1. Bridgit, Bill, Diane, Colette, and I met on ZOOM today. Early on, our conversation centered on Bill and Diane's visit to their adopted grandson's classroom at the private school he attends. Henry's fifth grade class is learning about epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. We marveled at Henry's superb learning environment and what, if the conditions are right, can happen with children at a young age in their education.
We also talked about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. For all of us ZOOM friends, Thanksgiving will be bittersweet because of family division, deaths, dementia, and Alzheimers disease, but each of us will be having dinner with loved ones, emotionally aware of people missing at the table, but grateful for the company we will share the table with.
2. I am thoroughly enjoying that so many superb college basketball are playing each other this early in the season rather than playing far inferior competition. Today, for example, the last two women's national champions played each other. South Carolina, the defending champions, defeated Stanford in OT. I didn't get to watch it, but loved knowing it was happening and that the game was so titanic.
Two powerhouse programs in men's basketball played at noon when Virginia and Illinois engaged in an intense tilt. Both teams played their guts out with great defense and hustle. In the end, UVA's defense, in my opinion, prevailed and the Cas won it, 70-61.
Baylor had more firepower than UCLA and two of their guards, LJ Cryer and Adam Flagler, were absolutely on fire and the Bears defeated the Bruins, 80-75.
The last game tonight featured the tenacious defense of the Houston Cougars against the banged up Oregon Ducks and the Cougars' disruptive deflections, steals, and general defensive mayhem prevailed and Houston beat the Ducks, 66-56.
3. I might jump off this train one day, but right now I tend to see basketball games in terms of resistance. Earlier in the week, I thought the Texas Longhorns mounted strong resistance against Gonzaga and made it difficult for the Zags to get into their offensive flow and to score in ways they wanted to.
Today, Kentucky didn't seem to offer up much resistance to the Zags at all.
The Zags got more open shots tonight than against Texas. Drew Timme had a lot more space to work in. The Zags prevailed on hustle play after hustle play. As a result, Gonzaga had a solid night on offense, weathered a second half Kentucky comeback, and ended up cruising to an 88-72 victory.
I look forward after seeing Gonzaga look very different in back to back games how they will look as the season progresses.
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