JOURNEY TO THE WAC TOURNEY

(Not as windy as the severe storm warnings make it seem.)

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- You must realize, by now, that I've fallen hopelessly behind on blogging, but alas, I have not given up. There is hope, and to prove that, I'm delivering on a promise from Wednesday. Here's the 1-to-10 pain rating for guard Tierre Wilson. You may remember she took a hard fall in the Bulldogs' first-round win against San Jose State. I thought it was just her hip and elbow, but turns out it was much more. The next day (Thursday) she was aching all over. Hip. Elbow. Arm. Shoulder. Back. It all hurt. She had what looked like an extra-thick shammy, wedged between her side and her chair here at the Pan Am Center. She winced often.

I found her across the gym during the men's Fresno State game, and when I posed the pain question, I was expecting her to say 1 or 2 or 3 at most. She said her shoulder was a 7. Her hip was a 4, and the other parts were somewhere between. If you were wondering, this blog just landed the flu last night and is currently about an 8 all over. Swollen throat. Already looking for somewhere to yack later on. But we push on.

The Fresno State women's game just started here at the Pan Am, the Friday noon game. Once again they've bused in school children who are now fillling at least half the arena. You've never heard anything as piercingly loud as this blog is currently experiencing. It's not helping the flu. For whatever reason, the kids have chosen to mostly cheer for the Fresno State Bulldogs instead of the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, probably because Fresno State has cheerleaders and a band. They just announced there are $2 margaritas on the second floor, which is weird because of the few thousand people who are here, only about a dozen are old old enough to drink. Believe me, though, those dozen people need tequila.

These kids are absolutely on crack-cocaine. They just counted down the pregame clock in unison like it was the end of the game. This could be interesting. OK, blog has to pretend to be a columnist again.