D's Notebook

Tag: family (Page 2 of 44)

Weekend Notes

April 15, 2024 /

A pretty solid weekend around our house. Enough went on that I will divide this into two parts. Smaller items in this post, a bigger post to come tomorrow.

After a crappy four days of rain and steadily decreasing temps, the weekend was gorgeous here in Indy. Sunday it got into the 80s for the first time this year. We took advantage by doing phase one of pool opening prep, power washing all the crap that had collected on the cover since last October. Actually pool opening isn’t until three weeks from today. S half-mentioned getting the patio furniture out yesterday, but I told her if we did that it would 100% snow sometime in the next three weeks so we decided to hold off a little longer.

Kid Hoops

L played in the same gym as a week ago, once again three games.

Saturday we played her middle school buddy’s team, a higher ranked team from her program. Her buddy and two other girls were missing, so they only had six. It didn’t look like that would matter at first as they got a quick 10–2 lead. We answered with our own 10–2 run to tie and trailed by just two at halftime. Midway through the second half we were up five. Our girls were playing really well on both ends. The other team was down to five girls as one girl rolled her ankle and missed a big chunk of the first half, although she returned in the second half.

We couldn’t hang on, though, and lost by four. Too many second-chance opportunities because we couldn’t grab any rebounds and way too many unforced turnovers.

An hour later we were back on the court against a team that didn’t look very good in warmups. Our girls came out focused and led 23–8 just before halftime. Then we started missing layups. After halftime we kept missing layups. Then we started missing jumpers. Then girls started taking bad shots as soon as they got the ball. Our coach, who isn’t a big yeller, was screaming at the girls to stop taking dumb shots.

Next thing you knew it was 23–21 six minutes into the second half before L hit a free throw to break the run. After one more basket by the other girls we ripped off a 10–0 stretch that put the game away.

That win kept us out of fourth place, which meant we had to go back at 9:05 Sunday instead of 8:00. In the bracket game we played a higher level team from the program we beat on Saturday. These girls also didn’t look like anything special in warmups. No super tall girls, or girls that looked super athletic, and they weren’t lighting it up as they shot.

But this team was one of the best coached teams I’ve ever seen. They ran a really good motion offense, but their goal was to get one of their big girls posted on a smaller defender, and then both of those girls could finish over either shoulder. Old school basketball! It was impressive. They were tough as hell, too, something our girls don’t always handle well. Their defense was perfect for AAU where refs let you get away with just about anything. Bob Huggins probably loves the defensive rules in summer ball.

It turned out to be a really good game. We trailed by six early, by seven later in the first half, before getting it to 19–17 at halftime.

Second half was the same story. We trailed by seven, came back to take a five point lead, trailed by five late, and then our only shooter hit four 3’s in the final 90 seconds to force overtime.

Overtime sucked. We didn’t score. L had two turnovers in the final minute. We lost by six.

At least that meant we got out of the gym to enjoy the beautiful day.

L was mixed for the weekend. She scored seven in the first game, hitting her first three shots before missing a couple when she got fouled and there was no call. She hit a free throw on an and-one. Otherwise she didn’t do much good or bad. In game two she was one of the girls who missed layups in our bad stretch. She grabbed four rebounds, which is good for her, but only scored three points. Then Sunday she just scored one point and had those two huge turnovers late.

The good news was she went 4–5 on free throws, and all five looked great, The main trainer at her weekly workouts adjusted L’s mechanics last week. It’s going to be a process to get those integrated but at least from the free throw line the changes seemed to be working.

We are off to Cincinnati Friday for a weekend of games.

Big Kid Props

We talked to M twice on Sunday. She called us after she had her final house meeting of the year for her sorority. They gave out awards and she won one of the Founders awards for her “positive attitude and impact on the house even as a freshman.” We laughed because she said they read the things that people said about the winners before they announced the winner’s names, and she had kind of tuned out whoever was talking when they got to her award. So she doesn’t remember what specific nice things they said about her. Hilarious! She was probably talking to whoever was sitting next to her.

Later she texted us and said she got selected to go to her sorority’s national office this summer to take part in a leadership conference. They pay for it, so we said she should absolutely do it. The only bummer is it is in St. Louis in July, so she’ll have to deal with that fun humidity in the Lou.

Masters

Between the PGA-LIV stupidity and my old-man arthritis that has kept me from playing golf for two years, I rarely watch golf anymore. I did catch a lot of the Masters over the weekend, still one of the best four days in sports.

Brilliant stuff from Scottie Scheffler. That dude is really fucking good. My guy Max Homa had his shots, but two bad holes Sunday ruined his chances.

Mostly it was fun to see weather really affect how the course played. Heavy winds all week made it damn near impossible to know where your ball would end up. That Scheffler ran away on the back nine Sunday was even more impressive as pretty much everyone close to him fell apart.

Masters week also meant it was time for the return of one of the best sports bits of the year.

Masters Update

NBA Playoffs

The Pacers ended the regular season in style, blowing out the Hawks once again, winning 157–115. It was the second time this season the Pacers have set a new franchise scoring record, both times coming against the Hawks.

It’s back to the playoffs for the first time in four years, with the Milwaukee Bucks waiting. There’s some bad blood in the matchup from games back in December and January. There was the weird “Ballgame” confrontation. There was the Pacers knocking the Bucks out of the IST, and then winning again a couple weeks later. Malik Beasley went on record back then as wanting the Pacers in the playoffs so the Bucks could put them in their proper place.

Giannis Anteotkounmpo missed the end of the regular season and there’s no concrete word on his status for round one. That would be a pretty big bonus for the Pacers if he either can’t play or is limited. Tyrese Haliburton gets to go back to his hometown. Should be a great series.

A Boston-Denver Finals is the smart bet. The West, especially, is going to be a slog for whoever comes out of that conference.

College Hoops

Kentucky hiring Mark Pope was unexpected, but it may end up being genius. He’s a really good coach, runs a modern offense, and is much more laid back than John Calipari. Being a former UK player he’ll get a longer honeymoon than pretty much any other hire if there are early struggles. I would also expect him to moderate recruiting a little, focusing more on getting players who fit his system and maybe want to play in Lexington for a couple years rather than trying to get the five best freshmen he can get every year. To be sure UK will still have great recruiting classes. I think he knows that you win in college by having experience, and his offense works better with guys who have been in it more than three months.

I find the transfer portal, and the rumors surrounding it, exhausting. But I still pay attention because KU is in the market. I laughed out loud this morning when I saw that Colby Rogers, a former Wichita Sate player, had committed to Memphis. Yesterday a top-notch recruiting site said he was down to KU, Michigan, and Alabama. I’ve been trying to back off on the college hoops rumor monitoring because of situations exactly like this. No one really knows until the kid makes an announcement.

Weekend Notes

April 9, 2024 /

Eclipse

Well, I feel silly.

I’ve been making fun of all the preparations and build-up for the eclipse since 2024 began. I laughed out loud when I saw t-shirts on racks in grocery stores and in pop-up stands at busy traffic corners. I shook my head when I heard that roughly a million people were expected to visit Central Indiana to watch the event.

And then I saw it.

I don’t take it all back. I still think the t-shirts are kind of dumb if you’re over the age of 12. And I’m still annoyed by all the out-of-towners who messed up our traffic over the weekend.

But the three minutes of totality? That was truly amazing.

All the videos you’ve ever seen about a total eclipse? They don’t come close to capturing what it is really like. I was truly floored when I removed my safety glasses and saw the black moon with this amazing, indescribable glow from the sun’s corona behind it. It didn’t look real, more like some cool computer animation because the light was more white than yellow. I understood why ancient people freaked out during eclipses. Adding to that was the twilight glow from every direction. For some reason I expected it to get a lot darker. It was also very cool to see full sunlight slowly approaching from the west as totality was ending. It was like watching a sheet of rain approach during a storm.

Cathedral was off and S’s office closed for the day, so we all sat and watched the three minutes, thirty seconds of totality together. That was the best part of it.[1]

This was the best I could do with my iPhone, which does not do it justice in any way.

