Month: November 2021 (Page 2 of 2)

Jayhawks Notes: Opening Night

November 10, 2021 / DB

Today I begin a new series. After most KU basketball games, I will do a brief collection of thoughts.[1] My goal is to keep these in the 500-word range, although exceptional performances may require more than that.

The season opener went from concerning to a snoozer. KU could not shake Michigan State early, but a 9–1 run to end the first half and Ochai Agbaji taking over in the second half made the last 10 minutes of the game kind of boring.

Agbaji was obviously the star. Without Jalen Wilson and with several other guys having off nights, the senior took over. He was efficient, confident, and clearly the best player on the court. He scored from everywhere. He played solid D. Because of KU’s depth, that won’t be expected every night. But it’s great to know he can do it.

Remy Martin is going to be one of the most interesting KU players to follow in awhile. He’s still fighting to find his role and comfort in the system, as his zero shots/zero points first half showed. He sat for a long stretch late in the half, too. And then he came out and scored 15 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the second half. I think the entire season will be like that, always feast or famine. When he’s on, he and Ochai next to each other are going to be a serious problem for KU’s opponents. When he’s off, he may sit long stretches on the bench.

I was thrilled with the freshmen. Zach Clemence looked confident offensively and made a couple heady plays on defense. It made sense that Cam Martin announced he’s redshirting; Zach can play. After suffering an ankle injury in the offseason, I wondered if Bobby Pettiford might redshirt. But that kid has to be in the rotation. He’s been compared to Frank Mason III. He looks ahead of Mason at the same point. And KJ Adams, who is loaded with potential, made several high IQ plays in his limited minutes. Even if these guys are deep in the rotation, they show that the future is bright at KU.

Concerns from the night? I think KU would have done well to grab a long, twitchy inside player from the transfer portal. Long teams may give them fits again. It’s one night, but Joseph Yesufu seems like the odd man out in the backcourt. Which is a surprise because he was viewed as a starter much of the summer. I think he, Pettiford, and DaJuan Harris will have ebbs and flows all year where they take each other’s minutes. For all the talk of his great summer, Christian Braun looked terrible in the first half. He was better in the second half but he has to provide something on offense to deserve starter’s minutes.

Michigan State isn’t a classic MSU team at the moment, but it was still good to seize control of the game and win going away. Nine turnovers with a bunch of new guys playing serious minutes against a solid defensive team was a great boxscore note.

Exceptions will be when we travel or when I’m not able to watch the game live. ↩

Let’s Go Hoopin’

November 9, 2021 / DB

KU fans have put in their time suffering through the bulk of another football season. College basketball has finally arrived! The Jayhawks will take on Michigan State at Madison Square Garden tonight to kick off the hoops season.

I think this is going to be a very interesting and important year for KU.

Like most of the college hoops world, the Jayhawks took advantage of the relaxed transfer/eligibility rules and plugged a number of holes on their roster. Perhaps as much as any program, KU hit the Fast Forward button and brought in talent that would have normally taken a couple recruiting cycles to get to campus. That means established players like Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack, Christian Braun, and Jalen Wilson (when eligible) will be joined by dudes with experience rather than freshmen you hope figure things out by March.

Will it work? Can all these new guys fit in with the returning players, pick up on Bill Self’s system quickly, and mesh into a team that has the potential to be really, really good if everything works? Or are there too many egos, not enough playing time, and too compressed of a window to get them on the same page for it to work?

I was mega-pumped for this season when Remy Martin, the final transfer, was added in mid-summer.

I’m am now a little more reserved in my expectations for this year. It’s not because I doubt Remy’s ability, or any of the other newcomers who are expected to play major minutes. It’s more that I keep thinking back to the 2018–19 season, when Self was also relying on several transfers to fill key roles, most notably Dedric Lawson. Lawson was a hell of a player, but I don’t think he was ever a great fit with the guys around him. His slow-down, pound-the-ball big man game was about the worst possible match for Devon Dotson, maybe the fastest point guard KU has ever had.

But, as I remind myself, that season didn’t fall apart because of Lawson. It fell apart because Udoka Azubuike had a season-ending injury in early January and LaGerald Vick, the team’s only real shooter, left the team around the same time. It was the other transfers – KJ Lawson and Charlie Moore – who never blossomed into rotation players and left the team lacking in playmakers and shooters.

A do worry some that Martin and the other newcomers, who all got their first taste of Self’s system over the summer rather than the normal redshirt transfer year, will be able to play freely and not have to think about where they’re supposed to be and what they’re supposed to be doing.

Yet I think it probably ends up working out ok. There’s almost too much talent for it not to. It could take awhile for them to look good doing it, though, with an ugly loss here or there because Remy shoots 2–18 or the offense breaks down late in a close game because the new guys and the old guys are trying to do different things.

I don’t think this team has a bunch of future NBA stars. Ochai Agbaji seems like a rotation guy in the right situation at the next level. Freshman KJ Adams has the body of an NBA player and oozes potential, but he’s not likely to play much this year. What KU does have is a lot of really good college players, and a lot of guys behind them who will likely turn into really good college players before their careers are over. The talent is there.

That’s the interesting part.

As for the important part, sometime between now and next fall, the NCAA will finally rule on their investigation into KU’s relationship with Adidas. Most indications point to it happening after this season ends. Which means this could be the final year that KU plays without being affected by any penalties for the foreseeable future.

In a KU newsletter I receive the author suggested that Bill Self will not fuck around this year. I took that to mean not just that Self knows he will only have Remy, Ochai, and McCormack together for a single year and has to capitalize. It also means that this time next year, Self could very well not be the KU coach, or could be coaching under severe restrictions on his recruiting and postseason opportunities.

To me, that line meant this could very well be Bill Self’s last shot at a second national title, and he is not going to waste time dealing with dickheads who won’t curb their egos, with guys who get lost on defense, or with any other headaches. His short leash will be shorter than normal, and kids that don’t perform will spend most of their time on the bench.

A year from now the KU basketball program could be in a very different place than it is today, or really has been since Larry Brown arrived on campus in 1983.

I’m probably being too nit-picky, too critical of the potential flaws of this year’s squad. They are LOADED with talent. They have athletes and shooters and bigs. They have multiple guards who can initiate the offense. The bulk of the roster can play at least three different spots on the court. They have experience. They have protection against injuries at most positions. They have guys who may play zero minutes this year who will be pushing the rotation guys in practice every day.

Every team has weaknesses. Later tonight I may be grousing about ones I never thought of that Michigan State exposes. For the moment, though, KU fans should relax and get excited about a team that has a great chance to add to the banners in Allen Fieldhouse.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 63

November 8, 2021 / DB

Chart Week: November 2, 1985
Song: “And We Danced” – The Hooters
Chart Position: #23, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #21 the week of October 26.

(Fear not, music trivia fans! After a long dry spell, I’ve got three, maybe four, of these posts queued up for the next couple weeks.)

“Who the fuck are The Hooters?”

Those were Bob Geldof’s comments in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine after promoter Bill Graham forced him to include the band on the Philadelphia stage of Live Aid.

For Graham, one of the most powerful people in music, it was an opportunity to showcase a band that seemed poised to break out in front of perhaps the biggest-ever worldwide audience for a concert. Being a local band from Philly gave their presence a nice little hook.

I would imagine much of the worldwide TV audience understood Geldof’s comments, though. Unless you were from Philadelphia, you probably had no idea who The Hooters were, and would have wondered why they were sprinkled in between Queen, The Who, Paul McCartney, Hall & Oates, Duran Duran, Madonna and other legendary or of-the-moment artists.

The Hooters did have a pretty good run for a few months. They hit the top 40 three times with tracks off their Nervous Night album, and a fourth song – ironically their most-played song on Spotify – just missed the top 40.[1]

While the effect of the Live Aid performance on their career is debatable, there is no doubt their name helped them stand out. The band used a Melodica keyboard harmonica as part of their unique sound. They called that instrument a Hooter. I guess after enough beer or weed or whatever, you can talk yourself into thinking that’s a great thing to name your new band after. I remember hearing that explanation often on MTV and the radio during their brief moment of popularity. But I guarantee a lot of teenage dipshits listened to the band solely because they thought they were named after tits. I remember there was tons of giggling about the name on my Little League team in the summer of ’85.

I bet a lot of people still giggle when they hear the band’s name. That’s a shame. Nervous Night was a decent album. Today it sounds very dated because of the production, but the singles remain pretty solid. And The Hooters at least made an attempt to sound different from standard pop of their era, blending elements of ska, reggae, and folk into their sound, and building it as much on mandolins and the Hooter as traditional guitar and drums.

“And We Danced” is a prototypical mid–80s pop-rock song, though. Those big, crashing guitars up front; the driving beat; the shouted-out vocals. Every stereotypical element of being a teenager in the 80’s seems wrapped up inside of this track. I’m still shocked it was never used in a movie or show that took place around prom night, with The Hooters banging this out on stage while hundreds of kids lose their minds on the dance floor.[2]

This could blend in with dozens of other songs not terribly different from it. But because it was performed by The Hooters, the band with perhaps the silliest name of a very silly decade, it has achieved some measure of timelessness.

“All You Zombies,” the first Hooters song I remember seeing on MTV. ↩
For example, movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Just One of the Guys, and Better Off Dead. ↩

Friday Playlist

November 5, 2021 / DB

“I Don’t Wanna Wait” – The War on Drugs
Not that there was much doubt, but pretty sure based on the past week alone The War on Drugs will be my most listened to artist of the year. The new album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, is fantastic. I’ll post a review next week where I will share more thoughts, but the band has entered hallowed territory by releasing four-straight absolute bangers of albums. Through a week of listens, this is one of my favorite tracks on IDLHA.

“The Hardest Cut” – Spoon
Interesting that Spoon released a new single days after the new TWOD album. Two bands that just refuse to put out bad music. Another straight jam from Spoon.

“For Love” – Ashley Shadow
“Wrong Time” – Julia Shapiro
I’m starting to get backed up with these moody songs by ladies, so I guess I should share more than one each week.

“Adore You” – Harry Styles
This was a big week for M. She got to go to Milwaukee with two friends to see Harry Styles in concert Wednesday. It was nearly all she had hoped for, and she returned completely glowing over the experience. (Best concert story: she ran into a random girl who was dressed exactly like her. They took a pic and hugged.) I’ll admit I’ve come around on Harry. I loved this song when it came out two years ago. And he seems like a silly, positive dude who just wants to make people happy. Glad he makes my daughter happy.

“Puppy and a Truck” – Jenny Lewis
Funny that Jenny released this Wednesday, the day M saw her open for Harry. I told M a few weeks back that I really like some of Jenny’s music, but didn’t know if she would like it. M remembered this song, because it was “weird.” Yeah, not sure it is aimed at 17-year-olds…

“If You Fail We All Fail” – Fields
Last week I was skimming some of my old Favorite Songs of the Year posts and was reminded of this terrific track that has, unfortunately, kind of disappeared. Fields lost their record contract after one album and seems to have fallen through the cracks as recorded music has shifted to streaming. You can’t find their album on Spotify. I would imagine it isn’t on Apple Music, either. Luckily I still have an MP3 on the media server in the basement. This video bothers me a little because the mix is completely different from the single, with the vocals much more up front. It’s just not what I was used to.

Anyway, this was my #3 favorite song of 2007. Fields’ debut album was pretty good, as I recall, and they got good run in the music press. They deserved better than for their music to disappear.

October Media

November 3, 2021 / DB

A fast start slowed by baseball playoffs and the beginning of the NBA season.

Movies and Shows

Halloween Wars
Halloween Baking Championship
It’s holiday baking season, bitches!!!! L and I only made it through a couple episodes of Halloween Wars, so it gets an incomplete. But S and I wrapped up HBC on Halloween night. Renee was a shocking winner. Adina had been the best baker the entire competition, Guillermo came on strong late, and I was sure they were ahead of Renee in the final bake. I thought this year’s crop of bakers was lacking in charisma, which detracted from the season.

Incomplete, B+

Barry
Holy shit! I’ve heard about this show for years and thought I knew what I was getting into. Boy was I surprised!

Bill Hader plays a hitman who stumbles into an acting class while chasing a target. He becomes enamored with the class and joins it, all while trying to leave his previous life behind him. I assumed it was about the hilarious issues of navigating this change. There was plenty of that, for sure. I did not know it would be soooooo dark and his efforts to leave would be, largely, fruitless. Not knowing that was coming made the payoff even better. Some GREAT supporting characters, especially Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank.

The American
I remember this getting a lot of mediocre reviews when it came out. One of those best recent espionage movies lists I found over the summer suggested it was worth a re-evaluation.

It was just sooooo slow and soooooo lacking in dialogue and real action that it was tough to sit through. Clooney does a great job with a character that is very different from any other he has played in his career. But when we watch Clooney, we want the Clooney Charisma, which is no where to be found.

B-

Casino Royale
Spectre
My pre-No Time to Die studying.

A, B-

Sicario
I’ve lost track of how many movies and shows I’ve watched and books I’ve read about the war on drugs in general and the Latin American drugs trade in particular. Many of them grapple with the morality of law enforcement’s efforts as they battle drug producers and traffickers. And they almost always show how law enforcement face a difficult battle given the restrictions they operate under. As tempting as it is to let them loose without limits, as a society we face the question of how we prevent that lack of oversight from spilling into other aspects of law enforcement.

I think Sicario did as good a job as any of those other works I’ve digested at getting into the meat of that quandary. It’s really cool that Benicio Del Toro has gone off the reservation to make a significant hit on a Mexican cartel. But he’s also done it in a super illegal manner, one that Emily Blunt’s character is not willing to give her approval to. Sicario doesn’t provide an answer to the debate. I think it’s much easier to have a concrete opinion about a scenario in a movie setting than in real life.

A-

Shorts

Stable Rollers
Science! When I watch stuff like this I always wonder about the trial-and-error that went into discovering these issues when, for example, the first trains were built. I assume a few trains were lost in testing before the shape of the wheels was perfected.

Ocean Depth Comparison
Dope. I always though the Caribbean Sea was fairly shallow, so I learned something.

Signing 1,812 books after sleeping in a ditch
Beau Miles can make anything interesting and unique.

Flat Earth FC
This was a funny little piece, until I learned the club transitioned to being anti-mask and anti-vaccine after Covid hit. Probably not a surprise a new owner has stepped in and rebranded.

B+

How the 3-point line is breaking basketball
This title of this piece is a little judgmental; just because the game has changed drastically doesn’t mean it’s broken. And I hate to sound like an old man and reflexively decide that, because the game is different now than 20 years ago, that means something it wrong with it. But this is an informative primer for those of you who may not follow basketball and wonder what all the fuss about the three-point shot is.

B+

Devil’s Teeth
A short about Ron Elliott, who dove for sea urchins around the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, an area notorious for being populated by Great White Sharks. A little too moody and lacking in sharks for me.

B-

Daniel Craig Answers Questions About James Bond 007
“Don’t be s***!” Daniel Craig’s advice for the next James Bond
Daniel Craig & Lashana Lynch Answer the Web’s Most Searched Questions

Thank you, Daniel Craig, for your service.

A-, A-, A-

How Radiohead Wrote the Perfect Bond Theme
Too much music theory for me. Can’t believe I’ve never heard this song before.

10 Things Jason Sudeikis Can’t Live Without
Disappointing no Kansas/Kansas City items are in here.

F (OK, B+)

This LEGO build will blow your mind
What kind of sorcery is this?

