St. Louis 'Cues

St. Louis means barbeque! Sometime in your 3+ days under the Arch, you gotta chow down on dry-rub ribs, slow-cooked brisket, pulled pork, sweet-potato fries, spicy baked beans... Yum!

Checking a variety of sources the following downtown locations look like good bets:

Pappy's Smokehouse, 3106 Olive St. From Yelp: "...picnic tables, rolls of paper towels on each table, big squirt containers of sauce... Loud blues playing over the sound system... they serve til they run out of food, and then they lock the door. Go early or call ahead."

The Shaved Duck, a new 'cue-oriented gastropub with "a terrific selection of beers... curated with great care." Order a side of mac&cheese, and apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert.

Smoki O's at 1545 N Broadway, mainly take-out and located in an industrial area. If the weather turns fine, grab some takeout lunch and go to one of St. Louis' many parks.

Pep Rally and Send-off Sunday afternoon

All those going to St. Louis, plan to be at the team hotel on Sunday 4/5 from 3:30 to 5pm for a reception—complimentary nosh and no-host bar—followed by team send-off with the Band.

If you hope to make this, you need to RSVP to Lisa Ortiz (Lortiz@stanford.edu).

The location is the Palm Court Lobby of the Millennium Hotel St. Louis (200 South 4th st.). Here's a google map (gettin' to like this google inset thing)

View Larger Map

Cardinal Spot in St. Louis

As at Tampa, the NCAA has designated a specific lounge for the fans of each Regional to gather. We from the Berkeley Regional are invited to hang out at:

Skybox Sports Bar & Grill

800 North Third Street

St. Louis, MO 63102

(314-241-5100)

(Contrary to our usual practice, we are not linking to the bar's URL. The URL is www.skyboxstl.com but we do not recommend opening it; it is Flash-based, content-light, and has loud annoying music you cannot turn off.) Here's a google map showing the route from the bar (A) to the Scottrade center (B).

View Larger Map

Planning for St. Louis

Hotels and air

The Cardinal Ticket office recommends Anthony Travel for booking hotels in St. Louis and air travel to it. Check that linked page for lists of hotels and available flights.

As usual, we don't publicize the team hotel, at least until we can announce a send-off event, but FBC members who really want to know can call the office and ask DeeDee.

WBCA High School All-American Game

The Women's Basketball Coaching Assn. stages this annual event, this year on the Saturday April 4th. Order tickets here, although when we attended the one in Tampa, there were plenty of seats available at the door.

On the roster for this year: Cal's recruits Layshia Clarendon and DeNesha Stallworth, USC's Monique Oliver, and of course, our own Joslyn Tinkle—and if you don't know a lot about her, you just haven't been reading John and Sue's Recruiting Blog.

Passing St. Louis Time

The usual schedule gives us all day Monday and most of Tuesday for recreation in the Gateway City. Here are some planning resources:

• The NCAA's guide to the event, which has an arena seating chart and parking info & more;
• Explore St. Louis's list of 25 things to do;
• Yelp's list of downtown Brew Pubs and the Anheuser-Busch tour (it's a beer-drinkin' town);
• The City Museum; St. Louis Art Museum; the Museum of Westward Expansion; the Botanical Garden and arboretum; the Eugene Field Home and Toy Museum;
• Shopping: Union Station is a mall inside the historic depot; Laclede's Landing is a riverfront "old town"; the Central West End neighborhood has galleries and restaurants; and here is a guide to more malls;
  
• A variety of guided tours.

Enjoy!

Team Send-Off Monday 3:30

The Band and any available fans will gather at the team hotel at 3:30 pm Monday 3/30, to see the team off to the game.

The team hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, located at 1800 Powell Street, Emeryville (google map).

This is not, repeat, not coordinated with the rally bus from the Stanford Campus. That bus will depart from Stanford at 3:30, the same time the team departs from the hotel in Emeryville. To attend the send-off you must find your own way to the hotel and then to the game.

Because the campus parking lots are not public until 5pm, one might plan to hang out in the hotel lobby, or at Emeryville's Marina Park, out in the Bay at the end of Powell street, and begin the hunt for parking space about 4:45 or so.

Parking Near Haas Pavilion

Do not fear the Berkeley Parking Monster! True, there is near-zero public parking near the campus during normal hours; but there is plenty of off-peak parking. Off-peak begins at 5pm weekdays and includes all day Saturday and Sunday -- which covers all game times nicely.

Here are the official rules for off-peak parking, but we can net them out as follows:

• Buy a ticket at the dispenser machine: $1/hour with a $12 maximum.
• Machines only take cash, so bring plenty of $1s and $5s.

