All one needs to know about Albuquerque is that the No. 1 seed in the 1983 Final Four stayed in the best hotel in town...not really in town, but at the airport. That's right, Albuquerque's best hotel in 1983 was at the airport.
Among the NCAA's many failings, having the Final Four in Albuquerque was an epic fail, even by their pathetic standards. There were not enough hotel rooms for 17,000 fans. As the worst seeded team, many of NC State's fans were forced to stay in motels in Grants, NM. Grants is nothing but a gigantic truck stop on I-40 about 70 miles west of Albuquerque. They're all lucky they didn't succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.
We were lucky, too. We didn't have to stay in Albuquerque either. We stayed in downtown Santa Fe. Best Mexican food you've ever had in your life. Santa Fe is frozen in time in the late 1960's. It was great. Albuquerque.....not so much. If I never return there again, it will be too soon.