D's Notebook

Tag: parenting (Page 5 of 72)

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

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.

Wednesday Notes

December 13, 2023 /

A good, old fashioned notes dump like the old days.

CHS Lockdown

There was a lockdown for about an hour at Cathedral yesterday. Apparently someone called 911 claiming to be inside the school with a gun. About a million cops showed up and no person with a gun was ever found. We live in wonderful times, friends.

Our girls seemed more annoyed that they had to stay and finish the day after the all-clear than worried/scared by the threat.

Visitor/College Break

M’s roommate from UC came for a quick visit Monday and Tuesday. She lives in Toledo and M visited her last summer for a weekend. Because of her holiday schedule she was only able to come down for about 24 hours. But M showed her around our area and introduced her to a few high school friends, although they mostly hung around with other UC kids.

A funny thing about M’s friend group at school is one of her best guy friends grew up less than a mile from our house. He went to the rival high school and never knew each other, but they had mutual friends. The past several days their local group has been gathering either at his house or ours.

It was a little weird getting M home last week. My first thought was, “OK, it’s Christmas break!” Then I realized her sister had almost THREE full weeks of class left before they were done for the semester. M did a lot of sitting around that first week, but most of her friends are back in town now and her social activity has started to pick back up. She’s also done some babysitting and has several days blocked off to watch either nephews or other kids between now and her return to school next month.

Holidays

M’s arrival has messed up my mind regarding the holidays in more ways than one. I was a little surprised to realize Monday we were two weeks from Christmas. The first half of the Christmas season seems to have raced by. I think a lot of that is because of L’s game schedule, which has kept us very busy the past two weeks.

Anyway, it was a bit of an alarm to make sure I am focused over the next two weeks to get all my holiday movies and shows knocked out. I haven’t watched Elf or Christmas Vacation nearly enough (one full time each, several partial viewings thrown in as well).

Sports Illustrated

Man, what a mess. An American icon that has been crumbling for years likely had its final downfall a week ago when it was discovered that the magazine was using AI to both write articles and labelling those articles with AI-generated writer names and headshots.

SI was an integral part of my childhood, and then remained essential deep into adulthood. The arrival of each week’s new volume on Thursday was one of the biggest moments of your kid week. My copy remained in the folder I carried to class until it was dog-eared and nearly memorized, not replaced until the next one came.

Magazines everywhere are dying. It feels like SI could have survived as it was generally more of a high-level view of sports, one which can still be relevant in the Internet age. The magazine, and its publishers, have made about a million bad choices in the past 20 years, though, and it was already an insignificant blip on the sports journalism map before this scandal.

And then they gave the Sportsman of the Year award to Deion Sanders, which seems absolutely asinine on every level. Given how ultra-commercial his whole deal is, my first thought was that he, or his publicists, paid for the honor. Or exchanged it for access. Something classic SI would not have engaged in.

Should he have been in the issue somewhere? Absolutely. But whatever waves he made this year were more because of the work his handlers did to create his story and image than anything he actually did. Many people had a bigger impact on the sports world than Deion.

As one college football expert said recently on a podcast, Deion deserves immense credit for what he’s already done at CU. But the fact is that team got worse each week of the season, there was all kinds of internal turmoil in the program, and Deion proved that if he really wants to deliver on all the promises he’s made, he has a lot to learn about coaching and running a power conference program. That expert has confidence that Deion is capable of making those jumps. But you can’t give a student an A+ for a project that was turned in incomplete missing required elements.

Memorial Stadium

The first phase of demolition at KU’s Memorial Stadium started on Monday. I loved all the people who made comments long the lines of “It was a dump, I watched a ton of bad football there, but I also have a lot of great memories there.” Very true.

In my first game there in 1980 I saw Dan Marino. I was there for the Tony Sands game. For Monte Cozzens. For Eric Vann’s 99-yard touchdown run.[1] Two wins over Oklahoma. I also sat through ice storms, bitter cold, blazing heat, and gusty winds while the Jayhawks were getting housed by Nebraska, OU, and others. When I lived in Lawrence, I was there damn near every home game.

