A busy weekend with more driving than normal, some big events I was not able to watch live, and the standard wide range of topics to discuss.<\/p>\n
L\u2019s sophomore season kicked off Friday with a trip 90 minutes north to play Norwell, class 3A runners up last year. We played their varsity over the summer in a close, fun game we closed with a big run to win. NHS lost several seniors from a year ago, but are traditionally a very good program with a strong youth program, so we figured this would be a tough night.<\/p>\n
JV was a disaster. It looked like our girls had never faced a trapping defense before. We trailed 17\u20138 after one quarter and that was as close as the game got. We scored one in the second quarter, four in the third, and three in the fourth to lose 58\u201316. L played most of the first three quarters, scoring just two on 1\u20134 from the field. As a bonus she had to run off the court and throw up in the second quarter. We\u2019re hoping it was just something she ate before the game and not her body still trying to get the mono out of her system. We let a freshman score 22 on us. She was good, but she was not 22 points in a JV game good.<\/p>\n
The dad I was sitting with and I guessed we had between 20\u201325 turnovers in the first half. L later confirmed that they turned it over 23 times in those 14 minutes, 50 for the entire game. That\u2019s what happens when JV just serves as a scout team in practice.<\/p>\n
Varsity was a little better. Our girls had an early lead then gave up a 30\u201310 run, but trailed by just 10 at halftime. Then they gave up nine-straight to open the second half and were in trouble. They made a great rally in the fourth quarter and cut it to four a couple times, but never got closer and lost by eight. We sat by some very nice Norwell people, which was a bonus.<\/p>\n
L was officially on the varsity roster, but did not suit up for that game. She definitely had a lot of work to do to climb into that rotation. Two games this week.<\/p>\n
While L and her teammates were in action up near Ft. Wayne, CHS was playing #1 Lawrence North for the sectional football championship. None of us could not get a good signal in the gym, so could only get updates when someone ran outside for a few seconds. CHS threw a pick six early and trailed 7\u20130 at halftime. The CHS defense had three interceptions of their own in the first half but the offense could not turn them into points. The game got away from the Irish in the second half and they lost 24\u20137, ending their season at 6\u20134. It was their first loss in a sectional game in the five years they\u2019ve played in 6A. If they lose in sectionals again next year I believe they\u2019ll move down to 5A for L\u2019s senior year. Unless the IHSAA changes the rules again to keep CHS from dropping a class.<\/p>\n
Also at the same time as L\u2019s game was the big North Carolina – Kansas game in Lawrence.<\/p>\n
College basketball on Friday nights is dumb. I know, I know, Saturdays and Sundays are for football this time of year. Doesn\u2019t make this scheduling any dumber. Move this to December when weekend slots are a little easier to find. Still, you can\u2019t criticize the schools too much since they agreed to play a home-and-home series rather than drop this in an NBA arena or attach it to some kind of special event on a neutral court. KU just finished with IU. They start a series this year with Duke that has two neutral court games and two on campus. Bill Self continues to check boxes on places he wants to take the Jayhawks in the final act of his career.<\/p>\n
Try as I might, I could not get any score updates on my phone, although the occasional text from a friend came through. The other KU dad on the team got a running score update from Google, so we saw that KU jumped out to a big lead then blew it all after halftime. Just as the varsity game ended his wife was somehow able to get ESPN to stream on her phone, so we watched the last 90 seconds of KU\u2019s win. We both felt a little bad about being pumped about the win while our girls were hanging their heads about their losses.<\/p>\n
I watched the recording of the game Sunday and was pretty pleased. A great start from a super-balanced team. Obviously taking the foot off the gas in the second half was not good. It was like they just stopped playing defense. Zeke Mayo belongs at this level. Hunter Dickinson needs to get his stamina back. If Flory sticks around a few years he might be the best rebounder of the Self era. I like all the options this team has, and they should get better playing together as they get more comfortable.<\/p>\n
I have a few broader thoughts about the team, but seems better to save those until I\u2019ve seen them in a real game a few more times.<\/p>\n
Hey, guess when KU plays next? Tuesday night at 6:30 Eastern. Guess what high school team will be playing at the same time again? I\u2019m not enthused about how the schedules are lining up this season. At least we can get a signal in the CHS game so I can keep one eye on the Jayhawks vs Irish grad Xavier Booker.<\/p>\n
L and I got home around 11:00 Friday night. I stayed up a little bit to have a snack, talk to S a little, then make sure my car was charging before setting my alarm for 7:00 AM and going to bed. Saturday was M\u2019s sorority\u2019s \u201cDude\u2019s Day\u201d and I needed to be back on the road around 8:00.<\/p>\n
