced no defense from Baylor as the Big Ten opponent opened up a sizable lead and held off a short rally from the team from Waco. There was a fat Baylor fan with his chubby son in front of us that resembled the kid from Two and a Half Men. He got on my nerves by cheering for Xavier so I was glad to see Baylor lose. After this session, we met Dave’s buddy at the Mexican bar/restaurant across the street. There was some excellent calls made including a true-life Danny Ferry call. Guess he was there to see Duke lose.

 In the night session, Belmont kept it close and even lead Duke at points. Steve had us all dressed up in our red Belmont t-shirts so it looked like we might be the toast of the town a la Bucknell. Unfortunately, Belmont ran a terrible inbounds play resulting on no last second shot and Vince Gill went home unhappy. In the other game, West Virginia beat Arizona. I wasn’t too impressed by either team to be honest. The worst decision of the night was picking up a cold piece of “Papa John’s” pizza from the concession stand. It did not sit well and I ended up upchucking it later that night.

I’ll let the next person continue starting with our great White House tour the next day…….

Just found this flyer this morning. I was cleaning out some papers and found it. They were passing them out at the Final Four. I was cracking up when I read it. Alas, I didn’t make it down there.

On Sunday, my friend from work was able to get tickets for the NCAA Championship. He’s a big Ohio St. fan, so he really wanted to go; I had no real rooting interest in the game, but if Florida won, I would win either 2nd or 3rd in my pool, depending on the total number of points scored. I picked a total of 166 total points, my competition picked 157 pts.

We made it down to the game in plenty of time and found our seats, not great, but better than a lot of the seats in the “Distant Viewing” areas. We were in the third row of the upper deck, parallel to the back of the portable stands. When I went the last time, I had seats in a similar location but much higher; this time being on the third row made everything a lot easier to see.

The game could’ve been better; Florida looked great, but OSU played horribly, except for Oden. They couldn’t buy a three point shot, despite having several wide-open looks. If they could’ve hit a couple of shots down the stretch, they could’ve made a real game of it. They kept playing just well enough to keep the game within reach, but couldn’t make any real serious threats to Florida’s lead. Oden looked great and totally dominated inside; i’m not sure why they didn’t get the ball to him more in the 2nd half. I would’ve run every single play through him until FLA showed that they could stop him. All of FLA’s post players got in foul trouble, but for some reason, Motta didn’t look to exploit their weakness inside more.

Down the stretch, my biggest concern became how many points would be scored. At halftime, it seemed that there was no way that they were going to get anywhere near 166 total points, but it started to look like it could be a vague possibility with about 10 minutes left in the game. In the final few minutes, OSU finally hit a few threes and FLA continued to make their shots, giving me hope. Unfortunately for me, OSU missed all of their threes in the final minute and I ended up losing 50 dollars in my pool by three points- the total points ended up at 159. One more three point basket and i’m 35 dollars richer. Instead, I only won $15.

After the game, we made a quick stop by a souvenir stand, then headed home exhausted and got back around 12:45 AM. It ended up being a long night, but definitely worth it because I got to see the Final this time around; last time I went to the Semi-Finals but not the Final. The atmosphere inside and outisde of the Georgia Dome was more festive and fan friendly than the last time the Final Four was here, adding more to the total experience.

Random moment of the night: I was passed a flier for a Strip Club; the theme for the night was “Fine Ass Four”. They were going to have 64 amateurs in a booty shake contest; I wonder if they had brackets?

With the destination of New Orleans this year for the NCAA first and second round viewings, anticipation was high for a treacherous experience. Stephen, Dave and I went in a day early so we could get things started by watching the Thursday games while getting a feel for the city post-’trina. Stephen was supposed to secure a good sports bar while he was down for Mardi Gras but he was too busy collecting beads to accomplish his mission. He did have pull at the Hampton Inn as we were able to check in around 11:30 in the morning and the rooms were surprisingly spacious. After checking in, we found a sports bar that Francis, Caz’s brother, recommended called Kabee’s. After ordering a pitcher, we decided to get some apps, or “snacks” as Dave would call them, to hold us over until we ordered lunch later. Dave picked out the nachos and I suggested we also try the Chili Cheese Nachos. Thank goodness we didn’t leave the ordering solely to Dave as the Chili Cheese Nachos were much better than the solitary Nachos, which were basically chips and salsa. Either way, both were pretty bad. We were surprised when our sweaty waiter brought us another order of both saying the kitchen must have messed up on the ticket. Naturally we accepted them and did not order lunch. The games were pretty boring although Davidson/Maryland kept our interest for awhile.

