Vin Scully and a Koala

It's one of the best pictures I've ever seen.

This koala will tell his grandchildren that he met Vin Scully.

And then there's this:

The Kershaws and a kangaroo.

Anyway, I had always wanted to blog about my appreciation of Australia, and today seemed like the right day to do it.  I went to Ireland to see Notre Dame open its football season.  Today, the Dodgers opened their season in Australia.  I tried to figure out a way to go, but it just wasn't possible.  I used to say that there were two places I needed to get to before I died:  Dodger Stadium and Australia.  One down, one to go.

Ordinarily, I would be opposed to baseball starting its season in another country.  I stand by my plan to fix Opening Day, but I'm much less opposed to this than I was to opening the season in Japan two years ago.  Why?  A few reasons.  First, this game was on TV live, unlike the last opener in another country.  Second, opening in Australia is less disruptive than opening in Japan.  You might not think so because the time difference is less in Tokyo than Sydney.  When the Mariners and A's opened in Japan, there was a 16-hour time difference for the teams.  For the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in Australia, it was an 18-hour time difference.  When the Yankees and Rays opened in Japan 10 years ago, it was a 13-hour time difference for those teams.  That was the worst.  The worst jet lag can be is 12 hours.  Eighteen hours ahead is exactly the same on the body as six hours behind.  I've done a five-hour time difference twice (England and Ireland) and that wasn't too bad.  West coast teams that go to Japan really have to deal with an eight-hour time difference (24 - 16).  When east coast teams go to Japan, it's really an eleven-hour time difference (24 - 13).  That's almost as bad as it can be.  As far as going to Australia, it's a really long flight, but the jet lag isn't that bad for teams from the Pacific time zone (Arizona claims to be in the mountain time zone, but they're on Pacific time from March until November).  And finally, if you want to grow the game of baseball, you don't need to go to Japan.  They already love baseball.  I think Australia is a place where the game can grow.  Baseball is not big in Australia, but Australians love sports.  And there are a lot of similarities between Australia and the US, so maybe baseball could grow in popularity in Australia (the crowd seemed pretty excited today).

It was a solid Opening Day for the Dodgers.  I woke up at 3:50 to get ready for the game.  The listed start time was 4:00, but I think it wasn't really supposed to start until 4:45.  Rain pushed back the actual start to 5:00.  Once they finally got going, Clayton Kershaw's performance was strong ... to quite strong.  It wasn't quite like Opening Day last year, but one run over six and two thirds is very good (his first ever run allowed in four Opening Day starts, and he would have gotten through seven if not for some poor fielding).  Scott Van Slyke had a double and a two-run home run.  The bullpen was great for the final seven outs.  The only bad news was that MLB Network sent their own crew for the game rather than carrying the Dodgers' broadcast with Vin Scully.  Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz were fine (and the Australian cricketer that they had as a sideline reporter type guy was a plus), but I'm pretty sure that a very solid majority of the people who were watching this game at a very unusual hour would have preferred Vin Scully.  He doesn't travel east of Denver anymore, but he made it all the way to Sydney.  How many people were watching that game besides Dodger or Diamondback fans?  And there are definitely more Dodger fans than Diamondback fans.  Come on, MLB Network.  So that was the first ever regular season baseball game played in Australia (the White Sox and Giants played there during a world tour in the offseason 100 years ago).  Hopefully the Dodgers will get another win tonight (tomorrow afternoon in Australia) and come back home 2-0.

I guess I've wanted to go to Australia since I was in college.  My favorite professor in college was an Australian priest, Father Bill Miscamble.  I took two classes with him.  The first was US Foreign Policy, 1945 to Present.  The second one was Australian History.  Did I know anything about Australian History before taking the class?  Not much other than that it was once a British prison colony.  In high school, I was on News 12's Long Island Challenge and there was a question about Australia and New Zealand joining a certain organization in the 1950s.  I guessed NATO even though I knew it didn't make sense.  I couldn't think of SEATO.  Mr. Hennessy (my favorite high school teacher) was disappointed, but I felt better when my brother Sean also guessed NATO also when I asked him.  Did I have any interest in Australian history?  Not really.  But it filled a requirement.  As a history major, I had certain history class requirements.  I think I had to take at least two US history classes (I took lots, but one had to be pre-Civil War and one had to be post-Civil war), one European history class (Irish History, 1800-Present for me), one ancient history class (History of the Roman Empire), maybe one Latin American history class (I don't know why else I would have taken Mexican History), and there was a requirement to take one class about any other part of the world.  Australian history sounded more interesting than any African or Asian history class, but the real reason I took it was because Father Miscamble was such an awesome professor.  He would fall behind in class and have us over to the seminary (which served as Rudy's dorm in the movie) at night or on the weekend a couple times during the semester.  We didn't mind going because he was such a great professor and he would offer us dinner (which included "age-appropriate beverages").  The first book he had us read for Australian history was In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson.  It was a travel book about Australia that spent a lot of time talking about all the things in Australia that could kill you (like the box jellyfish), but it still made me want to go to Australia.  I remember him writing about being chased by wild dogs at some point.  I should really read that book again.  The last class I attended at Notre Dame before finals my last semester was Australian history.  Father Miscamble ended class by saying to us, "My friends, get the hell out of here."  Great way to end my college career.  Besides being a great professor, Father Miscamble is also a great guy and I've said many times that he should be the president of Notre Dame.  Sadly, he is not.