Why \u201cDude\u2019s Day?\u201d Because kids these days want to be inclusive and make the event open for any relatives who aren\u2019t biological dads who join in the fun. That said, I think I only met actual dads.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I got to campus around 10:00. M introduced me to a bunch of sisters and their dads, we ate some food, then she asked me if I wanted to go to a frat party. It would be dumb not to, right? She also told me the young man she\u2019s been spending time with would be there and he was \u201cexcited to meet you!\u201d Oh boy.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not drinking much these days, for a few reasons. So I wasn\u2019t looking to get smashed with my daughter or anything. Fortunately for me M admitted on the way to the party that she was hungover from the night before and didn\u2019t feel like drinking. Made the day cheaper\/easier for me!<\/p>\n
Anyway, we got to this party and hung around for an hour or so. Her best buddy from St P\u2019s\/CHS found us. Unlike M she was drinking and was very excited to see me, which was funny. And I got to meet M\u2019s young man friend. He was nervous and goofy. As long as he treats M well it\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n
We did not have tickets to the football game (UC was playing West Virginia) so we went to a restaurant\/bar to watch and eat. I have one friend who lives in Cincinnati, O-Dog that some of you know. Guess whose daughter gave us the table as she and her friends headed to the game? Small world.<\/p>\n
We spent an hour or so there before the group split up. It seemed like a lot of girls were hung over and some of them needed naps. M and I moved outside where we hung with some more of her sisters and dads for another hour or so. The apartment she will live in the next two years is a couple blocks away, so we cruised by it when we left. We ended up going downtown to walk around a bit and enjoy the nice day.<\/p>\n
We met up with one of her roommates and her dad for dinner at this fun sushi place right off campus. For some reason the sushi is always half price. It even says that on the menu, \u201cAll sushi is always half off.\u201d I\u2019m not sure what the angle there is, but I like it. I spent just $25 on a sushi dinner for two! And the sushi wasn\u2019t great, but it wasn\u2019t bad either.<\/p>\n
I walked M back to her house and hopped into the car for the ride home, pulling into the garage at about 9:00. It was fun seeing M in her environment. I know she was excited to introduce me to her friends and the other dads. A couple of the dads were pretty cool so that was a bonus.<\/p>\n
Guess what I (mostly) missed while hanging with my daughter? The Jayhawks rolling over Iowa State in the game I had been dreading all year. I\u2019ve only seen highlights so don\u2019t know how much of Arrowhead was filled with ISU fans – the pics I saw showed the stadium was not very full of any fans, Clones or Jayhawks – but the important part was KU played extremely well on offense, made a couple big defensive plays, and finally got a few breaks. It was fun to get the updates as KU ran up the big lead early, then nervously watch as they bungled things a bit on the fourth quarter before Mello Dotson effectively ended things with a pick six as I walked to my car. Clearly the concerns about Jalen Daniels\u2019 health early in the year were correct, as he has seemed more comfortable and like the old JD for the last month. If only he had been able to play like this in September and October\u2026<\/p>\n
Alas, we\u2019ll have to settle for being the best 3\u20136 team in the country, with a visit to #9 BYU and #20 Colorado in KC the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
Man, the Colts are a true disaster. Joe Flacco throws a pick six on his first pass of the game, before I could get the TV on after dropping L at practice. He throws another interception in the first quarter, and was lucky not to have thrown a third in the opening 15 minutes. Later he lost a fumble. The Colts dropped an easy touchdown pass. The defense made some nice plays then fell apart late. There\u2019s just no consistency in this team. Shane Steichen seems committed to Flacco going forward, even with him looking terrible the past two weeks. There were boos aimed towards Flacco throughout the game Sunday. It makes no sense to stick with him, even if you have no faith that Anthony Richardson is the answer. At this point you play AR and allow him to try to figure things out while aiming for a high draft position next year to get some kind of impact player for a team that has very few of them.<\/p>\n
I also missed a Pacers loss to Charlotte Friday, but was able to watch them beat the Knicks Sunday despite being short five players. Tyrese Haliburton bounced back from his zero point, five assist performance against the Knicks two weeks ago with 35 points and 14 assists. Bennedict Mathurin scored a career-high 38. My man Johnny Furphy even got some first quarter minutes, although he did not score.<\/p>\n
I am glad the Pacers only play the Knicks three times in the regular season. A truly maddening team to play against. I\u2019ve said this before but it amazed me what those Villanova dudes got away with in college, between the constant bumps and shoves and not-so-subtle elbows the refs somehow always missed and then the constant bitching after every play as if they were the ones being pushed around. That they all still get away with it in the NBA is exponentially more maddening.<\/p>\n
