D's Notebook

Tag: youth sports (Page 8 of 24)

Miles on the Odometer: College Visits and Weekend Hoops

June 20, 2022 /

A long post about a long few days.

Thirteen months into my Audi lease I was in great shape, milage-wise, about 1000 miles lower than where I should be. I pretty much wiped out that deficit over the past few days.

Thursday M and I drove to Cincinnati to take her first college campus visits. We toured the University of Cincinnati and Xavier.

UC is a popular spot for Indy-area students as it offers nearly in-state tuition to most Indiana grads. Xavier always looks to bring in kids from Indianapolis Catholic schools, and is known for being very generous with scholarships. Seemed like a good way to knock out a couple schools on her list in one day.

M really isn’t sure what she wants to study yet, so we didn’t meet with any academic folks. And as her first visits, she had nothing to compare them to. But she loved UC.

It is a much bigger school than I realized, well over 45,000 total students with an undergrad population around 33,000. The main campus is a very tight, two square mile property near downtown. It has some older, traditional college campus buildings, but much of the campus is either brand new or recently renovated, giving it a very modern feel. The football stadium is smack in the middle of campus. You can literally look into it as you’re walking to class.

I think she liked that combination of opportunities that come with having such a large student body without the large physical size of the typical Big Ten campus. She has some friends with siblings at both UC and Xavier, so has heard the area around the UC campus has lots of cool restaurants and shops. It can also get sketchy pretty quick. I thought it was interesting how our tour guide played up the fact that UC has its own police force, the Cincinnati police patrols campus, and there are emergency phones all around if you do ever run into trouble. I guess that’s good info to have, but it also does as much to reinforce the narrative that it isn’t the safest campus as reassure parents that their kids will be safe.

When we were done with the official tour we walked into the Fifth Third Arena where the basketball team plays. There was a boys camp going on and, I swear to God, as we walked through the kids were all chanting, “Let’s go Kansas!” The best we could figure was the camp was divided into groups with names of different college teams, and the Kansas squad was going through drills while the other kids encouraged them. Or they knew I was in the building!

Outside the main doors is a statue of Oscar Robertson. There we found a recruit taking a picture in front it. He was a 6–5 white kid so probably not a high level recruit, but it was kind of cool to see the coaches walking him around. I got a pic with Oscar when the kid was done.

Our tour guide kept making a big deal about how UC is a football school now, which did make me chuckle to myself since that was not the case until a couple years ago. And there were signs and shirts everywhere celebrating UC’s admission to the Big 12. KU playing two hours away from my house isn’t the best reason to send my kid there, but it’s not the worst, either.

Again, this was M’s first college tour. I think she was a little too impressed with some things that were new to her. She thought the dorms were amazing, and we didn’t even see the high level ones. She thought the Bearcat Card, the debit card that works all over campus and at a few off-campus businesses, was the coolest thing ever. I didn’t tell her that I’m sure every school has their own version of that. She’ll probably think other schools are copying off UC when she hears about their payment systems.

After lunch we drove the six miles to Xavier. As I said, there’s a strong connection between Indianapolis Catholic schools and XU. We know a lot of people who went to Xavier or are there now.

While we parked in a big garage at UC and had to walk a few blocks to our meeting point, at XU we just pulled into a small lot in front of the admissions building, like parking at Walgreen’s. I think that immediately turned M off a little, as it didn’t seem very big or special.

The tour was fine, but I could tell she wasn’t into it as much as UC. Afterward when I asked her thoughts, she told me XU felt like a bigger version of Cathedral, and she didn’t want to repeat that experience for the next four years. (Xavier in in the 7000 student range.) I certainly understood that.

Everything about our visit reflected that size. We were in a group of 10 or so kids plus parents at UC. At Xavier we shared a guide with one other girl and her dad. It was a pretty quick walk around campus, and the buildings all seemed a lot older and smaller. The dorms were both far less impressive than UC’s and reminded me of the dorms I lived in at KU. I bet these were built in the 1960s like those old Daisy Hill dorms (RIP McCollum Hall).

I really liked the Jesuit educational concepts that Xavier is built upon, especially their embrace of social justice and a requirement that students do things outside the classroom to make the world a better place.[1] But M can do that at any school, with or without the Jesuits.

Where UC really pushed how they are a football school (now), Xavier plays up how they are a basketball school and the excitement about Sean Miller taking over the program. Our guide took us into the Cintas Center, where a girls camp was in session, and asked if either of the girls liked basketball and M shook her head and pointed at me, “I’m not but he is.” This day wasn’t about me so I just smiled. The guide took the bait, though.

“So what team do you follow?” she asked, I’m sure expecting me to say IU, Purdue, or Butler.

When I told her I went to KU she got excited. “I picked them to win my bracket this year!” I liked her a lot!

Xavier likes to throw money around. If M hits certain deadlines in the admissions process and goes to a local event, the day she is admitted to Xavier her tuition will be basically chopped in half through a series of scholarships.[2] I’m not sure she’s interested enough to pursue any of that seriously, though.

We bought t-shirts at both schools, as Cathedral seniors are allowed to wear college shirts all year instead of uniform shirts. Even though she’s lukewarm on Xavier, she was excited that they also gave her a shirt, so she ended the day with three she can wear to school.

It was a hot day for touring campuses, but I think it was useful. I joked that she was ready to commit to UC right away, like a football recruit overly excited about his first visit, but cautioned her to take some more visits and start learning more about the academics of all the schools she is interested in.

When we got home we nailed down four more visits for the summer. We will go to Miami (OH) and Purdue in July, IU and KU in August. She’s doing KU as a favor to me on our Kansas City trip, but claims she has an open mind about it. We are visiting Miami with one of her best friends, whose dad went there and will serve as our unofficial guide. Marquette has been on her list, but I think if she’s not serious about Xavier there’s no need to waste time on Marquette (although it is 50% bigger than XU). She’s kicked around a few other Big 10 schools, but hasn’t formally moved them onto her list or asked me to look into visits.

It’s pretty crazy to realize how fast this is happening. She just took her first visits, she’ll be sending out applications in a few months, and likely have an acceptance letter or two by Christmas.

Thursday was a long day. I got up at 5:30 in order to be at UC before our 9:00 tour. Friday morning I almost had to get up even earlier for my next trip.

L’s team played in a tournament in Knoxville, TN over the weekend. Originally we were scheduled to play at 11:00 Friday morning. As we had already booked our hotel for Friday and Saturday nights before the schedule came out, we were going to have to get up at 4:30 AM to make it down in time. Luckily the tournament took pity on us and moved things around. We left home at about 8:30 and drove back to Cincinnati, then south through Lexington to Knoxville. Along the way we dodged severe storms. We had to drive through one heavy storm and then through some exceptionally gusty winds. Friends who were 30 minutes behind us had to pull off the road for about 45 minutes because the rain they were in was so heavy.

We made it to the convention center just in time for our first ass-kicking of the weekend. The first three teams we played were all very long, athletic, and just way faster than us. We actually hung with the first opponent for about 10 minutes. Then a girl hit a 30-foot bomb and it kind of destroyed our girls. We were down 10 at halftime but lost by 34. That same girl hit three other 3’s, two of them from NBA range. You just can’t guard that when you’re also struggling to contain girls who are bigger, stronger, faster in the other four spots. L didn’t score in that game.

