I was among the few to attend the last VCU at Tulane game - an 84-80 loss on Nov. 20, 2000.
N'awlins recollections include:
* Monsoon-like rain when we first arrived - ending long drought in the Big Easy
* Spotting the Rams the night before, eating dinner on Bourbon Street
* How antiquated Fogelman Arena was, how exasperating it was to park, and how poor the crowd was
* That beer was sold at concession stand - never seen that before or since.
* Bo Jones swishing a bundle of treys in the early going, and Rams taking solid lead
* Josh Graham misfiring on a break-away slam, and the momentum changing
* Later on, eating in French Quarter, so disappointed, and enduring agony of having to watch Washington Redskins upset victory over homestanding St. Louis Rams on overhead TV.
* Much later that night, seeing VCU's three towering Russians - The "ov" triplets, Likcholitov, Nesterov and Orlov - walking the streets, slowly, looking lonely, even melancholy, heading toward a distant hotel. Somehow I felt sorry for them.