Live from Atlanta, with more weather and less basketball...

It's Saturday afternoon and decisions have been made by this point that will move the remainder of the SEC Tournament to the campus of Georgia Tech, while ticket holding fans are left holding them.  And while the majority of my friends and family who've called this morning might think otherwise, I do understand that decision.

After the Vols once again played with The Curse of the Georgia Dome before Chris Lofton hit one of the biggest shots of his career to give the Vols an 89-87 entertaining victory over South Carolina yesterday, which put the Vols on Saturday for the first time for 17 years, I stayed with my family and watched Arkansas/Vanderbilt.  Then we decided to sell our tickets to the night session, which three Mississippi State students were happy to take.  My sister lives in Atlanta and was going to take us to Ted's Montana Grill downtown, but when we got there the wait was 90 minutes, and so we decided to just go back to her house in Alpharetta for the evening.

Around two hours later, the inside of the Georgia Dome was shaking, and the windows were blown out of Ted's Montana Grill.  So yeah, I want to see the Vols play today...but I understand why I'm not.

The damage here, as seen from the local news stations (and the familiar face of Ted Hall), is profound, and the fact that as of yet there's no reported loss of life is miraculous.  And so as I write these brief words this morning, some Tennessee and Kentucky fans are complaining about the ticket situation, even some who aren't in Atlanta.  But look, the point that's not being made enough is that having thousands and thousands of people go back downtown into what's the equivalent of disaster area - whether that's 26,000 in the questionable Georgia Dome, or 9,000 on the nearby campus of Georgia Tech - either way, it's just not the best possible idea.

It's not fair for us.  It's not fair for Kentucky and Georgia, who'll have win three games in 29 hours to take home the trophy.  And it's not what anyone wants.  But under the circumstances, and there are simply bigger things going on here, I understand why to the SEC it's the best worst option.

So as the city cleans up, I'll be in front of the TV like everyone else at 6:00, to see if the Vols can knock off Arkansas.  And yeah, it would've been great to see the Vols and UK, or anyone, on Sunday in the finals (which are now at 3:00).  But I also know that in about a week, we'll move on to The Dance and this will be merely a memory, and a cool collector's item hat that I bought for $22.00 yesterday.  It'll be surreal to watch the games today...but the show, and life, must go on.