In game two L hit a 3 to put us up 17–14 just before halftime. The rest of the game was a 30–8 run. Unfortunately we scored the eight points. We just got out-physical-ed and hustled again, and the girls seemed to give up at a certain point. L had seven points, all in the first half. She had a sweet move where she faked a girl, blew by her, scored, and got fouled. Then she missed the free throw. And she got busted by the same move two times on the other end.

Saturday we lost our final pool game by eight. We trailed pretty much the entire contest but put a run on them late to make it interesting. L grabbed a rebound and went full-court to lay it in and cut it to four with just over 3:00 left. A possession later she faked a girl, took two dribbles, and pulled up for a wide-open 15-footer that rimmed out. We never had another chance to cut it to less than four again.

We went to lunch and worried about whether we were going to lose our afternoon bracket game, which would mean we played a late game Sunday. Our girls seemed kind of down and lacking confidence. We hoped we were just in a hellacious pool and that even though we were the #4 in a 3–4 matchup, we would get a weaker team than the ones we played.

We were definitely better than our first tournament opponent. But we seemed rattled by the pressure we faced in the first three games. This team was throwing light pressure at us and we kept getting called for traveling, throwing the ball to the wrong girl, or dribbling into traffic. Just dumb errors made because of indecision. Fortunately they couldn’t score, either. We were up five at half and then something finally clicked. We went on a 30–5 run in the second half to win easily. L had a weird line. She was 0–4 from the field but had four rebounds, four assists, and three steals with no turnovers. She was bummed she didn’t score but I pointed out her other stats and told her she still made an impact on the win.

We had a fun team dinner afterward. The girls were in high spirits and the parents were relieved.

Sunday morning it was back to the convention center for our semifinal. We were playing a team from the south side of Indy, which was kind of funny. On a court next to us two of our program’s fifth grade teams were playing each other.

We started great and had an early 7–2 lead. Then we hit a cold spell and were down six at halftime. That deficit stretched out to 10 midway through the second half. But our girls, for the first time all weekend, fought through the adversity and started clawing back into it. We hit a long 3 with about 3:00 left to tie it. With 14 seconds left we hit two free throws to tie it again. But the other team smartly spread our defense, put the ball in the hands of their best driver, and she hit a layup with four seconds left to give them the win.

We were bummed and happy. Bummed that we lost, but happy that our girls fought hard to come back. And also happy we wouldn’t have to stick around for another three hours for the championship game.

L had a decent weekend. Other than that one game, she didn’t score much. She was a combined 3–7 from the free throw line and hit just the one three. But her shot looked good. I took some pictures at various times and showed them to her after we got home. I wanted her to realize her form is good, she just needs more reps to add consistency. Her knees were barking a little but she looked quick all weekend. Most importantly, she was generally on the court when the team played its best.

Our drive home was long. There was a lot more traffic than Friday, but at least no storms. The approach to Cincinnati is a mess of construction, and it took us a good 45 minutes to go about 15 miles. There was an accident 30 minutes outside Indy that had I–74 crawling. But we made it home safely just in time for a Father’s Day dinner at home with S’s dad and stepmom.

Next week is the final tournament of the official AAU season. I think L is looking forward to some time off.

  1. The lady who did the admissions presentation called the Jesuits “Catholic hippies.”  ↩
  2. They explained the process like this: apply by October 1 and get $500, which repeats for four years. Go to a Xavier event in Indy, get $1000, which also repeats for four years. Then your acceptance letter will include a scholarship that will range between $15,000 and $26,000, also good for four years. College tuition is a weird racket.  ↩

Weekend Hoops Notes

June 13, 2022 /

I mentioned last week that L was finally looking healthy again. She had claimed her tailbone was healed from her recess injury last month, but I think she was still feeling some pain there. And her knees were a mess in May, but seemed better last weekend.

This weekend she seemed as healthy as she’s been in months, and that showed in her play.

Her team went 3–1, losing in the semifinals of their tournament to the best (going into) seventh grade team from their program, which was playing up a division. L’s team was missing two players, including a starter, so she got elevated and started all four games.

Saturday they won game one by 10. That was only because they got super sloppy late. They led by 17–19 almost the entire second half but could never get that last bucket to trigger the running clock. Then they got super sloppy in the final four minutes and pissed away half of their lead. L was only 1–5 from the field, but that one basket was pretty sweet. She got a pass deep in the backcourt, blew past everyone, and laid it in. That play showed me that her knees were in good shape, and was reminiscent of how she used to kill people on the break.

Game two was a relatively easy 26 point win. L had the best game of her life. Her final line was 6–10 from the field, 4–5 from 3, for career-high 16 points. At one point she hit three-straight 3’s. Remember, this kid had never hit a 3 in an actual game until last week. And suddenly she’s Steph Curry! She added a rebound, two assists, a steal and a block. She should have had more assists but one of her teammates, who is usually money if she can get the ball in the lane, missed at least four shots L set her up for. They were all tough-luck misses, too, spinning out or getting bad bounces.

The only bummer for the day was L going 0–5 from the free throw line across the games, and most were bad misses. But at least she was getting to the line, something she hadn’t done in weeks.

We had three hours between games Saturday, and were 45 minutes outside the city, so we set up a breakfast tailgate. It was cloudy and cool so not an awful way to spend a June morning while killing time. After the second game the other parents were telling me L had to eat pancakes before every game.

Sunday’s quarterfinal started off a little dicey. We looked sloppy early were down four. We trailed 11–10 with about five minutes left in the half before our girls ripped off a 12–0 run to end the half. They extended that to a 32–4 run over the remainder of the game and got a easy 27-point win.

L continued to play well, going 3–4 from the field, 1–2 from 3, for seven points.

The semifinal was ugly. We were down 10–2 early and never really had a chance. All of our girls seemed like a mess from the opening tip. Our coach was pleading with them in timeouts to remember they were a year older than their opponents and use their strength, but those seventh graders to-be were just faster and better and strength didn’t matter. They had a big girl that brutalized us in the first half and their coach, likely in an effort to keep that girl fresh for the final, sat her the entire second half. Didn’t matter, our girls couldn’t solve their defense and were constantly lost when they were guarding.

L had a rough game. She air-balled her first three to start an 0–6 game. She took two other 3’s that looked much better but nothing was dropping for anyone on her squad this game. She did grab a couple rebounds, dish two assists, and had a steal.

She was bummed and quiet on the way home. I reminded her she wasn’t the only player who stunk up the last game and she shouldn’t let that outweigh the best weekend of her hoops life.

Her knees were a little sore last night but not as bad as they have been. Hoping they cooperate next weekend when we head to Tennessee for a big tournament.

She has joined another team for the summer that features many of the girls she played winter ball with. I told the coach that she wouldn’t be able to join them until travel ball wrapped up at the end of the month, but he was nagging me last week about her playing in their first game Sunday night. I reminded him of my early message and told him her knees couldn’t take another game.

Apparently they lost by 30 to fifth graders. Now I think four of the top five players on the roster were not there, but, still. I get why the coach was trying to get L to show up. It’s going to be like making a big trade at the deadline when she jumps in with them in July (jinx).

Weekend Notes: Basketball and Gatherings

June 6, 2022 /

Nothing but hoops and parties for us this weekend.

L’s basketball team was supposed to have the week off before their final push of the season. They got invited to play in a tournament at the last minute. Because of our schedules, she could only play in the Saturday games, which worked out just fine.

In game one we were down by nine at halftime. The other team didn’t seem more talented than us. But they were super-well coached and were just dicing us up when they had the ball. Our girls all looked a step slow.

