This past weekend, if a tourist went to San Antonio, chances are he or she was not visiting the Alamo. A safe bet would be he or she went to catch the final three games of the NCAA Tournament.

Eastern men’s basketball Coach Rick Samuels was one of those tourists.

“Those semi-final games were as good of a pair of games I have seen in a long time,” Samuels said.

Georgia Tech beat Oklahoma State and Connecticut beat Duke in those games. Samuels was not surprised by either result, but he did have hopes for Oklahoma State out of respect for Coach Eddie Sutton, who is in the twilight of his career.

The talk around town about the final four was the overall talent of UConn. The talk of the championship game was how legitimate the big men were.

“The legitimate big man usually departs early for the NBA,” Samuels said.

A center match-up between two players like Luke Schenscher and Emeka Okafor does not come often.

Many fans who watched the games watched as nothing more than fans of the game. Samuels, too, watches the games first as a fan, but his profession lures him into watching the game more intently.

“I watch more than just the game,” Samuels said. “I look for strategies, like when a coach takes a timeout or a set out-of-bounds play.”

While Samuels is watching the game, his wife, Jan, is right there next to him evaluating the cheerleaders.

“She says our Pink Panthers are better than any of the four teams’ cheerleaders,” Samuels said.

Samuels’ trip to San Antonio was not all about basketball. Between various meetings over the weekend, there was some down time during which Samuels had the opportunity to see what San Antonio had to offer.

“It’s not all play,” Samuels said.

Samuels is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and because all Division I-A basketball coaches get free tickets to the NCAA Final Four, the NABC schedules its yearly meeting in conjunction with the tournament.

Samuels is the Ohio Valley Conference representative of the NABC and acts as a facilitator to the other coaches in the conference.

After attending the NABC meeting, Samuels had to meet with the OVC coaches for three hours to tell them what is going on.

So what did Samuels do? What else would a basketball coach do?

Samuels went to an exposition where he found vendors selling anything basketball related, from uniforms, to videos to autographed basketballs.

Samuels also found time to visit with former Eastern assistant coaches, who have moved on to greener pastures, such as Southern Illinois Coach Matt Painter, who is considering leaving SIU to eventually succeed Gene Keady at Purdue.

Painter was not the only acquaintance Samuels was able to renew. Loyola-Marymount University Coach Steve Aggers was another old friend Samuels got to catch up with.

Aggers and Samuels grew up together. Both natives of Laramie, Wyo., they played basketball together at the junior high, high school and college levels.

“We talk on the phone on a regular basis but during the Final Four we get to visit,” Samuels said.

The thing that stood out in Samuels’ mind most about the tournament was that Eastern played Georgia Tech about three to four years ago when B.J. Elder and Schenscher were just freshmen and lost by only five points.

“If we would have shot a little better, we could have upset them,” Samuels said.

Samuels said he will tell his team that Georgia Tech was struggling the year Eastern played them but here they are four years later playing in the NCAA championship game.

“Georgia Tech struggled but they moved on,” Samuels said. “We struggled last year but we’ll move on.”