Impressions of the Borough of Brooklyn....

[Taj79]

Despite this being my first encounter, I believe it is quite easy to quickly dislike just about all VCU fans. I know it's petty, but when a 60-year-old, white-haired, southerner complete in black-n-gold nylon warm-up suite, and high top gold Nikes complete with a white headband sporting "haVoc" on it is hootin' and a hollerin' with black eye-paint stickies slapped under his eyes and is toting a rotund missus with yellow- flashing eyeglasses, yellow-and-black boa and mad hatter top hat ... well, you get it. It was such a joy to hear them silenced exiting the Barclays Center yesterday afternoon.

Gentlemen, I will not lie to you ---- tears were shed when we won yesterday. It is so hard to fathom this was our first double title/real title since the year I was born. I know larry72 loved it up in Columbus last year, and I never would have thought that feeling was supersedable, but yesterday --- it was. Not only is this a great basketball team, but its members are some of the nicest young gentlemen I've ever had the privilege to associate with.

Weekend of tickets cost us $35. And we went to all SLU sessions. On Friday, we show up at the Calvin Klein entrance for our in-Barclays party. We're early, in case we have to buy the tickets too. The guard at the door knows nothing about this so sends us around front. The guard there knows nothing about this, so she sends us around back. This is getting weird. The first back door guard sends us to the other back door entrance. The lady there, behind the glass window says "oh, you're here for the party." "Okay, sure." She wants my ID. Hmmm. Okay. Next thing I know, she's taking her time and I turn to see the referee crew behind me waiting to get in. Interesting. She hands me back my ID and tells me to put my wrist out. Huh? Next thing I know, I have a bright orange all access wrist band on and me and the sidekick and me are inside the building, going wherever we want. ACT LIKE YOU BELONG HERE; SAY GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE! Next thing you know, we're down on the floor talking it up pregame with Earl and Rammer. Saturday, we buy tickets. Saturday, the Dayton fans ask us if we have tickets to Sunday. Nope. Here you go! How much? Buy us a beer! Score!

Kudos to Meg and company as always for a nice weekend. I cannot eat any more chicken wings nor sliders for quite some time. The Barclays Center is in a part of Brooklyn that is kind of sort like a renewing central west end/hill/small bar and tavern area. Kudos to Matt (cheesycow) for taking us to 200 Fifth, a sports bar in the local area. Would recommend and go back. The pregame parties were at a place called Pacific Standard. A bar on Fourth. Not bad, but a bar that reminded me of Jimmy and Andy's down on Newstead from the old days. We picked a place off the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" in Brooklyn and were not disappointed. The Smoke Joint on Elliott Place is highly recommended now.

The Barclays Center inside is beautiful. Seats about 17k for basketball. They never opened the upper deck and had it black-curtained off, making the arena very intimate. The ushers were extremely insistent on making sure you had tickets to the courtside sections, but you could come in an end zone and work your way around. Therefore, even the cheapest tickets were pretty good seats. Outside, for whatever reason, the Barclays outside, space-ship futuristic design was done in steel. It's completely rusty now, which makes for an interesting effect for a brand new arena. It's curved main entrance plaza had a big screen tv advertising/coming attraction video board worked into the curved design that is truly amazing. Liked it. Easy in and easy out but absolutely no parking whatsoever.

Brooklyn is dirty,man. Trash everywhere. Traffic is a zoo and walking or subway is your best bet. The subway has been cleaned up but it ain't DC. Signage and directions are horrible. Parked in Seacaucus ($73) and trained ($4) to MSG. Subwayed ($3) over to Brooklyn. Hotel Indigo near LIU-Brooklyn was not bad and brand new; about a 1/2 to 1 mile walk. Never felt threatened on the streets but the night time stroll was interesting. Store all along the way --- delis, junky t-shirt shops ala AC, Macy's, Modell.s and high end chains. Lots of panhandlers. Lots of crazy people wandering and talking to no one in particular. Buddy parked in Brooklyn at hotel ($90 + tip/valet). Walk up to Brooklyn Bridge was twice as far as Barclays in other direction but well worth the time for the view of Manhatten and Statue of Liberty Island. Snowed on Saturday.

Lots of folks to meet and talk to. NH was there. Good kid. cheesy as noted. Hob-knobbed with Anthony Bonner. Somebody (jimbo) going to go nutz here but met and talked with Theresa Lisch Meachem. What a cutie. Rachel Deiner. The Loes. Mr. Loe was quite aghast at the subway and said it never snows in Aukland. Mike and Robyn Ellis. The Jetts. Mama Jett loved the dreads sported by the sidekick day one. The Ellis' loved the blue streaked hair for day two. Blue-streaked hair was quite popular. Will try to figure out how to post pictures. Mama Shoe drank me under the table. But after hearing all about kshoe's rebellious younger years, I now understand and promised to be nicer to him. Met stlsocal and husband, in from San Diego to support team. Big Bill from New Jersey and Don were there. Plus the SignKid punk. Great conversations Jake's dad. A great group to be associated with. Mike McCall, Sr.

