1. Today was a house cleaning day. Zoe washed woodwork for us. Debbie did a lot of cleaning and reorganizing in the kitchen. Debbie and I took down curtains and Debbie laundered and ironed them and we put them back up. I vacuumed. I also made a trip to the recycling bin at Jacobs Gulch and made a trip to the dump for Christy and me in her pickup.
Debbie spearheaded an effort that was much more than spiffing up -- we got some detail work done in the house.
2. Debbie asked me to make "that pasta sauce with an onion in it" and so I made today's version of Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce. I combined diced tomatoes, a generous slab of butter, an onion cut into large pieces, red pepper flakes, dry basil, and dry oregano in a pot and and cooked it all slowly for at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes. It turned out great and I made a batch of spaghetti to pour the sauce over.
3. I watched the thrilling completion of Ohio State's last second win over Seton Hall, 79-76 and most of Oregon's demolition of Chaminade, 73-49. Even as Oregon cruised to its win, it was against an inferior opponent and I thought the Ducks, at times, looked out of sorts, not quite in synch as a team just yet. Coach Altman, as is annually the case, is working to mold together a team with a handful of returning players and a slew of transfers and it will be a while, I think, before the Ducks are playing their best basketball.
Is Gonzaga playing their best basketball? They lost 55% of their scoring from last year's team and Coach Few is working to figure out his team of elite freshmen, a few transfers, and a handful of returning players.
Tonight's game was not helpful in assessing Gonzaga's progress. They played a struggling and far inferior Central Michigan University team and routed them, 107-54. CMU had no answer for Gonzaga's inside dominance. The Zags' defensive pressure confused and intimidated Central Michigan. My guess is that Coach Few would like to see his team shoot a better percentage from beyond the three point line and at the free throw stripe. The Zags shot just 28% from beyond the arc and converted just 58% of their free throws.
Neither stat mattered tonight. The Zags dominated CMU in every other way, but in their Tuesday, Nov. 23rd tilt against UCLA, it's possible that a poor showing from distance and mediocre free throw shooting could be a detriment.
We'll see.
I'm hoping both UCLA, a team of highly experienced and elite players, and Gonzaga play as well as possible and that it's a highly competitive contest. That matters more to me than who wins.
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