D's Notebook

Month: November 2021 (Page 1 of 2)

Weekend Notes

November 22, 2021 /

Our house smells different this morning. Some of that is a real change in the aromatics that are spread around, some of it is the smell of anticipation. As we begin a Thanksgiving week unlike any other in our family’s history, some notes from the weekend.

Friday was semi state for high school football in Indiana. Cathedral played a school from down near Louisville that only advanced because their regionals opponent, who had beaten them by 30 in the regular season, was missing their starting quarterback and running back. CHS was up 14–0 about three minutes into the game, gave up a long touchdown, then proceeded to score another 28 points in the first half, cruising to a 52–13, mercy rule assisted win.

It is back to the state title game against Zionsville for the second-straight year. The schools have two common opponents. CHS was 2–0 in those games; ZHS 0–2. ZHS has improved on offense this year. This could be CHS’ best defensive team in recent memory. The computer rankings suggest that CHS is a 16 point favorite. That feels about right.

M and C both went to the game. They were more concerned with what happened afterward, though. The local TV station that awards a spirit banner to the best student section each fall was down to its two finalists: CHS and the Catholic school up in Hamilton County. Both schools had been pulling out all the stops on social media in recent weeks to earn the award. At about 11:20, on live TV, CHS won the banner. I think M was more excited about that than she’s been about anything this year. This should give the “We got spirit” cheer a little extra heft for the next year.

Saturday was my annual Mow the Yard day. I borrowed our old mower from my sister-in-law and ran it around the house to take care of the leaves. Which means there’s like a 50–50 shot our lawn service will show up today for the first time in a month. I do this once each fall and it always reinforces our choice to pay someone else to mow weekly. Even though I just mowed around the house (for those of you who know our land setup), it still took me over two hours. It was chilly but dry and I got some steps in. Glad that’s a once-per-year activity, though.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon actually watching KU football. Who would have guessed that? I figured the Jayhawks would come out and lay a big, fat egg after beating Texas last week. So I was shocked they stayed in the game the entire 60 minutes. Who knows if the result, a three-point loss on a field goal in the final 10 seconds, would have been different if Devin Neal hadn’t gotten hurt late in the first half. He’s the real deal and was gouging the Frogs’ D. Props to the offense for coming back after falling behind by 14 points. Jalon Daniels made some mistakes this week, but shook them off to key the rally. And how about last week’s hero Jared Casey getting legit minutes and making some big plays?!?!

Man, that defense can not tackle, though, which was they key to the game. Wrap up properly and KU wins easily. TCU, like Texas, is a mess. But being in the game and having a real shot to win is a huge step for the KU program. Now go get some dudes, Lance!

I haven’t watched a ton of the Colts this year. Their early season bad streak, some vaccine issues on the roster, and plenty of Sunday youth basketball meant I missed or had little interest in many of their games. Lately I’ve taken to going to the gym when the Colts are in, knowing I can knock out a quick workout during that window when the gym isn’t super busy.

But I watched a lot yesterday. And they were impressive. I know there are a lot of factors that go into their hot streak. The biggest, though, has clearly been reigning in Carson Wentz and letting Jonathan Taylor destroy people. Which is cool because that should have a much better chance to work in the playoffs over letting Carson chuck it 48 times.

They have Tampa and New England in the next few weeks, so we’ll see how real this winning streak is.

I’ve become a much more casual NFL watcher, too. I enjoy the Colts games when they win, but don’t get too upset when they lose. I’m happiest on Sundays just finding an entertaining game to watch and keeping one eye on it while I do other things.

Finally, I mentioned above that this is a unique Thanksgiving week for us. I’ve hinted at this several times but it is time for the reveal: assuming our flights all go as planned (knock on wood), we are spending a week in Kauai, beginning this Wednesday.

That’s it! That’s the big one!

This is our rescheduled trip from the summer of 2020. We attempted to lock it in for last summer, but the islands continued to require a two-week quarantine too deep into the season for us to make that work. We thought about Christmas but knew that would be super expensive. Plus we worried about a third surge (this was before the late summer Delta surge) hitting right before the holidays and things shutting down again. So we booked for Thanksgiving. We are all very excited, as you can imagine. And hopeful last month’s air traffic issues don’t pop up again.