We picked up a twelve pack on the way back to the hotel and took a nap shortly thereafter while watching games. I’ll let either Dave or Stephen take it from here to cover the rest of the day….

Anyone have a computer with them in NO to give some updates, interesting stories, calls, etc. ?

Ismail and I went to Wednesday night’s Tech-Wake game at the Thrillerdome. My dad’s friend hooked us up with great tickets-two rows behind the player’s tunnel. Tech had another great defensive outing as they created several turnovers, dominated the boards and limited Wake to jump shots. Crittendon had another fantastic game offensively as he finished with 22 points and 9 assists. Thaddeus had a good game as well, with a mix of inside and outside shots made for a total of 17 points. A player who’s really starting to stand out in DeAndre Bell; his defense has been phenomenal and he’s been earning a lot more playing time from Paul Hewitt.

Overall, Tech controlled the flow of the game and Wake never really showed much. They had one small run to get the game within four, but Tech was able to build the lead back into double digits and it would end that way with at 75-61 final.

This was a much needed game if Tech is to make it to the NCAAs. Tech now sits at 18-9, 6-7 in the ACC. Saturday at UVA will be tough, as will Boston College and UNC. I think if Tech can somehow can win 2 of those 3, then they are in. Remember the days when a team could make the tournament at 17-13 or even 16-14? Those times are long gone.

My dad called yesterday with two tickets for Sunday’s Tech-UConn game so Ismail and I went to the game today. The game was at the Georgia Dome; it was a Test Run to work out all of the kinks for the upcoming hosting of the Final Four.

It was probably the best game i’ve seen from the Jackets all season, especially on the defensive end. The Jackets picked up defensively where they left off in the 2nd Half of their comeback win vs. NC State. Everyone contributed in making steals, tipping/defelcting balls away and coming up with key rebounds.

Offensively, Morrow, Crittenton and Young looked good. All of them had streaks where they hit 3-4 shots in a row.

Tech led by 8 at the half (33-25), but with about 8 minutes to go in the 2nd Half, the Jackets had a 55-35 lead. UConn never really threatened and the Jackets continued to pressure the ball and make UConn turn the ball over. The 65-52 score is not really all that indicative of how dominant the Jackets were. If they can continue to at least give similar defensive efforts for the rest of the season, they should be able to get an at-large bid in March. Hopefully, they’ve turned the corner and will show a little more consistency during this crucial month of February.

The game atmosphere was not very good; the Georgia Dome is just too big and doesn’t hold noise very well when the crowd is only 20 K or so. When I went to the Final Four, the noise was pretty loud, but of course, that was over 50 K in attendance. Tech games are usually pretty loud in the Thrillerdome and would’ve been good in Philips, but the home court advantage wasn’t really much of a factor in the game today.

While in Chicago for the Christmas Holidays, Janet, Ismail and I made it to three games.

1. UIC vs. Illinois State at the UIC Pavilion

2. Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars

3. Bulls vs. Heat

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Game 1 - UIC vs. Illinois State: A friend of mine from college named Luis still works at UIC and has a connection with the ticket guy, so we ended up getting free tickets for the game. The Pavilion is essentially the same as when I attended, except for some exterior changes and some restructuring of the entrance. The game itself sucked; the team looks very unorganized and undisciplined. They were losing by 13 points late in the 2nd half, but were able to actually pull ahead by a point with 4 minutes to go, but they had nothing left down the stretch and ended up losing by 9 points. The strangest thing about this game is that Jimmy Collins, UIC’s coach, was absent from the sidelines. We found out later that he has taken a leave of absence, but no reason has been given as to why except for “personal reasons”.

Game #2- Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars: Tickets for this game only cost 10 bucks and were easy to get; attendance these days at the United Center (UC) for ‘Hawks games is low. Another friend from college, Edgar, met the three of us at the game. While I had been to the UC to see the ‘Hawks before, this was Janet and Ismail’s first time. Ismail was really excited about the game and was asking every day when we’d be going. He was also happy  to see the Stars as he remembered them from our trip to Dallas last Spring. The game was really close throughout and the Blackhawks ended up winning 2-1 on two goals from Akhripov. The biggest thing I noticed about the game is that the atmosphere sucked. At the old Stadium, it was incredibly loud and the fans were rowdy. However, the 14 K in attendance were not very loud even though the ‘Hawks have been playing really well since Denis Savard took over as coach. I think the UC is partially to blame for not being a good venue atmosphere-wise, but also I think that years of mediocrity and bad ownership have driven a lot of support away.