Then in the second half we turned it around. We led by as many as five before a mini-run cut that lead to one with under a minute to play. We had two girls combine to go 8–8 from the line over the final 50 seconds to ice a seven-point win. A really good performance by our girls.

L looked the best she has looked since her first injury a month ago. She scored five, but the headline is she hit the first in-game three-pointer of her life. When we were getting scorched in the first half she let fly from the right wing and banked in a three. Still counts. Next possession she was open from the same spot and launched again. This shot was better: on a better line and with better form. But it was just short and caromed away. Not sure she’s even hit the rim in a game before on a shot that wasn’t a heave at the end of the half/game.

Game two was an easy blowout. We were up by 24 at halftime and didn’t allow a point in the second half. Not exactly a strong opponent. L had a more completed game this time, scoring four with two rebounds, two blocks, two assists, and a steal.

Without her, her teammates lost by 10 in their bracket game Sunday. Probably good she was unavailable because her knee pain was kicking.

The real story from the Saturday games, though, was some of the parent behavior in the gym. The game behind us in the morning was called off with nearly 11 minutes left because of a parent. We were told later that a mom was on the court screaming at the refs in the first half. They ejected her, but she refused to leave. So multiple people who run the tournament/facility came over to try to get her to leave. The best they could do was get her to move to another court. Then her daughter got hurt in a freak play and she went off, charging the court again. The refs, despite it being an eight-point game, decided that was enough and called the game off. Ridiculous.

On our way to lunch between games we heard shouting in the parking lot. I looked in the direction of the noise and just saw some kids, so thought they were just boys being loud. When we got to lunch another parent from our team said she called the police. Turns out there were two dads screaming at each other, one who said he was going to “fucking kill” the other guy, and being held apart by kids. Not sure how I missed that.

During our second game we heard that a girl two courts over got fed up with her coach, the game, or both, cussed him out, and walked off the court in the middle of the game. Like the ball was in play and she just left.

A great day for youth sports.

We had two graduation parties this weekend. Saturday we went back to our old ‘hood for the neighbors’ oldest daughter’s party. We saw a few old friends, talked with the folks who bought our home (and marveled at the landscaping work they’ve done), and caught up with one old neighbor we haven’t seen in a couple years.

The highlight of that was the guy who bought our house telling us his raccoon story. You may recall in 15 years we constantly had raccoons, normally moms and babies, under our back deck. We had two raccoons die under the deck and a third raccoon die when he fell from a tree with a branch that came down during a storm. Basically raccoons out the ass. The new owners ripped out that old wood deck and put in a stone porch that has no crawl space beneath it, so problem solved, right?

A few weeks back he was in his basement getting some stuff from storage and noticed some mouse droppings. He put out traps and caught two mice in the first night. He decided to investigate the crawl space to see if he could find where they were coming in. When he shined his flashlight around he found a momma raccoon and her babies huddled in the far corner. There is no barrier between the crawl space and the utility closet, and then just a door between that and the rest of the basement. He didn’t think the raccoons had made it beyond the crawl space but it sure would have been easy for them to do so. And his mother-in-law had been sleeping in the basement the night before. Egad!

We used that utility closet as a playroom and toy storage area for years. There were times when I thought I heard things rattling around back there, but always assumed it was either my imagination or sounds echoing through the various pipes and vents that ran in and out of the room. There may well have been something snooping around back there at some point!

An exterminator who trapped the entire family so the crawl space is raccoon-free now. The current owner said he found an exhaust vent that appeared to have been chewed through by mice and guessed that was the entry point for all the critters. He patched it up and hopes he’s done with animals in his home.

Sunday we went to another grad party and saw several folks we hadn’t seen in some time. At both parties we were taking notes for next year when it is M’s turn to go through this.

Weekend Hoops: The Ville

May 23, 2022 /

L’s first true travel basketball tournament of her life is in the books. She had fun, but it was a mixed weekend results-wise.

Hoops first. Her team went 2–2 for the weekend. Friday night they got absolutely annihilated by a team from Canada. Whatever your mental image of how Canadian seventh grade girls should look and play, these girls were the opposite. Big, fast, strong, good hoops IQs, and the most athletic team we’ve played this year. They were also hand-checky as hell, which they didn’t need to do since they were already way better than us. We lost 55–11. They were still pressing in the final 30 seconds up 40. So much for Canada Nice I guess.

Saturday morning we got a sloppy win over a team from Bloomington. On the court next to us, a team from St. Louis beat the Canadians by four, but had been up by 15 most of the game before a late Canuck run. That score shocked us parents and bummed out our girls. They figured they had no chance beating a team that beat a team that beat them.

In the afternoon game, we led the St. Louis girls by one point as the clock ran out to end the first half…then the refs inexplicably counted a basket that came at least two seconds after the buzzer. Seriously, the girl with the ball was at mid-court with 1.5 seconds left and they somehow thought she took 5–6 dribbles and laid it off the glass in that span. Our girls played great that first half and had nothing left. We were on the wrong end of a 26–3 run top open the second half. But losing by 18 didn’t seem so bad given their expectations.

Of the 12 teams in our division, we finished ninth. And our reward was to stick around until 4:40 Sunday to play the 12th place team, also from Bloomington. We got worried when we arrived early to watch another of our seventh grade teams play and their opponent never showed up. I threatened to burn the building down if we stuck around until late afternoon only to win by forfeit. Fortunately our opponents were there and we even got to start about 40 minutes early. Another sloppy but comfortable win, this time by 10.

L’s performance? Not great. Her knees were barking all weekend and at times she could barely run. It was tough to watch and super frustrating for her. She scored three total points in the four games and had more turnovers per game than she’s had all year. Bad passes, getting beat physically, unable to stop because of her knees and getting called for traveling, etc. The confidence she had developed in April is completely gone. She looks unsure of herself and constantly off-balance. I know she was extra disappointed she contributed very little because she was so looking forward to this tournament. Her team has the next two weekends off and her coach told her to skip practice this week to give the knees some rest. I just keep reminding her this means she’s still growing, but I think she’s getting sick of hearing that.

The tournament was at the Kentucky Expo Center, located right between the airport, the University of Louisville athletic complex, and Churchill Downs. There were 30 or so courts and Saturday especially was kind of a madhouse. Games started at 8:00 AM and went until past 10:00 each night. Some of the courts were hand-me-downs from college arenas. L’s team played the Friday game on an old Louisville Freedom Hall court, complete with baskets that had UL Cardinals decorations on them. I didn’t walk around much but apparently there was a Clemson and Georgia Tech court, too. Most of the courts were just temporary plastic ones, though. I don’t think those helped L’s knees at all.

While the tournament was all age groups, it was dominated by Class of 2023 teams, and lots of college coaches were floating around to watch them and the sophomores. Some of these juniors are insanely big and talented. I watched one game Sunday that had at least five girls on the court who were taller than six feet. The event was NCAA sanctioned so we had to register our girls with the NCAA to compete, which L thought was kind of cool but was a hassle for us parents. You had to sit through about 20 minutes of interactive videos regarding recruiting, mental health, concussions, etc. We also had to bring multiple pieces of documentation to show our girls were playing in the right age group. Which they didn’t even look at when we checked in. Wonder if they gave the high schoolers’ docs more scrutiny.

While the basketball was frustrating, L had a great time hanging out with her teammates. We had a couple team meals, they ran around our hotel and the area we were in, and found other ways to entertain themselves.

It was fun for us parents, too. We had a big group lunch between games Saturday and basically took over a restaurant because of our group size. That night we ordered pizza and took over the hotel breakfast area. I sat with the two coaches and another dad, dranking beer and laughing for three hours. It was a good evening.