We got the suitcases out a week ago and have been building piles of clothes, and Sunday was the day to really get organized. Other than last minute additions and toiletries, we are probably 95% packed.

We leave here mid-day Wednesday and will arrive after midnight Eastern time, which will be fun. Our return flights have already changed twice and we are coming back a day earlier than originally scheduled because of that. We’ll spend all next Tuesday getting home. Hopefully. We went from a two-flight trip home to a three-flight run, and there is one tight connection in there, so I guess we’ll see if we make it home in the early hours of next Wednesday or sometime later that day if we have issues.

As part of that, while we were listening to the CHS game Friday, L and I got a bunch of Christmas decorations out. Which is a huge upset, right?!?! We got just about everything but the big tree put up. We didn’t have time to get to that over the weekend so it will be saved for our return. The stockings are hung, the decorative pillows have been swapped out, and all the Christmas candles and wax melters have the house smelling delightful and festive. No Christmas music yet, though. Because I still have some standards.

Jayhawks Notes: On Remy and Expectations

November 19, 2021 /

There was no time for a full Friday Playlist, but there is time for some words about the Jayhawks.

Thursday’s game against Stony Brook was about what you expect this time of year. KU – especially David McCormack – was sloppy early; they struggled to guard a smaller, faster team; and generally muddled through the first 20–25 minutes. Then Ochai Agbaji caught fire and scored 10 straight points, the rest of the team relaxed, and a 20+ point run put the game away.

My big thought from last night regards Remy Martin. We are three games into the season and KU Twitter loves losing its shit when it looks like Remy is uncomfortable or deferring too much. Last night’s performance comes with a big asterisk: he is apparently fighting a minor back injury that flared up during the game and kept him on the bench most of the last 15 minutes of the night.

That said, I have a theory about Remy. I’m not sure if it holds much water, but here it is.

Three years ago Malik Newman was the hotshot, pure scorer who had transferred in and was supposed to make a huge impact. That was eventually true, but it took Malik a loooong time to get comfortable. He played so poorly during one stretch in early January that some of us were suggesting he should get benched.

In February he finally started to get comfortable and in March he ignited. He shot about as pure as you can shoot the ball on his way to being the Big 12 Tournament MOP. He famously almost single-handedly destroyed Duke in the Elite 8.

Their situations are obviously very different – Remy is a super senior, Malik was a redshirt sophomore; Malik sat out a transfer year, Remy arrived on campus in August – but I think we can learn a little about Remy by recalling what Malik went through. Remy, too, is finding his way. The nation’s leading scorer is playing next to him, and while he might be deferring to Agbaji a little too much, that is pretty smart basketball.

Assuming his back injury remains minor and does not linger, I think he will continue to have growing pains for the next six-to-eight weeks. With Jalen Wilson re-joining the rotation next week that will add another wrinkle to the acclimation process. But Remy will figure it out. He will eventually have games where he is gunning and scores 25+. Those will be balanced with plenty of games where he scores 10–15 points but has 5–6–7 assists. And with him and Agbaji both high-confidence scorers, it gives KU terrific options late in the shot clock or in close games.

I know some folks wanted Remy to come in and just go off. He came to KU to win, though. And he’s on the path to figuring out the best way to make sure his talents are focused on team success rather than his numbers.

Friday Vid

November 19, 2021 /

“Plowed” – Sponge
No time for a full playlist this week, so I did the thing where I randomly scroll through my library and pick something that pops up. This was the third song I landed on, and it seemed appropriate since I heard an unplugged version of it on Sirius yesterday. This is not a song that sounds super cool when done acoustically. Probably because the original was so good. Happy weekends to all.

Real, Live Hoops

November 18, 2021 /

With L done with hoops for the time being, I figured I should still get out and watch some live basketball.

Tuesday I went to my first high school game in a long time. C has a classmate that made the varsity team (girl also made varsity soccer as a freshman, so obviously she’s a stud). A few of the freshmen girls wanted to go and support her so I took C.

CHS is usually pretty mediocre in girls hoops, but this team shows some promise. Of course, they were playing kind of a crappy team. They won by 30 and were paced by a junior who transferred in this summer. She can kind of do everything, although I thought she tried to do too much often.

