1. First thing this morning, I dashed uptown to the clinic, but the paperwork that makes it possible to have my monthly blood draw performed for Providence Sacred Heart's lab wasn't in yet, so I'll return tomorrow. I'll return tomorrow because Nurse Sheri from Providence Sacred Heart sent me an email later in the morning telling me she had faxed the standing order for my blood draw to the clinic.
2. I took advantage of my only day this week without a medical appointment by watching action from various conference tournaments across the nation.
One highlight was watching the University of Virginia overcome a slim halftime deficit, clamp down on North Carolina State in the second half, make an offensive adjustment at halftime, set Kyle Guy free to bomb three pointers from several spots beyond the arc, and beat the Wolfpack, 76-56. Guy poured in 29 points and Jack Salt, who rarely scores, surprised fans by scoring 18 points.
My roller coaster ride as a fan of the St. John's Red Storm hit a profound valley this afternoon. Today, the Bad Johnnies showed up at Madison Square Garden to play Marquette. Marquette got scoring early and often from all of their starters which helped set their star Markus Howard free to score thirty points, leading the Golden Eagles to an 86-54 crushing of St. John's. St. John's wobbled early. Their shooters never really warmed up and before long the Johnnies collapsed into chaos, taking wild shots and turning the ball over. Before long, St. John's defense folded. Marquette's dominance resulted.
3. I also stayed up to watch Oregon defeat Utah, 66-54. The Ducks played smothering defense and turned several steals and turnovers into easy points.
The game was also psychedelic thanks to the improvisational and copious commentary of Bill Walton who once again took listeners (those who didn't mute him) on a magic carpet ride that swooped through the heat and expanse of Death Valley, celebrated the birthday of Albert Einstein, and continued the campaign for Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame (Walton is "staggered" this hasn't happened). Walton presented his broadcasting partner Dave Pasch with a painting featuring Pasch and the broadcast's technical crew confronting a volcano. The painting had a message, directed at Pasch: "Stay strong, Dave." I also learned from Walton that the area in the key between the foul line and the basket has long been known as the "honey hole". I've been following basketball for over fifty years and it has taken this long for me to find out about this evidently historic and popular term (according to the Big Red Head).
Oh! And on occasion, Walton commented on the basketball game, effusively praising the spectacular play of Oregon and Utah and enthusiastically praising the Conference of Champions. Walton never uses the term, Pac-12. He uses the conference's marketing tag, only referring to the Pac-12 as the Conference of Champions.
No comments:
Post a Comment