Sunday at C’s National Honor Society induction ceremony, one of her teachers told me that traveling to see the 2017 total eclipse was one of the coolest things she’s ever done. I get that now. I’m glad I didn’t have to leave my house to see it, I could watch with three quarters of my family, and that the weather cooperated giving us a perfect day to watch it.

Middle Kid Academics

This deserves its own section. C got inducted into NHS on Sunday. Funny how your different kids’ personalities manifest themselves. When M got inducted she wanted to hang around for at least half an hour, getting pictures with all her friends and mingling. C wanted to get one pic with her best friend then was ready to leave. Which was fine with us. We aren’t as tight with parents in her class as we were with those in M’s grade.

C also got her SAT scores last week. She got a good score, up slightly from her two Pre-SAT results. Apparently most of her friends bombed it, which makes her score look even better. She’s going to take the ACT in June and then decide whether to take the SAT again. M only took each test once and I don’t think C is super interested in doing more than that.

I’ve been watching for summer college tour dates to open to get C signed up, but none of the schools she’s interested in have posted any yet. She wants to visit IU, Cincinnati, Purdue, and Ball State, with IU being her top choice at the moment.

Kid Hoops

L had her first tournament with her re-vamped team over the weekend. They played while we were gone on spring break and won that tournament. This week didn’t go as well.

We won both of our Saturday games. We were down four at halftime in the first and won by eight. We really played well in that second half. Then we trailed 15–7 in our first game before going on a 10–0 run and never looked back from there, winning by 19.

Sunday we played a team that we lost two twice a year ago. They have one of the best freshmen in the city and some nice players around her. They jumped on us 10–2 and that was pretty much the game. We were down 24 at halftime and lost by 23. We won the second half! Only first-place teams went through to bracket play so we were done early.

We did not have our full team for any of the games. Saturday we had seven of ten players. Sunday we were supposed to have nine, but one of our girls rolled her ankle badly Saturday and had to sit out Sunday.

L did not have a great weekend. She scored six in the first game, four in the second, and two in the third. She shot horribly. She air-balled every 3 she took (0–5 in total), missed every free throw (also 0–5), and Sunday she was getting to the rim but could not finish (1–6 from the field). She literally hasn’t hit a 3 in a real game since before Christmas. She’s been practicing three nights a week so she’s used to being on the court even if these were her first games in two months. At least her defense was good.

Hopefully she’ll shoot better this weekend.

NCAA Women

Funny how our various weekend plans interfered with pretty much all the college hoops but I was more bummed about missing the women’s games than the men’s.

I got to see the second half of the Iowa-UConn, then just the first 15 minutes or so of the championship game.

South Carolina were certainly deserving champs. Especially after Iowa opened up the title game with a 10–0 run, and Caitlin Clark dropped 18 in that first period alone. It’s pretty incredible to go undefeated all the way to the Final Four before losing, lose your entire starting five, then come back and be undefeated champs the next year.

Dawn Staley is a great coach. I’ll take her over Kim Mulkey every day. For a lot of reasons.

NCAA Men

I missed most of the Final Four games watching L play. It was interesting seeing how Purdue fans handled the day. The building we were in had very bad cell reception. But they had a big TV with the games on in the lobby. Some folks were out there watching. Others were trying to follow on their phones. I asked a Purdue dad on L’s team what his plan was and it was to try to avoid spoilers and watch when he got home. But he kept going out and checking the score. That’s the only good thing about KU not being in Phoenix: me not having to worry about kid vs school.

I figured it was either a very good or very bad omen that Purdue was finally playing in the national championship game again after 55 years on the same day that a total eclipse passed over Indiana. I guess it was the latter.

UConn are obviously insanely impressive. Two straight years of just destroying the tournament. And repeating when they replaced three starters and changed their offense. Danny Hurley is an obnoxious ass, but he’s also a hell of a coach. I was so impressed with how UConn methodically destroyed Purdue. They played fast. They played slow. Regardless, they always got a good shot out of it. When Purdue pressured them late, they casually picked it apart.

As for Purdue…their guards were why they lost to a 16 seed last year. Those guys worked their asses off to get better, and that work paid off as they were the perfect compliments to Zach Edey all year. And then they decided to play terrible in the national title game. Or I guess UConn forced them into it. Either way the loss was on Purdue’s inability to do anything to help Edey. Depending on your perspective it was either hilarious or sad that Purdue kept throwing the ball to Edey even when they were down 15+ because the entire backcourt lost its nerve to take 3s.

I like Matt Painter a lot and think he takes too much grief because he’s been extraordinarily unlucky in the tournament. But Hurley schooled him in the second half Monday.

Hats off to Edey, who turned himself into the best player in the country a year ago and then got even better this year. One of the greatest college players not only of the modern era, but of all time. 37 and 10 in the national championship game is legendary.

UConn winning six titles in 25 years is just insane. If Hurley stays there, no telling what that number will turn into.

John Calipari

Holy shit! When news first started to break Sunday night that John Calipari might leave Kentucky to go to Arkansas, I was sure it was some lame April Fools’ Day joke that had gotten stuck in the queue.

I guess he was genuinely pissed off by Cats fans getting annoyed about his teams full of the best freshmen consistently getting beat by low seeds in the tournament. Which, you know, seems like a fair gripe. You can hype up how many NBA players go through your program, but if you don’t go to a Final Four for nearly 10 years at a school like Kentucky, folks are going to be upset.

Still, it seems crazy to go to Arkansas. Not that it’s a bad program. Especially since Cal has apparently motivated the many big money people who support the program to start pouring cash into NIL. It just seems weird to take a clear step down in the hoops hierarchy and go to a conference rival unless you are as motivated by getting back at UK/UK fans as you are about recharging your career.

Also weird because Eric Musselman largely left Arkansas because he was disappointed at the booster support for NIL. If the chicken and discount store families had stepped up a month ago, none of this would have ever happened.

  1. Cincinnati was just outside the path of totality, so M and some of her friends went to Dayton, staying at one of the friend’s homes Sunday night, to watch.  ↩

Weekend Notes

April 2, 2024 /

Easter

A relatively chill, long Easter weekend for us.

Having kids in Catholic school means it was a four-day weekend, stretching from Good Friday through Easter Monday. Not that we took much advantage of it by doing anything special.

M had a high school friend visit her at UC on Friday, so she didn’t come home until Saturday morning, with her pal giving her a ride to Indy. Then she spent Saturday evening with friends. Most of the rest of her weekend revolved around napping, homework, and laundry. Normal home from college stuff.

I ran her back Monday morning. Her first class isn’t until 11:15 so we didn’t have to leave super early. She only has three more weeks of class and her last final is April 25. Her summer is right around the corner.

A couple of S’s siblings were traveling for the holiday, so we decided to scrap the big family gathering this year. Instead we had her dad and stepmom over for dinner with the girls Saturday, then went out for an early breakfast Sunday before the church crowds hit our favorite spot. We walked in to only a few other folks being seated. By the time we left it was starting to fill up quickly.

We pulled some of the patio furniture and cushions out and used them Saturday and Sunday, which were warm and breezy. But we had to put all the cushions back into storage as soon as we were done with storms in the forecast.

Our lawn service has already been around, both treating and mowing the yard last week. It looks pretty great, lush and green. Most of our blooming plants and trees are starting to pop. It sure feels like spring. It makes sense that it might snow Wednesday.

College Hoops

I popped in and out of basketball coverage all weekend. I probably watched more women’s ball than men’s.

With that in mind, allow me to first blast the NCAA for allowing the situation in Portland to occur where one of the three-point lines for the women’s games was improperly drawn. They didn’t figure this out until after four Sweet Sixteen games had been played, and then Texas and North Carolina State agreed to play their Elite 8 game on the non-regulation court so they could, you know, actually play when they were supposed to.

They even had extra games to figure it out, with the women’s regionals being staged at two sites instead of four. This combined with a handful of other “incidents” so far in the tournament show how the NCAA still doesn’t give the women’s game nearly enough respect despite the massive increase in ratings and interest.

Oh, and don’t get me started on how bad the refs are in women’s games. You can make a long list of objectively incorrect calls in every game. There was the Oregon State girl who had position for a rebound, an LSU player crashed into her sending both to the floor, and the Oregon State girl was called for the foul. Or a jump ball that was called in the Iowa-LSU game by a ref who could not see the ball, which was clearly in the left arm of an Iowa player while two LSU players were latched onto her right arm. If I thought about it longer I could come up with a lot more.

The women’s Final Four is kind of perfect. You have undefeated South Carolina, looking for redemption for last year’s loss to Iowa. I’m not sure America felt super strongly about the North Carolina State – Texas regional final, but with the NCSU men making the Final Four, having their women make it as well is a nice story. Then you have Iowa-UConn, Caitlin vs Paige, in the matchup America wanted.

On the men’s side, man, UConn! I thought Illinois was a damn good team and then the Huskies laid a 30–0 run on them. Thirty to nothing, in an Elite 8 game! Outrageous.

Good luck to Alabama stopping that absolute wagon of a team. I’m no UConn fan but you have to admire their squad. It is a near perfect college team. There are pros on it, but I’m not sure there are any All NBA guys amongst them. They remind me a little of the 2008 Kansas team. Coincidentally, they now rank just behind the 2008 champs as the fourth-best team in the KenPom era. Two more convincing wins could push them up higher on that list.

What a weekend for my Purdue friends. They finally got the Final Four monkey off their back. After Big Dog losing to Duke in the Elite 8, Carson Edwards going off but not being enough against Virginia, those great late Eighties teams flaming out every year, and then losing to double-digit seeds over-and-over, capped by last year’s loss to a 16 seed, getting over that hump against Tennessee had to feel amazing.

Who is waiting for the Boilermakers in the Final Four? An 11 seed in NC State. The Hoops Gods are funny sometimes.

There’s been a lot of discourse about how Zach Edey is officiated. To me it’s a near impossible task. He is pulled and grabbed and shoved on every play. And he also pushes off, shoves, and otherwise manhandles whoever is guarding him on every play. I will say he gets a great whistle. It seems like refs are so afraid to call him for anything because they don’t want to punish the big man that they sometimes let obvious fouls go unpunished. I saw a couple that were particularly notable over the weekend. If KU had played Purdue I probably would have seen a lot more, and been a lot more worked up about them.

Officiating Edey is an impossible task. I get that. What I don’t understand is why refs let Braden Smith travel pretty much every time he has the ball. It’s uncanny how he clearly moves his pivot foot without ever getting called for it.

How about North Carolina State! After Jamal Shead’s incredible bad luck Friday, it looked like Duke would waltz into the Final Four. Instead DJ Burns and his buddies dominated the Blue Devils in the last 10 minutes and kept their improbable run going to Glendale.

Duke still fouling with 1.9 seconds left was some funny shit.

I’ll get to my thoughts about KU’s future in another day or two. I do think the transfer portal should not open until the day after the Final Four, though. It’s super annoying to be blasted with messages about players entering the portal or rumors about guys who may come to KU when there are still games being played. A couple teams that were still alive in the Sweet 16 had already received commitments from guys in the portal.

Shut all this nonsense down until the day after the championship game to create a little free agent frenzy that can extend media attention on college hoops a little deeper into the spring.

Spring Break Notes

March 25, 2024 /

What a fun week we had on Anna Maria Island, Florida for our spring break. Travel was mostly a breeze, with one exception we had terrific weather, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing week in the sun.

Alarms were set for 3:50 AM a week ago Saturday so we could be at the airport by 5:00. We made it comfortably and it was literally the easiest airport experience we’ve ever had this time of year. We spent maybe two minutes dropping our bags at the Southwest counter and there was one person in front of us in the TSA Pre line. Meanwhile the poor people flying United were in a line that was several hundred people long just to get checked in and drop bags.

Our flight down was direct to Sarasota and we arrived a few minutes early. My first stress of the week was getting our rental car. Two years ago we flew into Sarasota and the line was so long – people told us they had been in it for three hours and weren’t close to the front yet – that we gave up, Uber-ed to our house on Siesta Key, and came back two days later to get a car. This time there were three people in line when I arrived. Other than it taking the Budget worker a couple minutes to dig through his box of loose keys to find ours, it was a quick process to get out of the airport and into our van for the week.

From the airport we drove about 10 minutes to pick up M and her buddy A, who had spent the previous week in Sarasota with 10 UC friends. We hadn’t seen M since Christmas so that was fun. We got them, stopped for a bite at Panera, then headed to Anna Maria. Our house wasn’t available until 4:00. Luckily we have a friend from Indy who was visiting her mom on the island and they invited us to hang out with them. We changed and headed to the beach. The mom handed me a strong Jack and Coke. I took two sips and immediately decided I’d rather take a nap than get lit at 11 AM.

I snatched about 30 minutes of sleep as we baked in the hot sun.

We spent a few hours on the beach, ran a couple errands, and went to our house around 2:00. We were hoping it would open early but the cleaning crew was still working so we headed over to Pine Street to find some food. We went to Pizza Social, which was pretty solid. The only bummer was that two of C’s nemesis (nemesises?) walked in after us and sat at the next table. Awkward!

We were able to get into our house a little after 3:00. It was great. Private, heated, saltwater pool with a hot tub. Artificial turf putting green. Big kitchen. S and I left the girls to do the first big Publix run of the week. I maintain that Florida Publix the week of spring break are a logistics marvel. The place is jam packed from open-to-close on check-in days, yet you can always find plenty of food despite employees never clogging the aisles re-stocking. I don’t know how they do it. And then they get you checked out in record time. Props to the Publix folks.


Our house guests weren’t arriving until late Saturday. I tried to stay awake but passed out around 11. They got there sometime around midnight but I didn’t hear them. They are L’s godparents, K one of S’s best friends from high school and her husband, C, who teaches at CHS. Some of you may remember him as the person who officiated at our wedding in Indy.

After a couple hours of perfect sun on Sunday, I braved the afternoon traffic to take M and A to the airport for their flight back to Cincinnati. It was 45 minutes to SRQ, but over twice that to get back. Not sure why the Anna Maria police and sheriff like to sit in the middle of the island giving people tickets for going 27 in a 25 and not monitor the lights coming onto the island making sure traffic doesn’t completely jammed up when they can’t account for the number of cars coming in. I sat at one intersection for three red lights without moving because the breaks in the cross traffic always came at the wrong times.

K and C’s daughter, a senior at Purdue, flew down to join us Sunday evening. Her friend joined us on Monday. They were fun, taking on the dads in corn hole a couple times. K is really into cards and taught me how to play euchre. I figure after nearly 21 years in Indiana I should learn how. Not sure I totally got it but I have the basics down now.

Monday was supposed to be rainy but after some morning sprinkles the clouds cleared out and it was another gorgeous day. Storms did move in that evening but we got a full day of sun in.

Tuesday it was much cooler – 58 when I woke up – and the highs were only in the mid–70s the next couple days. But in our wind-protected back yard, the sun was still summertime hot. It was great.

Thursday night bigger storms moved in. It was so windy it blew a screen door off the house. The rain was so loud I couldn’t hear the TV audio while watching the KU game. All that stretched into Friday which was the only day we didn’t get any sun.

We caught a couple sunsets on the northern tip of the island. We ate coconut shrimp and grouper nuggets on the pier while a big-ass pelican eyed our food and a dolphin patrolled beneath us. We had a great meal at the Sandbar and walked out just as the sun set. We had some good dinners at home. We had the obligatory lunch at the Indiana native owned Ugly Grouper.


I drove the girls down to Sarasota one day where they hooked up with friends who took them to Siesta Key. L got to hang out with two of her old travel ball buddies. Both girls either had friends over or ran around AMI with friends, too. There were a few too many junior boys around. But C being a teacher at CHS helped keep them on their best behavior.

Mostly we sat in the sun and drank and read and talked and laughed.

Saturday morning we had alarms set for 4:30 but I was awake at 4:00. Another easy process to drop bags and go through the TSA line. I was worried about our connection in Atlanta, which was a tight 40 minutes. But we landed early and even with the obligatory long ATL taxi to the game, arrived in plenty of time to claim our rightful A boarding group spots. Home on time, bags arrived, we stopped for lunch, and were back in our house right around 1:30 Saturday afternoon. It was a little weird traveling with just two kids. At one point L said “When it’s my senior year it will just be the three of us,” which kind of blew our minds.

Much better than our last time in Anna Maria, which was in 2021 when things were still wonky because of Covid. Our location was much better this time, too.

K and C flew home on Friday. I told them how two years ago we got stranded there during the KU-Villanova game and I was unable to watch because of the lack of TVs and flooded cell network. C sent me a picture from their gate, which showed him drinking a beer while watching NCAA games on newly installed TVs. I would have hated watching an NCAA game in a crowded airport. And things worked out ok that year anyway.

Now we’re on to whatever our next trips are. We are both considering what to do if we can squeeze a summer trip in, and about to start planing what C’s senior spring break will be next year.

Weekend Notes

February 26, 2024 /

It was a three-day weekend at CHS. Which was good since L and I started the weekend off early.

Caitlin-palooza

I took L and one of her hoops buddies down to Bloomington Thursday night for the Iowa-Indiana game. This was my first time in Assembly Hall 2003. Our seats were better for that game.


We were UP THERE!

We arrived right when doors opened two hours before tip and found the back of the line, which was roughly half a mile from the arena. Fortunately it was in the low 50s and dry. Things could have been much less pleasant in Indiana in late February! It took us exactly 30 minutes to get inside. By then the only sections of lower level seats that were GA had been taken, so we went into the balcony and grabbed a few.


Assembly Hall is behind those trees somewhere.

Caitlin was already on the court and warming up, 85 minutes before game time according to the official clock.

She must have used up all her shots in pregame because she turned in one of her worst games of the year, going 8–26 from the field and just 3–16 from three. She even missed three-straight free throws at one point. Still she put up 24 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, exiting the game with a couple minutes left as IU closed out their win. It is crazy this was considered a bad game for her.

IU was ready for their moment. They blew a game to a bad Illinois team last Monday but were 100% focused for the Hawkeyes. They took the lead late in the first quarter and steadily pulled away. The Hoosiers nearly got the lead to 20 a couple times before winning by 17. Local girl – from Fishers, just north of us – Sydney Parrish hit consecutive 3s to push the lead to 17. A third-straight 3 just missed. I’m not sure Assembly Hall would have survived that moment had Parrish connected. IU was fantastic defense and rode a few hot streaks on offense to build their margin.

The game was super chippy, which was awesome. As much as I enjoy Caitlin, I don’t always love some of her antics, which seem unnecessary and over the top. The Hoosier players and coaches weren’t having it. Mackenzie Holmes stared Clark down twice after blocking her shots. A couple other IU players yelled at her when she complained. And Clark got into it with the IU coaches at one point.

Assistant coaches in women’s ball seem way more aggressive than on the men’s side. Both teams had to have assistants held back from going after refs after bad calls.

The crowd was almost as hot as the Hoosiers. It was officially a sellout, although there were scattered empty seats in our area. There were plenty of Iowa folks mixed in but it was still a 98% loud, proud Hoosier crowd. One national writer said the crowd was better for this game than when KU came to B-town in December.[1]

They showed lots of good fan signs on the video board. One student had a white board on which he was tracking Clark’s “Flops” and “Whines,” which was funny. Another kid had a sign showing Clark and a crying baby next to each other. The best was a student who had a sign that showed Iowa coach Lisa Bluder and labeled her as a “D1 Yapper,” which was awesome. I’m going to start using that phrase.

For some reason former Hoosier (and Pacer) Victor Oladipo was there, wearing sunglasses the entire time. He’s getting paid $9 million to do nothing at the moment, so I guess he can roll back to his alma mater for a big game when it suits him.

Fun to get to see the biggest star in the game, hell the biggest star in sports, in person. Who was the last athlete that had people lining up for hours almost every night they played? Also fun to see the Hoosiers, who aren’t quite as good as they were last year, put it all together on the night of their biggest home game of the year.

At halftime L ran down to find one of her travel teammates. They, in turn, met one of our new girls on their team for the coming season. She is 5’10”! She looks athletic. I think she got some varsity time at her 4A school this season. I am intrigued!

Jayhawk Talk

Well that was an almost perfect Saturday for the Jayhawks. The much-hated Texas Longhorns made their final visit to Allen Fieldhouse before leaving for the SEC. KU jumped on them early, had a 20-point lead at halftime, and auto-piloted it a bit to a 19-point win. The starting lineup was balanced and efficient. It might have been the best bench game of the year. KU’s defense looked terrific and the offense was humming. As several national writers said, if you give Bill Self a week to prepare, he’s going to find your weak points.

And, HOLY SHIT NIC TIMBERLAKE!!!!

https://x.com/KUHoops/status/1761568235684573184?s=20

Oh, and the uniforms KU wore were fantastic. I love these updated versions of old uniforms Adidas has been rolling out every year. I prefer the version with red letters a little bit more, but these were nice.

Not all was great for KU, though. That they won without Kevin McCullar, whose knee acted up again, was encouraging. What was not encouraging was Self using the phrase “If Kevin comes back…” four times in his postgame, radio interview.

IF?!?!?! WTF?!?!

I mean, KU might have just played their most complete game of the year, against a talented but flawed team. So that was cool, and a great development for March. But the Jayhawks need McCullar to win NCAA games. And a month before the biggest games start the head coach is talking like he’s not sure McCullers knee will be healed by then.

Terrific.

I don’t call out the KU fans often, but chanting “SEC” at Texas and Oklahoma is dumb. I know it is meant to mock, but if you’re going to chant about conferences, give your own conference some love. Don’t chant what SEC teams chant in big, non-conference games. Or just start the Rock Chalk Chant early and throw the Horns Down when you’re waxing Texas.

Also, KU is 3–0 against SEC teams this year. And 3–0 against teams going to the SEC next year. I still fear some .500 SEC team more than anyone else in the second round of the NCAAs.

Court Stormings

Oh so much hand wringing about Duke’s Kyle Filipowski getting knocked over and apparently injuring his knee when the Wake Forest students rushed the court after beating the Blue Devils Saturday. Seriously, the rest of the day on ESPN every other game seemed secondary as each broadcast team had to weigh in, and each halftime show was devoted to breaking it down, in Zapruder Film like detail.

Hey, it super sucks Filipowski got hurt, and hopefully it is nothing severe or lingering.

But Filipowski isn’t the first person to get injured in a court storm/field rush. It’s just when it happens to a Duke player, who is a potential All American, it becomes the biggest story in the world.

Court storming is great. But, come on, these aren’t new. If you’re playing a Duke, a Kansas, a Kentucky, and your school is either a Little Brother or just not as good, you have to know this is a possibility and be prepared for a court storming. You’re not going to keep all those kids off the court. But you can either delay them, or funnel them to a section of the court giving all the players a chance to get clear and safe before the celebration really kicks off.

Some KU fans made a big deal about how Wake Forest athletic director John Currie was the AD at Kansas State when there were a couple particularly scary court stormings in Manhattan. I’m not sure he’s directly responsible – Wildcats gonna Wildcat when they beat KU – but it is weird that after he was forced to take measures to protect visiting players in Bramlage Coliseum, there didn’t appear to be much in place to avoid bad situations in Winston Salem.

Kid Update

Our big accomplishment for the weekend was C finding a prom dress. She is our procrastinator and it had been a struggle to get her out shopping. But she found a beautiful dress and we’re on schedule to have everything ready for prom in two months.

CHS had elearning on Friday so the school could set up for their big, annual fundraiser. L got her work done early so we went out to get her some new basketball shoes for the travel season. She was hoping to get the Sabrina Ionesco shoes, but they are mega-narrow and she had to settle for some Nike GT Cut 2’s. New hoops shoe time is one of my favorite parts of her basketball calendar. I’ve been known to grab some AAU Dad shoes on the same trip, but I held off this time.

We had a travel parent zoom meeting last night and she starts workouts next weekend. Her team will play for the first time while we are on spring break, but hopefully we make it back in time for her to play the second half of their second tournament. Right now we are scheduled to play in Cincinnati twice and Louisville three times then everything else is 20 minutes from our house.

M got a job leading tours around the UC campus. I talked to her before her interview and she was a little nervous. Then she texted and said the interview lasted five minutes and she got the offer right away. Surprised it took them five minutes to realize she’s like the perfect person to show prospective students and their families around UC. Not sure if she’s led any tours yet but she’s on the call list for helping out when folks need a guide.

  1. You probably don’t follow the IU men, but they are having a rough season.  ↩

Holiday Wrap Up

January 2, 2024 /

I dropped our Denver relatives off at the airport early this morning and returned to a quieter and emptier house than we’ve had in about ten days. The decorations are still up and the college kid is still with us, but the holiday season has ended.

We had a busy and mostly fun week-plus of holiday celebrations. S’s brother from Boston and his family were in town for about a week over Christmas, staying with another sister. The Denver folks came in for four days over New Year’s and bunked-up at our house. Over the holiday week we had a Christmas Eve gathering at another local’s house, Christmas Day brunch and dessert at our house, New Year’s Eve at our house, and New Year’s day bowling followed by a lunch at a local’s. Also sprinkled in there was a sleepover at our house by the Boston cousins and then an adult lunch at the new Restoration Hardware in the massive DeHaan Estate.

Other than a few small cousin meltdowns and S spilling red wine on M’s white jeans – which miraculously came out with no trace! – we survived without too much nonsense.

The girls all had good Christmases. They mostly got boring, teenage stuff like clothes, makeup, and shoes. M did get a mini-Keurig for her dorm room, which is kind of fun. Both M and C spent New Year’s Eve with friends. L had the boyfriend over a couple times, plus we went to watch him play basketball Thursday (then watched him play again before L’s game Friday. More on hoops tomorrow.).

We had a few days of really nice weather. After we had done all our meal prep for the next morning, S and I took a long walk Christmas Eve afternoon as it was in the mid–50s and sunny. The neighborhood streets were packed with like-minded folks, all in good cheer for the big day ahead. It was pushing 60 Christmas Day until clouds and rain moved in during the afternoon. The last few days have been unceasingly dreary and much colder. There is snow in the forecast a couple times over the next week, although at this point it doesn’t look like anything major. As always in Indiana, winter is inevitable.

M will go back to Cincinnati on Saturday, weather permitting. C and L start J-term next Tuesday. We don’t have big plans while they are all still here other than a trip to Louisville Thursday for basketball.

That’s kind of a broad, generic summary of how the past ten days passed. It was almost all good, which is the most important part. I hope all of you had happy holiday celebrations and are starting 2024 healthy and at least theoretically rested and recharged.

Holiday Weekend Notes

November 27, 2023 /

For the first time in three years we were home for Thanksgiving week. We packed a lot in, and it deserves a wide-ranging, extra-long breakdown.

College Visitor

I picked M up Tuesday around noon after her last scheduled class of the week. We grabbed lunch at Hangover Easy, a place just off campus I’ve wanted to try just because of their shirts. It was solid, but I couldn’t find any shirts for sale. I guess I’ll have to get one online.

That night she (and C) went with me to L’s game. M had a couple nights out with high school friends, but didn’t do anything too crazy. She thought about going to the IU-Purdue game with one of her best friends but they slept too late to make it to Lafayette in time. Seemed like she behaved herself. Unlike me during my freshman Thanksgiving break, when I may have consumed as much alcohol as I ever did before or have since.

S ran her back to school Sunday evening.

She will be back soon. UC has class this week then go straight into exams. She only has two true finals. One of them would normally be on the 9th, but all tests for that course are done outside class, so she’s hoping she can come home earlier in the week.

Oh, she was also elected as social chair of her house. Most of the new officers don’t take over their duties until January, but since she has to plan the formal this spring, she’s already pretty deep in finding a venue and getting all that arranged. Shocking she would be social chair, right?

Hawaii Basketball

Mixed results for KU out in Oahu. Smashed Chaminade in round one, as expected, with Kevin McCullar becoming the first KU player ever to record back-to-back triple doubles.

Then smashed by Marquette in the second round. That game never felt close, which was super annoying. There was the added bonus of Shaka Smart acting like a clown and then pretending he didn’t know why anyone was upset. It’s always a shame when someone acts like a punk then wins the game. Thanks to the Purdue-Tennessee game taking about five hours to play and this one starting after 11:00 PM eastern, I recorded it and watched first thing Wednesday morning. Good call, as I was able to fast forward through most of the second half. I would have been up until 4:00 AM pissed had I watched live.

Finally an encouraging win over a tough Tennessee team in the consolation final. Jamari McDowell stepping up might have been the best development of the week.

KU has some holes, but I think as a few players get more comfortable, those holes will get smaller. And Bill Self will figure out how to hide them better as the season continues. This is a good team that can get a lot better.

Jim Irsay

Oh boy…

In case you missed it, the Colts owner appeared on HBO’s Real Sports and, as is his general MO, was very candid about his life. Which in general is a good thing. Until he claimed that the only reason he was arrested a decade ago when he was pulled over for driving under the influence was because he is a “rich, white, billionaire.”

Please note he was pulled over and arrested in Carmel, IN, which isn’t exactly the most diverse suburb in our area, nor one that has ever been noted for its anti-capitalist views. Hell, the new mayor who was elected earlier this month refused to denounce a local mom’s group that used a quote from Hitler in their literature.

So, sure, the white cops in a super white, conservative suburb decided that they were going to stick it to the man by arresting the Colts owner.

It’s sad that someone who has done so much to both own up to his mistakes and help end the stigma around mental heath disease can’t take responsibility here and resorted to pretending that he, with endless resources and likely decades of people looking the other way at similar behavior, is the person oppressed by a racist police department.

Thanksgiving

Last year we were in Italy for Thanksgiving. Two years ago Hawaii. So it was nice to be back home again in Indiana for the holiday this year. We hosted, and had just 16 this year. We’ll be closer to 30 at Christmas so this felt super manageable.

I did the bird, Giada’s dressing, and potatoes. We delayed our meal until later in the day to allow for a sister-in-law and her kids to return from their trip to Denver. That made the day a lot easier than eating around 1–2 as we usually do. Although that last 45 minutes always gets crazy no matter what time you eat.

KU-UC

Several of you asked over the past week. No, I did not drive down to Cincinnati for the KU-UC game Saturday night. Had the game been played at noon, I could have made it work. However, the 7:30 kickoff was the exact moment that L’s game was scheduled to tip. As much as I love my Jayhawks, I love my daughters more, and chose to be a good dad.[1] Plus, M wasn’t interested in going back on Saturday and we really didn’t want to make the drive both Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and it was very cold.

Naturally I was annoyed that I missed it given the result. When we walked out of the CHS gym, KU had just taken a 21–10 lead into halftime. As we were pulling into our driveway Devin Neal was scoring his second touchdown of the night to extend the lead. Once I was seated in front of the TV I made M come down and watch with me. The next hour or so involved a lot of me waving the wheat and sending her bean emojis – 🫘 – with her flipping me off and telling me how much the Bearcats “freaking suck” in return.

Good times!

Sooooo happy for Jason Bean. Sure, the UC defense had basically given up by the fourth quarter, but it was fantastic for him to cap his regular season college career with two more long touchdown runs. His 340 total yards were both super-efficient and impressive. The guy has taken a lot of abuse, verbal and physical, over his career. He tried to leave KU last summer but no one wanted him. And, in the end, he is as responsible for KU’s turnaround as Jalon Daniels is. JD beat Texas two years ago. But Bean nearly beat OU that same year, did beat OU this year, and led the Jayhawks to two conference road wins this season. KU won eight total conference games from 2009 to 2021. Jason Bean has been the starter in six Big 12 wins over the past two years. When this season seemed to be on the verge of going down the toilet because Daniels could no longer play, Bean stepped in and KU barely missed a beat, winning eight regular season games for the first time since 2007.

There is a lot of praise to go around for the KU turnaround, from Lance Leipold and his staff, to Travis Goff and the athletic department, to players like Daniels, Neal, Kenny Logan, Cobee Bryant, etc. Bean’s name needs to be high on that list as well.

Eight wins! The Big 12 was a true adventure this year, with results often not making sense from week-to-week. KU was pretty damn steady, though, with the only real blip coming over the past two weeks because Bean was hurt and Cole Ballard had to drop his clipboard and fill in for 2½ games. KU was damn close to 11–1, and who knows, maybe they can stick with Texas longer if Bean had practiced as the QB1 all week instead of finding out about 30 minutes before the game that he was the starter.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

Other Football

As much as I hated all the hype that surrounded Ohio State – Michigan, that was a hell of a game. Incredibly entertaining.

M asked me if the weekend after Thanksgiving is when most rivalries play. I liked that she picked that up. I switched to Indiana-Purdue a few times during the OSU-UM game and that game felt very familiar. For a good chunk of my life the Kansas-Missouri game was at the end of the year,[2] and at least one team was usually pretty bad. Some years both sucked. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a cold-ass stadium in late November with 24,000 other people watching two shitty teams battle for bragging rights and not much else.

The Colts are 6–5? The Colts are 6–5! They would be playing in a Wild Card game if the season ended today. They have a pretty favorable schedule remaining, too. They – especially Gardner Minshew – do not make it easy each week, so I wouldn’t go printing playoff tickets up just yet.

Poor Detroit fans. It’s been since early in the Barry Sanders years that they had a good team to root for on Thanksgiving. When it finally happens again, they get curb-stomped by a mediocre Green Bay team. Just a cursed franchise.

Oh, and the Buffalo-Philadelphia game was straight-up awesome. Rain and a sloppy field. Josh Allen doing good Josh Allen things. Jalen Hurts doing Jalen Hurts things. Maybe the biggest and most clutch field goal in adverse conditions since Adam Vinatieri’s kick in the snow 21 years ago. And then a fun overtime to top it off. That was a fine way to end a terrific weekend of sports.

Pacers

The Pacers are a wild-ass team. Last Tuesday they clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament with a 157–152 win over Atlanta. When we got home from L’s game, the Pacers were down by 20. I know everyone makes a run in the NBA, but coming back from 20 down to build a 12-point lead is kind of crazy. Even then the game came down to the final minute, and the Pacers just did not miss. Tyrese Haliburton had 37 points and 16 assists. Buddy Hield was 6-for–6 from deep. I don’t know that Bobby Knight purists love them, but I sure enjoy watching this year’s team.

They scored 131 the next night…and lost by one. Which was kind of incredible given what they did the night before. Then they dropped another 136 in a win on Friday. They are on pace to shatter the record the Sacramento Kings set last year as the most efficient offense in NBA history.

  1. Guess who has a game the same time as the KU-IU game in Bloomington in two weeks?  ↩
  2. I believe if you dive into the site’s archives you can find some of my thoughts about football rivalries and when they should be played.  ↩

Weekend Travel Notes

November 13, 2023 /

It was Adult Fall Break time for S and me, the first time we’ve done this in a couple years. This was for a medical conference, the first time we’ve done that since before Covid. We spent Thursday through Sunday in Clearwater Beach, FL, staying right on the beach. Like in a hotel, not in a tent or something.


The weather was perfect, low 80s each day. Someone told us it was a little warmer than usual for this time of year. I did not complain. Being off the beach we always had a nice breeze so it never felt too hot. We go back to the Tampa area in four months for spring break. Really hoping we get weather as good as we had this weekend.

Our trip was pretty casual. S did the morning education sessions. I took a couple long walks, read a lot, and generally killed time until she was done. Then we’d head down to the pool where we met up with friends and had a few drinks, followed by an early dinner each night, then we were old people and usually asleep by 10 and awake around our normal time well before 7. Kind of lame but also pretty relaxing.

A few assorted highlights from our stay.

There is a Hulk Hogan store and museum in the main drag where a lot of shops and restaurants are. Sadly I walked by before it was open, brother.


For breakfast Saturday we went to this cute little place I had found ahead of time. We walked in and the hostess/waitress was wearing a KU shirt. We Rock Chalked each other – I was wearing a KU shirt as well – and later learned that she grew up not too far from where I went to high school, although probably a few years ahead of me. I was hoping that meant good things for the football game that day. Alas…

There was also a big CrossFit competition in a little park right north of our hotel. I hung out and watched a bit of it on my walk Saturday morning. That stuff is intense. And the competitors are insanely fit, but in all body types. Made me feel real good about the three-egg omelette and three pieces of toast I had pounded for breakfast.

I ate a lot of shrimp and grouper over our three days.

We watched three gorgeous sunsets, but just missed sunrise each day.


Our travel was easy both ways, other than some two year old kicking the shit out of the chair next to me in the Tampa airport and his parents just sitting there and watching him. Finally after half an hour the dad said, “Ok, buddy. That’s enough.” Not sure what their deal was, they decided to come sit next to me, but more evidence that people are the worst.

I decided I really like taking trips in November, especially if we go someplace warm. In recent years we’ve done Tampa, Italy, Hawaii, San Antonio, and Phoenix after November 1.[1] They are nice breaks from the growing midwestern chill – although it was 78 in Indy last Wednesday – plus as Christmas decorations start to appear it feels like an informal start to the holiday season.

Some sports happened while we were away. Let’s bullet point them

  • In high school hoops, JV and varsity both got crushed Thursday by a really good program. JV lost by 17, varsity by 19. L said she played pretty much the entire JV game and was shooting a lot, but not hitting. She scored four. Rudely no other parent kept complete stats for me and shared them. She’s been frustrated by some of her teammates’ focus and dedication in practice. I told her to keep her head down, keep working hard, and it will pay off. Not coming out of the game is a sign her coaches trust her. Her next game is this Friday.
  • In high school football, CHS played an amazing regional final against Ben Davis, losing 27–24 on a late field goal. CHS gave up a pick-six in the first half and fumbled at the BD one in the second half, which was kind of the ballgame.. They came back from 10 down twice to tie it. Might have been better they lost since their quarterback got hurt late in the game. He played through it but not sure he would have been ready for Center Grove this week, and CHS did not need to play the three-time defending champs with a 5’7”, 140 lb backup running the offense.
  • Speaking of backup quarterbacks, I was able to watch the first half of the KU-Texas Tech game Saturday. We discovered why Jason Bean avoids contact, and that third-string quarterback Cole Ballard, a walk-on freshman from the Indy area, is actually kind of decent. Hell, he played amazing for someone in his situation. KU played better once he came into the game, but that was more about adjustments on both sides of the ball than anything he did. The Jayhawks really should have won, which is amazing when the third stringer plays three quarters of the game and KU was getting run over in the first quarter. Another sign of how far the program has come that fans were upset losing this game under those circumstances. Bad time for the injury, with K-State coming to Lawrence next week. That’s not a team you want a walk-on freshman facing. But maybe you play Ballard anyway then hope Bean is healthy for Cincinnati and try to get win #8 there?
  • I was able to watch a good chunk of KU’s manhandling of Manhattan Friday night. Not sure KU fans should get too up after two blowout wins over weaker opponents last week. Just as we shouldn’t have been too down about how the Jayhawks looked in the scrimmage against Illinois. Tuesday night against Kentucky will tell us more than any of those earlier games.
  • M went to her first UC basketball game Friday. She got good seats and they won, which was cool.

As mentioned, I read a lot over our trip, finishing one book and knocking a ton of stuff out of my Instapaper queue. Be looking for a links post sharing some of those articles soon.

  1. We also did Chicago one year in December. Although the holiday decorations were in full force, that wasn’t enough to make up for the wind chill in the teens.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 30, 2023 /

What a weekend, filled with swings of mood and weather.

KANSAS FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

Kansas 38, Oklahoma 33. LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!!

One of the biggest wins in program history. That alone would make Saturday’s win over the #6 Sooners memorable. It just had so much of…everything, I guess, that no KU fan who watched it will ever forget it.

This feels like a game that could easily turn into a 5000 word account. So I’ll try to keep it brief(-ish) by just bullet-pointing how bizarre it was.

  • KU jumps out to a quick lead with a pick six on OU’s first possession. Apparently my cable feed was working on a 20 second delay because I saw four tweets about Mello Dotson putting KU up 7–0 before I saw the play. At first I thought it was a joke because my TV was lagging so much.
  • KU went up 14–0 and then were the victims of the worst personal foul penalty in the history of college football, Craig Young flagged for a late hit when he neither shoved nor tackled Drake Stoops, and Stoops head butted him TWICE after the play was over. KU fans were quick with “Dollar Signs” memes.
  • After Oklahoma scored and got the ball back, the game was stopped for an hour because of lightning. On a day when the temps were in the 30s. Midwest weather remains undefeated.
  • After the delay Oklahoma took approximately nine seconds to tie the game. Then KU fumbled the kickoff and OU immediately took the lead. I started having vibes of the 1991 Nebraska game when KU lead 17–0 after the first quarter and we were all losing our minds then we still managed to lose 59–23. Calvin fucking Jones.
  • Much maligned quarterback Jason Bean missed WIDE OPEN receivers in the end zone on two straight plays and KU settled for a field goal before halftime. You can’t miss opportunities like that and hope to beat OU.
  • KU forced a fumble and then Bean ran it in from 39 yards out on the next play. Only for him to short hop a ball to an uncovered receiver on the two-point attempt. KU was 0–3 on two point attempts for the day.
  • On third and goal early in the fourth quarter Bean scrambled and rather than diving into the end zone, slid, his knee touching just short of the goal line. Just a horrible, horrible mistake. KU Twitter was in full meltdown mode until we noticed the flag on the field. Fortunately Bean was bailed out by a personal foul on OU and Daniel Hishaw gave KU the lead on the next play.
  • On the ensuing kick, KU booted it short, OU fumbled, and the Jayhawks recovered. Hishaw went 20 yards on the first snap to extend the lead, literally high-stepping the last five yards. It was this game’s Monte Cozzens moment. Somewhere in the student section a kid who shares my name was nearly passing out like I did on that day in 1992. Only KU was called for holding. Three plays later came a badly missed field goal. Instead of being up 12, it was still just a five-point game, and OU seemed to have snatched back the momentum.
  • Literally seconds after Fox’s Jason Benetti said that Bean had avoided the mistakes that plagued him in big moments, he threw an interception deep in KU territory. It wasn’t entirely his fault – the ball went through a receiver’s hands – but it was a poor throw. OU took the lead a couple plays later.
  • On the next possession Bean threw a terrible ball for another pick. The game was over, as OU was inside the KU 40 with 2:52 left. I was literally throwing things and cussing. Luckily C and L were gone and S was upstairs getting ready for the party we were going to so I was the only witness.
  • Only in what may be the biggest upset of the day, the Jayhawks had all three timeouts. KANSAS FOOTBALL, which has been taking timeouts at all the wrong times for 15 years, had all three time outs late in a close game. Unbelievable. The defense got two-straight tackles for losses and held on third down. When OU lined up to go for it, a wide receiver – A WIDE RECEIVER – got called for a false start. OU punted.
  • KU had about 2:00 to go 80 yards.
  • After getting two first downs the Jayhawks faced a 4th and 6. Lawrence Arnold got open, hauled in a perfect strike from Bean, and raced 37 yards for the first down. Again, KANSAS FOOTBALL got 37 yards on a fourth down that meant the game against a Top 10 Oklahoma team. Wacky, wild shit.
  • One play later Devon Neal nearly fumbled behind the line but scampered in for the go-ahead score with 52 seconds remaining.
  • Dillon Gabriel had done this shit against Texas earlier in October. I doubt any KU fans were super confident he wouldn’t do it again. I feared the worst. Gabriel completed a 40 yard pass to get in range to take a shot at the end zone on the game’s final play. KU broke up the pass and mayhem ensued. Although even that play was a mess. Instead of knocking the ball down, Kwinton Lassiter tried to pick it off. Which he did out of bounds, but he also gave the OU receivers a shot at the ball. Never easy with this program.
  • Finally, the field was rushed and the goalposts came down.

Whew! What a fucking game. Not sure it was healthy for my heart but the result made it all worth it.

The first KU win over a Top 10 team since the 2008 Orange Bowl.
The first win over Oklahoma since 1997.
The first win at home over a Top 10 team since 1984.
Lance Leipold became the first KU coach to beat both Oklahoma and Texas since the 1930s. Granted, KU and Texas didn’t play for a long, long time. Still he did in three seasons what about 100 other KU coaches couldn’t do in nearly a century.

And the added bonus that the Fox crew was in town for their pregame show. Although no one really watches that, but, still. Urban Meyer said nice things about Kansas, Lawrence, and the program. I know most Americans find him to be of the highest character and his opinions to be unassailable, so you can’t put a dollar value on how much that helps KU going forward.

Oh, and KU will go to a bowl game in consecutive years for the second time in program history.

Pretty fucking cool way to spend four and a half hours of my Saturday.

So, where does this win rank all time?

It is certainly one of the three biggest wins of my life, right up there with winning the Orange Bowl in 2008 and beating Nebraska by 1000 points in 2007.

Honestly, if the team lays a big, fat turd in the last month of the season, much of the luster of this win gets wiped away. But grab two, three, even four more wins and this has a legitimate claim to the #1 spot on that list.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

KU Hoops

Yuck.

A seven-point loss at Illinois in an exhibition game. Illinois controlled most of the game on both ends. KU’s offense was pretty bad. I’ll chalk some of that up to not running anything super complex. But the absolute lack of outside shooting is a major concern because it confirms the biggest fear about this team.

You can’t overreact to an exhibition game, so I won’t. But my go-to complaint all year is going to be wasting a scholarship on a player who arrived with a domestic assault charge and was kicked off the team when he was charged with rape, instead of filling the clear hole that the team had. You can never, ever have too much shooting.

In super exciting news for all college hoops fans, there are now apparently more plays that can be reviewed. Which is awesome! We need to make games last longer because all action stops while the referees stare at a TV screen and try to decide if they want to overrule themselves or not. Based on the reviews in the KU game, referees still can’t figure out how to not spend three minutes reviewing a play that takes the announcers and TV audience no longer than five seconds to see a clear decision. Either go to limited coach’s challenges or just get rid of replay. It is literally the worst.

Did I mention that we beat Oklahoma in football?

NFL

Looks like the Colts are shitty again.

And I guess the Ravens are indeed the best team in the NFL for the moment. Or maybe the Bengals? But probably the Eagles. Sorry for the jinx last week, Chiefs fans.

Other Shit

Cathedral won their football sectional opener 42–2 Friday night. They will have a tougher game this week.

S and I went to dinner Friday with the families we hung out with most over spring break, the first time we had all been together since graduation party season. It was a gorgeous night and we were able to sit outside.

Meanwhile I wore a coat this morning when I took L to school.

The Cathedral boys lost in the state soccer final Saturday, 2–0 to the, now, three-time defending champs.

L’s team had a scrimmage Thursday night. She played about 19 minutes, all in the second half, against a varsity team. She didn’t do much. 0–3 from the field. A rebound and a turnover. Offense was pretty ragged. Not sure she was on the court very much with the girls she’ll play with when the real games start. They have another week of practice to get ready for that.

We went to S’s sister’s house Saturday for their annual Halloween party. It was very odd going without any of our kids. S spent a lot of time on Pinterest coming up with our contribution to the spread.