The rumors last week that KU is looking to play some of their home games at Arrowhead in Kansas City next year are interesting. I think they realize the team has a chance to be even better next year, and don’t want to play games in front of 20,000 in a stadium that is under active renovation. Sell a bunch more tickets to bring more money in. Maybe rope in some new fans, or re-energize KC-area fans who stopped making the drive to Lawrence at some point during the Lost Decade. And potentially get the stadium renovations in Lawrence done faster than expected and be ready for the 2025 season. I don’t think you move all the games to Arrowhead, but it makes sense to play a few of them there if the Chiefs are open to the idea.

Andre Braugher

Such sad news that Andre Braugher has died. What an amazing career. His two biggest roles, as Frank Pembleton on Homicide and Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, were two wildly different characters. It was shocking to see the same actor who portrayed the hyper-intense Pembleton make amazing comedy as Holt. He made it work.

  1. Never understood why these announcers called it a 98-yard run.  ↩

Weekend Notes

December 11, 2023 /

We had a super-busy Saturday that featured a lot of L’s for our family. Fortunately, for me, the one dub was a big one.

Throwing hoops and real life together, our family went 1–7 for the day.

Cathedral lost JV and varsity games. More on that tomorrow.

S’s Hoosiers lost to Auburn.

M’s previously undefeated Bearcats lost to Xavier.

The Pacers lost to the Lakers in the IST championship game.

And L was nominated for, but did not win, Ice Princess at the CHS winter formal.

The win…

Jayhawk Talk

Well, we finally got a competitive game between Missouri and Kansas for the first time since the series re-started. Even then, Missouri never got it down to a two-possession game in the second half, so we can call it a comfortable KU win. Comfortable, acceptable, yet somehow unsatisfying. Simply because the Jayhawks were once up 18 and another ass-kicking appeared imminent until Mizzou sliced 10 points off that lead and the final few minutes were a little nervy.

I think it officially qualifies as a Weird Game. Mizzou was better early, and held KU off for about three-quarters of the first half before a huge KU run allowed them to take control. Then the second half had a couple mini-KU runs balanced by steady Mizzou counters. There was never any real rhythm to the game. Mizzou played terrific defense, but couldn’t put together the offensive performance you need to pull an upset in Allen Fieldhouse. KU seemed low-energy much of the game outside of the last five minutes of the first half. Then the ending felt like it could have stretched on forever and the margin would never get outside a 7–11 point range. Like I said, weird game.

One concern for KU is that Mizzou showed that until someone on the Jayhawks starts forcing defenses to respect them from behind the arc, teams will just pack defenders around Hunter Dickinson, both taking him out of the game and preventing cuts to the rim by his teammates. I don’t see anyone on this year’s roster turning into a consistent deep threat, at least not this season. So I think Bill Self’s challenge is to find a way to generate mid-range looks, which this team has the potential to be quite good at, to open up the lane. I’m confident he’ll figure something out.

As is often the case, KU’s schedule is kind of hurting them. They need to develop a couple guys from the group of Elmarko Jackson – who was quite good Saturday – Johnny Furphy, Nick Timberlake, and Jamari McDowell as complementary players that Self can trust. A schedule packed with close games against high level opponents makes that difficult. Worse, KU has played kind of like ass in their guarantee games sprinkled in amongst the MU, UConn, Kentucky, and Hawaii games, preventing mop-up minutes for the young/new guys. Conference play is just a few weeks away, and that’s when guys that Self doesn’t trust usually disappear.

One positive for KU is how well KJ Adams played. He was the best player on the court Saturday. It’s remarkable how he keeps finding ways to add to his game. I joked Saturday night that he may just develop a 3-point shot over the Christmas break to solve KU’s shooting woes. I doubt that will happen, but I also wouldn’t ever count that kid out.

Oh, and he had the signature play of the year so far for KU, one that will be in the pregame video for years.

