Weekend Notes

CFP

My goodness! I expected IU to beat Oregon. But like that? A complete ass kicking, the type you expect Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State to put on some feel-good-story team that got a bunch of breaks and stumbled into the playoffs? No, no way could the Hoosiers do that to the Ducks, a team loaded with five star recruits and future NFL players. Yet they did. Without much effort, it seemed.

There are about 130 schools who should be kicking themselves for not hiring Curt Cignetti when they had a chance. They let little old Indiana do it and now the Hoosiers are about to win a national championship. In football. In one of the greatest single seasons in college football history. What a time to be alive.

The other semifinal between Miami and Mississippi was a lot of fun, full of late twists that were terribly exciting. And, sure, Miami will be playing in their hometown and home stadium. But you saw how the Hoosiers turned Atlanta into Bloomington south Friday night. The Canes will fill a lot of seats, but they will not get the home field advantage you would expect a team in their situation to have.

HS Hoops

We drove about an hour north of town, just past Muncie, for a game Saturday afternoon against DHS, who had the same record as us. They had played the 122nd toughest schedule in the state, to our 22nd, but you never know, right?

Well, we should have known. After an ugly first quarter, which ended with us up 6–1, we cranked it up and spent the majority of the game ahead by 17–22 points. It was one of those games where both teams kind of didn’t want to be on the court in the fourth quarter and it drug on too long. In the end, we won by 17, giving up just 24 points to a team that was averaging nearly 60 per game. Tenth straight W for the Irish, if you’re counting, up to 12–4 on the season.

L played decent minutes: the closing seconds of the first quarter, all of the second, spot duty in the third, and a solid chunk of the fourth. She had two highlights. As the clock ran out in the first quarter she caught a pass at midcourt, took a couple dribbles, and launched a shot from about 35 feet as the buzzer sounded. It hit the front of the rim, the backboard, the front rim again, the back rim, and then spun out. Would have been a cool way to finally hit a varsity 3.

As the second quarter ran out she got absolutely plowed by two defenders. Just wiped out. No whistle. When she popped up I saw her saying, “WHAT THE FUCK???” Clearly she got something athletic from her mom!

The whistle was very weird in the first half – at one point the total fouls were 11 against us to three against our hosts – and this play set our coaches off. As they walked to the locker room we saw a referee following them, telling our head coach she could talk to him but her assistants needed to be quiet. She yapped back, as she tends to do, so soon he was taking steps towards our locker room. He yelled “If you want us to even up the fouls we have to even up the score, too!” Which got us parents fired up. I tossed in a couple “Walk aways!” at him. Yeah, I told him!

Anyway, L missed the other two shots she took, grabbed one steal, and had one turnover. Again, not doing much in the scorebook but she’s handling her minutes without too many mistakes, which keeps her in the games.

This coming week is the Indianapolis City Tournament. We are the #1 seed. Our arch rivals, who we’ve played in the championship game the last two years, are struggling a bit and got the #3 seed, but I would still not be surprised to see them Friday if we win our first two games.

Jayhawk Talk

Well, it’s officially time to panic.

Thankfully I missed all of Saturday’s game at West Virginia while we were up in Muncie. I did not go back and watch the game when we got home. I was disgusted enough following it on my phone and getting updates from friends.

This team is a mess, I fear Bill Self has lost his mojo, and I’m not sure what will fix any of it. If KU can’t give Iowa State their first loss of the year tonight, then win at Baylor on Friday, there aren’t many clear paths to a .500 record in the Big 12. Which suddenly puts even making the NCAA tournament in doubt. Which would have sounded utterly ridiculous three weeks ago. Or any time in the last 40+ years. But this is what we’ve come to. Feel free to talk pleasure in my distress after the charmed life as a college basketball fan I’ve lead almost my entire life.

NFL Playoffs

First off, I have to admit a monumental mistake in my picks post Friday. I called the Chargers the San Diego Chargers. That says a lot about that organization that after nearly a decade in LA, I still think of them as San Diego’s team. I know the Raiders are in Las Vegas and they’ve moved 20 times in my life.[1] My apologies to the entire San Diego, errrrrr, Los Angeles Chargers organization. It’s a shame my snub didn’t fire them up so they played better Sunday. I think I’m done with all the people who insist that Justin Herbert is an elite quarterback. He missed so many not terribly difficult throws Sunday. I have corrected my mistake.

Man, what a weekend of football! Until the Chargers – Patriots game, almost every contest was great. And at least that nightcap was close most of the way even if it kind of sucked. I didn’t get to see all of every game for various reasons, but most of the time when I was watching the football was good. Or at least exciting.

I lost one Super Bowl team already (Jacksonville) and was lucky not to lose the other (LA Rams). Chicago made me sweat it out, which I kind of expected. I’m 3–2 going into tonight.

Back To School

We took M and C out to breakfast Saturday after dropping L off at school. M then returned to Cincinnati. She begins her spring co-op today, working in the marketing department of an architectural firm. She will be taking one online course to go with that gig.

We drove C back to Bloomington Sunday afternoon, her classes resume today. IU does spring semester rush, which began last week, and she decided not to go through with it. Which did not surprise us. That choice fits her personality. While a lot of her high school friends and her roommate are rushing, most of the new friends she made in the fall are not, so she’ll have a nice balance going forward.

Last week was CHS’ annual J Term week. L has developed an interest in possibly attending law school. Through a friend she hooked up with an attorney who happens to be the chief lobbyist for IU Health, and shadowed her at the state house last week. L got to sit in on committee meetings, meet several state senators, and follow the lobbyist as she interacted with legislators. L realized that she definitely does NOT want to be a lobbyist. But she did get a greater understanding of how our state government works (or sometimes does not work).[2] One of the senators she got to meet is not affiliated with the party that most represents her views, but she told me she really liked that he was open-minded rather than an ideologue, and made some comments about a few recent political developments in Indiana that were forced upon us by lunatics in DC that matched her feelings.[3]

In the end it was a highly educational week for her. I’m not sure if it swayed her either way on law school, but she has a lot of time to figure that out. Both of her godparents are attorneys and made some suggestions for courses of study in college to help her get there if she ends up wanting to take that leap and will also leave her with a solid base if she decides those extra three years aren’t for her.

She starts regular classes today, too.

We took all the holiday decorations down last Thursday. The girls are all back in class (or working). The holidays are over and our house is emptier in multiple ways this morning.