What a night at the dome...

Tickets to the NCAA basketball tournament Sweet 16 at the dome: $20

Popcorn and bottle of water: $7

Watching Duke lose, JJ Redick shoot 3 for 18 and cry in Coach K's arms: PRICELESS

Yesterday was an amazing night of college basketball at the GA Dome. We headed down there without any tickets hoping to score some for the games as Duke played Lsu and Texas played West Virginia. Thanks to Elliott and Jeff's ruthless negotiation tactics, we were able to score some tickets for the steep price of $20. Face value on the tickets was $65. We were fortunate to sit around midcourt about 25 rows up. Not bad. The first game was an absolute slugfest as LSU and Duke were beating the hell out of each other. It was actually a really poorly played game, but incredibly entertaining. The best part of it was watching LSU beat up on JJ Redick all game and watching him miss shot after shot. To make matters worse, he whined all night about the officiating. The officiating was horrible- but consistently horrible. They were bad on both sides. Being an official myself, I am normally a defender of officiating, but 2 of the 3 guys were awful. LSU pulled out a close game with some key shots and defensive stops late. Than it happened. JJ Redick crying in Coach K's arms. I would have paid an additional $20 had I known that was going to happen.

The second game was Texas- West Virginia. Elliott showed up to the dome wearing 23 pieces of Texas clothing for the game looking like he fought an Oklahoma fan in the parking lot. And not looking like he got the better half of that fight. At least he didn't have that nasty towel clipped to his belt. If you don't know what towel I am talking about, just picture a nasty, frayed golf towel from 1973 that has never seen the washing machine. Jeff than made the worst call of the night, by saying, "Hey. That's Mack Brown." and pointing at a guy who looked absolutely nothing like Mack Brown. He looked more like Vince Young than Mack Brown. However, he does score some points for successfully pointing out Erin Andrews. He must have the Playboy issue with her in it.

The game started and Texas looked dominating in the first half cruising to a 12 point lead at halftime. West Virginia than came out in the 2nd half hitting everything they threw up. And the game got close. Than it happened. Texas had a 3 point lead with 13.9 seconds left with West Virginia getting the ball. West Virginia came down and got a wild, off balanced, deep 3 pointer from Pittsnogle (best name in sports) who hit nothing but net to tie the game with 5 seconds to go. The place erupted. Than, Texas immediately inbounded the ball and pushed it up the court without taking a time out. The point guard took the ball all the way into the lane and had nowhere to go. He threw the ball out to Kenton Paulino, who made a great catch and shot from about 25 feet away and drained it at the buzzer for the win (Pictured). AWESOME. The place was so excited that people were high fiving each other even if they weren't a Texas fan. They were just excited to see such a memorable ending. We sat in front of a father and son who drove up from Florida just to watch the games. Not because they were fans of either team. They were pumped. As was everyone else. All in all, a great night of basketball at the GA Dome.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the NCAA tournament?