We couldn’t get a later checkout than noon on Sunday, so L and I found an outlet mall about half an hour away and hit the Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas stores, looking for some new shorts for her. She came up empty but was thrilled that there was a Crocs store. She wears Crocs all the time, including to-and-from basketball. She got a new pair along with some Gibbets.

Travel was relatively easy, although we had some very good luck. On our way down Friday I narrowly missed a hunk of metal on I–465. As we passed it, there were at least eight cars pulled over with flats after running over it. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have found anyone to install new tires on my Audi on a Friday afternoon and would have been screwed.

On our way home Sunday we saw a tractor trailer that was flipped in the middle of I–65 about an hour south of Indy. Judging from the debris we saw around the wreck, I wondered if it had blown over in heavy storms that passed through that area Saturday afternoon.

Weekend Hoops Notes: B-town

May 16, 2022 /

L finally got back in hoops action this weekend. The tournament her team was scheduled to play in in Indy got cancelled because of lack of teams. Our coach scrambled and got us into a tournament in Bloomington.

Which is nice since they’ve been working on the main highway between Indy and B-town approximately since I moved to Indiana. There was a long stretch where there were barrels blocking one lane and the speed limit was 45. A vote against IU for me in M’s college search.

L’s team went 2–0 on Saturday, playing sloppy but beating two bad-ish teams by 20+ each. After the game we took the girls to IU student and alum favorite Nick’s for lunch. It was, unfortunately, raining sideways at the time so we didn’t get to wander around campus or downtown at all.

L looked rusty after a couple weeks off. She scored three in the first game, four in the second. She seemed a step slow in both games and a little unsure of herself. She had a couple nice assists in each game, though.

There were only four seventh grade girls teams so the Sunday tournament began with a rematch with the squad we beat by 23 Saturday. I should note they hung with us pretty deep into the pool game until our best player scored nine points in about 90 seconds and broke their wills. But they played solid D and did some nice stuff on offense.

Naturally on Sunday they jumped out to a 9–2 lead, and led 19–10 late in the first half. Our girls made a nice run – including a sweet dime from L to a teammate in traffic for a basket – and cut it to 21–20 at halftime.

We took the lead pretty quickly in the second half and dominated the first 11 minutes or so. With three minutes left the parent sitting by me asked an important question: “Have they only scored one point this half?”

I looked at the scoreboard and, indeed, we were up 34–22. Quite the turnaround!

That was a big-ass jinx, though, as our girls fell apart a little, let the lead shrunk down to three, before they closed it out to win 38–35. L’s team runs hot and cold shooting, and this was definitely a cold game. They were 0–12 from 3 and 4–25 from the line. This totally felt like KU playing an 8 or 9 seed in the round of 32 and bricking their way out of the tournament.[1]

I was SO impressed with the opposing coach. He took what he learned from playing us Saturday and had his girls attacking our weak points and stymying us on D. What I really liked was he was intense, loud, but always positive. I never heard him yell at a player for doing something wrong. Each time I heard him raise his voice, he was telling his girls how to avoid the foul they just got called for, or how to prevent the turnover they just committed. Travel hoops is full of crazy coaches who tear down more than build up. It kind of made my whole weekend to see one who was the opposite.

Onto the championship game. We were playing a team that had a lot of size. I jokingly told other parents we wouldn’t get a single rebound the entire game. The girls proved me wrong by getting one just a minute into the game. We had a 3–0 lead, but it was all downhill from there. We trailed by nine at the break and kept it respectable in losing by 14. This was a better team that really knew how to play. Our girls battled but they looked tired. This was not a team they could beat playing tired.

L didn’t score in either game Sunday. She had some more nice assists, and played a ton in the second game because she was working hard on defense. She was sore afterward, which I told her was good. Saturday she was upset with herself for not scoring more. Sunday she realized that the shots weren’t there, at least in game two, and took some pride in her defense. She told me she didn’t think a couple of her teammates were working hard once they got behind. I told her that’s why she played so much: coaches see effort and reward it.

Next week is our first big roadtrip: four games in Louisville. Unfortunately we have some girls who have a track meet Friday night and our first game is scheduled for 5:45, so we may have to forfeit that if we can’t get them to reschedule for later.

With two weeks of school left I gave L the assignment of coming up with basketball goals for between now and when fall ball starts. I have ideas, too, but I want to see what her thought process is.[2] Next week when we are driving back from Louisville we’re going to talk about her goals and think of the process to get there. We plan on spending a lot of mornings at the YMCA over the summer.

Playing and driving to-and-from Bloomington dominated my weekend. Not really sure what the rest of the family did. Check their socials if you want insights on them.

  1. The University of Kansas basketball Jayhawks won the men’s Division 1 national championship this year. In case you hadn’t heard.  ↩

  2. I think we need to do a lot of shooting, work on her overall ball handling but especially her left hand, and spend time in the gym getting her stronger.  ↩

Weekend Notes

May 2, 2022 /

I was going to begin this post with a complaint about the weather. Then I realized that our recent run of swings between warm and cool are what spring is supposed to be like. Sure, it would be great if it was 60 for two weeks, then 65 for two weeks, and so on. Recent years have seemed a lot more like 40s until April 10 then it’s suddenly 85. The bouncing back-and-forth is normal, we’ve just grown accustomed to the abnormal.

The weather was good enough last week for me to spend two full days outside prepping the pool and pool area for the crew to come open it for the season tomorrow. Lots of power washing, scrubbing, scooping of leaves, etc. That water was cooooold when I I had to stick my hand in it! That’s how I spent pretty much the entire school day both Thursday and Friday. Thus my lack of content.

Over the weekend L’s team had another basketball tournament. They won all four games and took the championship. I must disclose that two of those games were against sixth grade teams. One of them was a 40-point win, the other was by 16. That second team was good, and nasty. The refs were calling no fouls so they were shoving and grabbing our girls the entire game. One of our girls even got hit in the face, a hit that drew blood, and the ref standing four feet away didn’t call a foul. Unbelievable. Fortunately our girls were poised and put them away.

That first sixth grade team, not sure why they were playing in a seventh grade tournament when they were not good. Losing by 40 doesn’t make you any better.

The championship game was a big, cathartic win for many of our girls. Our coach and five of his players have played against that group for years in both AAU and middle school ball. And they had never beat them. L lost to them twice this winter, so even she was 0-fer. We led pretty much the entire game, a couple times by 12, and held on late to win by three. Another set of medals for our girls.

Now I’ve buried the lede a bit: L did not play at all this weekend. Friday at recess she fell and cracked her tailbone on the ground. I guess she was jumping, landed on a ball, and fell straight backwards. She was in crazy pain Friday and could barely walk when she got home.

When she woke Saturday the pain wasn’t any better. Fortunately the first three games of the tournament were easy wins. They could have used her in the title game, as our guards really struggled to handle the other team’s pressure in the last five minutes. Having another solid ball handler would have kept the game from getting close, I bet.

As of this morning the pain still had not improved. There’s not much you can do, according to S. Whether it’s just a deep bone bruise or a fracture, the only thing L can do is rest, treat the pain, and wait for it to heal. She was super bummed to sit on the bench all weekend. She will miss the rest of kickball season. She will miss all her basketball practices at least this week and maybe next. This coming weekend is off for basketball, so that’s good.

What she is most worried about is our first out-of-town tournament in three weeks in Louisville. That seems right on the border of when she will be cleared to play again, assuming no setbacks. She really wants to be a part of that weekend.

