1. Lots of icing of my left big toe again today. It hasn't quite calmed down just yet. In the past, these inflamed toe incidents have lasted 3-5 days. My toe started to fire up Wednesday evening, so my hope is that it will sign a peace accord with the rest of my body by about Sunday. As is always the case, my toe felt and looked better as the day and my icing of it progressed, but I lose a lot of that progress at night.
2. I kept an eye on a lot of basketball action today. Gonzaga turned up the heat after a sluggish first half and cruised past Grand Canyon, 82-70 -- after leading by only two points at halftime, Gonzaga led by as many as 22 points in the second half. Gonzaga faces a strenuous test in Sunday's matchup against Texas Christian University -- if you heard Mark Few's postgame comments, he was quick to say that he regards TCU as one of the very best teams in this tournament.
I wrote yesterday about how I thought both Virginia and Arizona showed signs of panic in their upset losses to Furman and Princeton. Others might say they choked.
Today, in the East Region, 16th seed Farleigh Dickinson (located just about five miles northwest of the George Washington Bridge in Teabridge, New Jersey) miraculously defeated the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers, 63-58.
I didn't write down notes as I watched the finish of this game, but I'll say that with approximately five minutes left, I thought Purdue was in deep trouble. I saw it this way: Purdue has a recent history of losing first round games to inferior teams and today I thought their players showed clear signs of feeling the pressure of that history as Purdue failed to put Farleigh Dickinson, a physically far inferior team, away.
Gradually, Purdue's physical superiority gave way to their mental or emotional inferiority. Unlike Farleigh Dickinson who had nothing to lose in this game and were free, loose, and aggressive, Purdue looked scared to me, tentative, tight. I think anxiety (or panic) can slow down players and Purdue looked slow against Farleigh Dickinson's full court pressure and, to me, really looked tentative in loose ball situations. Repeatedly, Farleigh Dickinson out hustled Purdue, hounded Purdue on defense, and as the pressure built on Purdue, their guards became reluctant to shoot, made poor decisions, and failed to get ball inside to their powerhouse center, Zach Eden, despite Edey having a huge height advantage over the FDU, the smallest team in the whole tournament.
I enjoyed the excitement of this gargantuan upset taking place, but I didn't enjoy watching Purdue's players wilt under the pressure of trying not to lose to a team they could have defeated handily.
Pressure can erode confidence and having nothing to lose and starting to succeed can boost it.
Today, Purdue's confidence disintegrated along with their performance right before out eyes in large part because of how Farleigh Dickinson's confidence grew and their performance blossomed.
3. Late this afternoon, I didn't really feel like dragging my inflamed big toe to The Lounge to join Debbie. I was elated, though, when Debbie came home with an order of Chicken Lo Mein and an order of potstickers. We enjoyed a great meal and some great conversation, especially about Debbie's work and what she's learning about teaching third graders at Pinehurst Elementary School. She and Christy are devoted to these children and giving them lots of fun things to learn about and multiple ways to enjoy being in school.
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