Today the world’s attention turns to Cleveland and the Final Four for the Women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. March Madness. The two cities that hosted the Sweet 16—Albany, New York, and our very own Portland, Oregon—can celebrate the spotlight moving away. When NC State and and South Carolina tip off this afternoon, no one will be talking about Albany’s alleged lack of pleasant diversions or the screwed-up three-point line at the Moda Center. And Portland—home of the world’s first women’s sports bar, a dominant (present season excepted) women’s soccer team, and a former and possibly future WNBA team—can go back to just being Portland. But before we close this chapter, a few thoughts.

1. Measure twice, paint once.

The three-point line fiasco is not—I repeat, not—Portland’s fault. One side of the court had the standard three-point line used for both men’s and women’s NCAA hoops. On the other side, the top of the line’s arc was too close to the top of the key. While the asymmetry was clear to the naked eye, even from the Moda Center’s nosebleed seats, it wasn’t until four Sweet 16 games had already been played that officials finally brought out the tape measure. For comparison, at a Mariners game it’s standard for the grounds crew to double-check that the bases are 90 feet apart between batting practice and the first pitch. When I set up a cornhole game in my driveway for a party, I measure the distance between the boards before I open a beer.

The NCAA contracts with a Michigan-based company to make the tournament courts, and the NCAA is responsible for quality control. Did someone mix up inches and centimeters? Had they had too many Stroh's when they were entering the dimensions? Did something happen in the space-time continuum to temporarily place the Moda Center in the Oregon Vortex, some 215 miles south? We don’t know. Are we disappointed some Blazer DJ or elderly Chiles Center or Viking Pavilion regular with binoculars or geometry-minded local middle schooler didn’t notice it on the first day and become a whistleblowing nerd hero? Of course. But that’s just a missed opportunity. Again: Not. Our. Fault.

2. There’s more to this tournament than Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

The most-watched basketball game ever on ESPN (so far), Monday’s Elite Eight matchup headlined by Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese and the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark happened at the other Sweet 16 site, in Albany. That’s where their coaches, Kim Mulkey and Dawn Staley, blasted the Washington Post and thanked God. But ask anyone who was at the Moda Center last week—as NC State pulled ahead of Stanford in the third quarter on Friday, or when JuJu Watkins and her 30 points carried USC to its first Elite Eight in 30 years last Saturday, or when the Wolfpack didn’t even give Texas a chance last Sunday, or when Paige Bueckers started doing Paige Bueckers things on Monday to propel Geno Auriemma’s UConn crew to its zillionth Final Four—if they didn’t feel like they were at the center of the gosh-darn universe.

3. Google Maps doesn’t like the pedestrian walkway on the Steel Bridge.

Did you cross the Willamette on the MAX or drive over the Steel Bridge last weekend and wonder why there were so many pedestrians on the upper-level walkway? Visiting Duke fans finishing up lunch at the Midtown Beer Garden and innocently typing Moda Center into Google Maps as their walking destination were told to follow the cars up the on-ramp of the Steel Bridge and endure the narrow sidewalk with only a low railing separating them from vehicle traffic. The zigzagging ramp on the east side of the bridge adds just enough linear feet to trick Google into considering the wide, sunny, leisurely lower walkway—where a family of Baylor or Gonzaga fans wouldn’t have to walk single file and could even find room to stop for a photo op for their next holiday card—to be a too-long, less-desired route. Hope none of our visitors who were sent skyward by their map apps were afraid of heights (or afraid of bridges).

4. Cleveland has more to offer than Portland? Sure, Jan.

Don’t get us wrong. We love a Sweet 16 (and a quinceañera, and a bar or bat mitzvah), but it’s not a Final Four. Portland will host its first Women's Final Four in 2030, a huge boon for the city and state and the result of years of work behind the scenes by groups including Sport Oregon and the University of Portland. But Cleveland gets to host one this year, and for the second time. I mean, Cleveland’s great. Sure. The city Liz Lemon almost moved to. The city that rocks, according to Drew Carey. The city where Howard the Duck once saved Lea Thompson and the whole planet. The city whose history with Indigenous imagery in its sports mascots can make a Portland hockey fan think, “Well, as bad as the Winterhawks’ logo was, at least it wasn’t that.”

5. At least we’re not Albany (which is lovely, by the way).

So maybe neither city is a real hub when it comes to air travel, but at least we can take the MAX from PDX right to the game. We’re not NYC or Vegas or New Orleans in terms of happeningness, but I don’t recall Rebecca Lobo complaining that there’s nothing to do in Portland. Even on a Monday night, she could have had a blast at the Spirit of ’77 watch party and then headed downtown for Karaoke from Hell at Dante’s or some beer-in-hand arcade games at Ground Kontrol. But, hey, Albany, in Portland we know what it’s like to have a false narrative in the national media—heck, the three-point line stuff was kind of a nice break from the “Portland is dying” headlines and being a Fox News punching bag. We know you have great Italian food, a bitchin’ state capitol tour and constantly entertaining statehouse drama, and your very own flower-packed Washington Park. We’ll grant that Troy is prettier than any Portland suburb. And we envy your dependable, usually on-time Amtrak service that doesn’t keep getting suspended due to landslides near Felida or delayed by freight right-of-way. But we don’t mind being stuck in the Rose City.