I was watching just to see what kind of system the head coach ran to give L – who did not attend – some scouting. The bummer for L is that there wasn’t anyone on the varsity roster shorter than 5’11”. She’s still growing – up to 5’3”! – but I think 5’11” might be too tall an ask for her body. She’s going to have to dazzle the coach with her speed, ball handling, and IQ if she wants to make varsity when she gets to CHS.

Wednesday I took L and two friends to the Butler-Michigan State game. It was her first college basketball game, so obviously her first trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse.

We got great tickets thanks to S doing some work with Butler on their Covid strategies over the past few months. We were in the eighth row directly behind the Michigan State. I couldn’t quite hear Tom Izzo during timeouts. But if I wanted to be an ass I probably could have reminded the support staff in the row behind the bench of the score from last week’s game with KU.

The game was not great. I don’t think Butler is very good this year, and the Spartans looked a lot better than a week ago in New York. They were just too big and too athletic for the Bulldogs. It was a 8–11 point game for most of the first 25 minutes or so. Butler hit a 3 to cut it to six, MSU immediately answered and went on something like a 12–0 run to put the game away. I was hoping for a more competitive game so we could get the full Hinkle experience.

I had been to Hinkle once before as a reporter. That was for an exhibition game, so a very different environment. Wednesday, the crowd was juiced for the first five minutes or so, until it became obvious that Butler wasn’t ready for this matchup. Those first few minutes were great, though.

Hinkle definitely has that old school college gym vibe that I love. It has a different setup than Allen Fieldhouse, but there are some common threads. It holds 9100, and Wednesday was the first time it has been filled to capacity since Covid’s arrival. Because of how the seats are arranged – very short end zones and long, tall side sections, the building itself feels tiny. Old timers will remember the track that used to run around the seats at Allen. The ground-level footprint of Hinkle is much smaller. It’s hard to describe without walking it yourself, but you get the sense that you’re more in a big high school gym than a D1 college arena.

I think L and her buddies’ highlight of the night came after the game. Once the teams and support staff clear out, they open up the floor for anyone to shoot around. Which is very Indiana, right? One of L’s buddies brought a ball so they went down and shot for about half an hour, having a ton of fun. I laughed at all the older, Michigan State dudes who kept taking their ball to get their own shots up. It never got uncomfortable where I needed to step in, but there was like no realization that they had taken the ball away from a group of 13-year-olds. I guess normal playground rules should apply, but even when the kids were making shots these green-clad goobers were taking the ball for their own shots. I blame alcohol.

One of L’s CYO teammates and good friends was sitting with her family directly opposite of us. That girl’s older sister went to Michigan State so she and her brother were wearing Spartans jerseys. I was shocked I didn’t see a Magic Johnson jersey, although I’m sure there was one somewhere in the building. I did see a woman in her 20s who was wearing a Scott Skiles jersey. There HAS to be a family connection of some kind, because that’s entirely too random. Skiles is from Indiana, and played for the Pacers at one point, so perhaps that’s the connection. I wanted to go thank her for Skiles, a 90+% free throw shooter, missing two huge free throws against Kansas in the 1986 NCAA tournament, but figured A) that was a dick move and B) she would probably have no idea what I was talking about since she was born 20 years after the game.

Tough result, but fun night.

Reader’s Notebook, 11/17/21

November 17, 2021 /

Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr
When you win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, as Doerr did for his wonderful All The Light That We Cannot See, it can be a bitch to follow it up. So why not build a story around five main characters who occupy 700 years of time? If nothing else, the sheer scope of the book will make it stand out.

There is no good way to summarize this book. It ranges from the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 to a spacecraft fleeing a dying Earth for a potential new home planet for humans in the 22nd century. A healthy dose of the book takes place in the 20th Century, both in the 1940s through the 1950s and in our current age. That all seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

There is a common thread throughout it all, though: a fictional story by the real Ancient Greek writer Antonius Diogenes called Cloud Cuckoo Land. Doerr traces the discover of a battered text of the story as Constantinople falls to the Ottomans, its effect on a Korean War veteran, his presentation of the story to a group of children in 2020, its role as a rehabilitation tool for an eco-terrorist in the near future, and finally as a source of inspiration and discovery for a pre-teen on that spaceship.

It takes awhile for it all to come together, but I promise you it does. It was a little slow and messy as Doerr got everyone settled into their roles. But, eventually, the book becomes a lot of fun. There was a nice warmth to the final 100 pages or so. Even with several very sad moments, I finished the book with a smile on my face.

