Changing Times
A little more stressful of a start for KU than I had hoped, but a W is a W. And perhaps their early struggles last night will get them focused in on Northern Iowa. Now for a post that’s been sitting in the drafts folder all week. I’m getting to be old enough that I can start pining for the…
Picks
Hardest year ever to make picks. Because of the parity that college basketball has seen this year? No, because I don’t have a feel for any of these teams. Usually, right or wrong, I can look at the brackets and have a feel for each team. I like this team’s style, dislike that one’s. I think that team is peaking,…
Brackets
If you think I have some thoughts, you thought right. I think. Let’s just get this out of the way: someone at Duke called in some serious favors. It’s one thing if they had earned the top overall seed to be rewarded like that. But there were reasonable voices who said, on Sunday, that Duke was not deserving of a…
Local Hoops Update
A quick update on local basketball. First off, EHS fell one game short of taking their first regional title in 59 years. They won their Saturday morning contest in overtime,* their third straight one-point win, but dropped the championship game by 12 points. Still, a great year for a school that hadn’t had a winning record in ten years. They…
Reporter’s Notebook, The Perfect Game
In recent weeks I’ve covered the state swimming and diving finals, a sectional gymnastics meet,* and a few hoops game here and there. Saturday night, though, I may have covered the perfect game. Save this one for lunch or a coffee break; it will take a while to get through. (Awful. I forgot from last year how tedious gymnastics meets…
Vexing
”Just got back from Kansas-Okla. This KU team fascinates me. I cannot tell yet if they’re good, great or legendary.” That Tweet from Joe Posnanski on Monday night perfectly sums up how I feel about this year’s Jayhawks. The only team in the nation in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, yet most observers believe they’re capable…
A Few Reporter’s Notebook Extras
It’s been a busy week. I covered games last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then another on Tuesday night. I already wrote about. Thursday was an uninspiring boys game. Friday, another girls sectional game, this time featuring much maligned EHS, the school that almost never wins.* (At least when I’m around.) Before Friday, three of the six girls teams from…
Hot Playoff Action
Wednesday was my first ever Indiana high school sectional game as a reporter. While the environment may not be like the sectionals of old, which pitted schools that were all neighbors against each other, the game sure lived up to all that a sectional is supposed to be. First, a note about sectionals in Indiana. Sectionals are the first phase…
Mini Reporter’s Notebook
A few more items from the Reporter’s Notebook. I’m sure you’ve all been holding your breath for this update, but I finally saw the girls team that struggles every time I show up win a game last Friday. They won by 35. I think it’s safe to say their opponent was not of the highest quality. It was hard not…
Beaking ‘Em
I’ve been trying not to jinx them. I’m overdue for some KU basketball discussion, but I kept putting it off because I didn’t want to write good things about them and then have Missouri or K-State beat us. Now that we’ve gotten through rivalry week 2-0, I feel comfortable writing. Cue Colorado’s first win over us since 2003 on Wednesday……