In her abbreviated kickball season she went 16–20 with six home runs. The team had two easy wins then lost a tough game to eighth graders last week. They play that team again tomorrow and we hoped we could steal that to force a playoff. But with L out that’s probably not in the cards. Tonight they have to play with just eight players because another girl has a conflict. I don’t think this game will be a problem, but when you’re down two fielders dumb things can happen on defense.

So that’s a big, ol’ bummer. We just got her knees checked two weeks ago and the sports medicine doc confirmed her pain is just Osgood-Schlatter and there’s no need to worry about it. He also confirmed she has plenty of open space in her growth plates so she will continue to add some height for at least a little longer.

I’ll admit I was a little mad that she got hurt in recess. It’s one thing to get hurt in a game, although when she pitched in kickball I got nervous about her getting some kind of hand/finger injury. But recess?!?! Seriously?!?!

The dad of one of L’s friends made a good point when I admitted I was a little annoyed by the cause of her injury. “Yeah,” he said, “it’s hard when they get older and start playing sports more seriously to still let them be kids and just have fun sometimes.”

She better have been having fun in the moments before the cracked her ass on the ground.

Weekend Notes: Prom and Sports

April 25, 2022 /

Prom

We survived our first prom weekend with pretty much zero drama.

Well, I should say prom night was pretty easy, but there was plenty of drama leading up to it. M found a dress quickly and easily, got it altered well ahead of time, and had most of the basics squared away several weeks ago.

But the planning for prom night itself was a little tense. That’s only because the plan was constantly evolving and those changes were often presented to us as “Here’s what we are doing now,” instead of “Is it ok if I do this?” M’s choice in how she opened these conversations caused most of the tension. But teenagers are gonna teenage, I guess.

She was in a group of nine couples, eight of which were just partnered up for the night. She was going with a kid we had heard of before, but they were not/are not dating. We met him for the first time at the pre-prom gathering and he seemed like a good kid. S and I were laughing at how comfortable he seemed in the whole situation, intent on having fun, where a couple of the other dudes looked exceptionally uncomfortable in their formal attire and perhaps feeling stress about the night in general. One of M’s best friend’s dates looked like he might puke from nervousness.

One of the families hosted a big gathering for kids and parents, complete with a professional photographer, a chartered bus, and a big dinner for all. It was awfully nice of them to do that, and I appreciate families that have this in their DNA.

Pictures went well, the kids ate, got on a bus for the dance, and we took off to watch L play basketball.

One other element of the pre-prom gathering that was fun was that a former local/regional celebrity was in attendance with her daughter. I won’t identify this person, other than to say she used to appear on TV commercials across the midwest hawking hot tubs, pools, spas, and outdoor furniture, among other things.

I told a few friends that this person was at the gathering, and they insisted that I get a picture. Which was a little awkward because for much of the evening I was standing 10–15 feet from her in the kitchen/dining area. Her husband is also a lot bigger than me and I didn’t want a confrontation if he saw me trying to take surreptitious pictures of his wife. If S had a few drinks in her she might have made it happen. But we were both sober and not pushing any boundaries. Which is kind of a bummer.

I must say, whoever does the plastics work for her family does very good work, for both mom and daughters (chef’s kiss GIF).

We gave M more freedom than she’s ever had, but still limited her compared to several of her friends in what her after-prom activities would be. There was a series of three parties that we knew of. We gave her permission to go to one and then S would pick her and a couple friends up sometime between 1:30–2:00. We know some of the other kids were bouncing around parties, which seemed like a terrible idea, even if parents were driving (and we weren’t sure parents were driving).

M and her crew got to our house at about 2:30. They didn’t sleep super late before heading out for breakfast, then she went to a pool party with a bunch of other prom kids Sunday afternoon. She crashed around dinner time for a bit, but I could still hear her FaceTiming with friends when I went to bed.

She seemed to have a great time and was pleased with how everything went. That set a pretty high bar for future prom nights in this house.

LB Hoops

As I said, we ducked out of the parent portion of the pre-prom party (holy P’s!) to watch L play ball.

We missed the first game of the day, which her team won by 36 and she scored 8. We got there just in time to watch game two, against a team from Evansville with a couple tall girls, one of whom was probably the best player they’ve faced all year. She could score from anywhere, handle the ball, and got any rebound she could get her hands to. She was a load.

We were down by as many as 10 midway through the second half but our girls worked incredibly hard and only lost by 3. The players and parents all left thinking that was a great step for the team, playing against a bigger and better team and staying in it until the final horn. L scored seven, including two long jumpers from the left wing that helped kick off their second-half run.

We got home at about 10:00 Saturday night and had to be back in the gym at 8:30 for a 9:05 game Sunday morning. AAU life!

Game one was against another team with size, but these girls were kind of trash. Yet they uglied-up the game and made our girls afraid to shoot inside. We were up 14–10 at halftime after they banked in two 3-pointers late in the half.

I’m not sure what our coaches told our girls at half, but they played like KU against Miami in the second half of their game. The final was 36–15. We just ran them off the court. It was fun to watch. L scored four.

On to the semis, where we faced the team we lost to Saturday again. The seeding in these tournaments is dumb. The tiebreaker is points allowed. So another team that played two mediocre teams Saturday and went 1–1 got the two seed because they gave up 44 total points, where our girls, who played the best team in the tournament and thus gave up more points, was seeded third. Strangely the first place team gave up 30 more points than the second place team.

Our girls flipped the script a little Sunday. They led from the beginning. It was never a big lead – constantly bouncing from tied to +4, but it always felt like we had the Evansville girls on the back foot. We hit a 3 with about four minutes left to go up four.

And then things kind of fell apart. Not that we got blown out or anything. Just that we made a ton of bad passes and errors both unforced and forced. We missed some easy shots. We let them get multiple offensive rebounds. We took two absolutely terrible shots that didn’t need to be taken. And we just kept missing free throws, going 2–14 for the game.

We lost the lead, tied it, got the lead back, lost it again. In the end we lost by two. Unlike Saturday the girls were really down about this one, because they knew they let it slip away. But that’s a good coaching point and area for improvement. The Evansville team won the championship game 49–11; our girls were the only group that challenged them all weekend.

L struggled scoring in the semifinal, going 0–2 from the line and 0-fer from the field. She missed a tough, contested layup on a run-out late, and then had another layup where she did everything right – was in the perfect spot on the play, made the perfect cut, went hard to the rim, jumped at the correct time off the correct foot, put the ball up off the glass – and it just rimmed out. She was super frustrated after the game. But she battled when she was in there, getting a couple big rebounds and playing solid D. It just wasn’t her team’s day.

Other Kid Sports

M finally played her first tennis match of the year Friday. She got moved up to JV #1 doubles somehow. And she actually did ok, which was surprising since she refused to take any lessons over the past year. They lost 6–2 but every game competitive unlike many of her matches last year.[1] I wouldn’t say she’s made leaps, but she gets her serve in most of the time and can hit the ball halfway decently on returns. Good enough to win a few points in JV, even against a better team.

Because of prom a lot of girls were unavailable for Saturday’s match, so M was given a chance to move up to varsity for #2 doubles. But since junior class officers had to do prom setup, she had to decline. That was a nice ego boost, though.

The varsity team had a great week, winning three matches, including two over ranked teams. I don’t think they were ranked last week but should be this week.

C has run in two track meets after having two rained out. She’s run the 100 and 200 both times. Her times are faster than her CYO times, but there are A LOT of fast girls in high school, even in three-team meets. She’s generally run a later heat and been pretty far back in the overall standings.

