NEW ORLEANS - Let's start by saying the unexpected highlight of the Welcome Party for Louisiana Tech's football team to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Wednesday night was probably senior offensive guard Josh Robinson's on-stage karaoke interpretation of "Fire and Desire" by Rick James, complete with ice machine mist and half his teammates cheering or jeering him on.

This sort of thing -- linemen from Lancaster, Texas singing impromptu versions of soulful tunes made famous by the original "Slick Rick" in a giant arcade that used to be a bowling alley -- happen in the city where voodoo was born.

This is New Orleans. Let the music take you.

The event began at 6 and the team was back at its hotel by 8:20 to close a long day that began with a bus ride, ended with a party and had practice in the middle. Thursday is the media luncheon, a Community Outreach Event and practice, Friday is a walk-through at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and Saturday is game day in the Dome with the kick at 8 p.m. against Arkansas State.

Wednesday night while the U.S. women's national team played China in the Dome in what soccer calls a "friendly" -- at least a half-dozen on-site Tech staffers attended that event, part of the so-long tour of international soccer great Abby Wambach -- the Bulldogs did pretty much the same, at least in spirit. The team, dressed in blue Nike track/warmup suits with the bowl patch stitched into the arm, relaxed at Shamrock, a giant arcade/bar in Mid-City that was rented out just for the Tech team. Unlike the Eiffel Tower or Robinson's home state of Texas, you CAN miss Shamrock: go down South Carrollton, eyeball Dollar Tree, take a quick right and there's Shamrock in the strip mall, sandwiched between the Rainbow discount store and Rio Ladies Wear and Shoes. If you get lost, listen for the roar of the deejay. Listen for the roar of the rap.

In other words, it was a good, loose, unstructured (very!) way to wind down Day 1 before some free time and bed check.

There was no alcohol of course -- although that was hard to believe if you'd have heard the karaoke. Before Robinson's heartfelt solo, it was a group effort. Record-setting, never-shy running back Kenneth Dixon led the charge, joined by hometown speedster Carlos Henderson, Lloyd Grogan of Morgan City, Paul Turner of West Monroe, Kentrell Brice of Ruston, DeJuawn Oliver of Napoleanville, Kam McKnight of Ethel and a few other student-athlete-singer-entertainer-dancers. With an attempt at choreographed moves improvised on the spot, they offered "Nice and Slow" by Usher. It was nice. And, eventually, over. They followed it with "Can You Stand the Rain" by New Edition, fitting since it sprinkled all day and since Tech has been plagued lately by foul weather on football Saturdays.

There was also food. Lots of it, easy pickins and all fried. Fried shrimp, fried fish, fried chicken, fried potatoes. There was shrimp in the cole slaw which, remarkably, was not fried. It passed as the meal's vegetable.

"If they'd had vegetables," said coach Tim Rattay, "they'd be fried too. No problem: these guys like fried."

Finally, there were the games. Senior fullback Ricky Jones and just-graduated senior linebacker Beau Fitte competed in darts. Senior defensive linemen and longtime roommates and "Madden Football" foes, Vernon Butler and Vontarrius Dora sat side by side and raced "Fast & Furious" machines. Junior placekicker Kyle Fischer proved to be a whiz at "Water Pong" -- a low-calorie and legal variation of Beer Pong -- and, last we checked, had made it to the finals in the big tournament that went on in a screened-in side room. The strong-legged redhead used his Water Pong "game nickname" on the wall's large bracket: "Ginger Redneck."

Walk-on-turned-scholarship running back Boston Scott had a solid ping pong game, and starting center David Mahaffey remembered how hard pool was, "but not as hard as playing offensive line." He's still pretty good at the game because "when I was a little kid we had a table," he said. One day he said his family, who will come from their home in nearby Brandon, Miss., to see him play Saturday, just "got rid of it. Not enough room." Maybe because Mahaffey is 6-feet-4, 307 pounds? You think?

There was air hockey, electronic bowling, state-fair basketball, tabletop shuffleboard -- offensive line coach Robert McFarland's got game! -- foosball, and all sorts of other games. "This is a nice place," said senior linebacker C.J. Cleveland of Shreveport. "Never really been in a place like this before."

One game it didn't have, though, was football. That will come soon enough.

"For it to be my last college game, and for it to be in the Superdome," Cleveland said, "that'll be nice."

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