I also noticed that Self seemed pretty chill throughout the game. I guess this is a post- heart attack thing? It confuses me a little. I mean, I want the guy to be healthy and able to coach for another decade or so. But it also helps my mood considerably when he rips into the team when they are playing like ass.

I love how petty rivalry games make people. MU coach Dennis Gates made a comment in his postgame press conference about how not many teams come into Allen Fieldhouse and lead for 14 minutes. I get what he was saying, and it was 100% valid. I don’t think he was suggesting the game was a moral victory in any way. Just pointing out there was something his young team could build on.

But since it was a rivalry game, naturally KU people made fun of it, generating fake banners about close losses to hang at Mizzou Arena or referencing Bruce Weber and his Try Hard chart. I didn’t necessarily buy into those arguments, but they made me laugh.

Along those lines, I was watching the UC-Xavier game later in the evening and saw a sign in the XU student section that said “Hell Is Real And It’s Three Miles Away.” Rivalries are the best.[1]

Pacers

After a dream run to the championship game – during which they beat Philadelphia, Boston, and Milwaukee – the Pacers played their worst game of the inaugural NBA In Season Tournament in Saturday night’s championship game. They missed sooooo many open shots they had hit over their previous games. Myles Turner was really bad. A lot of people took shots at him forgetting he had played wonderfully in every game before the final.

Oh, and 157 year old LeBron James played like he was 25 and Anthony Davis remembered he is one of the best, and least guardable, players in the game and could not be stopped. Two transcendent players showing out usually get you the win in the NBA.

And even then the Pacers were right in it until about 2:00 were left and the Lakers went on a final surge.

A terrific run, a coming-out show for Tyrese Haliburton, and some rare national attention on the Pacers.

The Pacers have a lot of flexibility moving forward thanks to expiring contracts, some team-friendly short-term contracts, and full control of their future draft picks. Might they make a splashy move to bring in another proven scorer to put next to Haliburton, either between now and the trade deadline or over the summer?

Winter Formal

As I mentioned, L was nominated for Ice Princess at the CHS winter formal. Their winter formal is weird. It is the biggest deal for freshmen, who dress up and get nominated for stuff. Some sophomores go. Almost no juniors go. And seniors show up briefly, but wearing ugly sweaters rather than suits and dresses.

Anyway, L was one of five girls nominated. I hoped she would cross enough demographic lines to be in the running, but it was a girl who is kind of Tik-Tok famous, is a model, and the daughter of a former local celebrity that won. L isn’t a huge fan of the kid who won Ice Prince and she was relieved they didn’t have to stand/dance together. So she really won I guess?

Colts

What a shit game. A couple terrible calls went against them, but the Colts basically rolled over after the Bengals scored an early touchdown. And on a day when the Jags and Texans both lost. This team really isn’t playoff worthy, and will lose in the first round if they make it. But that was still a super-dumb loss.

Indiana Fever

I doubt I’ve ever written about our local WNBA team here before. The Fever won the WNBA draft lottery yesterday. Meaning if Caitlin Clark decides to go pro, as expected, she will likely be playing here in Indy this summer. We already have tickets to watch her play in Bloomington in February. I’m guessing this means L will be going to her first-ever Fever game sometime in 2024.

  1. M was very excited about the game…but went to see a movie with her friends.  ↩

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 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.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 16, 2023 /

Another very good weekend that was focused on travel, football, and friends.

For the second time in three weeks I left Indianapolis to attend a Big 12 football game. This trip was to Cincinnati to watch M’s Bearcats take on Iowa State. Making the trip even better, I would be hanging with my buddy, Super Clone Fan #1 Sean, and we would get to spend some time before the game with our old pal O-Dog.

I drove down Friday evening, just ahead of the storms that were blowing through and wiping our very late summer warmup away. While I drove L was at the Center Grove – Cathedral game getting soaked. CG generally pounded the Irish, or at least until CHS scored two touchdowns in about a minute to turn a 21-point deficit into a seven-point gap very late in the game. They could not corral a second-straight onside kick, though, and ended the regular season with their third loss, 45–38. This is a bye week for 6A teams in Indiana, so CHS will begin the state playoffs in a week against 0–9 North Central.