The weather is still unreasonably nice here. I probably wore shorts for the final time until spring break last week, although I\u2019ve thought that a couple times and had to bust them out a few days later. Our lawn service is still coming, which is kind of crazy. Usually by now they have finished and I borrow my sister-in-law\u2019s mower to do my one mow of the year to chop up any remaining leaves.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m obviously avoiding the biggest story of the past week. I don\u2019t have the energy to get into it. I will just share that I took C to vote when she got home from school on Tuesday. S had voted the week before and waited nearly an hour. It took C and I longer to actually go through the ballot than to wait and get checked in. The lady running the door asked C if she was a first-time voter and everyone cheered for her when she said yes. Shame the day was all downhill from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A busy weekend with more driving than normal, some big events I was not able to watch live, and the standard wide range of topics to discuss. High School Hoops L\u2019s sophomore season kicked off Friday with a trip 90 minutes north to play Norwell, class 3A runners up last year. We played their varsity over the summer in a close, fun game we closed with a big run to win. NHS lost several seniors from a year ago, but are traditionally a very good program with a strong youth program, so we figured this would be a tough night. JV was a disaster. It looked like our girls had never faced a trapping defense before. We trailed 17\u20138 after one quarter and that was as close as the game got. We scored one in the second quarter, four in the third, and three in the fourth to lose 58\u201316. L played most of the first three quarters, scoring just two on 1\u20134 from the field. As a bonus she had to run off the court and throw up in the second quarter. We\u2019re hoping it was just something she ate before the game and not her body still trying to get the mono out of her system. We let a freshman score 22 on us. She was good, but she was not 22 points in a JV game good. The dad I was sitting with and I guessed we had between 20\u201325 turnovers in the first half. L later confirmed that they turned it over 23 times in those 14 minutes, 50 for the entire game. That\u2019s what happens when JV just serves as a scout team in practice. Varsity was a little better. Our girls had an early lead then gave up a 30\u201310 run, but trailed by just 10 at halftime. Then they gave up nine-straight to open the second half and were in trouble. They made a great rally in the fourth quarter and cut it to four a couple times, but never got closer and lost by eight. We sat by some very nice Norwell people, which was a bonus. L was officially on the varsity roster, but did not suit up for that game. She definitely had a lot of work to do to climb into that rotation. Two games this week. HS Football While L and her teammates were in action up near Ft. Wayne, CHS was playing #1 Lawrence North for the sectional football championship. None of us could not get a good signal in the gym, so could only get updates when someone ran outside for a few seconds. CHS threw a pick six early and trailed 7\u20130 at halftime. The CHS defense had three interceptions of their own in the first half but the offense could not turn them into points. The game got away from the Irish in the second half and they lost 24\u20137, ending their season at 6\u20134. It was their first loss in a sectional game in the five years they\u2019ve played in 6A. If they lose in sectionals again next year I believe they\u2019ll move down to 5A for L\u2019s senior year. Unless the IHSAA changes the rules again to keep CHS from dropping a class. KU Hoops Also at the same time as L\u2019s game was the big North Carolina – Kansas game in Lawrence. College basketball on Friday nights is dumb. I know, I know, Saturdays and Sundays are for football this time of year. Doesn\u2019t make this scheduling any dumber. Move this to December when weekend slots are a little easier to find. Still, you can\u2019t criticize the schools too much since they agreed to play a home-and-home series rather than drop this in an NBA arena or attach it to some kind of special event on a neutral court. KU just finished with IU. They start a series this year with Duke that has two neutral court games and two on campus. Bill Self continues to check boxes on places he wants to take the Jayhawks in the final act of his career. Try as I might, I could not get any score updates on my phone, although the occasional text from a friend came through. The other KU dad on the team got a running score update from Google, so we saw that KU jumped out to a big lead then blew it all after halftime. Just as the varsity game ended his wife was somehow able to get ESPN to stream on her phone, so we watched the last 90 seconds of KU\u2019s win. We both felt a little bad about being pumped about the win while our girls were hanging their heads about their losses. I watched the recording of the game Sunday and was pretty pleased. A great start from a super-balanced team. Obviously taking the foot off the gas in the second half was not good. It was like they just stopped playing defense. Zeke Mayo belongs at this level. Hunter Dickinson needs to get his stamina back. If Flory sticks around a few years he might be the best rebounder of the Self era. I like all the options this team has, and they should get better playing together as they get more comfortable. I have a few broader thoughts about the team, but seems better to save those until I\u2019ve seen them in a real game a few more times. Hey, guess when KU plays next? Tuesday night at 6:30 Eastern. Guess what high school team will be playing at the same time again? I\u2019m not enthused about how the schedules are lining up this season. At least we can get a signal in the CHS game so I can keep one eye on the Jayhawks vs Irish grad Xavier Booker. Dude\u2019s Day L and I got home around 11:00 Friday night. I stayed up a little bit to have a snack, talk to S a little, then make sure my car was charging before setting my alarm for 7:00 AM and going to bed. Saturday was M\u2019s sorority\u2019s \u201cDude\u2019s Day\u201d and I needed to be back on the road around 8:00. Why \u201cDude\u2019s Day?