Once again, I left the stadium between games of the session with my “smoking” stamp. I wandered down Old World 3rd St. and ducked into Durango BBQ & Grill. I stopped in there because they had the best special of the bars on Old World 3rd St. – $3 20 oz. beers. Not only was every other bar overcrowded, but they were also charging at least $5 per beer. That also means that Durango is not nearly as popular as the bars on the street which I tend to agree. There are quite a few German bars on 3rd St. that have a much better atmosphere. If I had been with someone else, I probably would have gone someplace else.

#2 Ohio St. vs. #15 UC-Santa Barbara
I must admit – watching four basketball games in one day is exhausting. This was the case in 1994, 1998 and 2002 when I attended the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Sacramento and at the United Center in Chicago twice. I obviously realized this in 2004 when I only attended the afternoon Friday session in Milwaukee (but I may not have attended the evening session since I cut out of work that day and needed to show up later that afternoon).

With Ohio St. leading 13-3, UCSB made on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to one point, which not only peaked my interest but obviously everyone at the Bradley Center as the crowd went from relatively quiet to raucous. Cheers rang down for UCSB for several minutes, but Ohio St. quickly took control of the game and cruised to a 68-51 victory.