I know our band is good --- I've got to say VCU's was better. As in more entertaining. The little redhead on trumpet was belting and dancing her heart out. The final was a hostile road game. It was so nice to silence the arena and I'm sure their Ramnation board is bitching about the referees. But all they do is clutch-n-grab and force the refs to call it. They know how to play it -- they didn't foul out as many as one would expect given their three fouls on multiple players in the first half. They scaled it back because, well, they had to. And Shaka is a pain in the ass. He would sub on every made foul shot in the half --- just so he could set the haVoc. Again, they can't shoot so it's a viable coaching ploy. I think we'll see a rule soon that outlaws that crap --- subbing for the shooter if he makes it. It will be the Shaka rule.

On the news front -- in terms of the Big East and Crews, nothing. Nobody's saying anything and given the A10's attempt to extort Butler and Xavier now, why put the bull's eye on us. We will be okay next year. Three nights hotel = $800. Tank of gas to get there = $40.

Winning A10 championship vanquishing Butler and VCU ---- priceless.

[ACE]

Despite this being my first encounter, I believe it is quite easy to quickly dislike just about all VCU fans. I know it's petty, but when a 60-year-old, white-haired, southerner complete in black-n-gold nylon warm-up suite, and high top gold Nikes complete with a white headband sporting "haVoc" on it is hootin' and a hollerin' with black eye-paint stickies slapped under his eyes and is toting a rotund missus with yellow- flashing eyeglasses, yellow-and-black boa and mad hatter top hat ... well, you get it. It was such a joy to hear them silenced exiting the Barclays Center yesterday afternoon.

Gentlemen, I will not lie to you ---- tears were shed when we won yesterday. It is so hard to fathom this was our first double title/real title since the year I was born. I know larry72 loved it up in Columbus last year, and I never would have thought that feeling was supersedable, but yesterday --- it was. Not only is this a great basketball team, but its members are some of the nicest young gentlemen I've ever had the privilege to associate with.

Weekend of tickets cost us $35. And we went to all SLU sessions. On Friday, we show up at the Calvin Klein entrance for our in-Barclays party. We're early, in case we have to buy the tickets too. The guard at the door knows nothing about this so sends us around front. The guard there knows nothing about this, so she sends us around back. This is getting weird. The first back door guard sends us to the other back door entrance. The lady there, behind the glass window says "oh, you're here for the party." "Okay, sure." She wants my ID. Hmmm. Okay. Next thing I know, she's taking her time and I turn to see the referee crew behind me waiting to get in. Interesting. She hands me back my ID and tells me to put my wrist out. Huh? Next thing I know, I have a bright orange all access wrist band on and me and the sidekick and me are inside the building, going wherever we want. ACT LIKE YOU BELONG HERE; SAY GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE! Next thing you know, we're down on the floor talking it up pregame with Earl and Rammer. Saturday, we buy tickets. Saturday, the Dayton fans ask us if we have tickets to Sunday. Nope. Here you go! How much? Buy us a beer! Score!

Kudos to Meg and company as always for a nice weekend. I cannot eat any more chicken wings nor sliders for quite some time. The Barclays Center is in a part of Brooklyn that is kind of sort like a renewing central west end/hill/small bar and tavern area. Kudos to Matt (cheesycow) for taking us to 200 Fifth, a sports bar in the local area. Would recommend and go back. The pregame parties were at a place called Pacific Standard. A bar on Fourth. Not bad, but a bar that reminded me of Jimmy and Andy's down on Newstead from the old days. We picked a place off the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" in Brooklyn and were not disappointed. The Smoke Joint on Elliott Place is highly recommended now.

The Barclays Center inside is beautiful. Seats about 17k for basketball. They never opened the upper deck and had it black-curtained off, making the arena very intimate. The ushers were extremely insistent on making sure you had tickets to the courtside sections, but you could come in an end zone and work your way around. Therefore, even the cheapest tickets were pretty good seats. Outside, for whatever reason, the Barclays outside, space-ship futuristic design was done in steel. It's completely rusty now, which makes for an interesting effect for a brand new arena. It's curved main entrance plaza had a big screen tv advertising/coming attraction video board worked into the curved design that is truly amazing. Liked it. Easy in and easy out but absolutely no parking whatsoever.

