1. Yes, it was a bit chilly out, brisk, a bit breezy, but it was also sunny. I decided to forego huffing and puffing on machines today and, instead, huff and puff up and down the Wellness Trail overlooking the Shoshone Medical Center. After reaching the picnic table at the trail's end, I contemplated how long it might be before I could hike this relatively short trail without stopping to rest. I can't do that now, but, if the weather is pretty good and I keep coming back, how about two weeks from now? Is that reasonable/doable?
I'll find out.
2. UConn had looked unbeatable so far in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but today against Illinois, they weren't really looking so indomitable in the first half. Their big center, Donovan Clingan, disrupted multiple Illinois shots inside and scored some fairly easy baskets near the rim, but UConn shot poorly from the outside. Late in the first half the game was tied, but UConn closed out the half with five points and led at halftime 28-23.
I can't really account for what happened in the second half.
I do know this.
UConn demolished Illinois, scoring the second half's first twenty-three points and turning what had been a close first half into a rout.
The final score: UConn 77. Illinois 52.
3. Debbie was at The Lounge after working in her classroom for several hours. With the UConn/Illinois game out of hand and the outcome no longer in doubt, I headed up and joined her.
I enjoyed a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, split a combo appetizer plate from Wah Hing with Debbie, and returned home to watch Alabama stick to its offensive philosophy and defeat Clemson, 89-82. What is that philosophy?
Well, Alabama's head coach, Nate Oats, approaches the game of basketball mathematically and draws upon imaginably detailed stacks of data and, applying analytics to how his team plays, he's determined that, to put it simply, his team's odds of winning are at their peak if his team takes only two kinds of shots: a) from beyond the 3 point arc and b) at the rim. Alabama looked shaky in the first half. I think they missed their first nine 3 point attempts. As the game progressed, though, they heated up from beyond the arc and they were able to score points at the rim. Clemson hurt themselves with foul trouble and a puzzling inability to convert free throws, but, in the end, Alabama's relentless barrage of three point attempts, put backs on offensive rebounds, and successful drives to the tin prevailed.
Now the indomitable UConn Huskies will play the math-driven, long range bombers and relentless into the paint penetrators of Alabama. Can UConn dominate the Rolling Tide? Or can Alabama translate its coach's obsessive attention to analytics into another scoring spree that outdistances UConn?
We'll see on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment