This was the best I could do with my iPhone, which does not do it justice in any way.<\/p>\n Sunday at C\u2019s 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\u2019s ever done. I get that now. I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n This deserves its own section. C got inducted into NHS on Sunday. Funny how your different kids\u2019 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\u2019t as tight with parents in her class as we were with those in M\u2019s grade.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019t think C is super interested in doing more than that.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been watching for summer college tour dates to open to get C signed up, but none of the schools she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t go as well.<\/p>\n 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\u20137 in our first game before going on a 10\u20130 run and never looked back from there, winning by 19.<\/p>\n 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\u20132 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u20135 in total), missed every free throw (also 0\u20135), and Sunday she was getting to the rim but could not finish (1\u20136 from the field). She literally hasn\u2019t hit a 3 in a real game since before Christmas. She\u2019s been practicing three nights a week so she\u2019s used to being on the court even if these were her first games in two months. At least her defense was good.<\/p>\n Hopefully she\u2019ll shoot better this weekend.<\/p>\n Funny how our various weekend plans interfered with pretty much all the college hoops but I was more bummed about missing the women\u2019s games than the men\u2019s.<\/p>\n I got to see the second half of the Iowa-UConn, then just the first 15 minutes or so of the championship game.<\/p>\n South Carolina were certainly deserving champs. Especially after Iowa opened up the title game with a 10\u20130 run, and Caitlin Clark dropped 18 in that first period alone. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Dawn Staley is a great coach. I\u2019ll take her over Kim Mulkey every day. For a lot of reasons.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s the only good thing about KU not being in Phoenix: me not having to worry about kid vs school.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n As for Purdue\u2026their 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n I like Matt Painter a lot and think he takes too much grief because he\u2019s been extraordinarily unlucky in the tournament. But Hurley schooled him in the second half Monday.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n UConn winning six titles in 25 years is just insane. If Hurley stays there, no telling what that number will turn into.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 Day joke that had gotten stuck in the queue.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t go to a Final Four for nearly 10 years at a school like Kentucky, folks are going to be upset.<\/p>\n Still, it seems crazy to go to Arkansas. Not that it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_9198-scaled.jpeg\")
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\nMiddle Kid Academics<\/h3>\n
\nKid Hoops<\/h3>\n
\nNCAA Women<\/h3>\n
\nNCAA Men<\/h3>\n
\nJohn Calipari<\/h3>\n