An early weekend roundup, as M and I are headed to Cincinnati early Monday for an admitted students orientation. We will likely do the same at IU in March as she continues to gather information before she makes a final decision.
Kid Hoops
L’s team played a sixth grade squad Saturday. That always worries me because if a sixth grade team is playing up they are usually pretty good. Checking scores, they had beat a team that beat us by 20 by 32, so it seemed a little bleak.
Our girls played their best game of the year from the opening tip and earned a 50–45 win. We lead by double-digits for a good stretch of the game and only let it get close because we were sloppy in the final three minutes.
L had a great first half, scoring eight and getting a couple straight steals off the other team’s best player. She didn’t score in the second half – she only took one shot – but still played great D and had a few nice assists. Her best friend took advantage of being the tallest kid on the court and scored 21.
It also helped that we had a girl who hadn’t played with us all year. She’s a really good athlete and has a decent hoops IQ, although she’s a little raw. L played with her at summer camp last year and they got along really well, so was excited she finally showed up. They look like they could be a really good guard duo together at CHS next year.
Those sixth graders were good. I think they’re a team that locks people up on D then hits a bunch of 3’s. We were lucky that we could handle their pressure, guard them on the perimeter, and when they did take 3’s, they only hit a few. Our size advantage meant we owned the boards as well.
One more week left in the regular season before the tournament and then a return to travel ball.
Jayhawk Talk
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! WHAT A GAME!!!!!!
Down 17, win by 16. I wasn’t even nervous at halftime, this is just what happens with this program right now.[1] Play like ass in the first half, then completely flip the script and come roaring back after halftime. The fact it turned into a blowout instead of a nail-biter and was against Scott Drew made it even better.
Ok, so I was a little pissed at halftime. But I figured Baylor wouldn’t keep shooting 81% from 3 and KU would shoot better than 9% behind the arc. Still, being down 13 to such a good team, even at home, seemed pretty bleak. With a trip to Ft. Worth on the schedule for Monday, it seemed doubly bleak.
So, for the first time this year, I switched seats. Yes, just as I did for the K-State game last January and for the national championship game in April, I moved from the couch to the chair next to the couch.
And it fucking worked again you naysayers.
In other superstitious notes, I hated the Sunflower uniforms that KU wore. I was advocating for burning them at halftime and taking a technical foul to switch into something else. I guess I have to support continuing to wear them since we came back and won? Shit.
Gameday was in town. Ochai, CB, Remy, and others from last year’s team were back in town. The sun was shining through the windows. The crowd was nuts. KU is in first place in the Big 12 with four games to play. It was a great fucking day in Allen Fieldhouse.
Rock Chalk, bitches.
Signs of Spring
It’s been warmer more often than it’s been colder the past couple weeks. The sun is coming up earlier and staying up later. I just scheduled our mulch delivery for May. Spring break is five weeks away.
But the biggest sign that winter is loosening its hold on us is that our bird friends are returning. We had our first two geese of the year in the yard this week. They always show up when our neighbors take their old-people spring break. Sure enough, the neighbors left on Saturday and the geese arrived two days later.
Then on Thursday we had two ducks splashing around in the pond that forms in our yard when we get rain.
It’s still mid-February and this is the Midwest, so we will get bitch-slapped by Mother Nature a few more times over the next 6–8 weeks. But spring, she is a coming.
- Totally not true. ↩