Day: January 22, 2024

As we had a pretty quiet weekend and KU plays tonight, I’m going to flip my normal routine and cover high school hoops today.

Two more games last week – both wins for JV and varsity – but L was a little off.

In Tuesday’s practice she rolled her troublesome ankle when she landed on a teammate’s foot. She complained about it when I picked her up, but later in the evening and Wednesday morning seemed to be walking normally so I didn’t put too much worry into it.

After their game Wednesday the trainer told us that L was still experiencing pain, and that she had switched L from the brace she normally wears into a heavy wrap. She said they would do some rehab in practice the next two days but she wasn’t super worried about it.

Then Friday after practice the trainer texted me saying L’s pain hadn’t decreased but she also wasn’t seeing any evidence of a serious sprain. She added for Saturday’s games she would tape the ankle.

She didn’t seem slow or tentative to me in games, although she complained after each about how bad she played. She was on the court all but 15 seconds of the JV game Wednesday so it wasn’t forcing her to the bench.

In that Wednesday game we faced Avon, a west-side school whose varsity team was rated slightly higher than ours in the computer rankings. Their JV team was almost all sophomores and juniors, and that showed. They were tougher and smarter than us. AHS held a lead most of the game, but couldn’t stretch the lead beyond a basket or two.

This was a triple-header night, so the freshman teams were playing at the same time as JV in the upstairs gym. Our JV also had a girl who was out sick and began with only seven players on the bench. That became problematic when one of our starters hit the ground hard and had to come out with a head injury.[1] At halftime two girls came running down from the freshman game to join JV. This was an important development.[2]

Late in the fourth quarter we finally grabbed the lead, taking it on two free throws by one of the girls who came down from the freshman game. We were up three with about six seconds left when we let AHS’ one shooter get wide open. She swished a 3 to tie the game. We called time out and the JV coach lit into our girls, “What happened last week? What did we talk about all week?” referring to varsity not covering the shooter in City tournament championship game.

I admit, I actually started laughing, because I said the same thing as the ball dropped through the net. “Only girl that has hit a 3 the entire game and no one is within 10 feet of her?!?!” Like a lot of JV teams, we tend to get confused about who is guarding who, especially on breaks.

The girls shook it off, though. After the time out we ran a great inbounds play. That same girl who hit the free throws moments earlier took off long, grabbed a perfect pass, and laid the ball in to give us the lead. AHS couldn’t get a shot off before the final buzzer and we won by two.

L was 3–9 (0–2) for six points with 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Later she dressed but did not play in the varsity game, which was also a two-point Irish win.

Saturday was another triple header night, this time against the school our varsity coach attended back in the day. We would not normally play them – they are from up near Ft. Wayne – but she added them to the schedule last year so she could take the team to her hometown every other year. The HN varsity was ranked two spots ahead of us in the computer rankings. Neither game was close.

The JV game started with us up 11–1 after the first quarter. The girls held HNHS to a single field goal until late in the fourth quarter. The Vikings did shoot like 80% from the line, though. The dad I sit by and I were joking they should just drive and try to get fouled since that seemed to be the only way they could score. The Irish won 37–14. I believe ten of those 14 points were free throws.

L was 2–4 (0–1) for four points, with 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers in three quarters. I swear she hasn’t hit a shot from outside five feet in a month.

Varsity won by 26. We led comfortably the entire game but couldn’t put it away until the final minutes, so L and the other swing players only got in for the final minute.

Varsity is now 11–10. After five straight wins, JV is 10–11. The regular season wraps up with games Tuesday and Thursday.

L spent almost all of Sunday at CHS. The team helped out with a CYO jamboree for most of the afternoon, then stuck around to watch the state tournament brackets come out.

I’m pleased to report that the Indiana high school pairings show is even more maddening than how CBS doles out the NCAA bracket every March.

The show started with the hosts talking about absolute nonsense for a good two minutes before they broke for commercials. Then they interviewed the state athletic commissioner for about five minutes. Making this segment more infuriating was that his microphone wasn’t working properly so you could barely hear whatever he was saying. After each commercial break they showed pictures of teams watching around the state. One of the hosts, who is an older gentleman, commented on how comfortable some of the furniture teams were sitting in looked, or how nice some of the coaches’ houses were.

I was not a fan of how this was all playing out.

When it was finally time for them to unveil the 60-some sectional brackets, they started in class 1A and worked their way up to 4A, where CHS plays. Rather than just rip through them, they analyzed each bracket as they revealed it. There were commercial breaks in the middle of each class segment, and they brought in an assistant state commissioner for an interview between classes 2A and 3A.

The show started at 5:00. We finally saw Cathedral’s bracket at 6:40. At least I could keep one eye on football during all of this.

As a reminder, Indiana high school sports do not seed their playoff brackets, so they are always dumb. In Cathedral’s sectional, the #5 and #6 teams in the entire state should meet in the semifinals. Unfortunately CHS has to play the #6 team in the quarters. Meanwhile the #335 team in the state gets an opening round bye.

If common sense prevailed and the computer ratings were used to make the bracket, #65 CHS would be playing #51 North Central with the winner moving on to play #6, while #5 would be working through the opposite half of the sectional.

Despite how much Indiana politicians love to talk about common sense, it is clearly lacking amongst Hoosiers, at least when it comes to high school sports.