\u201d Because kids these days want to be inclusive and make the event open for any relatives who aren\u2019t biological dads who join in the fun. That said, I think I only met actual dads. Anyway, I got to campus around 10:00. M introduced me to a bunch of sisters and their dads, we ate some food, then she asked me if I wanted to go to a frat party. It would be dumb not to, right? She also told me the young man she\u2019s been spending time with would be there and he was \u201cexcited to meet you!\u201d Oh boy. I\u2019m not drinking much these days, for a few reasons. So I wasn\u2019t looking to get smashed with my daughter or anything. Fortunately for me M admitted on the way to the party that she was hungover from the night before and didn\u2019t feel like drinking. Made the day cheaper\/easier for me! Anyway, we got to this party and hung around for an hour or so. Her best buddy from St P\u2019s\/CHS found us. Unlike M she was drinking and was very excited to see me, which was funny. And I got to meet M\u2019s young man friend. He was nervous and goofy. As long as he treats M well it\u2019s all good. We did not have tickets to the football game (UC was playing West Virginia) so we went to a restaurant\/bar to watch and eat. I have one friend who lives in Cincinnati, O-Dog that some of you know. Guess whose daughter gave us the table as she and her friends headed to the game? Small world. We spent an hour or so there before the group split up. It seemed like a lot of girls were hung over and some of them needed naps. M and I moved outside where we hung with some more of her sisters and dads for another hour or so. The apartment she will live in the next two years is a couple blocks away, so we cruised by it when we left. We ended up going downtown to walk around a bit and enjoy the nice day. We met up with one of her roommates and her dad for dinner at this fun sushi place right off campus. For some reason the sushi is always half price. It even says that on the menu, \u201cAll sushi is always half off.\u201d I\u2019m not sure what the angle there is, but I like it. I spent just $25 on a sushi dinner for two! And the sushi wasn\u2019t great, but it wasn\u2019t bad either. I walked M back to her house and hopped into the car for the ride home, pulling into the garage at about 9:00. It was fun seeing M in her environment. I know she was excited to introduce me to her friends and the other dads. A couple of the dads were pretty cool so that was a bonus. KU Football Guess what I (mostly) missed while hanging with my daughter? The Jayhawks rolling over Iowa State in the game I had been dreading all year. I\u2019ve only seen highlights so don\u2019t know how much of Arrowhead was filled with ISU fans – the pics I saw showed the stadium was not very full of any fans, Clones or Jayhawks – but the important part was KU played extremely well on offense, made a couple big defensive plays, and finally got a few breaks. It was fun to get the updates as KU ran up the big lead early, then nervously watch as they bungled things a bit on the fourth quarter before Mello Dotson effectively ended things with a pick six as I walked to my car. Clearly the concerns about Jalen Daniels\u2019 health early in the year were correct, as he has seemed more comfortable and like the old JD for the last month. If only he had been able to play like this in September and October\u2026 Alas, we\u2019ll have to settle for being the best 3\u20136 team in the country, with a visit to #9 BYU and #20 Colorado in KC the next two weeks. Colts Man, the Colts are a true disaster. Joe Flacco throws a pick six on his first pass of the game, before I could get the TV on after dropping L at practice. He throws another interception in the first quarter, and was lucky not to have thrown a third in the opening 15 minutes. Later he lost a fumble. The Colts dropped an easy touchdown pass. The defense made some nice plays then fell apart late. There\u2019s just no consistency in this team. Shane Steichen seems committed to Flacco going forward, even with him looking terrible the past two weeks. There were boos aimed towards Flacco throughout the game Sunday. It makes no sense to stick with him, even if you have no faith that Anthony Richardson is the answer. At this point you play AR and allow him to try to figure things out while aiming for a high draft position next year to get some kind of impact player for a team that has very few of them. Pacers I also missed a Pacers loss to Charlotte Friday, but was able to watch them beat the Knicks Sunday despite being short five players. Tyrese Haliburton bounced back from his zero point, five assist performance against the Knicks two weeks ago with 35 points and 14 assists. Bennedict Mathurin scored a career-high 38. My man Johnny Furphy even got some first quarter minutes, although he did not score. I am glad the Pacers only play the Knicks three times in the regular season. A truly maddening team to play against. I\u2019ve said this before but it amazed me what those Villanova dudes got away with in college,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,26,67,41,70,58,86,14],"class_list":["post-15863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-family","tag-football","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-misc","tag-parenting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15866,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15863\/revisions\/15866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}