What a weekend! Started off with a double-header of basektball action from Prather Colesium in Natchitoches as Northwestern St. was hosting Nicholls in Southland Conference play. Did you know that Prather Colesium was the last place Jim Croce played? He died in a plane crash leaving after a concert there on September 20th, 1973. That is not relevant to the games but it does make Prather a landmark of musical history as far as I am concerned.

As for the game...saw the best Southland Conference basketball game yet on the Network with a 99-98 double-time victory for the Demons over the Colonels. Anatoly Bose scored 46 for the Colonels but the Demons hit some clutch shots down the stretch and just out fought the Colonels for their first conference win of the season and snapped a six game losing streak. We will be in San Marcos next Saturday as an interesting Texas State club plays host to UTA and the SLC's leading scorer Marquez Haynes.

Obviously the biggest game in Louisiana this weekend was not in Natchitoches but rather in New Orleans on Sunday. What a game. Saints beat the Vikings 31-28 in overtime. Every coach in the world says football games come down to two things, turnovers and penalties, Minnesota had way too many of both. Two Texans Austin Westlake's Drew Brees and Southlake Carroll alum Garrett Hartley send the Saints to their first Super Bowl. Hartley seals it with a 40 yard boot in ot...couple of things, good for Hartley, the young man was suspended at the beginning of the year but has done all the right things since to earn his job back and live up to his massive potential...secondly, pretty sure Joe Buck does not know much about Southlake Carroll football because he would not have gone on and on about Hartley's lack of experience if he did. Playing at Carroll you get used to the pressure, the games don't get bigger, only the crowd.

New Orleans needed this...the State of Louisiana needed it...It was wonderful to see the scene on Bourbon street after the game even if I personally would have stayed a million miles away from it. Guess I am getting old.