I think she’s a little frustrated by that. Still, she enjoys being on the team and is always in a better mood on the days she has practice compared to the days she just comes home and takes a nap after school.

I must say, I would be happy if we could have a track meet when it wasn’t 52 and windy. Those were the approximate conditions for both of her meets so far. The 200 usually doesn’t get run until 7:30 or so, at which point it gets pretty nippy.

  1. There were 26 matches, so everyone played a single set of no AD tennis. TWENTY-SIX!!! Good on the coaches for making sure everyone gets a chance to play.  ↩

Weekend Notes

April 18, 2022 /

Sometimes the Midwest really sucks.

We had a decent Easter weekend, weather-wise. Not perfect – if it was 5–10 degrees warmer it would have been ideal – but at least it was warm enough to do little kid activities outside.

Then this morning it was snowing when I woke up. And it’s going to be 80 by Friday.

Sheesh.

We had our family Easter celebration on Saturday. Just about all the locals were there, including all the nephews under six. The girls had fun hiding eggs for them then helping the youngest ones find them. With five boys in that group, it always gets a little chaotic, but they were generally well behaved. As were our girls.

Luckily we had a brunch-time gathering, as L had two basketball games later in the day. They won game one by 12 or 13 but they made us nervous. After leading 8–0, they gave up a big run late in the first half and trailed 15–14. A little five-point run gave us the lead back before half and then we cruised in the second half.

L looked like she hadn’t played a competitive game in a month. Which, to be fair, was the case. She made some terrible passes, rushed shots, and went 0–4 from the line. One play summed up her game. She missed a free throw, battled her ass off to get the rebound – tipping it twice in traffic before grabbing it in the corner – then dribbled in for a wide-open layup before she panicked and traveled when she got stuck between shooting and passing to a cutting teammate. After the game I asked her what happened and she said she was so wide open that she wondered if the ref had blown the whistle and the play was dead so she just stopped.

She also got absolutely trucked by a girl when she was leading a break. They both went flying and parents in the crowd let out gasps. They both popped right up and L was laughing, although he had a big bruise Sunday. On our way out of the gym I heard that girl’s dad saying, “You about put that girl in the hospital!”

They had three hours off until game two, so it was nice that they were playing just 20 minutes from home. They trounced this poor team, winning by 40. L played much better, scoring eight while going 2–3 from the line. She was most proud of getting fouled on the break, making the basket, then converting the free throw. “I got an and-one!” was the first thing she told her sisters when we got home. Not sure they know what an and-one is…

Even though this was not a tournament, they still got medals. Which caused come grumbling from the parents. One dad said to me, sarcastically, “I guess everyone gets trophies now?”

“That orange team doesn’t,” was my response, referring to the team we just destroyed.

Harsh, but fair.

With Sunday open we got some cleaning down around the house. We planned on power washing all the outdoor stuff that needs power washed but our damn power washer wouldn’t start. We hauled out some of the porch furniture. It was cooler Sunday but it still felt like pool season was close.

The girls are all off today – Easter Monday is a Catholic school holiday – so there are some doctor appointments; maybe the first kickball game of the year if the parking lot dries off; practices for track, tennis, and basketball; and M is hanging out with the girls in her prom group getting ideas for how to do their makeup this weekend.

So Much Hoops

March 21, 2022 /

Jayhawk Talk

It happened! It finally happened! A highly seeded KU team played a less talented team in the round of 32, saw that team go nuts from behind the 3-point line, and still managed to gut out a win and advance to the Sweet 16.

The Creighton game was not a lot of fun to watch, at least as a KU fan. Ochai Agbaji suddenly can’t shoot, seems to be forcing bad shots, and plays soft/lazy on defense. Jalen Wilson played like an absolute dog in the first half and kept bricking 3’s early in the shot clock. Christian Braun made a couple extremely bad turnovers without much defensive pressure in moments when KU seemed poised to take control. Dave McCormack was ineffective most of the day. And Creighton, who shot around 30% for the year from 3, kept draining triples. I’ve seen this movie before. I did not like it.

A Creighton run cut the KU lead to one with under 2:00 to play and left me throwing things and feeling like I was going to either puke or pass out. Or both. Then the Jayhawks made a series of massive defensive plays. Creighton bricked a few of those 3’s that had been dropping early. And KU escaped with a win to advance to Chicago.

Despite all of that, there was plenty to be happy about. KU didn’t falter or fluster despite Creighton’s constant runs. The Jayhawks didn’t play particularly well on offense and still scored 79 points. They dominated the boards.

However, the biggest thing to be happy about was Remy Martin. Thirty-five points in two games. Thursday he turned a close contest into a blowout in about three minutes. Saturday he was the only KU player who could score in the first half. This was the player KU had been waiting on the entire season!

I found it interesting that CBS kept saying that Bill Self sat Remy down for three weeks. I don’t think that was ever clearly communicated as the plan while it was happening, so I’m inclined to think that is more adjusting the narrative after the fact. Which, whatever. All that matters is that he seems healthy, locked-in, and playing really well now.

Hopefully this week Ochai can figure out/fix whatever is ailing his game. And Dave McCormack can heal up and be ready for a rugged Providence team.

Until a week ago, most KU fans would have been completely satisfied with making the Sweet 16, or at least that had been the case since Remy’s injury saga began. After a Big 12 tournament title, the re-emergence of Remy, and a number one seed, expectations changed.

AND THEN THE MIDWEST BRACKET BLEW UP. WHAT BAD THINGS COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN NOW????

More on that later this week.

Other Assorted NCAA Notes

The first week of the NCAA tournament is A LOT. Thanks to long games on both Tuesday and Wednesday, I was up until or past midnight five straight nights. I finally bailed early Sunday. But as we sit here on Monday of Sweet 16 week, that first First Four game seems like a long time ago.

Late edit: I wrote most of this Sunday evening. Before the TCU-Arizona game captured my attention and kept me up until 12:30 again. I’m a little fried this morning.

Games of the weekend?

TCU-Arizona was amazing. Frogs got hosed.

It was soooo fun that Kentucky went out in the first round to St. Peter’s, even though that meant the Marion County sales tax coffers took a hit.[1] And it also destroyed my bracket. As a fan of a Blue Blood that has taken some heat over early exits, I am always ready to celebrate when another Blue Blood shits the bed.

But Carolina-Baylor had to be the game of the weekend, right? I missed most of the game while L was playing, but was following the score (as much as spotty cell service would allow). Then I listened on our way home. I heard Brady Manek go ballistic from three and then get tossed for throwing an elbow. I heard Carolina slowly meltdown, but never thought they would totally blow it. I got home in time to see Baylor complete the comeback through an insane ending, then the Heels pull away in OT.

What a damn game. I guess the officiating sucked. I know that from one friend who was at the game – and got a picture with Roy! – and from all the articles I read about it on Sunday. Apparently the refs totally lost control and then didn’t know how to get it back. What an embarrassment. Especially given numerous other blatantly incorrect calls over the weekend. Each time defended by the completely needless Gene Steratore. Refs stick together more than cops, man.

There are a lot of problems with college basketball. Unfortunately many of them stem from the officiating, generally in the lack of consistency from the refs. NBA refs aren’t perfect, but you generally know how a game will be called and that doesn’t change unless the game becomes overly physical. The NBA refs also being subject to public critiques makes the product better and more consistent. But the NCAA allows refs to hide from the media, puts a mouthpiece like Steratore on CBS, and never issues anything like the NBA’s Last Two Minute Reports. Typical NCAA, whistling past the graveyard as their product melts down.