Kid Hoops Notes

November 2, 2021 / DB

The CYO basketball season got back to action last week, and L’s team had two games. It was their best week of the year.

Tuesday we played St E, the church where all three of our girls went to preschool. Games against teams like St E are always tricky. They don’t have a grade/middle school, so are reliant on word-of-mouth within the parish to get enough girls to come out for a team. Often these teams suck. Occasionally they are clearly vehicles to build around one really good player, who usually plays on another, higher level team outside CYO.

St E was kind of in the middle of that spectrum. They had one really good player and another decent player, but the rest of the team was trash. And the good girl wasn’t so good that she could carry a team. She handled the ball all the time, got rebounds, made good passes, and took a ton of shots. In pregame warmups she was hitting 3’s. Her jumper wasn’t as good with a defender on her, though. She scored eight of St E’s 15 points, but was hampered by foul trouble and had to sit a good chunk of the second half before fouling out late.

Our girls played really well. We scored 32. We hit four free throws (out of 12), so we had 14 made baskets. One of those was a short jumper by L, let’s call it a 10-footer. The other was a long two banked in by a girl who should never shoot, inside or outside. The other 12 were all layups or off of offensive rebounds. When our girls can get out in transition, they are good. When they play teams that can stop that, it’s tough to score. Fortunately St E gave up a lot of run outs that we turned into points.

Saturday we played St L, the team we destroyed by 29 in the fall break tournament. We knew they were missing a player in that first game, a girl who is super athletic but not a that great of a player. Still, she’s tall and works well with their 6-footer. When the big girl throws up a brick, this other girl is great at getting weak-side rebounds.

Our girls just did not look into the game at all. They made sloppy passes, didn’t run plays right, and were half-assing it on hustle plays. I was helping on the bench (more about that later) and at one point looked at one of the other coaches and asked, “Have we got a loose ball all day?” It didn’t help two of our eighth graders are incredible swimmers and had already swam at a meet before the game. They were both a step slower than usual.

Anyway, we were behind most of the game, but kept coming back. We were never down more than five but also couldn’t take the lead when we made our runs.

Early in the fourth quarter we were down five and our coach was begging the girls to stop worrying about offense and show some pride by not letting their girl get the ball. A few steals, two layups, and a free throw later the game was tied with about 3:00 left.

That’s when the game got really interesting.

Our girls had been complaining the entire game that the big girl was playing dirty. Hitting them with elbows in the neck, grabbing their jerseys and shoving them, cheap shot-ing anyone who ran by her. Just your average mean kid shit.

We got a defensive rebound and were pushing the ball up court when I saw our tallest girl go flying and land with a loud thud on the floor. I was blocked from the point of contact, but apparently the big girl hit her with an elbow again, then put two hands in her back and shoved her. Luckily for us their big girl outweighs ours by a good 30 pounds and a referee was right there. He T’ed up the big girl.

If you’ve followed these posts, you know L’s team has a free throw issue. We are shooting somewhere in the range of 15% for the year. Not an exaggeration.

The head coach sent L to the line to take the technical shots. She calmly swished them both to put us up two.

We scored on the ensuing possession and closed the game on a 12–1 run to get the W. The big girl sat out the rest of the game, which helped us, although she was not playing great to begin with. We’re pretty sure her coach pulled her because of her behavior. And our girls were super pumped afterward. They do not like the big girl and were glad she got caught and that her outburst was a big factor in her team losing.

We are now 2–2 for the CYO season. Oh, L scored six in both games last week.

Now, why was I on the bench Saturday? Both coaches will be out of town all this week. And we have two games scheduled. And I’m the only remaining parent who has been dumb enough to coach these girls at any point before. So guess who gets to coach them this week? Against two very good teams?

Yep, this guy.

I’m thrilled and greatly looking forward to it. The team we play Wednesday has lost to St L, which makes no sense. But they also lost to the second place team – who beat us by 20+ – by five. So who knows.

