Weekend Notes

We had a great weekend highlighted by some visitors, both local and from KC, and lots of basketball. But first we need to jump back and review C’s trip to Bloomington for orientation.

Orientation

We got up bright and early to make check-in at 9:00 AM last Monday. Thank goodness the I–69 extension is finally complete after a decade of work. Once you get out of the Indy construction it is a breeze to get to B-town. No more stoplights every two miles!

For the first 90 minutes we were together, but then separated for the rest of the day. I went to several parent sessions, most of which were informative. We were supposed to link back up for dinner before the parents were dismissed and the kids shuffled on to evening activities, but C decided to have dinner with her future roommate, who lives in Bloomington. I might have been a little annoyed she didn’t share this with me earlier in the day so I could have left before I had to return home in rush hour traffic. Alas…

I was back for an 11:00 session on Tuesday, which was also when she had her enrollment appointment. We finished about the same time then took a tour of the dorm she will live in. She’s in the biggest dorm on campus, it’s actually a complex that has three satellite buildings and one central one. She’s excited because there’s a Starbucks in the basement of the main building. There were a bunch of high school campers there so the cafeteria was bustling. For some reason they didn’t walk us through it but the food sure smelled good.

It seems like she had a good time. One of her best friends was in her group both days, so that helped. They stayed in single dorm rooms and her AC unit wasn’t working, so she had to battle a sweltering room to try to sleep. She had fun at dinner with her future roomie. She seems happy with her schedule, although she has an 8:00 AM class two days. We’ll see how that goes. We will move her in on August 20, so it’s coming up quick. Our bonus room is starting to fill up with our many Amazon and Target purchases for her.

Travel Hoops

This was a big AAU weekend, both open for recruiting and for teams that play on a “circuit,” it was the last weekend to lock in places for next week’s nationals.[1] Her team had games Thursday through today. We went to watch them play their Friday games. She didn’t tell me that her coach’s daughter asked if she could play. I would probably have let her if she had told me and her coach thought it wouldn’t get him in trouble. I guess it’s probably best, as I’m not sure her body is ready for the full-contact style that is travel ball.

Her team played great in their first game, coming from seven down to beat a solid team by one. Then they got absolutely run out of the gym by a team from Nebraska. This team was all skinny, scrappy white girls. But they could shoot the shit out of the ball and ran great offense. L was glad she wasn’t on the court for that one.

I missed most of that one because I walked down to the feature court to watch a U17 game that featured a team that had two girls over 6’3”. There were coaches from Texas, Duke, NC State, Auburn, Rutgers, IU, and plenty of smaller D1 schools sitting along the baseline, so I figured they must be big prospects. Turned out they weren’t. They were both kind of messes. But this girl on the other team was crazy good. She was only 5’10” or so but had a crazy handle, made great passes, and moved well without the ball. Oh, and she also hit four straight 3’s without touching the rim before the other team decided to stick one defender on her and never let her get open. I always get mad there aren’t rosters at these events so I can look up kids and see where they are ranked and track where they end up going.

I know L missed playing travel, but her team was kind of weird this year, and I think it would have really frustrated her had she played. There were several girls who seemed to have no interest in playing team ball. I’m guessing one girl was told by her high school coach to work on her shot, because she took at least 800 shots a game. And she’s not that good. Other girls just would not pass ever, and either take their own awful shots or pound the ball until they turned it over.

It was nice for L’s coach to tell me several times this season how much he missed her. Not because she would have been the best player or anything, that definitely was not true. But as I’ve said many times, she has a steadying presence and is a vocal leader who isn’t afraid to call out teammates. His team needed that, as his daughter is probably the best player but very quiet and always tries not to step on people’s toes since her dad is the coach. Another girl who has played for him for six years, and is L’s best friend on the team, is fiery and physical, but also isn’t good at bringing teammates together. Had L played that would have given them four girls who had been together four seasons, plus a true voice on the court, and perhaps that could have brought the entire roster together.

Or maybe L would have been pissed after every game because this player never passes and that player doesn’t know the sets etc.

