1. Sluggish. Lackluster. Flat. Sleepy. Immature. They are certainly not a juggernaut.
I've collected ways I, different friends, reporters, and Drew Timme himself described Gonzaga's effort, especially in the first half, against tonight's far inferior opponent, Northern Illinois University.
I mean, you look at the final score, 88-67, and, by that standard, yes, the Zags picked up a blow out win.
At halftime, however, the Zags only led by six points. They were shooting poorly, getting out hustled, and, to my bewilderment, at least, missing a lot of point blank shots inside.
Before the game started, I wrote in a Facebook comment to Byrdman that I didn't think this game would tell us much about the Zags and that I thought we'd see much more playing time for Malachi Smith, Hunter Sallis, Ben Gregg, and Efton Reid. Reid didn't play much, but the other three not only logged plenty of playing time, they all scored in double figures, with Gregg leading the off the bench effort with 18 points.
Did I learn much about the Zags tonight, especially in anticipation of their very challenging game coming up on Saturday against Alabama?
I agree with Drew Timme's post-game comment that they regressed tonight. He also described this year's squad as a roller coaster, an imperfect team. All of that was on display tonight.
I agree with the KHQ play-by-play/analyst team who repeated about 5000 times that the Zags are a work in progress.
I agree with Byrdman. This team is not a juggernaut. (I never thought they were.)
Now the Zags fly to Birmingham for the C.M. Newton Classic and a matchup with a long and talented Alabama team focused on firing up three pointers or layups and few shots from anywhere else. The Tide defeated top-ranked Houston over the weekend. They face Memphis at home tonight. My guess is that they'll be primed on Saturday for the Zags, motivated to defeat them two years in a row. As I see it, Gonzaga will have to play something like nearly flawless basketball to defeat Alabama. I don't know, right now, if the Zags have that in them.
We'll see.
2. I now regret that back in the 1980s I spent so much time as a graduate student on my studies, always fighting the feeling that I was an imposter and fearing that I didn't belong in grad school, that, aside from going to movies at Cinema 7 and the Bijou and going to football games at Autzen Stadium and the occasional basketball game at Mac Court, I didn't do a lot of hanging out in Eugene. One place I wish I'd frequented was Lenny's Nosh Bar, but I have fun almost every day reading about all that I missed out on by belonging to the Long Live Lenny's Nosh Bar Facebook group.
Today, a post went up asking people if they remembered KOZY, a local Eugene cable television station, an awesome venture dedicated to showing movies and old television shows. Back in, oh, about 1985, I was a cable subscriber and I regularly studied at the U of O library until 10:00 p.m. and then rode my bicycle to my basement apartment on 361 West Broadway, popped myself a bowl of popcorn, and watched reruns of Father Knows Best and other tv shows from when I was a kid.
KOZY also inspired me to take breaks from studying and watch old movies. Back then I loved watching Spencer Tracy movies and I had a special fondness for Leslie Howard's role in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934).
Remembering KOZY brought back another fun memory from 1980. On Saturday nights, the Medford television station, KOBI, Channel 5, a Eugene cable offering back then, played Phil's Philms. The host was a local radio personality and stunt man, Phil Holman (father of professional bowler, Marshall Holman). Holman gave some kind of introduction to the movie (I remember him playing Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run and, another time, the dance marthon movie, They Shoot Horses Don't They?). Holman featured himself at commercial breaks doing absurd bits that made me laugh -- so I enjoyed watching the movies and had fun seeing what stupid and outrageous things Phil Holman would break up the movies with. By the way, Phil Holman once did a pole sitting stunt in Medford and so, for some, his nickname was Holman the Poleman.
If anyone who reads this blog had fun watching KOZY or if you, too, watched Phil Holman host his Saturday night movie program on KOBI Medford, it would sure be fun to read your memories.
3. Again and again and again, I get fired up that I subscribe to the Criterion Channel. Right now, Criterion, among many other awesome collections, is featuring a generous trove of classic Screwball Comedies. I'm about to embark on watching some of them, thanks largely to an immensely informative and spirited short video presentation of Patton Oswalt reflecting on the genre. His enthusiasm for these movies and his wickedly sharp insights made me want to hole up for a few days and listen to the verbal sparring, enjoy the sexual intrigue, and watch the comic hijinks of movies ranging from It Happened One Night to To Be or Not to Be to The Palm Beach Story to mention a few.
No comments:
Post a Comment