Spiders Getting Eye-Opening Experience In New Orleans
12/26/2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 26, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The University of Richmond men's basketball team is in New Orleans, La. where the Spiders have had the eye-opening experience of witnessing a city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina just four months ago.Richmond is in the Big Easy to play the first men's collegiate or professional sporting event in the city since Hurricane Katrina. The Spiders will face Tulane on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (7 p.m. CST).
The team arrived Sunday and found a city that on one block seemed normal, but on the next showed the signs of total destruction. Staircases stood alone with the house that had accompanied them in a pile of rubble. Storefront after storefront was boarded up and the ones that are not boarded have workmen inside basically building the interior from scratch. The few stores or gas stations that are open display spray-painted plywood signs that welcome guests.
The Spiders are staying in the downtown area, about 500 yards from the riverfront. When the levees broke, water had flooded Canal Street, reaching just one block from the team's hotel. The Superdome is right down the street and has already appeared to undergo repairs to its roof, but many street lights in the area still aren't working, replaced by temporary stop signs.
A look at the Tulane campus during the daylight reveals a student center that has been stripped down to its frame and buildings still have water being pumped out of them. Tulane's baseball stadium, formerly with a capacity of 3,500, had most of its wooden grandstands leveled.
Current Richmond assistant coach Carlin Hartman knows the destruction more than the rest of the Richmond group. Hartman starred for Tulane from 1990-94, helping lead the team to a pair of NCAA Tournament second-round appearances.
Hartman drove through the campus on Monday afternoon in amazement as he looked at what remained of the student center and pointed out the dormitory he lived in freshman year, which still had water being pumped out of it.
Richmond junior Peter Thomas went with his parents to the Ninth Ward area of the city, which sustained some of the most damage when the levee broke. He told stories of houses having moved off their foundations, cars tipped over and large piles of rubble everywhere.
An evening bus ride to the Tulane campus for practice reveals city streets in total darkness, entirely deserted. Entire strip malls are in ruins.
Fogelman Arena, the home of the Green Wave since 1933, seems to have avoided the devastation of Katrina. But in one corner of the gym an eerie scene plays out where a plastic bag full of brand-new volleyballs sits waiting to be inflated, where it must have been put in late August during the Tulane women's volleyball team's preseason practice.
The women's basketball team was the first group of students to return to the campus, leaving their refuge at Texas A&M to play the first collegiate or professional sporting event in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. The Green Wave defeated Central Connecticut State on Dec. 18 by a score of 72-60 in front of 829 fans in Fogelman Arena.
The Green Wave men's team had also lived in College Station, Texas since Aug. 30, before returning this weekend.
It's uncertain what kind of crowd will turn out for Tuesday's game, when longtime Maryland assistant coach Dave Dickerman coaches his first game in Fogelman Arena.
What is certain is that despite what the residents of this city have been through and despite what they face in trying to get back to normal, every single person welcomes the Richmond travel party with a smile and a warm greeting.
