Section 15: Roll Tide! - NYTimes.com Can Downtown Brooklyn start to challenge Daytona Beach and Panama City as a top spring break destination? Students from Toronto and Maine have spent time off from school in Section 15 this season. Add Meredith Brown and Cory Jierski of Clinton, Miss., to that list. Brown and Jierski, both 24, took advantage of Brown's spring break at Mississippi College, where she is working toward a master's degree in elementary education, to spend some time in New York before continuing on to visit family in Massachusetts. They extended the New York part of their trip for an extra day to see the Nets host the New Orleans Hornets. "We've actually seen the Hornets play before but we've never seen the Nets play," Brown said. We're both huge sports fans. The N.B.A. is not as big just because we don't have teams that are really that great. But he's grown up a really big Celtics fan, and my family in Massachusetts are big Celtics fans. We've got season tickets for college football at Alabama. The family's Celtics ties have muted any allegiances to the Hornets or the Atlanta Hawks, whom Brown followed while growing up in Tuscaloosa, Ala. "We follow it big time," Jierski said of the N.B.A., "but we just don't have a team close enough for us to go to. I mean, New Orleans is two and a half hours away, and that's the closest. Of course, driving time is all relative. The couple, who are engaged and have a wedding scheduled for Dec. 28, will head to Memphis next week to watch the Grizzlies play the Celtics. And they make the three-hour drive from Clinton to Tuscaloosa on football Saturdays to root for the Crimson Tide. We put a lot of time and money toward sports, don't we? Brown said. Jierski, who paid $108 a ticket through NBA.com, sighed and nodded: "We do." So, checking out the new Barclays Center was more of a draw than the visiting Hornets. (And it wouldn't matter if the team had already switched names to the Pelicans. "No, it just doesn't fit," Jierski said. "It's weird.") The arena did not disappoint. "It's amazing," Brown said. The screen is nice. The architecture outside is really nice. This is the nicest concession stand I've ever seen. We went to the Dallas Cowboys" new stadium in September, and this food is much better than there." The couple had a couple of brats from Brooklyn Bangers, followed by Junior's Cheesecake for Jierski and ice cream for Brown, who also picked up a Brooklyn Nets T-shirt. "It's impossible to find Brooklyn Nets gear in Manhattan," she said. We looked everywhere. Brown seemed to be rooting for the Nets, especially Gerald Wallace, whom she watched play at Alabama. "There are some very passionate fans," Brown said of the Barclays crowd, which actually seemed subdued. They're very loud and proud. Would the Brooooooklyn chant replace Roll Tide in their daily conversations? Brown squished up her face and said, "I think people would look at us a little funny."