I was fortunate to be invited to stay with Sean at his sister’s home. We hung out and had a few beers after my arrival, something we regretted a little the next day. The beer part, not the catching up.

The Iowa State-UC game was at noon, thus we were up pretty early to head to campus for tailgating. His sister works right across the street from campus and her employer has a private parking lot. She graciously gave us her pass so we could park very close for free in an almost completely empty garage. I think actual parking on campus for games is a true nightmare so this was a huge bonus to our day.

We strolled over and grabbed a spot on the edge of the main tailgating area to meet up with O-Dog. I hadn’t seen him in 16 years, give or take. Many of my readers know O-Dog and probably haven’t seen him in longer. I’m happy to report he’s exactly the same dude. It was like he picked up our conversation right where he left off the last time we saw each other. We fought a dicey cell connection to FaceTime with the central point in our respective friendships, John N back in KC.

We hung with O-Dog awhile, ran up to where his family was tailgating to say hello, and then hooked up with M. I had been checking her location all morning and it seemed like she was hopping from fraternity house to fraternity house. She finally found us right before the game and we headed in. It had been gray, dreary, and cool all morning but just as we got to our seats, the clouds disappeared to reveal a gorgeous blue sky and bright sun. We all muttered that we shouldn’t have brought our jackets (Foreshadowing!).

Sean got our seats from Iowa State so we were around plenty of other Clones fans, tucked into the corner near one endzone, 13 rows behind the ISU bench. This became more significant later.


That sunshine lasted about 10 minutes until thick, low clouds rolled in. Right before halftime it began sprinkling. Then misting more steadily. Most of the fans departed for cover under the upper deck at half. M and I walked around to find food and it was hard to move. The second half was filled with intermittent light showers, never heavy enough to soak you but still wet enough to make everyone kind of miserable. M took off in the fourth quarter. Her roommate had run a half marathon that morning and she wanted to find and congratulate her. I think she also wanted to get out of the rain. Sean, being the good Clone fan he is, wanted to hang around and see every minute of ISU’s impressive win, which I totally understood. By late in the fourth quarter the stadium was basically empty except for every ISU fan who had crammed into our area. I was glad no one tried to high five me. My Bearcats sweatshirt was a pretty similar color to a lot of the Clones fans gear.

As for the game, it wasn’t the most exciting contest I’ve ever been to. UC was a five-point favorite coming in. They missed an easy touchdown on their first possession and never recovered. Like every time I’ve watched them this year, their offense struggled to put positive plays together. In fact, their offense really seems to have regressed since Big 12 play started. And their defense, which was supposed to be a strength, fell apart as the Cyclones had more time to adjust their attack. Iowa State won 30–10 and it felt like a bigger beatdown than that. ISU seemed like a mess about a month ago but they look like they’ve figured some stuff out. I had them chalked up as a win for the Jayhawks but that is now in big-time doubt. Although UC might be so bad it’s hard to make any inferences based on Saturday. There was a lot of booing by the Bearcat faithful as the offense looked progressively more inept over the day.

After the game Sean and I walked around campus a bit, stopped at M’s dorm to say hello again, then headed to the main drag right off campus. We ended up ducking into Buffalo Wild Wings to get a bite and watch some other football, including the KU game. I’m glad I didn’t get to see that entire game, because I think I would still be upset about it. I did see three KU touchdowns. But I also saw a blocked PAT, a failed two-point conversion, and dropped interception that would have been a sure-thing pick six. All important since they lost to Oklahoma State by seven. And now KU fans are back to wondering where win number six is. I hate football. And sports. Again, glad I didn’t see the entire game otherwise I would be really mad about the result.

But, again, I guess that’s progress, right?

While we were in B-Dubs, this super drunk UC student came up to our table and pointed to one of our chairs. Thinking he was just asking to borrow it, Sean nodded. Instead the kid sat down right next to me and stared at the TV with the Oregon-Washington game on it.

