Taking March Madness to a whole new level

This weekend, I was in Atlanta for the Men's SEC Tournament. Vandy played on Thursday, beating Auburn. We then advanced to the quarterfinals, where we had to play Arkansas. The game resulted in our second straight quarterfinal loss to Arkansas. I think our team was immensely disturbed by their "Calling those Hogs". That's where I believe our problems lie. It matters, but not as much as it could. We should still have a pretty nice seed in the NCAA Tournament come Selection Sunday.

Having the opportunity to see all of the games was amazing--this tournament has been incredible. If it's possible, though, the weather overshadowed the amazing basketball. After our loss, we stayed the night in Atlanta to come back early Saturday morning. We stayed downtown instead of going back to the hotel to wallow in self-pity. After walking around downtown Atlanta, Meg, Doug, and I went back to the Georgia Dome to see more basketball (mainly with the purpose of watching the Kentucky game against Georgia). I wanted to experience Kentucky basketball at it's finest. After hearing the "C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS!" cheer no less than half a dozen times on the street getting to the Dome, I started to get a feeling of what it would be like. We got to the Dome, and there was blue EVERYWHERE. It was crazy.

We found some seats and settled in to watch the end of the Bama/MS State game, which was amazing! They ended up going into overtime on quite the incredible Bama 3-pointer. I didn't have very much invested in the game, but was excited nonetheless. With 2:11 left in the overtime, we heard a really, really loud rumbling sound. At first, we thought there was a helicopter just flying too close to the Dome. The ceiling was rippling and the catwalks/displays were swaying around. That's when stuff started falling from the top of the Dome. My ears were popping and we thought that maybe a hole had been punched in the top of the Dome, which Doug said had happened before. Then, we realized that this wasn't the case.

If you know me, you know how much I dread tornadoes. It was more than a bit traumatic because many of my friends were next door at the CNN Center/Omni Hotel, which was even more damaged. Everyone I know is okay and wasn't physically hurt. Emotionally was another story, though. Here's a pic of the damage to the Georgia Dome from inside:


Not that bad (until the water main burst), but scary! And they canceled the UK/UGA game, so I didn't even get to experience Kentucky basketball! I'm really happy that everyone is okay, and know this is one tournament I won't soon forget.

I'll keep you updated on our NCAA adventures!