For the third year, I watch the Southeastern Conference Tournament in person. And for the third year I am sick while doing it. I spend the week with some kind of flu/cold/fever/chills thing, alternating between shivering and sweating like I'm in a room where someone can't decide where to set the thermostat only it's my body that can't figure out what room temperature should be.

My station cried poor in electing not to cover the tournament even though Kentuky had won 20 of the last 24 of them. So I took my press pass, my media hotel room, three days of vacation and went anyway.

This year's tourney happens in Atlanta. Big cities and I don't mix. At one point not only can I not find my car, I can't find the lot it's parked in. I know I have put it into a lot somewhere close to the Marriott Marquis but I walk almost all the way around the block before deciding on which lot I must have parked. Even when I convince myself I have the right one, I still can't locate my car. Yeah, I need to live in a big city. How do you lose a car!

I find it. Then have to pay a $23 ransom to get out of of the lot.

So much for my idea to "rotate" my car in and out of the lot to save money. Since I don't sleep much Wednesday night, I awake at 6:30 a.m. Seven is when the parking rates begin. I get my car out in time to have to pay only $5 for the previous day's after 4 p.m. special, drive the car around the block and come back in for the $6 early bird special for the following day. When I go back the next morning to try the same trick, that's when I get tagged for the $23. The African-American attendant, whose accent sounded more African than American, can not explain how a lot that's supposed to have a $15 dollar daily maximum could charge me $23.

Not having to work I get to roam around and watch more than the games.

One night in the press box I catch part of Atlanta station WXIA's news and watch ex-WFLA anchor Wes Sarginson toss to a story by ex-WFLA anchor Mike Walter who does a story using a technique in his standup done before by ex-WFLA sports reporter John McQuiston. (WXIA is owned by Gannett and Walter works for USA Today doing TV stories that air on Gannett stations.)

No kidding. I did a story in Tampa about a drag racer and just for kicks did my for it standup while the dragster's engine ran. You couldn't hear a word I was saying so I had them subtitled on the screen during the standup. Walter's story is about Biker Week in Daytona. He does part of his standup with roaring engines drowning him out and the words superimposed on the screen.

I see another story on the local Atlanta news about the heightened security in place for the tournament. It is evident during the Florida/Auburn game when a girl probably about four years old wearing a Gators jumper runs right past a security guy onto the court to hug the Gator mascot sitting at courtside.

Dr. Pepper is one of the tournament's sponsors. The SEC hasn't gotten to the point where it names its tournament the Dr. Pepper SEC Tournament like the Big Twelve has with the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament but you can't sneeze (I did mention I was sick, didn't I?) without hitting something with a Dr. Pepper logo on it.

Waiting for the elevator to take me up to the press box (whose function here was as the dining room because we sat at floor level to watch the games), I see a guy whose pass reads "DR. PEPPER/ALL ACCESS" with a can of the drink in his hand. I can't resist: "Do you have to carry the can around with you even when you've finished drinking?"

Before the first game of each session (Thursday and Friday there are two sessions of two games each. After each session, officials clear the arena for the next two games. Saturday's two semi-final games and Sunday's final were their own sessions.), there is a battle of the pep bands from the two schools playing in the first game. Friday that's LSU and Georgia. The Tigers band wows with a jazzy rendition of the classic Animals song House of the Rising Sun. Saturday, LSU's band rocks the place again with their version of Santana's Oye Como Va. L.S.U.'s basketball team will do well to squeak into the NIT but its band is Final Four worthy.

You don't lose weight covering the SEC Tournament. Thursday lunch options include fried chicken, fried catfish fingers, biscuits and side dishes. Dinner choices include tomato lasagna, vegetable lasagna, chicken in some kind of white sauce (place cards explained what each item was but you'll forgive my hands for being too busy holding my plate for me to take notes), assorted sides and salad and gourmet cheesecake for dessert.

That's upstairs in the press box. Downstairs in a room near the media work rooms they have more food. Chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips instead of nuts; apples, oranges, bananas and pears; chips and pretzels; soft drinks and bottled water.

I don't think I'm eating enough to offset the $140/day Marriott Marquis hotel bill but I'm doing my best.

During Friday's Tennessee/Alabama game, the UT band fills a time out with a brassy version of Led Zeppelin's The Immigrant Song. But then, the tuba player is always playing heavy metal.

With the Volunteers trailing the Tide 47-25 in the first half, a UT fan says, "I might have to do something crazy and cheer for Kentucky." UK will be Alabama's opponent the next round if it beats South Carolina later that night. The Wildcats are hated by all the other teams' fans as any team that had won 20 of the last 24 SEC Tournaments would be.

And UK fans still outnumber them. Even though the SEC Tournament is in Atlanta, Kentucky, not Georgia, brings by far the most fans. UK fans are everywhere, even in the Alabama pep band! I overhear the Tide's drummer telling a guy in a UK visor, "Go Wildcats." When the guy turns around ready to rumble because he thinks the drummer has mocked him, Kevin Reynolds tells him, "I'm a huge UK fan."

Kevin tells me he grew up in Mississippi rooting for Kentucky basketball and Alabama football and reluctantly chose to attend Alabama. And if UK were to play Alabama? "I'll go for Alabama because I'm here," he says gesturing toward his band mates. "But any other time I like UK."

I don't care how cosmopolitan anyone tells you Atlanta is, it's still in the deep south. As Alabama pulls away from Tennessee, a fan yells "Shoot it, token!" at the Tide's lone white player Travis Stinnett.

At halftime of the Mississippi State/Florida game, a loud cheer erupts during the MSU dance team's routine. Is it that good? Has one of the girls "popped out" of her costume? No, it is Kentucky fans cheering the entrance of the UK pep band in what is the loudest ovation of the tournament so far.

On a dash back to the press room for more cookies, I meet and chat with former UK star Kenny "Sky" Walker. I had seen him around a lot at Kentucky games and even exchanged hellos but not until now do I finally introduce myself. He says he knows who I am because he has seen me on television. I tell him that I have heard him on one of the local radio shows he does. He humbly says he is merely "extending my 15 minutes of fame." He clearly knows the benefit of being nice to people, which surprised me coming from a guy who played in the NBA. So many of those guys don't think they need anyone.

"Sky" tells me he knew he was getting old when he saw guys like Rod Barnes and Mark Gottfried, guys he played against, standing on sidelines as head coaches.

I enjoy the bands but the Tennessee Rocky Top song gets so stuck in my head I swear I hear the lounge band playing it in the SEC hospitality section of the Georgia Dome until closer listening reveals that the band is playing Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll. I told you I was sick.

And, yes, South Carolina Gamecocks cheerleaders really do lead their fans with shouts of "Go Cocks!"

My kind of ladies.

John

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