Cinderella or Dorothy?

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home …

It was a very interesting weekend in the ATL as Wildcat fans descended upon CATlanta. Apparently, Mother Nature is a Wildcat fan or at the very least she wanted to get a close look at the SEC tournament. A tornado passed through downtown Atlanta on Friday night, bringing a halt to the SEC tournament for over an hour. Play resumed in the 3rd game of the day, but the final contest between Georgia and Kentucky was postponed to Saturday. Ryan and Anthony were at the arena when the tornado hit. They weren’t given any information as to why play had stopped and they weren’t allowed to leave or buy alcohol in the arena. Eventually, they were allowed out of the building and took a cab back to the Slaton house. And then things really got strange. Due to the damage to the Georgia Dome, the venue was changed to Georgia Tech’s home court of Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Cremin’s Court holds about 9,100 versus the 30,000+ that could fit into the Georgia Dome. The tournament committee decided to keep fans out completely, since there was no fair way to determine who would be able to get in to see the games. That policy seemed to loosen as the tournament went one as there were more and more spectators for each successive game. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the six of us (Will, Kristin, Melissa, Dave, Phil and myself) at the Slaton house were making a break for the basement when a tree crashed down in back of the house. The back yard has some overhanging trees, but thankfully the tree that split was in the lot just behind the house. It made a heck of a bang, but was not in danger of hitting the house. When we realized the coast was clear, we resumed our hasty retreat to the basement. After about fifteen minutes or so, things returned to normal and we headed back upstairs. Ryan and Anthony got back from the arena not long afterwards and we compared stories of tornadic activity. We were somehow able to survive the rest of the night even though we lost cable for a couple of hours. Text messages and calls were exchanged to assure those that were not in the area that we were fine. Saturday morning was exciting. Kristin had to go out and inspect the damage to her office building downtown. The rest of us laid around until she could get back and put the breakfast casserole in the oven. She also brought back stories of the damage to her office building and downtown areas. There was more tornadic activity on Saturday with another twister settling down in Atlanta. Thankfully, we only experienced some hail and strong rains before the storm system passed taking with it briefly power and for a bit longer the cable. We were discussing making our way to Georgia Tech when word came down that only family members of players, coaches and cheerleaders would be allowed in to see the games. We settled in hoping to at least catch the game on the TV. It was a hard fought game that should have ended with a wild jump shot by Ramel Bradley that rattled around the rim for several seconds. The CATS were up by 2 with less than 13 seconds to go in overtime. The Dawgs inbounded the ball and Zac Swansey hit a turnaround 3-pointer with just over a second to go. The Wildcats turned the ball over and then fouled Corey Butler on the inbounds attempt by Georgia. On Butler’s second attempt from the charity stripe, Perry Stephenson goal-tended the ball and a technical foul was called on Kentucky. Billy Humphrey hit 1 of 2 free throws giving the Dawgs a four point lead with a second to go. The clock ran out on the Wildcats in Atlanta. Georgia went on to win a second game on Saturday beating Mississippi State by four in the late game. The Dawgs continued their improbable run to an SEC Tournament Title with a win over Arkansas on Sunday, so you can call them Cinderella or Dorothy. Either way the Georgia Bulldogs are going dancing!

The brackets came out during the trip back to Lexington. Kentucky was selected a number 11 seed and will face Marquette during the early game on Thursday in Anaheim, California. It is the Wildcats second-lowest seed in history having earned a number 12 seed back in 1985. Should the CATS get past Marquette in the first round, they will play on Saturday against the winner of the Stanford/Cornell game. Go CATS!