Next Saturday we play the first place team, St C, who are just crushing souls this year. We have no chance against them short of a Covid outbreak on their roster. Even then I bet their sixth grade team could play up for the day and still whip us. Doubling that fun is we play St C in the opening round of the season-ending tournament next week. Not sure who we pissed off to get that draw…

Anyway, pray for me this week as I try to give the girls some kind of guidance from the bench. I’m debating whether to use my five time outs to stop runs, or sit on them to get the games over with quicker.

Halloween 2021

November 1, 2021 / DB

I swear October is the fastest month. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating L’s birthday and now here we are on November 1 bracing for the onslaught of Christmas commercials. Hell, they started Saturday, from what I could tell so we’re already in it. Fall break, a trip, and lots of basketball helped to make the month speed by.

Two weeks ago we were in the midst of one of the warmest Octobers in Indianapolis history. Today it was 33 when we left for school, and the high temps may not top 50 until next weekend.

Yep, things move pretty fast in October.

We had a split Halloween weekend this year. M and C both went to parties on Saturday. For the first time we were a little concerned about M’s plans. She and some school friends were going to some vague “party” hosted by some public school kids. Not that CHS kids don’t make stupid, typically teenage mistakes. Nor that there aren’t CHS parents who allow kids to get wild. But we feel pretty confident her circle of friends comes with parents who will not let kids get out of control in their homes. Plus, the public school is three times the size of CHS, so that makes it at least three times more likely something sketchy happens.

We just reminded her to make good decisions before she left. After she left S muttered to me, “And don’t get caught drunk if the cops show up.” Not that we worry about M acting out too much, but Halloween is the perfect night to start doing stupid stuff.

We checked in on her location occasionally. At one point she was on the total opposite side of the city where she was supposed to be. But she was also constantly moving. We guessed, and later had confirmed, that the “parties” they heard about were either non-existent, lame, or M and her friends didn’t feel comfortable and left early. Sure enough, she said the first public school party was filled with people they didn’t know, a second was mostly older CHS kids and they felt like outsiders, and they finally ended up at a small party about three blocks from where she was spending the night. So it all turned out ok.

C went to a party with a group of kids she’s been hanging out with all fall. They were at the home of people we knew, so we were confident things would be fine/safe there. Apparently two kids who were dating were acting “weird” all night and kind of ruined the party for everyone. Only 15 and she’s already run into the “awkward couple who might be breaking up at the Halloween party” phenomenon! She had a lot more fun at the sleepover she went to after the party.

L, on the other hand, stayed in on Saturday but went out trick-or-treating Sunday. She stressed for weeks on which group of friends to go with. She finally picked her group of guy friends because her girl friends were arguing too much about what to dress up as. Turned out the boys didn’t have much better of an idea, but at least they weren’t fighting as they changed their minds.

She went as an inflatable dinosaur. That was supposed to be the group plan but two boys in her group never got around to finding costumes so had random ones they found in their homes or borrowed from other friends. It all worked out. She went to a fancy, gated neighborhood where one of the kids lived. There were lots of full-sized candy bars which she was thrilled with.

S and I stayed home. This was our fourth Halloween in our new home. The first year we went to our old neighborhood and left candy at our door. According to our porch cam, we only had one group of trick-or-treaters that night. Year two it snowed and was insanely windy and we had no guests. Last year we had nice weather and only had a couple.

Last night we had four groups of trick-or-treaters totaling 10 kids, so a new house record! Two groups of neighbors and then two other groups of randoms. We live in kind of a weird spot – off a very busy street with no sidewalks and on the opposite end of the proper neighborhood – which really cuts down on the traffic. In our old hood I always stressed about whether I bought enough candy. And every damn year we had way too much. That’s not a problem here. I bought three small bags and we still have over half of it left. But with only one trick-or-treater, that means M and C have some to split for the next few days.

Now that November is here, there are a couple very big things on our calendar. One is this week for one kid; we’ll discuss that later. The other is a family thing that we’ve been waiting a long time for. We are praying that Southwest Airlines gets their shit together and we can pull it off. More about that, also, down the road a few weeks.

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