Weekend Notes

October 23, 2023 /

It was a pretty good fall break/long weekend around our house. It included another trip to Cincinnati, a new family toy, and a variety of news on the high school sports front. Let’s dive into the details.

CHS Fall Break

C and L were off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for their fall break. L had basketball practice all three days and the weather was crappy, so we didn’t do much. Our pool guy was supposed to show up Thursday to close it for us, but it rained so much he didn’t make it. He’ll now be here Tuesday.

Aficionados of my fall break posts will not be surprised that we went up the block to Walgreens and got flu shots on Thursday, which is a bit of a tradition. The girls also ran around with their friends a little bit. L got to go the final Pacers preseason game of the year Friday, sitting in the front row behind the basket. She got pictures with Cavaliers Caris Levert and Donovan Mitchell after the game, which was pretty cool. One of her friends accidentally dumped a bottle of water on Levert when he slid into them during the game.

UC Family Weekend

We drove down to Cincinnati Saturday morning for Family Weekend. The Bearcats were taking on Baylor, but I doubted the girls would be interested in an entire game between two bad teams so we opted to let M do her greek life tailgating thing and picked her up right after kickoff.[1]

We headed to the Findlay Market area and ate some pretty solid barbecue. While we were eating I could see L whispering to her sisters and they were all laughing. When I asked what was so funny, so said, “This is way better than Oklahoma Joe’s.”

Then M lost it, “LOOK AT HIS FACE! HE IS SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!”

I mean, it was good barbecue, I won’t lie. But if she wasn’t just messing with me I may have to disown her.

While eating we ran into some Indy friends who sent kids to both St P’s and CHS. I’ve sat with the dad at multiple football games this year. Their oldest daughter is a senior at Xavier and it was her sorority’s parents weekend. Small world.

We went downtown to check into our hotel then walked down to the riverfront and visited the Underground Railroad Museum. It was fascinating. They suckered us into getting a membership since that is cheaper than five individual day passes. That’s cool because I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Not going to name names,[2] but some folks in my family tend to breeze through museums where I like to take them in slowly and get into the details.

Back to the hotel for some down time. I watched football while all three girls took naps. Then we headed back to the dorm so M could change and grab her high school bud who was joining us for dinner. A’s parents couldn’t make it for the weekend so we made her an honorary B girl for the night. We went to Sacred Beast in the Over-The-Rhine district. It was quirky and good. And we sat in a booth next to another group of folks we know from St P’s and CHS. Twice in one day! So odd.

We dropped M, her friend, and C back at the dorm and returned to the hotel for the night. C was going to spend the night with M since her roommate was gone and get a taste of college life. Seems like that went ok, although C’s back was bothering her and M dropped C off after a couple parties, locked her in the room, and went back out. This might be the moment to point out that despite being sick for 87 consecutive weeks, M apparently doesn’t miss a chance to go out.

Sunday morning we got the girls then headed back downtown for breakfast at the tremendous Maplewood Kitchen. One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. And we got there just before the rush hit and were able to get a table without too long of a wait. By the time we left the line was out the door.

After eating it was back to campus so M could show us around. We got to see her sorority house and meet her pledge mom, J, who is awesome. M had told us a lot about her but meeting her made it all click. They are VERY similar, but in a good way where it works. We made a stop at a bookstore so both C and L could get some UC gear, ran into Target to get M a few things, then headed home. We were back in our house in time to see the second half of the Colts game.

Cincinnati is cool. I’ve been to one Reds game in my 20 years in Indy, and that was a quick in-and-out for a day game. I forget where but I had heard plenty over the years about the geography of the city, but until you see it, it doesn’t really make sense. It is a river town, like Kansas City and St. Louis, so all the roads are kind of fucked up based on that alone. Then it is built into some serious bluffs that rise straight up out of the Ohio. Parts of it look kind of California-like just because of the rapid increase in elevation. It is definitely more St. Louis than KC, as it feels a lot older than my hometown. Even then Cincy has a very distinct feel from the Lou. I imagine I’ll get to know the city even better over the next few years.

New Toy

We made the trip in S’s new vehicle, a Kia Telluride. It is very, very nice. Her lease doesn’t end on her Grand Cherokee for a few weeks, so we kept the Telluride in the garage for the first few days we owned it. She got it early specifically for this trip, so M could bring a friend (or two) if needed since we again have a seven-passenger vehicle. I drove the entire weekend and loved it. Between having a kid in college and another joining her in less than two years, when my Audi lease is up I’m going to have to do some serious financial downsizing. I dig the Telluride enough that a smaller Kia SUV will likely be in the running.

High School Hoops

I mentioned above that L had basketball practice last week. To answer the obvious question, yes, she seems to have recovered from her concussion.

Monday was the first official day of practice in Indiana, and she was cleared to return that day after taking a week off. Her coach did keep her out of scrimmages, though, just to avoid contact for a little longer. L said that made practice boring but I reminded her she didn’t need to get hurt again and then miss weeks of the season.

Wednesday was roster day, when the girls learned what team they would be on. We kind of knew what to expect, but it was still a little nerve-racking to drop her off, run to the grocery store to grab a couple things, then wait for her to come out.

Options were freshman, JV, varsity, freshman-JV double roster, or the JV-varsity double.

Each player had a one-on-one with the coach where they learned their fate. She texted me about 45 minutes in asking if I was there. I said yes, but she didn’t come out for another 20 minutes, which concerned me. But when she came out she was with a few older girls who I knew would make varsity, and they were all laughing.

She got in the car, I asked how it went, and she just said, “Fine.”

“Well…what did you get?!?!” Jesus, this kid.

She made the JV team, one of only three freshmen to make it. When I asked her what the coach said to her she said that L had done a great job in preseason camp, was already a leader in the program, and she expected that she would get some varsity minutes this year. So not double-rostered but the window is open to play up. My expectation/assumption is that she will be the starting point guard for JV. The head coach had the girl who will start as PG for varsity guard the hell out of L all preseason to get her toughened up for high school ball.

Pretty cool! I was pumped and told her I was proud of her. She kind of blew me off, because this is what she expected, but I think she was pleased on the inside.

Thursday night she had four of her friends over, all of whom made varsity. She knows how to get in good with the older girls.

The first game is November 7. Practice goes up to 2.5 hours this week, plus they have JV and varsity scrimmages against another school Wednesday.

Other CHS Sports

The football state tournament began last week. Class 6A gets a week off before their tournament begins, so no game for CHS. The Irish open sectionals against an 0–9 team this Friday.

CHS had three other teams playing Saturday, two of which could affect how quickly L gets to at least sit the bench in a varsity game.

The girls soccer team was playing in semi-state, a week after knocking off the #1 team in Indiana. Two varsity basketball starters are on the soccer team, and if they won and made it to State, those girls would not be eligible for the first two basketball games of the year.[3] The volleyball team was playing in the regional round, and if they advanced to semi-state next week that would knock another varsity basketball starter out for two games.

Unfortunately – except for basketball, I guess – both teams lost. Soccer lost 1–0 to the #11 team (CHS was ranked #6), and #4 volleyball lost in five sets to the #6 team (they would have played #5 Saturday night if they won the morning match). So bummers there.

Boys soccer balanced that a bit, getting a 2–1 win to advance to State. But our girls don’t really know any of those kids so would have much rather one of the girls teams won.

Colts

LOL. That was an insane game, and I missed the entire first half which was apparently totally off the rails. If I was fully invested I would be pissed about the second pass interference call on the Browns’ final drive of the game. I wonder what that Twitter user I mentioned last week, who likes re-tread white quarterbacks more than first round draft picks who happen to be Black, thought of Gardner Minshew turning the ball over four more times this week.

  1. (Speaking in a Troy Aikman voice) Folks, I gotta tell ya, the Bearcats might really stink. They may well be 2–9 when the Jayhawks roll into town Thanksgiving weekend. Which means I probably just jinxed KU into an L. Idiot.  ↩
  2. My wife.  ↩
  3. In Indiana you have to participate in ten practices before you can play in a high school game. Even if you are coming from another varsity sport, which is super dumb to me. Those kids are in shape.  ↩
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