All The Light We Cannot See was a fabulous book. I don’t know a person who read it who hasn’t recommended it to others. Cloud Cuckoo Land doesn’t match it, but it has fun trying.

Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America – Alec MacGillis
Online shopping has changed the world in countless ways. I think most consumers realize those changes aren’t all for the good. I’m the first to admit I online shop way too often, and my first stop is Amazon, even knowing how problematic that is.

MacGillis dives deep into the massive effects Amazon has had on our economy and society. And from his perspective, none of those effects are good things.

He discusses the low wages Amazon pays most of its warehouse and delivery workers. The long hours those workers spend in warehouses that are often dangerous. How the company demands massive tax breaks from local governments in return for those low-paying jobs. How Amazon undercuts local businesses in numerous ways. How Amazon demands all interactions with local government be kept secret, preventing any oversight by the outside public. And so on.

It’s not a great portrait. And it feels largely fair. It underscores my discomfort that Amazon is such a big part of our family spending. Yet it is so easy to find something you want/need on their site that will arrive cheaper and more quickly than from other vendors and go ahead and click purchase…

What a Night: KU Football?!?!

November 15, 2021 /

Holy shit!


There aren’t a lot of big, important, communal memories surrounding Kansas football.

For those of us who were in school in the early 90’s, there was the Monte Cozzens game, when KU beat Oklahoma. For the few of us who stuck it out through the cold, there was the Tony Sands game.

The Mangino era brought an epic win over Nebraska, an Orange Bowl victory, and a game-winning, fourth down play against Missouri in the snow.

Since then, though? Nothing. When you average two wins a year over a decade, it’s tough to make memories.

It doesn’t matter than it came in what is likely to be a two-win season, against a mediocre, underachieving, injury-ravaged Texas team that seemed half checked-out mentally: Saturday’s 57–56 overtime win in Austin was one of the biggest moments in KU football history.

The fact that’s not even a question sums up how crappy KU football history is. So what? It is a game those of us who watched/listened/attended will never forget it.

A 31-point underdog, who hadn’t won a conference road game in over 13 years, and who replaced its coaching staff after spring practice was complete, went down and whipped a team that has 52 four or five star recruits on its roster. KU, for comparison, has one such recruit on its roster, freshman running back Devin Neal, who probably only went to Kansas because he grew up in Lawrence. A team that, yes, had given Oklahoma a scare three weeks ago, but had been hammered in the two games since. A team that was starting a talented but still third-string quarterback because of injuries to the two guys in front of him.

Sure, make fun of us for getting so excited about winning two games this season, and beating the most overrated program in the game. We haven’t had too many moments to celebrate wins since the Mangino era ended with a seven-game losing streak. This was like another Orange Bowl for us.

What a night it was! We do not have ESPNU, so I thought I would follow the game on ESPN.com early while I watched the Pacers and other football games on TV. I doubted I would have to give the KU game much attention.

A long drive and score, a strip-sack, another score and suddenly KU was up 14–0 and the text threads were blazing and my computer screen had my attention.

Texas tied it, KU retook the lead, and then I had to run out and pick up L from a friend’s house. Which was ok, because I have Sirius in my car and could listen to the game. In the time it took me to get from the living room to the car, KU forced another fumble and quickly scored. By the time I got to the second stop light from our house, Jacobee Bryant was running in a pick-six to give KU a 21-point lead and I was screaming into my phone, trying to send a voice memo to friends.[1]

I got home at halftime and started scrambling to find the game somewhere. I pay for ESPN+, but since our cable package doesn’t include ESPNU, I was blocked from the TV feed.[2] For some reason my car still has a bunch of Sirius stations I am not paying for and should not have, but when I launch the app on my phone those don’t show up, so I couldn’t listen there. I wondered if I should just go take a two-hour drive to listen to the second half.

Years ago I bought an audio subscription directly from KU to listen to all the games on my computer. This was back when the football team was decent and a couple basketball games each year were not televised. I couldn’t recall if there was such a service anymore, but figured it was worth checking the KU Athletics page. Amazingly, they stream audio from games for free now! So I was able to listen to all of the second half and overtime. It would have been more fun to watch, but it did feel like back in college, when each Saturday we sat in our dorm rooms and followed road games on the radio, flipping up and down the dial to catch parts of K-State and Missouri games, too.

