Postcard from Cleveland: This place really rocks!

It’s time to bid farewell to Cleveland, which was most definitely a worthy Final Four city. Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse was actually a city unto itself (they had to put stickers on the floor reading, “Media Path,” for us to be able to find our way to the media workroom.)

I had some time on Friday before the UConn-Iowa game to go visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As a frequent visitor to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, I was ready to be judgmental of the Rock Hall. So, do I lose my credibility as a baseball diehard if I say this one is better? Oh, boy. Just that music is part of the fabric of every facet of life. Who doesn’t have a song stuck in their head at least once a day? There’s SO MUCH there ... I started reading everything and realized if I kept that pace, I was going to miss the game. It was truly exceptional.

Also, before we left Cleveland, Lori Riley from The Hartford Courant and I (celebrating the fact we were no longer stranded in Washington, D.C.) visited the neighborhood of Littly

Italy. I had chicken Parmesan at a place called Maxi’s Bistro. The whole street is a parade of restaurants, ornamented in Italy’s red, white and green, and there was Sinatra singing, “That’s Life” over a loudspeaker as an added touch. A worthy ending after a long week of travel.

The press conferences following the game Friday night didn’t end until 1:30 a.m. (that’s why you didn’t see the story in Saturday’s paper). It was hard to see Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards in tears following a loss in their final game, but Nika made me smile as always when she said, “I’m pissed right now.” She guarded the nation’s all-time leading scorer in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in front of a TV audience of 17 million and did so valiantly, leaving with the legacy of a bulldog. “I'm glad Nika got to show on this platform, on this stage, what she’s been for us her entire four years at UConn,” Huskies’ All-American Paige Bueckers said.

Thanks, as always, for following along with the season. It’s been a joy to bring it to you.

The Day’s Vickie Fulkerson paid a visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while covering the Women’s Final Four this weekend in Cleveland. She claims it’s better than the Baseball Hall of Fame. Perhaps she’s not feeling well after all that travel?