1. Alabama defeated the Zags today, 91-82. I love watching Gonzaga play strong, challenging teams, whether the Zags win or lose. Today the sharp shooting, aggressive, athletic Crimson Tide were the superior team -- they shot better, defended better, got to rebounds and loose balls better, and played through some difficult stretches better.
This evening's tilt and ESPN's coverage of it magnified for me how I watch college basketball and what I care about and don't care about.
For starters, I don't care about present college day players' standing in mock NBA drafts nor do I care about how pundits think they will perform at "the next level". With 9:42 to go in the first half of the Zag-Crimson Tide game, ESPN brought NBA draft expert, Mike Schmitz, onto the broadcast during a break in the action as the referees huddled to sort out whether Chet Holmgren had committed a flagrant foul.
I don't doubt Mike Schmitz's expertise, but as the referees arrived at their decision, and play resumed, Schmitz and ESPN analyst Sean Farnham continued their discussion of different players' "stock" in the 2022 NBA draft (which is over six months away) and, to me, their discussion not only dragged the game's coverage to the level of a flat tire, it distracted from what mattered most, the game at hand.
As Schmitz and Farnham talked and talked and talked about Chet Holmgren and JD Davison and the draft, even as the game resumed, longtime basketball writer Dana O'Neil tweeted, "Oh joy. After the break ESPN is going to not talk about the great college game going on and instead blather about draft stock. I'll break the news: both [Holmgren and Davison] are really good and will be drafted high. Now let's actually enjoy the game for the game."
I thought the same thing. I thought it the other night when a buddy and I were talking uptown about the Zags and he steered the conversation toward whether Holmgren would succeed at the next level.
I had nothing to say.
I'll be interested in Holmgren playing in the NBA when he gets there. I'm unable and uninterested in speculating about it now -- or listening to such speculation on the broadcast.
I also don't care about the weekly polls.
As I watched the Zags and Alabama, I did all I could to forget the two teams' rankings in the polls.
I tried to imagine a broadcast that never mentioned the polls, that just focused on what was happening on the court without regard for whether Gonzaga was ranked too high or Alabama too low.
I tried to imagine watching this game without storylines, without emphasis on Gonzaga's rise to prominence over the last several years, without emphasis on Alabama as an up and coming program.
So I blocked out as much of that noise as I could and enjoyed watching Alabama's aggression, their fearless outside shooting, their tenacity to win battles for rebounds and loose balls. I enjoyed Gonzaga's second half comeback, even though it fell short, and enjoyed how Alabama didn't surrender their lead but absorbed Gonzaga's second half push back and asserted their superiority.
In short, what I enjoy in watching college basketball is teams playing each other, not imagining in my head what would happen if they played.
When it comes to games, I love the one I'm with. I don't love trying to figure out the outcome of a game that isn't happening right now or trying to determine whether one team is better than another by any measure other than playing each other on the court.
(I'll just add that once conference play begins, I love standings, especially in February and March because one's standing in a conference is based on real games between teams, not on the votes a team garners in a poll.)
2. After the Zags/Alabama game, I watched the last two episodes of The Last Dance. I enjoyed and would have liked to have seen even more action from the Bulls' playoff series with the Pacers and the Jazz. I enjoyed those potential usurpers of the Bulls' reign, and recalled, again, that it always came down to the fact that neither team had a player who could dictate a game's outcome like Michael Jordan.
These last two episodes included a most emotional and riveting several minutes. They occurred when the makers of this series interviewed Steve Kerr about his father, Malcolm Kerr, the president of American University in Beirut, who was assassinated in Beirut in 1984.
Kerr didn't mention it, but I immediately flashed back to when Kerr played at Arizona and when, before a game against Arizona State, a small knot of ASU students chanted, "PLO. PLO. PLO" and "Your father's history" and "Why don't you join the Marines and go back to Beirut?" at Kerr. It was the epitome of repugnant fan behavior.
In the documentary, Kerr told the story of his father, his academic commitment to studying the Middle East and his commitment to fostering a better understanding of that region. Kerr moved me with his dignity and his emotional honesty as he recalled losing his father to political violence. Michael Jordan's father was also murdered, in 1993. Kerr revealed that he and Jordan never talked about losing their dads. He remarked it was just too raw of a subject.
3.Earlier in the day, I baked granola. I kept it simple: oatmeal, melted butter, cinnamon, allspice, vanilla, and maple syrup. We can add fresh fruit, nuts, dried fruits of other ingredients to it in the bowl. The granola turned out really good. It's not nearly as sweet as what we buy in the store and I boosted the amount of cinnamon I put in it, satisfying my enjoyment of all things cinnamon-y!
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