“You guys watching football?” he asked, with slurred words.

Sure, we were watching football.

“You watching the Washington game?”

“Kind of,” I responded. “But I’m paying more attention to the Kansas game.”

“KANSAS GAME? WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THAT?” he said, as he looked at my UC shirt.

“That’s where I went to school.”

“You went to Kansas?” he asked, not in disgust but as if he had never realized someone could go to school at KU.

“Yep, I’m from there.”

“You’re from there?” Again, like he didn’t realize people lived in Kansas.

“Yep.”

“Well, I hate to tell you this, but the Bearcats are going to beat Kansas.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep, I guarantee it.”

“Well, from what I saw today, I’m don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“I guarantee it. I’ll bet you anything.”

“The Bearcats were terrible today. You know Iowa State isn’t even that good,” I looked at Sean and grinned as he protested, “and they pounded UC”

“I’ll bet you anything they beat Kansas though!”

We stared at each other for a minute, then I turned back to my game and Sean. After a few more awkward moments the kid shook our hands, wished us well, and went back to his friends two tables away. I hope he felt ok Sunday morning.

I headed back to Indy that evening. When you drive at night it’s only about 1:45 city-to-city, which is nice. I made it home in time to see a decent chunk of Notre Dame’s beat down of USC. I called the Irish frauds last week. I should apologize because USC are clearly the bigger frauds. I guess Lincoln Riley just doesn’t care about defense, figuring they can out-score everyone, even with their sloppy ass offense that sure seems to get in its own way a lot. I enjoyed the Twitter poster who called USC an “unserious team.”

Sunday was another dreary day. I watched some football but never really committed myself to any games. The Colts were entirely too sloppy to deserve my full attention. I saw someone on Twitter respond to the Indy Star Colts writer this week that they were happy Gardner Minshew was starting over the injured Anthony Richardson because Minshew “isn’t selfish.” I’m not sure what a rookie quarterback, who by all accounts is a great kid willing to listen and learn, and just runs the plays that are called, did to deserve being called selfish. Then I looked at this person’s Twitter bio. They do not like our current president, or vaccines, or masks. They do like our former president who faces multiple indictments and they really like guns. I wondered if their quarterback preference was based on some other factor than whether a player is selfish or now. Anyway, I was secretly glad that Minshew had a terrible day – four turnovers – and that Richardson signed autographs with his non-dominant hand for half an hour before the game. Although I guess sharing the ball with Jacksonville does prove that Minshew is not selfish.

S and I took a walk after the Colts game, and L came along with us. She’s officially cleared to start basketball again today, which is good since it is the first day of the winter sports practice calendar in Indiana. Her coach is still going to hold her out of scrimmaging but she’ll be back on the court for the first time in over a week. Wednesday we find out what team(s) she will be on.

We also started breaking down and storing the pool furniture. I kept the pool open longer than I ever have, since I figured I would keep swimming as long as I could. But it’s been so cool the last two weeks that I should have had it closed when we normally do. My last swim was 12 days ago. The crew will be here on Thursday to shut it down for us.

This is a short week at CHS, with fall break beginning Wednesday. We will head back to Cincinnati Saturday for family weekend. We won’t go to the football game but are spending the night downtown. This will be our first chance to explore the city.

Weekend Notes

October 9, 2023 /

Going to flip things up a bit, as our family had a rough week that’s worth getting caught up on first.

Squad News

Monday M got diagnosed with mono. She’s been sick for weeks and it took a turn last weekend, so she went and got checked. She told us she could see the test turn positive from across the room. So she REALLY has mono, I guess. She had a terrible couple of days but after starting on some steroids, improved pretty rapidly.

She ended up coming home for the weekend – UC is off Monday and one of her local buddies offered her a ride – so she was able to have some downtime away from the dorm. When she was awake she seemed pretty normal, but she did sleep even longer than usual. Hopefully she’s on the right path for recovery. Funny how when your kid gets mono everyone you know has to tell you the story of the person they knew who missed a year of school when they got it. I know one of those people, so I understand some of those stories are legit.[1]

Otherwise she seems to be doing great at school.

