So as you may know the Eastern Kentucky Colonels won the Ohio Valley Conference this year an earned a bid into the NCAA Tournament. They were paired with the two seeded Kansas Jayhawks.

This was the first time since I joined the Colonel family that they had made the NCAA tourney so my wife and I decided to make the journey from Richmond, KY to St. Louis, Mo.

Let's start with the photos.

View of the Arch from a few blocks away.

The ticket.

View from my seat.

Stanford Cardinal.

EKU has taken the court.

The starting line-ups.

Busch Stadium

$66 for tickets? Is that for the entire day or just the early session?

Ain't bad either way.

It got us into the Stanford-NMSU and EKU-Kansas games.

Love me some St. Louie....one of my favorite cities.

Can't wait to check out Ballpark Village,

So many fun attractions in that area.

Actually drove through Ballpark Village and didn't know it was new.

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It's not done.

Did you do anything besides the game?

Yeah went up the arch, ate at Angelo's, went to Hollywood Casino. Wanted to do the zoo but time and mother nature said NO!

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Nice.

Sounds like fun.

I only go in the spring/summer to watch the best team in MLB.

Nice pictures.

Glad you and your wife enjoyed your visit.

Very cool!! Great pictures!!

I love going to St. Louis. Not too far from the Arch is Laclede's Landing area and they have a really cool wax museum. Great pic of the Arch.

The St. Louis Zoo is one of the most beautiful zoos I have ever been too. We've been there several times and I would love to go back soon.

We have taken rides on riverboats named Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher. Working on getting pics from one trip when one if my friends children's heads got stuck in the slats of the railing on the upper deck.

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Nice.

Sounds like fun.

I only go in the spring/summer to watch the best team in MLB.

As a Braves fan I must say infield fly rule my butt.

Nice pictures.

Glad you and your wife enjoyed your visit.

Thanks. Very well enjoyed the city and experience.

Also I must say Kansas fans are classy. Throughout the weekend never heard one Kansas fan brag about the win.

Funny story though as I stood in line at half-time for the bathroom, oddly the women's didn't have a line but that's not the funny part, a Kansas fan behind me asked a Kentucky fan about EKU and the Kentucky fan clearly knew nothing about EKU, not that I expected him to. The UK fan thought we were in a different conference than Murray State and Morehead State.

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Another thing I wanted to ask (not just Colonel) - did the games during the tournament seem quicker than most college games to you? Ours clocked in at less than 2 hours total. I guess CBS is more efficient with their media timeouts during the tournament than during the regular season.

^I don't know about that. It seems like the halftime sessions are running extra long during the games, and the two-minute timeout/free throw bonanza at the end of each game makes it go alot longer than usual.

^ Per Rule 5-8 of the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules, Division I tournament games can have a 20-minute halftime instead of the standard 15-minute halftime.

As for the "timeout/free throw bonanza", that's what happens when you pit two teams of similar skill level against each other and those teams keep the score very close, which is common in the tournament.

^I didn't know about the longer halftime, thank you Johnathan.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand it. The game is long enough as is, speed it up. I understand the strategy behind the fouls and the timeouts, but honestly I'd rather see a team play good defense to get the ball back rather than just fouling in order to get the ball back.

I also don't understand why teams who are winning at this time decide to make both free throws. Make the first one, then clang the second off the rim and get a rebound. You get fouled again, and you repeat. You wouldn't risk allowing the other team to get back in the game, plus you may even score more points.

^I didn't know about the longer halftime, thank you Johnathan.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand it. The game is long enough as is, speed it up. I understand the strategy behind the fouls and the timeouts, but honestly I'd rather see a team play good defense to get the ball back rather than just fouling in order to get the ball back.

I also don't understand why teams who are winning at this time decide to make both free throws. Make the first one, then clang the second off the rim and get a rebound. You get fouled again, and you repeat. You wouldn't risk allowing the other team to get back in the game, plus you may even score more points.

But there's no guarantee you will get that rebound.

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The reason they have to foul to get the ball back is a matter of time. Just playing good defense takes too much time; unless you manage to steal the ball (which is uncommon), the leading team can run the entire length of the shot clock off of the game clock. If that shot clock has already been turned off because there are less than 35 seconds left in the game, your only options are steal (very difficult) or foul (easy). Fouling stops the clock immediately, and the timeout allows you to make sure that everybody's on the same page for the next play.