Don't miss A Journey Through The Madness in 14 Days: 65 to 4 -- Part 1: Picking Up The Pieces (3/28/05)

On The Plate ... 3/29/05

A Journey Through The Madness in 14 Days: 65 to 4.

Part 2 - Howling in Nashville

When I left the District for Nashville, I never thought that I'd end up being a participant in a baptism. But I was. And it was glorious.

You think I'm joking, don't you? Well, I'm not. I'm serious. Kids got baptized. And the beauty of the whole thing is that those that got baptized didn't even know it was coming. It wasn't a planned baptism. Oh no. It just happened. A full out, no-holds-barred, up-in-your-grill baptism went down. And, obviously, when things like baptisms are coming together out of nowhere, you know some serious shiznit is going down. Believe it…

2005 NCAA Tournament. Sunday. Second Round. Nashville, Tennessee. Gaylord Entertainment Center.

Game 1: Villanova vs. Florida
Game 2: Louisville vs. Georgia Tech

The Nashville Killing Streets were buzzing. I mean f'ing buzzing. Why? Because the Cards were out. Who? The Cards, aka the Louisville fans, aka U of L. And they were out in numbers. And they were wearing windbreakers. And it was amazing. Yep, windbreakers. At least I think they were windbreakers. That's what we deemed them. Apparently in Louisville, (The Mayor and my future home) pullover windbreakers are where it's at. All black windbreakers with a giant Cardinal head on the front. Red windbreakers with black piping with "The 'Ville" in block letters across the front. You name the combo. We saw it. I've never seen so many GD pullover windbreakers in my life. It was a thing of beauty. No doubt about it.

(The Mayor and I decided that we're going to try to bring this windbreaker thing east. They're so f'ing gorgeous. In fact, I decided that I'm getting married in a windbreaker. Louisville, of course. And my wife will wear a wedding dress made of windbreaker material. Louisville, of course. And for the record, I think I might have found my future wife while in Nashville. How? On Saturday, we rolled to a sports bar called Sam's to watch all of the games. (Used to be Jonathon's for all you Nashville fans out there.) My gal was slinging beers. So what? She was wearing a Tennessee pullover windbreaker. And it was spectacular. After we drank our weight in beers, we decided to get our check with about a minute to go in regulation of the West Virginia / Wake Forest game - the last game of the night. Well, while we were waiting to pay the check, the game, as you know, went into overtime. My ladyfriend came over to us and in a pristine Tennessee accent said, "Well, you can't leave now. At least order another f'ing beer." And we did. One day I'll marry that girl…and her windbreaker.)

Back to Sunday. When we got to our seats, which were about halfway up in the upper section, we were blissfully surprised. The joint was packed and we were smack in the middle of Cards country. Actually, the majority of the arena was red " black. U of L folk were in effect. Granted their game didn't tip off for another 2 ½ hours, but they were in their seats ready to get it on. And so it began. A few minutes into the second half of the 'Nova / UF game, the Cards fans made their presence known. Starting with a slow clap that quickly picked up speed, the Cards fans let out a "C-A-R-D-S! Cards!" Then again. Then again. Then a biggin' cheer. At this point, PartyBoy tapped me on the shoulder and simply gave me a "Got chills." No doubt. This chant went on consistently throughout the second half of the 'Nova game. Amazing? Indeed. At the time I was kind of freaking out because it seemed as though the U of L fans started this cheer every time VU's Jason Fraser was at the free throw line. Fraser ain't the best free throw shooter in the world. In other words, I wanted the damn red " black to tone it down while the poor kid tried to shoot free throws. Well, apparently, Fraser is down with The 'Ville because the kid was money from the line and had his best game of the season. Totally dominated UF's David Lee.

With about a minute and a half left in the game, and Nova in complete control, Gaylord Arena had a religious experience. (For the record, I was giddy at this point. Cats in the 16? Are you kidding me?) The 'Nova section began to chant "Big East! Big East!" The U of L fans, whose team was not even on the floor, answered back with a "Big East! Big East!" (Remember that Louisville officially enters the Big East in 2005 along with Cincy, DePaul, Marquette and South Florida.) The Nova fans loved it. They loved it so much that the Nova section threw out a "C-A-R-D-S! Cards!" at the U of L fans. The place f'ing erupted. For a moment, Louisville fans loved Villanova like a child. So what did the Louisville fans do? Exactly…"Let's go Nova! Let's go Nova!" It was thunderous. The entire building was dropping a "Let's go Nova!" and 90% of the droppers were in red " black. Of course, the Nova faithful went nutty and responded with a "C-A-R-D-S! Cards!" The exchange continued until final buzzer. It was absolutely f'ing magical. I can't even describe how cool it was.

I forgot to mention that the CSG, Disco, The Mayor, and my brother were all decked out in Nova gear. (PartyBoy needed no flare. That boy be flare.) So we immediately became best friends with all of the Cards sitting around us. It was like we were meeting long lost family members. I kept saying "Welcome to the Big East family." They kept asking questions like "Is Syracuse in Canada?" and "Is New York City the same as New Jack City? Or are they different cities?" It was brilliant. I had this exchange with a few U of L girls sitting in front of us…

Them: "What's the name of the town where Villanova is?" (Think magnificent Kentucky accent.)
Me: "Well, it's in Philadelphia."
Them: "Uh, yea, but what's the name of the little town? It's got a name, right?"
Me: "Villanova."
Them: "No, the name of the town."
Me: "Villanova."
Them: "What?"
Me: "Yep, Villanova, Pennsylvania is the name of the town."
Them: "Oh my God."
I even think one dude asked my brother to be in his wedding. Either that or he asked if my bro wanted to come to his beach house on the Ohio River and have a knife-throwing contest. It was one of those. I think.

It was wild. A Big East baptism in Nashville. Who'd a thunk it?

Some other fun facts from our stay in Nash-Vegas…

New Mexico's cheer? Make noise like a Lobo. Howl. That's what UNM fans do. Pretty cool. ("Lobo" means "Wolf" in Spanish for those that took 4 years of Spanish in grade school.)

I don't have much affection for the state of Ohio. But I do have biggin' respect for Ohio U fans. Why? They stuck around after their first round loss to Florida to give their players (who made a helluva comeback) a standing ovation after they came out of the locker room. Definitely legit.

Our cab, late Saturday night, got into an accident (nothing serious) with a tinted-out Cadillac car. So what? The Caddy was being driven by "professional wrestlers" who "had just come from a match." I've never seen such beautifully groomed ponytails in my life. Clearly, these guys weren't WWE material. They were "local" pro wrestlers. We believe that the two giants who got out of the backseat of the Caddy were Scandinavian. They didn't exactly master the English language. They did, however, look like gigantic wrestler guidos - tight shirts, tons of ink and impressive ponytails. This is the truth. And no, you can't make this kind of humor up.

Coming next…Part 3 - Winners, Losers, the Remarkable and the Forgettable.