Weekend Notes

Another fairly boring weekend for most of our family, so today’s entry will focus on sports.

Senior Pics

OK, one big family event over the weekend. L had her senior picture session on Sunday. C came home for a couple hours to help her with her makeup. I was allowed to help carry things to the car but otherwise was kept out of the way.

All seemed to go well, although apparently one of the groundskeepers at the location they were using tried to balk at them being on the grounds after they had closed for the day.¹ Fortunately our photographer talked him out of that and they were able to proceed normally. Another thing marked off both the senior checklist and the list of things S and I will never have to endure again.

HS Football

Friday was opening night for high school football in Indiana.

CHS began the year ranked #2 in 5A. However, the #1 team and defending state champs, New Pal, are in the Irish’s sectional, tempering expectations for this year. While CHS nearly, and probably should have, beat NP last year, I think their talent level is down this year.

They traveled to the west side to take on Ben Davis, who they beat each of the last two opening nights.

The Irish fell in an early 14-0 hole and I started looking at the schedule, wondering if this might be CHS’ first losing season in 23 years. The gap grew to 21-7 before the Irish defense decided to wake up. Midway through the fourth quarter CHS tied it at 27-all. BD scored but missed their second PAT of the night, opening the door for the Irish to steal the win. CHS got into BD territory before fumbling the ball away with about a minute to play. 33-27 final.

I’m still not sure I see four wins on the schedule despite the better second half performance. Of course, that’s hard to determine since five of CHS’ eight games are against out-of-state teams. I know at least two of those schools are really good. A couple others CHS has played in recent years and they’ve been close games. I guess we’ll find out over the next two months.

College Sports

Each time something happens in college sports I think, “OK, this is as low/dumb as it can get.” Then a week later I am shocked when something lower/dumber happens.

This whole nonsense about players suing to get the new NCAA policy of five years to play five seasons applying retroactively is the dumbest. Seriously, LSU just signed a kid who was in two different NFL camps over the summer, practicing with Cleveland as recently as last week.

Eligibility has turned into who can find the right judge to get an injunction, and then wondering how long that injunction will stand.

What the fuck are we doing here?

This applies to KU because it seems like if the current framework remains in place – no guarantee! – Tre White will likely return to play for the Jayhawks this coming season. And Melvin Council has a court date to get a sixth year.

I like both of these guys. I think Tre, especially, could help this year’s squad. But this is dumb on a lot of levels.

Melvin already got an extra year and now he wants another because he couldn’t stick with an NBA team over the summer?

And while I think Tre would be a good addition, what does him showing up and sliding into a starting spot say to the players who spent the summer in Lawrence, bonding, learning Bill Self’s system, getting better together? I’m sure Tre and Melvin, if they return, aren’t going to defer to freshmen. I would be pissed if I was one of the guys who busted my ass all summer and then these two old guys just showed up in September.

I suppose the argument Self might give in response is that his recent teams have struggled because there haven’t been those program guys who knew his system that hung around, and Tre and Mel could provide much-needed leadership for a pretty young squad.

I kind of get that.

It’s not like either of them are three or four year Jayhawks, though. They were both on campus for one rather strange year.

I still think the negatives outweigh the positives. Give the freshmen and sophomores who were on campus the chance to play. Tyran Stokes will be in the NBA next year, but most of the other young guys are not ready to make that jump and are prime candidates to return. If you bring in two more old heads, you pretty much guarantee that the young guys who don’t get to play because of their presence are out the door next spring, keeping the Jayhawks on that treadmill of mediocrity they’ve been on the last three years.

But my basketball head coaching record consists of some mediocre grade and middle school CYO ball, so what do I know?

Fever

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the Indiana Fever. That’s because I stopped watching them for a few weeks. Their games weren’t fun because of Caitlin Clark’s constant tantrums and all the unnecessary discord that went along with them.

In late July something shifted and the team started playing better. I watched parts of a few games and it seemed like Clark had found a way to settle down and not complain about every single freaking call. Then the team got locked in and started absolutely humming. They won 10 of 12 games before their three games in four days stretch this past weekend, when they dropped two straight before pounding Chicago last night.

There’s, of course, a whole new level of stupid discussion around the team I’m not going to get into. Primarily because most of the people losing their minds over it are not serious in their concern for the health of the WNBA or women’s sports in general, but rather looking to manufacture a political controversy to scare people into thinking something that is not a true threat to women’s sports is actually a problem.

What I do want to talk about, though, is how delightful it is to watch Kelsey Mitchell play. I’m ashamed that I had no idea who she was when Clark joined the Fever three seasons ago. We quickly learned that she was a stone-cold killer on the offensive end. At first there seemed to be some tension in how to harness the best of both Mitchell’s and Clark’s games, as there was significant overlap. That has been figured out, and Mitchell is now on one of the league’s great hot streaks. She’s scored 20 or more points in 23 straight games, a league record. One night last week she scored 29 points in 24 minutes, literally on fire as she had to sit out the fourth quarter because she was overheating.

What I love most about Mitchell, though, is how she’s very much the anti-Clark. She rarely complains. She rarely tries to sell minimal contact as some egregious foul. She calmly tears the defense apart with a combination of 3-point bombs and twisting layups in traffic, where her arms seem to extend far past what they should be capable of in order to get the ball past the defense. She plays most of the game with a stoic expression, only occasionally letting a sheepish grin slip out when she’s hit consecutive 3’s or curls in a ridiculous shot in the paint. She helps players from both teams up off the floor. She seems happier for her teammates when they play well than when she’s dropping 30 points on someone. Opponents seem to almost universally respect her. There aren’t normally post-game handshakes in the WNBA. I’ve seen opponents come over multiple times and give her respectful hugs after the final buzzer.

Oh, and she’s currently working on her Ph.D. Well rounded!

Add all that up and she is the perfect backcourt for Clark. Ice to CC’s fire. Steady to CC’s wild. Calm to CC’s, well, not-so-calm.

And I bet most of these people who suddenly care about the health of the WNBA and protecting its players have no idea that Mitchell is about to earn her fifth, first team All-WNBA honors.

If L was ten years younger and wanted to buy a Fever jersey, I would almost insist that she get a Kelsey Mitchell one.

Royals

Hey, the Royals have won eight straight!

Does it mean anything?

Of course not, bad Royals teams always play well this time of year, when nothing matters and the teams actually in the playoff hunt are taking a breath before the final stretch run.

Certainly not enough to get me to pony up for the final month of games. I’m sure ESPN would just rope me into some extras I have no interest in anyway. Also, with another dishonest lockout coming, I don’t want to give MLB a single dollar to think I’m interested. Because my opinion matters.

Pacers

Full NBA schedules came out last week. Tyrese Haliburton’s triumphant return to the court comes…on the road in New Orleans, in a game that will not be nationally broadcast. Insane.

In better news, the team announced their partner for televising their games this year. It is a service called DAZN. A name so stupid there is actually an entry on the service’s FAQ page instructing how to pronounce it. Apparently you say it like “Da Zone.” Oh that’s never not going to be annoying this year.

That said, after not seeing the Pacers last year because of my switch to YouTube TV and Hali’s absence making me not want to buy the package that carried them, I’m back in for the 2026-27 season. I’m sure this brand new service will work without any issues and I won’t be ranting about it in this space.

1. And we paid for access, it’s not like they just showed up and started taking pictures.