KU pushed the lead back to 21, and Texas started their inevitable, winning comeback. Or what I assumed would be an inevitable winning comeback. Because it was Kansas football, right? And eventually some of those four and five star recruits would show a little pride and do just enough for Texas to win.

KU made a horrible call on fourth down late in the fourth quarter, up 14, turning the ball over on downs. The call to go for it was correct: the KU D was not stopping Texas and they might as well try to get the yard. But calling a timeout and then sneaking it was plain dumb. A friend pointed out how many times in KU football history the team had come up a yard short on a huge play that turned the game. No one tracks these things, but KU has to hold the NCAA record for failing in those situations.

A few snaps later the lead was seven and we were cursing the decision. Another quick three-and-out followed by a bad punt put Texas in great position. Until O.J. Burroughs picked off a Texas pass in the end zone with just over a minute left.

Game over, right?!?!

Of course not. Texas had all three timeouts left, forced a worse punt, and scored with 22 seconds left to tie the game.

There was anger on Twitter. It was going to be just like two years ago, when KU went to Austin and went toe-to-toe with the Longhorns only to lost on a last-second field goal. I resolved to take solace from two terrific performances against the two most talented teams in the conference showing that Lance Leipold was getting things moving in the right direction. “Get some good linemen and let Jalon Daniels and Devin Neal cook next year,” was my message to friends.

Texas scored easily on their overtime possession. And then they committed an unsportsmanlike penalty that shortened the field by 15 yards for KU on the ensuing drive. KU football getting a call against Texas late in a close game? This was unusual!

Neal banged it in to make it 56–55. I don’t think there’s a KU fan in the world who thought we should kick the PAT. Fucking go for it! There was nothing to lose.

What followed was a play that will live forever in KU football history. It was nearly 11:00 Eastern time. L was asleep. C was cleaning the basement after having friends over. M was out-and-about. S was sitting four feet from me, watching a movie with headphones on. When Brian Hanni yelled, “It’s caught! It’s caught! Kansas will win!” I let out my own yell, smacked the coffee table loudly, and then yelled again. The MacBook Air almost went flying.

S gave me a disapproving look and went back to her movie.

Then, even better, walk-on Jared Casey, playing his first offensive snap of the season, is the guy who catches the pass? With his parents watching from the opposite end, recording it as they slowly realized he made the winning catch?

I mean, come on. Even the coldest, blackest hearted, KU-hating K-State or Mizzou fan can appreciate the joy in that moment.

What happened next reminded me of the night the Royals won the World Series in 2015. I listened to over an hour of postgame coverage (props to KU for including all of that on their feed). I un-muted the TV each time a highlight popped up on ESPN. I liked every fun, funny, and happy post that came through Twitter. I celebrated via text and Facebook messages with friends.

After only 21 wins in 11 seasons. After going almost L’s entire life without a Big 12 road win; the last win came the day after she was born. After all the mediocrity and ineptness and terrible coaching and bad players and straight embarrassment. This felt bigger than beating Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Or hanging 76 on Nebraska.

We all know it’s not. But when you suffer this long, you’ll make any positive moment bigger than it actually is.

The big thing, though, is I felt hope for the first time since I can’t remember when. It may be misguided, or more likely premature. This win was flukey, to be sure. TCU and West Virginia may both wax KU the next two weeks. But for the first time since Mangino left, it feels like the coach has a plan on how to get better and has buy-in from his players. There are a bunch of solid to good young guys on the roster. For the first time since maybe that Missouri game in the snow, it was Kansas who made the winning plays, not the opponent. The overall vibe around the program just feels different now. That vibe might be a tease, and we could still be years from it paying dividends.

But for one night in Austin – and in Indy, Kansas City, or wherever KU fans were watching from – we felt like we could see the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been seeking for so long.

  1. I failed. Which is probably a good thing.  ↩

  2. Which is total horseshit, by the way  ↩

Sunday Links

November 14, 2021 /

I’m not sure how I had never heard this story before. Nearly a decade before Pearl Harbor, the American military ran a series of war games in which an attacking force wiped out the forces sheltered at Pearl by launching a sneak attack from the north on a Sunday morning. Which is exactly what the Japanese would do nine years later.