That wasn’t our worst health news of the week. Friday morning L cracked heads with a teammate in practice and failed a concussion test after. She went to class for a bit but started to feel bad and I picked her up around 11. She had all the classic symptoms – headache, dizziness, light sensitivity – and they were pretty bad both Friday and Saturday. Sunday they hadn’t improved much but she was feeling a little more like herself.

The girl she knocked heads with is a good friend of hers. She stopped by Sunday to give L a bag of candy, which was nice.

Obviously we’re being very careful. She’s anxious to get back to school and on the court. We told her to slow her roll, it’s better to miss some time and have to make school work up and catch up in practice than get hit again before she is healed and miss even more time.

C didn’t have any issues last week. But we are still working to get her back issue figured out. She’s had an injection that didn’t work, seen a back specialist, and a spine specialist. Friday she goes back to the spine specialist for a more advanced injection he hopes can give her some relief.

HS Football

Friday was the first time Cathedral played Roncalli, the Catholic school on the south side of Indy, during the regular season in 13 years. They used to play every season and often played in the state tournament before Cathedral moved up two classes.

Roncalli won a state title three years ago and were very good last year but are a little down again. Friday the Irish killed them 42–0, extending their winning streak in the series to 13.

I only heard a few possessions as I was picking M up right when the game started. She laughed because one of her UC friends graduated from RHS and was going to the game. He said he was only going because his dad was making him and it was stupid to go because “We’re going to be down 30–0 at halftime.” It was, indeed, 28–0 at half.

Now it’s on to the final week of the regular season, the big Center Grove game. Center Grove is ranked #2 in the state but #23 in the country, so pretty much the same old same old down there.[2] Because a huge crowd is expected and CG is still complaining about having to play on real grass two years ago, the game has been moved to Butler’s stadium. Not sure if I’m going or not yet. I have a big day Saturday and have yet to determine if going to a game Friday night fits with those plans.

The Irish have adjusted their offense and played much better the last four weeks but it will take their best game of the year, by far, to hang with the three-time defending 6A champs.

Late Night

Friday night was also Late Night in Lawrence. Someone asked the question online if Late Night is washed. My response was “Of course it is.” The concept is 40 years old and pretty much every variation has been tried. If you expect anything more than silly/dumb skits and a ragged scrimmage you’re asking for way too much.

Where Late Night used to be the first chance for fans to see new players, we’ve now seen their highlight videos, seen them play on ESPN as high schoolers, seen viewed clips from summer pickup games, etc. In the transfer portal era we’ve even seen some of them play against their current teams. One of my buddies shared that he thought a guy who played for KU when we were in school was white until Late Night, which I thought was hilarious. No such issues these days.

(Lengthy aside: an underrated big day on the college hoops calendar back in our time was the first game after classes had started for the second semester. We always anxiously watched the tunnel the players came out of to make sure everyone was eligible. There was always one guy you were worried about. There was nothing like that moment of relief and elation when you saw Terry Brown or Alonzo Jamison walk onto the court in uniform. Of course today, when athletes take enough hours in the summer and online to stay eligible, kids have no idea about this flavor of anxiety.)

I say accept Late Night for what it is, the ceremonial start to the hoops season, and don’t ask any more of it.

College Football

We had a front blow through Friday night that crashed the temperatures. Saturday and Sunday were both cool and blustery. Which made each day perfect for sitting on my ass and watching football.

The Oklahoma-Texas game was awesome. I was super entertained for the three-plus hours it took the Sooners to pull out the win. And while I hate both schools for leaving the Big 12, I always lean OU in that game since they were a Big 8 school, so I was pleased with the result.

I was super nervous about the KU-Central Florida game. We knew Jalon Daniels would not be playing, which meant KU would feature the run. UCF’s defensive strength is their interior line. Seemed like it could go sideways pretty easily. I was both nervous about losing and about what an L would mean for the season. Drop this game, at home, and the road to bowl eligibility gets a lot tougher, many of the hopes of August quashed in early October.

