Weekend Notes

HS Hoops

It was a two-game weekend for CHS.

Things began with a bummer when L was told on Thursday she was going back to JV (along with one other junior). She needs minutes and JV needs players. That was a rough night in our house, as you might imagine. That’s about all I’ll say on that topic for now.

Friday we drove 90 minutes south to play 3A #7 Jennings County, who came in 3–0.

In the JV game L played most of the first half and we were up one at halftime. She sat the entire third quarter and the early moments of the fourth quarter. When she came back in we were down 15. Over the next four minutes she hit a layup, had a couple assists, and then hit a 3 to cut it to two with about 40 seconds left. But we couldn’t get a steal and lost by 3. She had eight points and 4 assists. She played with confidence, which was the key.

I was looking forward to the varsity game as JC has a girl who is going to KU next year. She was spectacular. Despite hitting just 2–10 3’s, she still had 24 points and a ton of assists. When she realized she wasn’t hitting from deep she was smart enough to start punishing us with short jumpers from the elbow and baseline. She had some Larry Bird to her, a no-jump jump shot with a high release we could not threaten. Not sure how her skills will translate at the next level, but it was fun to see her play.

As for the game we controlled it all night, weathered a late rally, and survived a 3 that would have tied it before they hit a follow-tip as the clock expired to win by one. Made for a nice ride home!

On our way out of the gym the dad of one of our assistant coaches pulled L aside and told her he coached for 35 years and he saw that she needed to play, so while it might be an ego hit to get moved down, in the long run it will be good for her. He said she’s a good player and he loves watching her so to stick with it. I think that helped her a little bit.

Saturday we played Norwell, the defending 3A champs who moved up to 4A this year. They were coming off a 13-point win over last week’s 4A #1 team, too.

In JV, L took a bump to her face and got a bloody nose two minutes into the game. She stayed on the bench – sometimes over a trashcan spitting blood – until halftime. Our girls did not play well and were down by 32–10. I had to leave at halftime but was pleased to get updates as L decided to play a little ball in the second half. She scored 13, mostly on drives with some free throws sprinkled in. They still lost by 22.

Then varsity got annihilated by 42. I was glad I missed that. Varsity is now 2–3.

In weird comparative scores, on Friday we beat Jennings County by one, on Saturday Jennings County beat Warsaw by 5, two weeks ago Warsaw beat Norwell by 14, and then Norwell beats us by 42. Try making sense of that.

L is apparently a magnet for injuries. Friday she got a nasty elbow – unintentional – right in her sternum and has a serious bruise there. Saturday in addition to the bloody nose, she took a knee to her thigh while scoring and was hobbling around Sunday.

Games on Wednesday and Saturday this week.

Dad’s Day

I had to leave L’s game early Saturday because it was Dad’s Day at M’s sorority down at UC. We had a fun afternoon and evening together.

We hung out at her sorority house with friends for a bit, went to a big three-house frat part down the street for about an hour. That was kind of funny because of the band that was playing. As we walked to it, I heard “Even Flow” and wondered why the DJ was playing 90s tunes. Then I saw there was a live band on a stage. They played nothing but 90s grunge/rock hits the entire time we were there. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, etc. The other dads and I were laughing that they must have known we were coming and got a band that played music from our college days. The band itself was really good, but the singer did not have the voice the cover Eddie, Kurt, Scott, Chris, etc.

M’s house “granddaughter” is one of C’s good friends from CHS, so we spent a lot of time with her and her dad, who I had met on spring break in March. We hung out at a couple bars with other girls from her house. This was the first time I’ve been to a bar with my legal-to-drink daughter, which was kind of fun. After eating her favorite pizza in the city, she took me back to her house for a quick tour. I hadn’t been there since we moved her in, so was able to see how she and her roommates had decorated it. I dropped her and her boyfriend off at a bar and headed back to Indy.

BYU was in town. M’s not really into going to games so we didn’t get tickets. Good move as it got slotted as the 8:00 PM game. I would have needed a hotel room if she did want to go to the game. Obviously there were tons of Mormons in town. Strangely we saw none of them at the frat party or either of the bars we went to.

KU Football

Thankfully basketball and traveling on I–74 kept me from watching KU’s crappy performance. Well, I saw the first two drives, when Iowa State marched with zero resistance and then KU’s long snapper put the ball 15 yards behind the punter, and that was enough. Unlike last year, when the coaching staff rallied the team after a brutal start to play their best football in November, this team has gotten worse as the season progressed. Coaching? Talent? If the Jayhawks want to be more than a 4–5 win team every year, they need to figure it out. Again, I used to wish for nothing more than a mediocre team, so I guess this is better than the years we were lucky to win two games. Apparently I should have asked for a mediocre team that was also interesting to watch.

Colts

Well, what the hell do you take from yesterday’s game in Kansas City if you’re a Colts fan? The Colts were the better team for three quarters and had an 11-point lead. But the last score, a field goal, felt like a missed opportunity to put the game away when they had to settle for three instead of seven.

Sure enough the Chiefs came roaring back to win in overtime, and the Colts offense was terrible in those final 20-ish minutes. Daniel Jones looked decent in the first half, but steadily got worse as the game progressed, and threw a couple terrible passes in the fourth quarter. The defense, missing their stalwart DeForest Buckner in the middle, did all you could have asked of them, but were gassed late.

So are you excited about going into Arrowhead, even against a Chiefs team that may not be as good as they’ve been previously in the Mahomes era, building the lead and hanging tough? Or are you worried that Jones might be re-growing the pumpkin shell he had when he was in New York and that combined with the tougher schedule over the next six weeks means the Colts are going to blow their great start?

I have no idea, but I’m not super confident. I guess the good thing is if Jones is indeed toast, hopefully that keeps the Colts from locking him up with a long-term contract in the offseason that blows up their salary cap for a half decade.

Now Jones does deserve some grace, as he apparently has some kind of minor lower leg injury that was hobbling him a bit. But this is also 3–4 weeks of regression towards Bad Daniel Jones territory that cannot be ignored.

One game lead over Jacksonville, two games over Houston. Four of the Colts’ last six games are against those two division rivals. The Colts control their destiny but have very little room for error.