Some of her friends were down in Louisville for the weekend. You may have heard on the news that the tournament was suspended Sunday because there were reports of shots being fired at the Expo Center. It turned out there was no shooter, but I’m sure that was awful to experience. We’ve been there the last three years and that place is jam packed. I can’t imagine what it would have been like had someone actually been firing bullets in a building filled with girls playing basketball.

One of her friends who was there texted, “Well, I guess someone went 0–4 and was DONE.” Sometimes you have to laugh not to cry?

Wimbledon

I did not watch much of the tournament over the past two weeks. The match I paid most attention to was Thursday’s women’s semifinal between Amanda Anisimova and Aryna Sabalenka. What a fun match! Anisimova rebounded from taking an extended break from tennis a little over a year ago to upset the #1 seed and make her first Slam final.

What struck me was Sabalenka. I’ve never been a huge fan, for a variety of reasons. But over the past year I’ve found myself admiring her more because she is such a compelling, yet tragic, figure. When she’s on, she seems like by far the best player in the game. But she has these hiccups in the biggest moments, and then often very honest, human reactions to them. You can see her losing faith in some aspect of her game, and the rest of it slowly unraveling. Maybe the reason I didn’t initially like her is because she came across as an old-school, Eastern European robot designed to destroy anything in her path. These meltdowns make her much more relatable. The fact that she seems to have grown as a person, and usually apologizes for her mistakes and mis-speaks makes me like her more.

But I was still rooting against her. Shame Anisimova had nothing left for Saturday’s final.

I didn’t watch the men’s final because I was busy. As you’ll read about in a moment.

Visitors

My old high school pal Stacey and her kids were in town over the weekend. They came by Saturday evening, along with our local friends the H’s, for dinner, drinks, games, and conversation. Some big storms passed right before dinner, but they cooled it off just enough that late in the evening the kids were able to get in the pool for a swim in the dark. I think the water was still around 95° so it wasn’t exactly refreshing…

Fever Game

Sunday L and I went to our first ever Indiana Fever game with our visitors. It was a big game, as Dallas was in town with Paige Bueckers. L is not shy about saying she’s really not a Caitlin Clark fan anymore,[2] and that she much prefers Bueckers. This was the first time the two phenoms were facing each other as pros – CC was out injured for the first Dallas-Indiana game of the year – so it became one of the most anticipated games of the season.

It was a great game…for about 15 minutes. The Fever were up 33–31 when they absolutely blew the game open with a 31–8 run. Soooo many breakout layups. I’m not sure Dallas has ever practiced transition defense. It reminded me of how KU ran all over Miami in the second half of their 2022 Elite Eight game.

The arena was packed, so that run was great. I don’t think it was quite as loud as it was last month in game six of the NBA Finals, but the place was rocking. Interestingly, there were also a lot of young ladies there who love Paige, too. When Dallas did something right, which wasn’t often, there was a smattering of applause. But when Paige did something, there were big roars. Not as big as when anyone on the Fever did something, but it was also very noticeable.

CC is obviously the big draw, but as this is Indiana the top six or seven in rotation have really been embraced by the crowd. Everyone loves the quiet determination and brilliant scoring of Kelsey Mitchell. Aliyah Boston is admired as much for being the public face of the team off the court as for her low post game. How can you not love Lexie Hull? But newcomer Sophie Cunningham is the clear #2 choice behind CC. I think the girls love her because she’s a badass, she’s Insta glamorous, and she plays with flair. And, of course, the dudes like her for all those reasons and a few more. We sat pretty high up but I heard several people yell “We love you Sophie!” A little kid got on the big screen with his sign that said “Marry Me Sophie C!” There was lots of laughter when they showed him, and comments about how he wasn’t the only one with that dream. Props to him; you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

The Fever won in a blowout. Clark hit a long 3 to start the game, had some amazing passes, but otherwise continued to look like she’s not 100%. Cunningham had a big game. And Bueckers had the best statistical line of anyone. Just about everyone went home happy. Well, other than the Dallas players, I guess.