Weekend Notes

One of the last busy weekends of the season before the late-winter lull hits.

Super Bowl

Every year around this time we have dinner with some good friends to celebrate a shared birthday, S’s and the male half of their duo. This year Super Bowl Sunday was literally the only day that worked for both of us over a four weekend stretch. So we scheduled an early dinner for our celebration. We had trouble finding a reservation but the place we landed on was nearly empty. We realized why when we arrived; they had no TVs! Thus we missed most of the first half of the game, getting home with about 3:00 left in the second quarter.

Obviously we didn’t miss much.

And, thankfully, the game opened up in the fourth quarter.

What a dominant effort by the Seattle defense! They abused and confused Drake Maye all night. Or at least from what I saw. And great for Sam Darnold. He seemed like the classic QB bust, a high pick expected to save the Jets franchise who fell on his face. Worse, one that became a punchline because of his “I was seeing ghosts” game a few years back against the Patriots. I wouldn’t say he’s elite now, but neither is he a Trent Dilfer. This entire season was all about the defense carrying them. Still, despite leading the league in turnovers, Darnold did more than enough to get his team a title.

I didn’t really pay attention to the commercials once we got home, so no comments there.

I’ve never chosen to listen to a Bad Bunny song, mostly because I’m old. His halftime performance was a spectacular piece of entertainment, even with me having no context and not being able to understand more than a few words. I’m sure once I start wading into Super Bowl coverage later I will run across lots of mock outrage about it from the You Know Whos. The same folks who, when they take their vacations to secluded resorts and have 57 drinks by the pool, will sloppily dance to these exact songs when the DJ plays them. Sigh.

Repeat Champs!

After going 20 years without a sectional championship, our Irish went back-to-back this weekend. We played the same two teams we played a year ago in the semis and finals, in flipped order.

Friday we faced Purdue Poly, who we beat by 30 last year in the championship game. This year was closer. We led by just one after a quarter but then 12 at halftime and were feeling pretty good. Our best player got her third foul seconds into the third quarter. Our other best press breaker was struggling because of the flu. We proceeded to panic, gave up a 14–0 run, and found ourselves behind late in the quarter. Fortunately we ended the period on an 8–0 run and were able to extend that lead, winning by 12. We had at least two other girls who were showing flu symptoms. The team had a breakfast and shoot around Saturday morning. S sent a bag of cold and flu meds, liquid IV, and hand sanitizer with L to share with her teammates and, hopefully, help get them through the day.

In the final we played CA, who we beat by 40 a year ago in the semis. There was a story to that game I got into a little bit in my recap. They have a D1 recruit, who is going to Central Florida, a 6’3” sophomore who anchors their defense, and two other nice players. But are basically a one-girl team. They won their semifinal by 18 and were never pressured. I was a little worried when we got to the gym.

Misguided nerves, at least at first. We started red hot, hitting four of five 3’s. An 18–0 run helped us lead 21–5 after one quarter. CA changed their D a little, we got sloppy, and by halftime it was down to seven points.

The third quarter was weird. We were already in a zone, CA switched from a 2–3 to a 1–3–1, and neither offense seemed to know what to do. Multiple possessions involved a lot of standing around or passing the ball around the perimeter with no intent for 30–45 seconds. CA showed the curse of basically running your team around one or two players: when you face a good zone, having two or three girls standing around doing nothing makes it impossible to attack. Their offense generally was their best player getting pissed, driving into traffic, and scoring at the rim. Then we would wast a minute before bricking a shot. There was very little action in the period, but CA did outscore us by three so it was a four-point margin going into the final quarter.

They got it to three points a couple times but never had the ball with a chance to tie. We missed six free throws in the final 90 seconds, which did not inspire confidence, but still won by eight.

Much closer games than a year ago, but I think that is testament to how each of our opponents improved. I believe Purdue Poly returns their three best players and will be a genuine threat to win the sectional next year.

Not only a consecutive sectional championship, but by winning our 20th game, it’s the most wins in program history since 2004. Our reward? We get to play our semi-rivals 24–3 Roncalli, currently ranked #1, and the team that knocked us out of last year’s tournament. Not sure why we play them in regionals this year when it was semistate last year, but there’s never a lot of logic to Indiana sports.

The game will be in Greencastle, about an hour west of town, next Saturday. The game after ours will be another all Indy matchup, between the #1 and #5 4A teams. Again, no logic…

L was back in uniform, as Friday was the first day she was eligible to return. However, since she hadn’t been in an official practice yet, we figured there was no chance she would get on the court. We even hoped for that, as she’s not played in three weeks and stepping into a tense, playoff game would not set her up for success. Maybe she’ll get in next week, after a full week of practice, but as our lineup has been limited to just one or two bench players for the past week, odds are she won’t crack the rotation. Which is a bummer but also fine. If she had a chance to play in some regular season games I think both she and we would be more confident about her getting minutes. Right now she’s probably better suited sitting on the bench encouraging her teammates. She got to snip a piece of net in uniform Saturday, but for the second-straight season a strange injury prevented her from really being a part of the sectional championship team.