Brooklyn is dirty,man. Trash everywhere. Traffic is a zoo and walking or subway is your best bet. The subway has been cleaned up but it ain't DC. Signage and directions are horrible. Parked in Seacaucus ($73) and trained ($4) to MSG. Subwayed ($3) over to Brooklyn. Hotel Indigo near LIU-Brooklyn was not bad and brand new; about a 1/2 to 1 mile walk. Never felt threatened on the streets but the night time stroll was interesting. Store all along the way --- delis, junky t-shirt shops ala AC, Macy's, Modell.s and high end chains. Lots of panhandlers. Lots of crazy people wandering and talking to no one in particular. Buddy parked in Brooklyn at hotel ($90 + tip/valet). Walk up to Brooklyn Bridge was twice as far as Barclays in other direction but well worth the time for the view of Manhatten and Statue of Liberty Island. Snowed on Saturday.

Lots of folks to meet and talk to. NH was there. Good kid. cheesy as noted. Hob-knobbed with Anthony Bonner. Somebody (jimbo) going to go nutz here but met and talked with Theresa Lisch Meachem. What a cutie. Rachel Deiner. The Loes. Mr. Loe was quite aghast at the subway and said it never snows in Aukland. Mike and Robyn Ellis. The Jetts. Mama Jett loved the dreads sported by the sidekick day one. The Ellis' loved the blue streaked hair for day two. Blue-streaked hair was quite popular. Will try to figure out how to post pictures. Mama Shoe drank me under the table. But after hearing all about kshoe's rebellious younger years, I now understand and promised to be nicer to him. Met stlsocal and husband, in from San Diego to support team. Big Bill from New Jersey and Don were there. Plus the SignKid punk. Great conversations Jake's dad. A great group to be associated with. Mike McCall, Sr.

I know our band is good --- I've got to say VCU's was better. As in more entertaining. The little redhead on trumpet was belting and dancing her heart out. The final was a hostile road game. It was so nice to silence the arena and I'm sure their Ramnation board is bitching about the referees. But all they do is clutch-n-grab and force the refs to call it. They know how to play it -- they didn't foul out as many as one would expect given their three fouls on multiple players in the first half. They scaled it back because, well, they had to. And Shaka is a pain in the ass. He would sub on every made foul shot in the half --- just so he could set the haVoc. Again, they can't shoot so it's a viable coaching ploy. I think we'll see a rule soon that outlaws that crap --- subbing for the shooter if he makes it. It will be the Shaka rule.

On the news front -- in terms of the Big East and Crews, nothing. Nobody's saying anything and given the A10's attempt to extort Butler and Xavier now, why put the bull's eye on us. We will be okay next year. Three nights hotel = $800. Tank of gas to get there = $40.

Winning A10 championship vanquishing Butler and VCU ---- priceless.

I was enjoying your recap until you went there with the band. WOW! Are you saying that the "World's Greatest Pep Band" is in fact NOT the "World's Greatest Pep Band"??? This is about as shocking as they day I learned that there was no Easter Bunny.

[Bizziken]

Their band did have a keyboard with amps...and a cowbell

[cheesycow]

Was nice to meet you Taj and glad you enjoyed my humble borough for the most part.

[Taj79]

It was very hard to write that about the bands but I got to call them as I see them. Now, in our defense, I am sure our band was not fully there and neither was our dance/cheerleading squad. The band is/was not the number I see populating the end of the 'Fetz on TV but I'm sure theirs was.

It might be an unequal comparison for now. VCU's trombone player on stilts was also different.

[Taj79]

Addendum: just thought of something else: in my angle of the dangle yesterday, my seat actually faced the output end of the VCU band. Conversely, the SLU band pointed away from me which in hindsight, may have affected the volume of outputs considerably. Having said that, the characters in the VCU band, which again i could see much more clearly, was much more, how shall we say, animated.

And to the lady that ended the great "Baby Blues" debate, the VCU dance squad had high-heeled, white, patent-leather, go-go boots and hots pants on. Really? We were/are tame.

Finally, the half-time entertainment on Sunday was the "hottest dance troupe in the NBA" --- the Brooklyn Nets girls. Blech. Dance troupes only work when its choreographed well. Hip-hop does not choreograph well. I don't care how much leather, spandex, bra tops and makeup you put them in, it's still not pretty.

[JMM28]

Saw Taj driving to Brooklyn and snapped a picture.

Also Taj I'm looking for a new couch for my office, any suggestions?

How was the comfort of the seats in the Barclays? Was your hotel seating adequate?

[MusicCityBilliken]

Great report TAJ as usual. Thx!

[Taj79]

@jmm28 --- can't see the picture, so can neither confirm nor deny. As for a couch, highly recommend "The Dump" in suburban King of Prussia, PA. It's really not as ostentatious as the name would imply. I'm guessing your kind of place. Barclay seats quite adequate even with the sizable arse expanse it had to accommodate for. Probably a bit smug for you. And no hotel seating outside the bed and the commode. Very sparse, stark and European minimalist. Right across the street from the Sheraton and Aloft. You should try them once.

@tarheel --- thanks. It was fun. We saw a very rare, undisputed league champion. Very few can stake that claim, although many likely will.

[havelj]

My favorite part was talking with AB about partying with him on the 4th floor of Clemens circa 1989.