Only the Navy decided the attack wasn’t fair and rather than learning from their failure, nullified the results. One of the reasons for reversing the result? Well…

Most importantly, the Navy argued, low level precision bombing of battleships at anchor was unrealistic since “everyone knew that Asians lacked sufficient hand-eye coordination to engage in that kind of precision bombing.”

Yep, good old American racism prevented us from learning a lesson that could have saved thousands of lives and completely altered, if not prevented, the eventual war in the Pacific.

The First Attack: Pearl Harbor, February 7, 1932

Every Sunday Pitchfork does a retrospective review of an album from the past. In August they tackled The Cranberries’ debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? That was an album I think you were required to own if you were white and were in college in the early 90’s.

The band’s story is kind of amazing, going from new group to putting out one of the defining albums of the decade in an incredibly short time span. I always listen to The Cranberries this time of year, as I find their music perfectly fits the part of fall when the warmth disappears and the days get longer and darker.

The Cranberries, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?

I enjoyed this discussion between actress Keri Russell and Adam Ganduciel about The War on Drugs’ new album, his process, parenthood, and other stuff.

Adam Granduciel and Keri Russell Mark The War On Drugs’ New Chapter

Steven Hyden recently shared his top 30 TWOD songs. I have a huge quibble with him not including “In Reverse,” which is one of the best final-tracks of any album I’ve ever listened to. Granduciel has said it is his song he was most proud of, too. My list would also be ordered a little differently than his. But still a fun read.

The Best Songs By The War On Drugs, Ranked

This is pretty cool. Plug in your favorite TV show and see how its individual episodes were reviewed. The graphs for The Simpsons are amazing.

SeriesHeat

I’m old enough to remember when stories on The Onion were hilarious exaggerations of political annoyances. Sadly they seem pretty spot-on these days.

Poll Finds Most Americans Would Swap Democracy For $100 Best Buy Gift Card

Friday Playlist

November 12, 2021 /

“Luna Moth” – Lola in Slacks
Kind of a terrible band name. But this song cooks, so I’ll allow it.

“When This Gets Out” – The Persian Leaps
Rock ‘n’ roll, bitches! These guys sound like an updated version of The Smithereens…

“A Girl Like You” – The Smithereens
…this song to be specific.

“Oh My God” – Lula Wiles
I’m currently reading a book about the effects that Amazon has had on our society. Isa Burke said she wrote this in 2020 when she saw how people like Jeff Bezos were seeing their net worths skyrocket while most of the world suffered through lockdown. Safe to say she was/is a little pissed about it.

“Change” – The War on Drugs
I promise I’ll finally share some thoughts about the new album next week. I’ve been obsessed all week by the moment where this track lifts just a bit at the 2:26 mark.

“Brilliant Disguise” – Bruce Springsteen
November means I spin Bruce’s classic breakup/fall album Tunnel of Love a few times.

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 64

November 11, 2021 /

Chart Week: November 6, 1976
Song: “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot
Chart Position: #3, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks.

This entry is cheating a little bit, as I’ve written about this song before. However, I heard not one but two countdowns last weekend that included it, so I take that as a sign from the Music Gods that they want me to share it again.

I first heard it on the weekly Sunday countdown, which was from this week in 1980. On that show, Casey shared it as an extra with some historical trivia. A little later in the day I heard this 1976 countdown, during which “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was approaching its chart peak.

During the 1980 show Casey related the events of the actual sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. Other than it being the fifth anniversary of the wreck, I’m not sure why he decided to drop a four-year-old song in the midst of the countdown. He told the audience that the day the EF sank – November 11 – was an especially deadly day in Great Lakes shipping history. A storm hit the lakes on November 11, 1930 and sunk five ships, killing 67 people. The biggest natural disaster to ever hit the lakes, 1913’s Big Blow, was in full-force on November 11. Its final toll was at least 12 ships and 254 people. He shared these facts in his usual jolly tone. Maybe he was just really into shipwrecks.

One reason I’ve shared this song before is because the former music teacher at St P used to play it for her students every year around the anniversary of the ship’s loss. The song had always been stuck in my head because of its unforgettable, haunting main guitar riff. But as the girls learned about the song, I read up about it while also paying attention to the lyrics. It floors me that Lightfoot could build such a magnificent narrative arc around a shipwreck. I especially love his sixth verse, where he describes each of the Great Lakes. Turning it into a pop hit was pretty amazing.

