1. The fresh snow wasn't very deep, but I want to make it as easy as possible for our mail carrier and other delivery agents to get to our porch and Christy's. I felt a bit more energetic today and promised myself I wouldn't push myself and so I shoveled our walks and Christy's.
2. I felt good after shoveling and clean myself up, changed clothes, and went to Yoke's, mainly to stock up on seltzer water, orange juice, limeade, 7 UP, and ginger ale. I get up about every. 60-90 minutes through the night needing more hydration and I like having a variety of different tasty liquids to choose from.
I got the Sube unloaded, unpacked the groceries, and took a nap. It felt good to sleep with Luna on my chest and restore my energy after getting out and shoveling and shopping today.
3. I'm terrible at making comparisons and contrasts. It's just not how my mind works and I tend to be focused on the movie, basketball game, poem, plate of food or whatever I'm enjoying at the moment and don't think much about how it stacks up to previous ones. I'm really useless when I've gone out to eat and someone says, "Was the food there as good as at (fill in the blank)?" I almost never have an answer.
I'm the same way as a fan of Gonzaga men's basketball.
If the conversation moves to whether the 2022-23 team is as good as a previous team, I pretty much fall silent.
I'm focused on this team and, right now, I'm enjoying this squad a bit more all the time.
Tonight, the Zags played the Univ of Washington. When this game gets played, it always carries with it the subtext of Seattle/Western Washington vs Spokane/Eastern Washington and in this dichotomy, whether it's sports, politics, or anything else, the Spokane/Eastern Washington participants always cast themselves as the underdog, are always fighting to overcome the idea that Spokane/Eastern Washington is inferior to Seattle/Western Washington.
(By the way, when I lived in Eugene all those years, a similar dynamic always played out between the Univ of Washington (a.k.a. the Evil Empire) and the Univ. of Oregon, whether the competition was athletic or academic.)
Currently, the idea that that the Univ of Washington could be thought to be superior to Gonzaga in basketball is absurd. Coming in to tonight's game, over the last 20+ years, the two teams have squared off 14 times and the Zags have won 13 of those games.
But even with this lopsided recent history, passions run high for this match up and that was evident in the early part of the game.
Both teams were unsettled. They had trouble scoring. Both teams' efforts were plagued with turnovers. The passion and effort was mighty, but neither team's performance was strong in the early stages of the first half.
Well, not so strong on offense. I'm starting to think that this Gonzaga team's strength might be its defense. The Zags survived their turnovers and missed shots early just fine because on defense they harassed the Huskies, kept their leading scorer from scoring, and relied on steals, deflections, and other forms of disruption to keep the Huskies from exploiting their poor start.
Drew Timme's defensive range is growing this year and tonight he played a lot of superb defense. Anton Watson continues to play strong, intelligent defense and is often assigned the other team's best forward or center to guard. The other starters are also playing tough and the Zags are getting superb defensive efforts off the bench, especially from Silas Hunter and, in my opinion, Malachi Smith. Ben Gregg has turned out to be much more ferocious on defense than I thought he would be.
On offense, the Zags were not very sexy tonight, but after their slow start they were efficient. Drew Timme, in particular, got some U of W starters in foul trouble and, as the game progressed, the Zags created more and more ways to score inside against the Huskies' 2-3 matchup zone. I love it when Zags find open players cutting along the baseline and whip smart passes to the cutting player for a layup or a dunk. I got kind of fired up in the first half when seldom used 7 footer Efton Reid came off the bench for three minutes of playing time and snagged two rebounds, scored on a jump hook from in front of the basket and also converted a layup in traffic. It was only a three minute stint, but, in my opinion, like his teammates, Reid played with great energy and grit.
One last toss of spaghetti against the wall. Let's see if it sticks.
The Zags have been an improved team, especially on defense, since their loss to Baylor. I don't know what they talked about afterward, what Mark Few might have pointed out to them as things they could learn from that disappointing loss, but in the two subsequent games the Zags have played with more intensity, especially on defense. If this defensive effort continues and grows, it will be great for the Zags who, on offense, have many spurts of really good play, but suffer droughts as well. Solid defense helps teams endure such droughts.
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