Game #3- Bulls vs. Heat: My friend Luis has a friend with Bulls Season tickets, so he contacted him about selling the tickets to us for the game. He sold them to us at face value- $50 a pop for upper level seats! Pricey as hell but none of us had ever been to a Bulls game at the UC, so I went ahead and bought them. Plus, I had just received an X-Mas bonus of $100 cash from school, so it covered it. For Ismail, we had to buy a $25 standing room seat as this was all that was left. The tickets go from $10 (very limited amount) to $50 and above. No tickets in the 20-30 dollar range, except for standing room. And I thought that the Hawks’ prices were a ripoff! This guy that I got the tickets from pays over $2000 a seat for a location that’s farther away from the floor than our $200 seats. However, the seats turned out to be pretty good in relationship with the action; first row of the upper deck on the baseline.

The game itself was really good; the Bulls had a huge lead, but blew it and the 4th quarter was action-packed. The Heat played without Shaq and lost Dwayne Wade for the second half to a wrist injury. The Bulls ended up winning 109-103 with Ben Gordon dropping 40 points. Jason Williams led the Heat with 28 points. This guy must be working on his shot in the off-season as this is the second time i’ve seen him light it up this year. I remember when he first started he couldn’t shoot for shit.

One of the scariest moments of the game was when James Posey took out Luol Deng on a breakaway, apparently a Riley-ordered stunt in retaliation for Wade getting injured by Hinrich in the first half. The next day, there were all sorts of allegations from both teams about rough play and cheap shots.

The atmosphere for this game was much better than the ‘Hawks game. The place was completely sold out and the crowd was really into it. The famous introduction featuring the Allan Parsons Project song got everyone pumped up  and pretty much everyone was vocal throughout the duration of the game. I still think that the UC is sort of a noise killer and not as raucous as the old Chicago Stadium, but the place can still get loud when it’s full.

Dave, Steve, Ismail, Quin, The Minstrel and I attended the Tech season opener last Friday vs. Elon. The Jackets looked strong in their opener and had balanced scoring from many of the players. Thaddeus looked strong in his Regular Season Opener, as did Javaris. In the 2nd Half, Javaris looked especially good and looked very comfortable handling the ball. Jeremis had a strong game and had some nice blocks and other solid defensive plays. Even Ra’Sean contributed defensively-maybe the benching has lit a fire under his ass.

Overall, it was a comfortable victory for the Jackets and nothing I saw tonight made me re-assess my previous positive feelings from the Morehouse exhibition the week before. I think this team has the potential to do something this season and I don’t think that the lack of experience will haunt them as much as it did some of the other inexperienced, but talented Tech teams of the past.

Dave, Ismail and I went to the Tech-Morehouse hoops exhibition yesterday. My dad came up with 4 freebies, but I could find a fourth as Steve went to watch LSU-Tenn at Jock’s and Jills, Mike said maybe earlier in the week but never got back to me and Al never responded. I ended up giving the ticket away at the gate.

Tech started three Freshman (Thaddeus Young, Javaris Crittenton and Zach Peacock), one Sophomore (Clinch) and one Junior (Jeremis Smith). Morrow is still out with back issues and Dickey still appears to be occupying his role in Hewitt’s doghouse as he did not come in until midway through the 1st half.

The attendance was maybe 3 K; I would’ve figured that more people would’ve wanted to come out and see Thaddeus’ first collegiate game, even if it was an exhibition. He did not disappoint as he had 20 points on 7 for 11 shooting, including two 3s. He also had five assists. He looks very comfortable offensively; his game is already polished to a point where he looks like a College Sr. or Junior. He has great footwork, excellent body control and soft hands. I can’t imagine him staying more than a year as he will certainly be a top ten pick.

Crittenton looked fantastic as well as he had 15 points and 8 assists. He really has great handles and pushed the tempo every chance he had.

Clinch picked up where he left off last season and had 16 points on 7-11 shooting. He had a nice blend of jumpers and strong moves to the hole.

Mohammed Faye, Hewitt’s proclaimed “sleeper” had a good game as well and had 11 points and several steals. He has very long arms and creates a problem for ballhandlers because of the space he can cover.

The game finished 96-52 in favor of Tech with 52 of those points coming from newcomers.

This game has filled me with optimism towards the 2006-7 season. I know that there will be some rough patches because of the team’s inexperience, but it’s going to be a fun team to watch with Young and Crittenton in the lineup. Hopefully, Smith, Morrow and Dickey can provide some leadership and the team can develop into a strong unit once the ACC schedule begins.