I’ve always thought it was cool that weird, old Mrs. K taught her kids about this song. I never knew why she did that. Was she from the Great Lakes and/or grew up around shipping? Did she just love the song when it was out? Regardless, she put it in my girls’ heads and brought it back to mine.

Kid Hoops: Fall Wrap Up

November 11, 2021 /

Another CYO basketball season is in the books. Thanks to a big win last week, with a guest coach on the bench, L’s team solidified itself as the solid middle of her league: they lost to each of the top three teams and beat each of the bottom three teams. Fourth place, bitches!

Last Wednesday we played St J. This was my first game handling all of the coaching responsibilities with both of the usual coaches out-of-town. Comparing scores, it appeared that we were pretty evenly matched with St J. But you never really know.

Watching warmups, though, I was more confident. They looked a lot like us: filled with more athletes than players, not a lot of size, and I guessed they could run with us.

We got out to a great start, and led 11–5 because we were getting run-outs and layups. We even hit a few free throws. But we gave all that back and trailed 13–11.

That’s how the entire game went. We would get a little lead, then give it back. We were tied at halftime and had a three point lead going into the fourth quarter.

I wasn’t doing a lot of coaching. I let L call all the offensive plays. I would tell the girls when to switch between pressing and falling back on D. I called a few time outs. I yelled at the refs a couple times. But mostly I kept my ass on the bench and handled the substitutions.

We were up six late in the fourth quarter and it really felt like we had the game in control. St J scored to cut it to four with just under a minute left and called a time out. They had been pressing us and our press-break offense was getting a little wobbly. In the timeout I told our girls to run the one variation we have on that set. I was about to send them back out when L asked if we should flip her and the girl who normally throws the ball in, because in this play the inbounder pops in, gets an immediate pass back, and is supposed to take off. She might have saved the game with that call.

She threw it in, got the return pass, and St J immediately fouled her. Normally our worst free throw shooter would have had the ball. Now our best shooter was going to the line.

L went down and hit both free throws to put us back up six (more on this in a moment). We gave up a quick basket, they fouled again, we hit one of two. The last 30 seconds were a mad dash of them chucking, getting offensive rebounds, missing free throws but getting offensive rebounds, and then us grabbing a loose ball with four seconds left. They fouled, we missed both, but still escaped with a 36–31 win.

Three wins in a row to move to 3–2! Our girls were super pumped. Well six of them were. L sat on the bench crying. She had fouled out with about 20 seconds left and came off the floor in tears. She didn’t say anything to me as she passed, so I had no idea what she was crying about.

I gave her time to calm down and as we left the gym, I asked her if she was upset that she fouled out, that she thought the last foul was a bad call, or something else.[1]

“I shouldn’t have said anything to the ref,” she said, as the the tears flowed again.

When she was at the free throw line in the last minute, just before her first shot, one of the St J girls stepped into the lane. It threw L off for a second, as she looked at the girl, then the ref, then banked in the free throw. After the shot she said something to the outside ref, who just looked at her. The underneath ref walked up and told her it was his call, he saw the violation, and he didn’t call anything because she had made the shot. She seemed annoyed but she swished the second shot.

She claimed that’s what upset her, saying something to the ref. I’ve told her many times that it’s the coach’s job to argue calls. She wasn’t really arguing, more questioning, but I couldn’t hear her tone so perhaps she was sharp when she asked about the call.

I told her it wasn’t a big deal, she just asked why there wasn’t a call, she didn’t argue or complain like sooooo many girls do. I was glad she knew that she should keep her mouth shut, but she hadn’t done anything wrong so she had no reason to get so upset about it.

I’m guessing this was just her night to be stressed by the tension of the game and that little moment made her crack.

For her, at least, that took some of the shine off of a big win.

Another good story from that game. One of our girls was scrapping for a loose ball under our basket and, as she was getting fouled, threw the ball backwards, over her head. It was a legit foul call, but somehow the ref called it a shooting foul and gave her two shots. It was, in no way, a shooting foul. If I was the St J coach I would have been pissed. She was just heaving the ball, her back was to the hoop, and it went to a teammate, not anywhere near the rim.

