Obviously, if you've read my posts, you realize my love for basketball. So it was with pure joy, that I got a free pass from the wife to spend all day at the Birmingham regional Friday. Sure, the games weren't as good as Tampa, but it's still nice to see quality basketball live. Especially when the team you pull for stinks. Also, this might be the last time the tournament is close, so I had to go.

Seeing teams play live, you get such a better feel for them than you do in person. I took wrote down random thoughts while I was at the game, so here they are...

Tennessee is really big and athletic. I'm not sure why so much of there game revolves around the perimeter. They were fortunate to get by Butler today, but I don't think they'll get by Louisville.

Speaking of Butler. They would have run Oklahoma(the 6 seed) out of the gym. Why in the world was this three loss team a 7 seed? Also, it's amazing to see a 28 year old coach get on the referees. They don't take him seriously do they?

American University apparently didn't notice that it's 2008. Here are the songs that their band played in no specific order. Journey's Don't Stop Believing, Twist and Shout, YMCA, Theme from Rocky, Sweet Caroline and the Final Countdown. Also, their theme song was straight out of the movie Hoosiers. Finally, I observed a fan waving a foam finger.

If you don't know about the St. Joe's Hawk, you can read about him here. An argument broke out among the four of us as to whether the Hawk is mechanically aided or not. After spending the whole 1st half searching on the I-Phone, the lone advocate for the mechanism had no further proof. We really didn't watch any of the lousy game. You just get mesmerized by the Hawk, thinking at any moment that he's going to mess up.

Louisville is as athletic as Tennessee and, I think, will beat them next week. They are well coached and don't seem to take plays off like UT does. My metro sexual friend Justin, was extremely upset with assistant coach Walter McCarty, because he wore light brown shoes with a navy blue suit. An NBA veteran should know better.

It's interesting to see how easy it is for an upset to happen. Probably 75% of the fans in attendance are either locals (like us) or fans of a school that is playing at a later time. It's natural for fans to root for the underdog. Thus when an underdog makes a run, that 75% starts pulling for them. It helped American stay in the game against UT and happened in every other game.

Why in the world wouldn't the NCAA play broadcast other games on the JumboTron between games at the current site? Instead, they have TV's broadcasting the other games out in the lobby. During the start of the Butler - South Alabama game, approximately 5,000 were watching the finish to the Western Kentucky game. When they hit the shot at the buzzer, the roar from the lobby was incredible. It's just crazy.

It helps to have knowledgeable basketball fans rooting for your team. In the tournament, timeouts can be a real momentum killer. Due to the setup, teams have to take turns letting the band and cheerleaders out on the court. Here's what tends to happen. A team will go on a run and their fans will be cheering in loud support. A timeout will be called and it will be the other team's turn to send the cheerleaders out on the court. For some reason, many fans (I calling you out UT fans) will just relent to this and stop cheering. Louisville fans knew what to do and just started their own chants over the band. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon.

It's fun to watch the players come out of the locker room after the game. The UT players won the award for best look. The had the hats, IPOD's, cell phones, backpacks. They just oozed cool. I wish I could have seen Louisville come out (they were the last game), I bet they would have given UT a run for the money.

I brought a camera with me to take some shots, but I couldn't get enough quality to shots to post on here. I would like to thank my buddies who knew that I had my wife's camera and took random shots of cheerleaders and women when I went to the concession stand. However, I do have one photo that deserves it's own post tomorrow.