Here is a relevant section taken from the official Parking Map (large PDF) showing the lots closest to Haas (click to embiggen):

Savvy Traveller Su Schaffer favors the non-University parking structure between Durant and Channing, just south of Telegraph. Other convenient lots are the Recreational Sports Facility Garage, a large underground facility just down Bancroft from Haas, and the Bancroft/Fulton lot a bit further, which can be entered from Bancroft or from Durant. There are several other public (non-University) parking facilities indicated on the full map (PDF linked above), south of the campus between Milvia and Shattuck avenues.

Give yourself a little extra time for circulating these narrow, busy streets and it should be quite possible to park for the games.

(Has anyone used the Ellsworth Structures off-peak? Please email travel@stanfordfbc.org if you have!)

Berkeley Hotels for Out-of-Towners

Coming to Berkeley for the Regional? Or, do you want a place to stay over after the late game on Saturday? Here are some hotel recommendations.

First, three that are a very short walk from Haas Pavilion:

• Hotel Durant, remodelled in 2008, apparently with a clever "college" theme. Some FBC members are known to be staying here.
• Berkeley City Club, a classic building by architect Julia Morgan, praised for weddings and such events, but the rooms get mediocre reviews.
• Bancroft Hotel, another quaint landmark building, said to have good service and breakfasts but tiny rooms and ancient furnishings.

If you don't mind a short (2-mi) drive, here are three nice places in the nearby waterside town of Emeryville:

• Hilton Garden Inn. Recommended by DeeDee.
  
• Courtyard by Marriott Emeryville.
• Four Point by Sheraton San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Game Time Set - and Party!

The game times have been set:

• 6pm: #4 Iowa State v. #9 Michigan State
• 8:30pm: #2 Stanford v. #3 Ohio State

In addition, the Buck/Cardinal club and Stanford Athletics are holding a pre-session get-together at Raleigh's on Telegraph Ave. For details go to the FBC Website and click on the link under Upcoming Events. Space is limited; RSVP soon!

News on a possible fan bus from Stanford to Berkeley will be available soon.

Go Cardinal!

Duke Out -- Times in Flux -- Check Your Email

Ninth-seeded Michigan State has fouled up everybody's plans (and brackets) by defeating Duke. The fourth team for the Berkeley Regional has yet to be determined, but it is certain that Stanford will be the highest seed present -- and the others will all be from the Central Time Zone.

What does this mean for the schedule? We may know later tonight, if the NCAA updates their bracket page following the Ball State - Ohio State game.

Fast Break members: check your email right away. Heather Owen has sent out a request for your interest in Rally Bus to the Saturday and Monday games, and another notifying you of a fan reception Saturday afternoon!

What Time is Saturday's Game???

In our prior post I said confidently that Stanford would play in the evening game, 8:30 on Saturday 3/28.

I thought I had seen that as a fact online -- but now I can no longer find it, and all online sources say "TBA." So hold the phone and don't make firm plans for Saturday -- it could still turn out to be the 6pm game.

It would make sense from a ticket-sales perspective to put the local favorites in the later spot, and from a TV point of view, it might make sense to put the (presumably) Duke game on at 9pm Eastern instead of 11:30pm.

On the other hand, you can't tell what the NCAA and ESPN will do until they do it. Sorry to think I making you feel as confused and nervous as I feel, but that's how it is. Will update as soon as anything is known.

Dave Cortesi

Early Berkeley Planning

So: on to Haas Pavilion for the Regional! First game, featuring (probably) Duke and (possibly) the upstart Ball State, is at 6pm Saturday. Second game, with Stanford versus Ohio State, at 8:30. (We don't know this yet! See later post!) The final is scheduled for Monday at 6pm (that at least is certain).

Reluctant to make the long drive home at that late hour, some FBC members are thinking of taking a hotel for Saturday night, specifically the Hotel Durant, just a few steps from Haas. Some of us have thought of riding BART, and worried about the late start, likely not being able to catch a train before 11pm. In fact the BART schedule promises southbound departures to Fremont as late as 12:29am.

At this point we get conflicting information on whether Stanford will have a ticket allotment to sell. If you need tickets for the Regional at Haas, call the Stanford ticket office at 9am tomorrow and ask. If they have tickets, fine; if not, go to the Cal ticket site.

We also have conflicting info on whether the Cardinal will stay in a hotel in Berkeley or at home. Regardless, and also given that at this stage of the tournament, it is important not to look past the next game -- in the event the Cardinal win on Saturday, there will be some type of send-off, somewhere, some time on Monday. Check here on Sunday morning!

San Diego Team Sendoff Monday

Come to the Cardinal team hotel, the Sheraton Mission Valley, at 4:30pm4:15pm Monday to help the Band send the team off to the game!

The hotel is at 1433 Camino Del Rio South, which is a frontage road along the southern edge of Interstate 8, just East of the SR 163 junction.

Here is the hotel site, the hotel's own local area map, and a rather better google map.