A St J grandma across the court, who had been loud all game, lost her damn mind.

“THAT’S NOT THE GIRL THAT SHOT THE BALL!!!” she started yelling. “YOU HAVE THE WRONG GIRL! SHE SHOULDN’T BE SHOOTING THE FREE THROWS!!”

Some of our girls started laughing. The girl at the line looked at me with a confused look.

“S, you’re right where you’re supposed to be. Knock these down,” I said in a calm but loud voice.

The grandma kept her complaining and the refs just ignored her. S hit one of two and we moved on.

Now if the grandma had said it wasn’t a shooting foul, she would have been 100% correct. But it was absolutely the right girl to be shooting if the ref was going to give her free throws.

Always fun when adults in the crowd look like asses in front of everyone.

Saturday was my second game as coach. We played St C, who are just insanely good. They had beaten the second and third place teams by 20+ each. Two years ago when we played the same group, they beat us by 30+. They are tall at every position, play together year-round, and look more like a decent high school team than a 7th/8th grade team. We knew we had no chance.

I told the girls to have some fun, they were cleared to take 3-pointers if/when they were open, and to try not to get frustrated. I also drew up a 3–2 zone before the game, saying we would likely switch to it at some point.

I don’t know if it made a difference, but St C carved up the zone, pressed us early, and jumped out to a 19–0 lead before we hit a free throw.

We actually tied them 6–6 in the second quarter, which was our highlight for the day.

My coaching goal was to hold them under 50 and to score more than 10. We lost 49–12, so it was a total success from my perspective! Thankfully one of our eighth graders hit two 3’s to get us into double figures.

St C has a girl that only has one hand. Her right arm ends at her elbow. She can use that arm to cradle the ball, but has to dribble, shoot, rebound, and guard people with only the left hand. She was the best player on the court. We saw her two years ago and were kind of shocked by her ability. And she’s gotten a lot better. She clearly has natural athletic talent – C ran against her last spring, losing to her in the 200 and beating her in the 100 – but for her to be so good at basketball is a testament to how hard she’s had to work to overcome a huge physical limitation. She will go to a large high school so I wonder how she will do playing against really good, high school competition. I hope she does great.

Since CYO tournaments are never seeded, the blind draw for our first round opponent was…St C again. Lucky us! Tuesday we practiced, with the regular coaches back, and worked on a 2–3 zone for about half the session. We had no idea if it would work but at least the girls had an idea what we were asking them to do instead of my drawing something on the whiteboard five minutes before tip.

I don’t know if it was the zone, St C not taking us seriously, or just the Hoops Gods throwing us a bone, but Wednesday our girls played well and St C could not pull away. It was only 11–3 after the first quarter and 16–7 at halftime. With 3:45 left in the game we hit a 3 to make it 31–21. St C came down and drilled a 3 to answer and we only added one free throw before the final horn, losing 39–22.

Cutting 20 points off the deficit in four days was a great accomplishment for our girls. I think it helped that the refs last night called the game very loose, where Saturday four girls from both teams ended the game with four fouls. Letting the girls scrap was to our advantage.

One of those rare seasons that ended in a loss but the players, coaches, and parents were all pleased with the outcome. After the game the 8th graders were all crying, as this was their last time playing basketball together.

L had a solid season. She didn’t score a ton. But even though she played against mostly older girls, she was completely competent with the ball. She can get it up court and set up the offense. She makes really good passes on the break. We need to work on her left hand, on learning how to take advantage of getting an angle on the defense, and on her shooting.

She now gets a week-and-a-half off, which is good. Her knee pain has stabilized but one of her ankles has been bothering her a lot for the past couple weeks. We even put her in a walking boot Monday night, just to see if it helped at all. I told her she can’t do any running until her next club practice to give her bones and joints a rest.

Her club program has been having skills sessions every two weeks, and those will continue through the winter. She is on another team that will be in a late-fall league that plays in December. That team will likely morph into another team that plays in a winter league before the club takes over her time in the spring. She’s all-in for hoops for the time being. Hopefully her body can keep up.

  1. The fifth foul looked legit to me. But two of the calls against her were crap, especially since she basically got wiped out twice when she was going to the bucket and didn’t get a call.  ↩
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