How Sweet 16 It Is (or Cleveland Rocks, Part I)

The best thing about this whole deal is that students, alumni, and community of a (predominately) "commuter college" is gaining a taste of what it is to have big-time college athletics as a part of their collegiate experience.

And because we rarely meet other quality groups (its the Horizon League for God's sake!), it was good for my kids to hear/feel the contribution of a mini-$1,000,000 Band and West Virginia's (loud-as-snot) group. It was also good for them to know how well we do compared to a Wake or BC.

Spending six days in Cleveland with people in other departments and/or upper administration can be a blessing or a curse. I'm pleased to report that the kids stepped up, did their jobs extremely well, and covertly enjoyed their pleathura of off-time.

St. Patrick's Day is a huge deal in Cleveland. It definitely made getting around town on Thursday an ordeal. But when you can go out for a beer and a shot at almost any bar at 6:00am, it becomes "the best part of waking up." When we returned from the 'Bama game in the late afternoon, the parade had finished, the town (most people take the day off) had marinated for about 8 hours already, and we saw many a disheveled, long-toe-shoed diva doing the stumble of shame on the way back home.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was a nice, but do get the GROUP rate for students if you go. In my opinion, it was not worth more than the $11.00 we all paid to see old hanging costumes and high school report cards. Normal admissions are upwards of $20-$25.

We were able to assemble a surprise "Happy Birthday" serenade for Coach Pearl when they returned from Saturday's practice...he seemed appreciative, and the kids got a thrill out of being able to do that for him.

All in all, the town was nice. Everything: the Jac, Browns Stadium, Gund Arena, bars, hotels, are all centrally located and pretty easy to negotiate on foot. I'm sure it's even more of a blast when the Indians are in town....gotta do that.

And as everyone knows, winning makes everything easier. Go Panthers! More to come...