The final play of regulation and all of overtime in the TCU-Arizona game was also an absolute disaster. I can’t believe Jamie Dixon didn’t murder a ref.

This time of year I always marvel at the evolution of how we view the tournament. Remember when you could only watch whatever was on your local CBS station? So, like, if a Big 10 team was playing, there was no way I could watch KU here in Indy? Eventually CBS started posting the scores of every active game on the screen. I remember “watching” a few KU games that way before 2008.

Then for a few years you could stream any game for free. That’s how I watched the first three games of KU’s 2008 run. I recall that our Internet service wasn’t ready to try to stream a basketball game. There was a lot of buffering and choppiness to the feed. Sometimes it just stopped working for long stretches.

Finally the current, perfect system where every game is live across the country on four different channels. There’s plenty to complain about CBS’ coverage, but our access to games is not one of those things.[2]

I will complain about the commercials. There are too many commercial breaks with too many of the same commercials. There are too many commercials that feature mascots. Way too many AT&T commercials, most of which are dumb.

I must say, the Coach K one is perfect, though. It is a wonderful representation of what a smarmy, entitled ass he is. That was what they were going for, right?

I would be fine never seeing the Special Olympics commercial again. I swear I’ve seen it 5000 times over the past two weeks.

Worst part of the tournament? Back-to-back long time outs. Just brutal that every commercial break is somehow 2:30. I’ve seen coaches signal for a 30 second time out and then had to sit through five commercials, plus a delay while the refs make sure the CBS sideline reporter can give their meaningless update.

I could use less Grant Hill, too. I think he’s just a bad match for Bill Raftery, who remains great. Hill rarely offers any commentary that strikes me as particularly unique or insightful, or that benefits from his long playing career. He often seems more concerned about telling bad jokes that show how he is buddies with Jim Nantz and Raferty. Please, tell another joke about who doesn’t grab the dinner check!

Brackets and Pools

My brackets suck. I was in last place in all three after day one. That’s what having Kentucky in the Final Four will do to you. Not one of my upset picks came through. Auburn going out Sunday removed one of my two finalists.

BUT…I was able to rejoin a player pool with friends in Kansas City that I hadn’t been involved in since 2005 or so. I got the first pick, taking Drew Timme. Most of my other picks have done well, too. I still have six of my eight players alive, and I’ve only had one single-digit game out of 16 played. I have a 67-point lead going into the Sweet 16.

Youth Hoops

L had her first real AAU tournament over the weekend. Two pool games Saturday followed by a two-game bracket on Sunday.

I went to the first game Saturday (I left to watch “my sons” play, as L called KU) and saw both Sunday. They got smoked by 27 in the first pool game, then lost by five to a team that beat them by 20 two weeks ago. L had a single bucket in both games. The girls looked shook in that first game but I heard they settled down and played solid in the second.

Sunday they pounded the first team they played by 25. We had a running clock five minutes into the second half then the refs stopped the game at the 2:00 mark. Apparently that’s what you do in these tourneys when it’s a 20 point game to keep things moving. L was 1–3 from the line and 0-fer from the field.

Although the other semifinal was on the court next to us, both winners had to hop into their cars and run to the high school 10 minutes away for the title game.

That was a good game for the first 8–9 minutes, then our girls went on a nice run to lead by 10 at half. It never got closer in the second half, we got it up to running clock territory, and won by 17. L had a nice game, although she was a little sped-up at times. She scored 8 on probably 4–12 shooting. She was firing! She scored twice on what I call the Josh Jackson play, taking a pass from the weave outside the arc and cutting to the basket. Although Josh dunked where she flipped in runners. She also had two steals that turned into layups.

They got medals. Sure, it was the consolation bracket, but they still said champions! She, and her teammates, were pretty happy. And they did it without two players, one who is their best rebounder.

HS Hoops

Amongst all the NCAA and AAU ball, Cathedral was playing at semistate on Saturday. They had a 19-point lead early, an 18-point lead moments after halftime, and found themselves tied with 90 seconds to play. I doubt that was stressful.

A short jumper, a put-back, and a dunk later and the Irish had advanced to the state championship game. They play undefeated, #1 Chesterton. I know nothing about them, although they are three spots lower than Cathedral in the computer rankings.

  1. Although it seemed like there were a lot of Michigan and Murray State people in the stands Saturday. I doubt they drink as much as Cats fans.  ↩
  2. They did pilot showing every game of the tournament here in Indy in 2005 and 2006. That was weird. The first year they didn’t publicize it at all. I only knew about it because a friend had a neighbor who worked for the NCAA and told us where to find the “secret” channels, which were buried in a part of the digital cable spectrum where there weren’t any other stations. I also think back then they didn’t stagger games the way they do now, which made for a less satisfying experience.  ↩

Weekend Notes

March 7, 2022 /

Spring?

That first weekend each year when the weather turns warm is always a delight. Living in the Midwest you know there will be plenty of wild weather swings before spring completely arrives. Yet even in a year like this when winter wasn’t all that bad, these weekends are welcome.

Saturday it was in the mid–70s here, breaking a daily high temperature record. I did some yard work to prep for the growing season and sat in the sun reading a book for about an hour. I wore shorts all afternoon. Other than the rather gusty winds, it was an ideal afternoon, feeling more like mid-May than early March.

We had loud, nasty thunderstorms overnight Saturday. Sunday was a little cooler and more cloudy, but with less wind. Much of my day was spent in the car or gyms, as we’ll get to, but S and I were able to take a walk late in the afternoon and it felt really nice. Sunday night/Monday morning we got nearly two inches of rain, setting another daily record.

The weather has already turned, and this week will be much cooler. Snow keeps flipping into and out of next weekend’s forecast. But the warmth is coming, and better days with it.

A lot of important hoops this weekend. So much that I’ll make a (relatively) quick pass at it all. Which you all will probably appreciate.

Jayhawk Talk

Big 12 (co) Champs!

There is a tinge of disappointment over going from leading by two full games with five to play to needing a nervy overtime win at home to salvage a tie with Baylor. It’s still another notch in the conference title ledger, though.

I saw very little of the game, as S and I had not one but two adult social engagements Saturday. (Look at us!) We did reach our second spot of the night just as the game was nearing the end of regulation, and after saying hello to the folks we were hanging with, I scampered over to a big screen to watch. As the game went into OT, I rejoined our crew but kept one eye on the game. When David McCormack dunked to put KU up five I slapped the table and said, “OK, I’m ready to be social!” That got some laughs. I was with a bunch of IU people so they all appreciated my need to focus on hoops.

Without seeing most of the game I can’t make any judgements. It’s concerning that Ochai Agbaji played one of the worst games of his career. The entire offense seemed to suck. But, hey, the defense was solid, they rebounded, they took care of the ball. I guess if you’re not going to score, you better do those other things.

I will be interested if Bill Self rests any of his players this week in Kansas City. I’m not sure it will provide any benefits in the NCAAs, unless guys have legit injuries they need to rest to heal. But it might be good for Ochai not to play 35 minutes two or three times this coming week. And, hey, perhaps let Remy and Yesefu play more than five minutes and give them a chance to get through mistakes and build some rhythm and confidence going into the games that really matter.

Then again, if I don’t expect a deep run in the NCAAs, maybe the Jayhawks should pull out all the stops to win the Big 12 tournament.

