Our last WAC tournament

My wife and I went to Rice University in Houston, Texas. We are both sports nuts. Rice has not been that good historically, but we still root for them when we can.

Since Rice has been in the Western Athletic Conference, we have tried to make it to the events on the West Coast involving Rice football or basketball, and sometimes baseball. Last weekend was the WAC Conference Tournament for basketball. Rice is moving to the Conference USA next year, so this is the last chance we will get to see them play on the West Coast.

Jade has to travel all over the West Coast for her job, and she usually tries to make her trips match up with Rice's football or basketball schedule, and last week, she had work in Reno, so she went to the games. The plan was if either the women or men made the finals, I would drive up to see them; otherwise, she would just fly home as originally scheduled.

The women made the finals; the men fell short in the semis to UTEP. I drove up Friday night. We stayed at John Ascuaga's Nugget. This place is not pretentious at all; but it is reasonably clean and new, and reasonably priced. The Cafe was too smoky, even in the non-smoking section. California can spoil you.

Jade got to see Asleep at the Wheel before I got there, and had a great time.

That morning, we ate at the Black Bear Diner, because Jade had eaten at the one in Las Vegas and liked it. The service was poor, and the food was only OK. Much prefer Cracker Barrel or Black-Eyed Pea (when we are east of California) for this kind of food.

The women played a dominating game, beating Louisiana Tech by 20 points. Rice's center, Lauren Neaves, was the tournament MVP. They were a blast to watch. Of course, I was watching while playing with the band, the MOB. The band is a lot smaller than when I was there, but it is still great to blow a bari sax as loud as I can, without worrying about pesky things like tone or dynamics. Jade also played in the MOB when we were in college; that's where we met. However, she doesn't play anymore, and did not feel like trying to deal with a tenor sax while seven months pregnant.

The drive back was wonderful; spring time temperatures with snow on the Sierras. Too bad I don't ski!