Ben and Stephanie came up to visit for the week and watch some NCAA tournament games. Talking with Ben, he said he's lost track and couldn't remember how many straight years he's been to the first round of the tournament. It was either seven or eight ... all at a different venue each time. For Christi and I, it was our first and I'm not sure if we could have picked a better year to go. After we got back home from our first day of games (10am-2am), we hear everyone saying that it was the single greatest day in the tournament's history.

The goal was to get to the games early on our first day so that we could find some parking and get to know our way around. There was virtually no traffic until we were about four blocks away, and were promptly told the massive mall parking garage was completely full. After having someone yell, "You need to stop, because it's a state law" after he jumped in front of the Jeep, we drove right by the stadium and saw a sign for parking. We parked about as close as we could. A good 20 yards away.

Before we could walk 10 feet, we were stopped by a ProJo (Providence Journal) reporter who was shocked that people came all the way from Nebraska without a real team to root for. The ProJo becomes another person on our lifelong list who can't pronounce/spell our name right, and Ben was a good sport by being the spokesman for the four of us. Hopefully Ben has the alternate picture of us taking a picture of him before we walked in.

We opened our day at the Dunkin Donuts Center watching Robert Morris trying to make history. Coming into the day, 15 seeds were 4-88 all-time against 2 seeds. The Colonials gave 'Nova all they can handle by taking them to overtime and nearly pulling an upset in front of a heavily Big East crowd.

After all the excitement we thought we would be prepared for, Saint Mary's upset Richmond, Ohio destroyed Georgetown and Tennessee barely escaped San Diego State, we were glad to drive home to not stare at any more creepy mascots. I'm not sure what a Gael is, but I really don't want to find out after looking at that guy.

The positive note on the day was that I had my single greatest opening round bracket day by going 12-4.