Thursday, May 19, 2005

South Bend ain't too shabby either

It appears as though our colleagues in Annapolis have gotten off to a head start in the blogging updates. Well, they did arrive earlier then we did. Somehow their flight was not affected by the weather at all, yet our bus ride was delayed by it. With thunderstorms passing through South Bend earlier today, practice at Ivy Field was canceled. Instead the team practiced in Evanston and did not depart until about 2:30 pm.

Speaking of 2:30 pm let's take the time to talk about, well time. Indiana currently is one of only two states that does not change its time for daylight savings. (Arizona is the other one which was where NU was at NCAA Regionals last year. Coincidence?) With the lack of daylight savings time, Eastern Standard Time becomes the same as Central Daylight Time. Did you guys catch that out in Annapolis? Ray and I learned that Frank and Guy took a nice romantic walk along the docks out in Maryland. Sure hope they had fun...

On another note, today was Kristen Amegin's 21st birthday. She celebrated by wearing a princess crown on the bus ride as well as at the Outback Steakhouse where the team performed a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday To You. We'd like to wish her a happy birthday as well and thank her parents for the delicious cookies she shared with everyone.

Now about our hotel... We may not have the executive lounge as is the case in Annapolis, but I'm certainly not complaining. Our accommodations are suite style, meaning the room is divided into the bedroom section and the living room/office section where we currently are at work blogging and watching the CSI season finale. Take that Loews Hotel!

Taking a look at the tournament breakdown, the first aspect of note is the new format this year. Instead of eight 8-team regions, the NCAA switched to 16 4-team regions. Each region is a double elimination tournament with the winner advancing on to Super-Regionals. The 'Cats earned the 9th overall seed in field of 64 and are the favorite to come out their region. Albany, Louisville and host Notre Dame compromise the other four teams scheduled to play. The 'Cats fell to Notre Dame earlier this season in a close 4-3 game, and have not played the others.

Now back to CSI...

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