A quick note about our host school. We played at Shortridge, the oldest free public high school in Indiana.[1] It is currently in its fifth location since opening in 1864, on the edge of downtown Indy proper. Kurt Vonnegut, among other famous Indianapolis residents, went there. I LOVED looking at the old banners on the gym walls. They won the state track championship in 1905. They won wrestling semistate in 1908 and 1909, but never since. The gym was built in the 1920s but has been updated, and is big and fairly nice.

My favorite thing was the pictures of old teams on the walls. The school’s mascot is the Blue Devil. But there was a big, black and white photo of an old basketball team wearing jerseys that said Satans on them. Satans! In Indiana! In the 1920s! The best explanation I can find is that the original mascot was a cat named Felix[2] but the students decided they needed something fiercer, and voted for Blue Devils, honoring a French flying squadron from World War I, Les Diables Bleus. Along with that came the nickname of Satans, which was used for parts of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Good stuff!

Finally, playing three games we had the genuine pleasure of hearing the Shortridge athletic trainer sing the national anthem. Genuinely the best performances I have ever heard live. This lady was truly amazing. I tried to record it Saturday but somehow failed. I crossed paths with her Friday evening and told her how fantastic she was. And then she was periodically helping girls who had injuries. What a versatile woman!

Jayhawk Talk

Not the most satisfying win Saturday against Utah, but that was to be expected. A classic trap game, falling between Monday’s dramatic win in Lubbock and tonight’s visit from #1 Arizona. Flory Bidunga was, again, amazing but no one else really impressed. Hopefully they were just saving it for the Wildcats.

Something has to give tonight. Arizona is undefeated. In 1001 games in Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks have never beaten a team that was ranked #1.[3] Bill Self has never lost a Big Monday game at home. In their last 12 games against top ranked teams, KU has alternated two wins with two losses six consecutive times. They lost their last two…😳😬

Huge game. The next three weeks are the most difficult of the year for KU, with two games against Arizona, a trip to Iowa State, and a visit from Houston. It would be awesome to start it with a win.

Pacers

Hey, a big trade before the deadline! There had been chatter for a month or so that the Pacers would look to shore up their center position. I kept hearing Indy native Jaren Jackson’s name, who I did not think fit in with what the Pacers run, so was relieved when Memphis shipped him to Utah. Then the Pacers chatter died as the national media was more focused on whether Giannis and/or Anthony Davis would be moved.

So I was shocked, surprised, and pleased when I heard the Pacers were sending Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson plus draft picks to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac. Zubac is one of the most underrated centers in the league. He’s not an exact replacement for Myles Turner, as he spends much more time inside than Myles and is not much of a shooter. Where Myles was pick-and-pop, Zubac is pick-and-roll, and one of the best finishing big men in the league. He’s also a better defender and rebounder. A perfect match for Tyrese Haliburton, and Rick Carlisle is the perfect coach to unlock the potential of that combination.

Mathurin seemed destined to be traded. His style was never a great match for the Pacers’ system. In fact, he was the ideal counter to their style, someone who could come in when the starters were resting and just do his one-on-one thing for five minute spurts. The Pacers don’t get to game seven of the Finals without him, but he needs to start and that would be disruptive to the rest of the team. Smart move.

The only dicey thing about the trade was the Pacers including a protected first round pick this year. If the Pacers have a top four pick, they keep it, which is where you want to be this year. If it falls between five and ten, it goes to the Clippers. I think that’s a decent risk to take, but if the lottery balls fall wrong, the Pacers will not pick in the first round in June.

There are still some parts they could move in the summer regardless of what their draft status is. Bottom line, this trade put them on track to be an immediate contender again next year when Haliburton returns, Zubac gets integrated, and Pascal Siakam, hopefully, keeps playing like an absolute stud.

Speaking of Siakam, he should get a lot of rest in the second half of the season. The Pacers need to do everything they can to maximize their lottery odds for getting one of the top four picks and being able to add another potential cornerstone to this roster. Getting Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, Carlos Boozer, or Caleb Wilson would be a massive reward for losing Hali for a season. Pascal needs to spend more nights on the bench in street clothes than on the court and accidentally winning games.

Olympics

I watched a fair amount of Olympics coverage.

The story of the weekend was Lindsey Vonn crashing out of the downhill Sunday. I rolled out of bed moments after it happened live, so immediately saw live coverage of the aftermath. A couple hours later NBC re-ran the entire race. Then they squeezed it into their post Super Bowl coverage. As I shared with fellow SNL/Olympics Head John in Lee’s Summit, it felt a little like when Buckwheat got shot and “Ted Koppel” kept asking people if they’ve seen the video. “Let’s take a look…”

I have no strong opinions on Vonn racing. An accident seemed inevitable, but she had skied cleanly on Saturday and her wipe out Sunday seemed more because of a fluke – her pole catching on a gate while she was airborne and spinning her off balance – than anything caused by her knee injury. People called her reckless or worse. I figure she was there, this was likely the last time she would ever ski an Olympic downhill,[4] as long as it wasn’t deemed a safety hazard she might as well take a shot and see what happens. Sadly it ended in disaster rather than triumph.

Props to Breezy Johnson for capturing the gold. Best skiing name since Picabo Street.