Silly me. The Jayhawks manhandled those fools. One snap into the second half it was 31–0. Methodical marches down the field. Great defense (in the first half). A punt return touchdown for the first time in nine years. A 75-yard TD to open the second half. Other than the D getting torched in the second half and keeping one of the Indy boys from getting to play quarterback, it was almost a perfect game.

399 yards rushing on the day Tony Sands went into the Ring of Honor was perfect, too. In an ironic twist, my buddy Sweets, who missed Tony’s then NCAA record game in 1991 was unable to watch Saturday. We let him know about it.

So, Jalon… Super concerning. Especially since he apparently didn’t even come to the stadium to watch. Which is weird.

I have four theories, offered in order of likelihood:
1 – His injury continues to baffle doctors and he wasn’t actually in Lawrence but somewhere else seeing a specialist.
2 – He’s already had some kind of surgery and they’re trying to hide it.
3 – KU and Daniels/his family disagree on the best way to treat the injury and because of that he stayed away.
4 – Daniels has shut himself down for the year and was told to stay away from the stadium if that was his choice.

I can’t see JD not being around to support his teammates if he was able, so I doubt options 3 or 4 are the explanations. As the father of a kid with a back injury that experts have struggled to identity and treat, I totally get #1, which is no doubt way worse for a football player than just a random high school kid trying to get through her day.

He’s not been the same since he took that hit against TCU last year, and back injuries are never any joke. I’m hoping there’s a reasonable explanation and a path towards getting healthy and playing again before this season is complete. It would be very KU football, though, if his season/career is over.

Once again KU should be super happy Jason Bean decided to come back. He has some flaws, and I worry about how he’ll manage once teams dare him to make throws consistently. But he’s a hell of a second option and definitely good enough to win another game or two.

And I keep telling myself don’t let the drama around Daniels distract from a second-straight 5–1 start. Last year KU fans were thinking, “Can we win one more game?” This year it is “How many more can we win?” It’s kind of weird to hear national broadcasters praise KU football.

After KU I flipped between the evening games, but mostly watched Notre Dame – Louisville. That turned into an ass-kicking. The Irish, again, are frauds.

At some point in the evening S complained that she felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything all day. I pointed out she went to a friend’s house to take out some stitches and took M to both Costco and Target.

I, on the other hand, had been sitting on the couch watching football for nine hors at that point.

C helped me out, though. “Hey, you yelled a lot for awhile so you got your heart rate up.”

She’s my favorite for the moment.

Colts

What a weekend for the Colts!

Saturday they announced they had re-signed Jonathan Taylor after his holdout and that he would play on Sunday. I was torn on this. He makes the Colts better, but they are now paying like five guys a quarter of their salary cap, and three of those guys have concerning injury histories. Another potentially bad contract as the team tries to rebuild around Anthony Richardson. But, when healthy, Taylor will take pressure off of Richardson.

Sunday Taylor played a few snaps, but his replacement, Zack Moss, had the game of his life. Nearly 200 total yards, 160+ on the ground against one of the best run D’s in the game. Moss makes a hell of a lot less than Taylor, so now the new contract looks kind of dumb?

Moss was huge in the Colts beating Tennessee and pulling into a tie for first place. Which was even more impressive since Richardson got hurt for the third time this season, leaving the game with a shoulder injury. Apparently my teams can’t have good, young quarterbacks.

Again, great to have a competent backup, in this case Gardner Minshew.

I wrapped up the weekend watching a good chunk of the Cowboys-Niners game. Woodsheds, ass kickings, and whatnot. San Francisco looked awesome, which makes me even more sure that one or more of their stars is going to have a leg amputated or something next week.

  1. What up, Em?  ↩
  2. Brownsburg is ranked #1 in Indiana, but only #50 nationally. Cathedral is #8 and #212.  ↩
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