NEW ORLEANS — It was a mostly quiet and gray Wednesday afternoon along Bourbon Street, the calm before the storm. No crowds packing the street between the sidewalks, at least not yet. No lines to get into the music joints or the bars, and plenty of room in the places where they sell mango Daiquiris and cocktails and beer and pizza and street food under neon signs near street corners.
New Orleans remains one of America’s great party cities, and amid the peace on Wednesday was the sense, nonetheless, that something big is brewing. Bigger than Mardi Gras, even? Why not. The Final Four is back in this town for the first time since 2012, and it is not a foursome for the faint of heart, what with traditional powers Kansas and Villanova and, yes, Duke and North Carolina.
The teams made their way here throughout the past two days, with Duke arriving first, on Tuesday, followed by the others on Wednesday. This is not a small city and yet, in a way it can feel small, the action in the French Quarter self-contained, and not too far from the Superdome, which this weekend will become the epicenter of American sport.
