Well, I'm back from the media hospitality suite, where I had a couple of beers.

Last night's game wasn't supposed to turn out that way.

I was all set to regale you with the story of how my wife, who got her undergraduate degree at what was then known as Memphis State, was going to be 100 percent behind the Zags on Saturday.

Oh, well. Rats.

Thanks for reading my blog. Maybe we can do it again sometime.

Before I go, I want to say a word about one of my travel companions.

John Blanchette knew I was apprehensive about filing my story from the Oakland Arena last night. (On previous occasions I had gone back to the hotel to write. But there wasn't time after the UCLA incident, er, game.)

So on a night when he was under the gun to produce one of his most important columns of the year, he stopped to make sure my laptop connection to the S-R had worked out all right.

It's true, isn't it?

There's nothing like a great teammate.

Go Zags.

So who won?

Hello Paul
I enjoyed your views from a very close perspective. I agree that The Zag players deserve a lot of credit for their success and composure. However, the same cannot be said of their coach. His comments concerning the U.C.L.A. coach and scheduling, were outrageous,rude and classless.Its hard to believe that he would taint such a great season by such a classless boorish rant.

The only thing he will be doing Saturday, is taking out the trash, and hopefully enrolling in a class on integrity and class

Thanks for the Slice response to our tragic loss. It was respectful, as it should be, and said what I would want to have said.

Mark Few and UCLA coach Ben Howland were both graduate assistants at GU, so I am sure Few's comments were possibly taken out of context and a friendly joke. I don't hear Ben Howland complaining about Few's comments.

Hi Paul... John stuck with the Zags on the tube until the bitter end... sorry we're not going to see Tigers vs. Bulldogs matchup. Who knows... it might be the Tigers vs. the Tigers in the final four, huh? You've got to love a team with a player named Big Baby!

And, yes, Carol, people still do refer to it here as Memphis State!

Will Prince, that is certainly possible.
How about it Paul ? Was he serious, or was it a friendly joke ?