Duke/Coach K

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

When we got home Saturday I LOVED reviewing Twitter to see the sheer joy from around the country at the KU-Texas game going to overtime and ruining ESPN’s early coverage of K’s last game. Mark Titus even suggested that Self blew the end of regulation intentionally to ensure overtime and overlapping coverage.

And then for Duke to lose, their coaches to act like pricks to the Carolina staff, and K to scold the home crowd? It was the biggest chef’s kiss I can imagine. Just beautiful, beautiful stuff.

Listen, he’s the greatest coach in the history of the game. I’ve said that before. He’s won five titles playing at least three different styles of basketball. He’s adjusted as the game has changed, often quickly. But he’s always been a sanctimonious prick who puts himself above the game and acted like he hasn’t benefitted from a corrupt system more than any other coach.

Ya’ll know I had some issues with Roy Williams. But, dadgummit, he had the decency to announce he was done and disappear and not turn an entire season into an ego trip, and then get mad when his fairy tale ending got upended. I just hope someone beats Duke before the Final Four so K’s farewell tour doesn’t cloud the entire tournament.

KU Rumors

Just before we left the house Saturday some KU-NCAA rumors broke. They are just rumors at this point, and incomplete rumors at that. By the time you read this some real news may have arrived that renders the next paragraph or two meaningless, so keep that in mind.

The biggest rumor is that Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend will each serve two-year postseason bans. There was uncertainty whether that ban will begin this week or next March. As the rumor spread, there were a lot of “This could be Bill Self’s last 20/10/5 minutes of the season” Tweets. Hmmmm…

The key to the rumor was the insistence that this was just the top headline of the potential punishment, not the entire penalty. There could still be much more, like reduction in scholarships, recruiting limits, forfeiting games that Silvio De Sousa played in, etc.

I had to laugh at myself scrambling through Twitter once we got to our first stop of the evening looking more for confirmations/expansions of the NCAA rumors than the score of the game being played at that moment.

Awards SZN

The Big 12 coaches awards came out Sunday night. Ochai was the unanimous player of the year, to no one’s surprise. Despite his rough final week, no player ever challenged him for the award.

Much grousing in the KU Twittersphere about Ochai being the only KU first team pick. I don’t think it’s worth the time to argue. You can make a case Christian Braun or Jalen Wilson (and, to some people, both) deserved first team honors. But each player had stretches where they struggled, KU faltered late, and their numbers weren’t dramatically better than the guys you have to argue against to put them on the first team. Be thankful for the recognition and use the “snub” as fuel for the next month.

I think Mark Adams should have won coach of the year, and it shouldn’t be close, but Texas Tech losing two of their last three did take some shine off his season. Still, did anyone expect the Red Raiders, who lost their head coach, some decent talent, and brought in second and third tier transfers instead of marquee names like Remy Martin and Marcus Carr to challenge for the league crown until the final week?

I guess you can make a case for Scott Drew. He did have to get this team through a ton of injuries. But I think him winning the award was more about him, and Baylor’s PR team, winning the battle of narrative, making the Bears’ entire season about those injuries. Conveniently ignoring that he still had two (likely) lottery picks and a bunch of guys who won a national title last year even when they were battling through the injuries.

Drew winning didn’t bother me. Until someone reminded me that he won Big 12 coach of the year two years ago. When KU went 17–1 and won the league by two games. Yep, Scottie and the Baylor crew definitely have pictures and emails that they aren’t afraid to use against other coaches and the media.

High School Hoops

Cathedral won their first sectional title since Jalen Coleman-Lands was a sophomore. Friday night was their big battle, against rival Tech. The Irish trailed by six late in the third quarter before going on a 14–0 run that helped them pull away and win easily. In Saturday’s final they beat Lawrence North, who had ended their season three of the past four seasons, comfortably.

Cathedral is now the best team left according to the computer ratings, and have the highest odds with win State at 26%. They do have to beat a team they lost to two weeks ago to get out of regionals this weekend. But they seem to be coming together and playing to their talent level at the right time.

Kid Hoops

L had three games this weekend.

Saturday, while we were out, her winter league team played for their tournament championship.

I honestly have no idea how they came up with this tournament, which was just a little four-team bracket. Three teams were from the pool they played their regular season games against. The fourth team was a fifth grade team from L’s travel program. I asked her travel coach if he knew how they came up with that combination. He said the fifth grade team is really good; they won a national tournament last summer. They probably beat the hell out of some sixth grade teams in the regular season, he said, so they moved up another level to play in our tournament. He also believed the four-team brackets were done to get the tournaments over before travel season began this weekend.

Seems weird to me.

Anyway, L’s team played those fifth graders Saturday for the title. We watched the fifth graders beat an eighth grade team in overtime in their semifinal Tuesday. They have a girl who is almost six feet tall who hit a couple 25-foot shots and a bunch of shooters around her. I told L “Watch #33,” a shooter who camped out in the corner waiting to launch threes all night. “If you guard her, don’t ever leave her.”

Another team dad texted me updates throughout the game. At halftime he said L got a steal and layup right before the buzzer to put us up 8–7. We were up the entire second half between 1–3 points. Every few minutes he’d send me another picture of the scoreboard. Finally he sent one with all zeros on the clock and us winning 28–27.

Champs!

Well, watered down, weird bracket champs.

They actually got rings, although as the last game of the night no one who runs the league stayed to hand them out and L’s team got the ones that said “Finalist” not “Champion.” I guess no one looked at which bag they handed to which team. Oh well.

When we got home I asked L about her game. She said she had eight points, at least 10 rebounds, and “I shut 33 down! She only had four points!” The dad who sent me in-game updates confirmed all that.

So a great end to what was, at times, a frustrating season. The weird schedule (playing more 6th grade A teams than 7th/8th B teams), the lack of practice time, the absence of any organized offense. Flags fly forever. And I guess cheap championship rings last forever. Or at least until they get wet and tarnish.

Sunday it was straight into the travel season. Her team played in a two-game shootout. They are the third rated seventh grade team in their program and opened with a game against the #2 team. That squad has one girl that is a stud. She has size and can do almost everything. The only thing that stopped her were the refs who called anything remotely close to a travel a travel. I think they were a little harsh on her, but it was to our benefit so I didn’t complain or anything. We were down 12 at one point but made a great run late and trailed by one with under 2:00 left. We just couldn’t get the stops and scores needed and lost by five. It was a great effort, though.

In the second game we played a team that had a lot of size and knew how to use it. They took threes when open, but generally just punished us inside. L somehow drew the low block on free throws and gave up three-straight offensive boards in one sequence. It was demoralizing. We were down 13 at half. We got behind by as many as 22 in the second half to fall into running clock territory, and never got it closer than 16.

L had a weird day. She came off the bench in both first halves, started both second halves. She was scoreless in the first game, scored three in the second. But, man, she was as aggressive as she’s ever been getting to the basket. Before we left the house she told me she has a spin move that has been working. I rolled my eyes a little because I had never seen it. Sunday, though, she kept getting by her defender with it. She just could not finish. She was probably a combined 1–15 in the two games. Almost all those misses were either off that spin move or on runners. The runners were all forced and didn’t have much chance. But that spin move…it worked almost every time! Well, expect for making the shot. She even recognized when the defense caught onto the move and made a sweet pass out of it to a cutter. Who naturally missed. It was that kind of day for our team.

They start real practices tonight and I’m excited to see them learn the offense, get comfortable playing together, and improve over the next few months. They don’t play again for two weeks, but I’m expecting better things then.

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