Although, I've never been to Australia, I feel like I have a lot of experience with the Australian accent.  My gym teacher until high school was Australian.  There was Father Miscamble.  And I've been listening to Leigh Ellis five times a week on The Basketball Jones/The Starters for about a year now.  The Aussies definitely have the best accent.  I would take the American accent because I love the United States, but objectively, the Australian accent has to be the best accent of all the English-speaking countries.  I've been to Ireland and England, and their accent isn't as good as the Australian accent.  I haven't been to Canada yet, but two of the four guys on the Starters are Canadian.  To me, the Canadian accent is indistinguishable from the American accent except for the fact that they just pronounce certain words wrong (which I covered in this post).  So my English-Speaking Accent Power Rankings go like this:

1.  Australian
2.  American
3.  Irish
4.  English
5.  Canadian

I mentioned that there are similarities between Australia and the United States.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Australia is more similar to the United States than Great Britain.  Both the US and Australia are very large countries (geographically anyway, the US has a much larger population).  Both overcame difficulties to become great countries.  For the United States, we needed to defeat the most powerful empire in the world.  For Australia, they overcame a start as a prison colony to develop into a prosperous nation.  Both are Christian nations with Catholics representing the largest denomination (around 25% in both countries).  Both are nations of immigrants that have an unfortunate history when it comes to dealing with the native population.  Sports are a big part of both cultures and both countries have sports that aren't really popular anywhere else (American football and Aussie rules football).

One thing that I've always admired about Australia is their willingness to fight for what is right.  In World War I, 1.38% of their population died.  The only non-European nation with a higher percentage was New Zealand (1.64%).  I have very complicated feelings about Ireland.  There are definitely things that I like about Ireland.  But one of my issues with Ireland is that they refused to fight Hitler because they hated the British so much even when Churchill offered them everything they wanted.  Of course, Australia was there with us and the British fighting to save the world from Hitler.  And I do appreciate the special relationship that the United States has with Britain, but Australia is an even more loyal ally (though probably not as important of an ally as Britain).  The United States and Britain have fought on the same side in several wars, but Australia has always been on our side.  Unlike the Brits, the Aussies were there with us in Vietnam.  Fighting communism in Vietnam was not a bad thing; the bad thing is that we didn't win.  Fortunately, we were able to get past our all-time low in Americo-Austalianian relations in 1995.

Finally, there's the story of Harold Holt.  Can you imagine the leader of any other powerful nation just disappearing without an explanation?  It's fascinating.

So there it is.  I won't say that I love Australia (that word is reserved for the United States), but I strongly like Australia.  If anybody else wants to visit Australia, we need to talk.  I got to Ireland in 2012 and England in 2013.  I'm going to Canada in May.  Australia in 2015?

St. Patrick's Day and My Tournament Power Rankings

Whenever I think of St. Patrick's Day, I'm reminded of the only St. Patrick's Day I spent at Notre Dame.  It was 2005 (I transferred in and I was on spring break in 2006) and it was one of the great random sports days of all time.  Kyle, Jorge, and I had stolen cable a few days before.  We split the cable from the lounge next to our room and ran a cable into our room.  We did this in the middle of the night as if it would prevent anybody from noticing.  It lasted for about a week until we were told to disconnect it, but we had it for St. Patrick's Day.  We had the steroid hearings in Congress where Jose Canseco was the only one who told the truth.  The NCAA Tournament was starting.  Shaquille O'Neal had 25 points and 12 rebounds in 13-point win for the Heat against the Lakers (the second game against the Lakers for him after getting traded).  And there was a lot of day drinking.  Such a great day.  It's hard to believe it was nine years ago.

Anyway, we're now just a few days away from the best four-day stretch of the year in sports (which is made even better this year because of baseball season starting in Australia on Saturday at 4:00 in the morning, I'm definitely getting up).  I've decided to rank all the teams in the tournament by how much I want to see them win.  From number 1 to Michigan, here we go:

1.  Creighton
Doug McDermott has to be the best college player I've seen in person.  I want his college career to end with a championship.

2.  Providence
3.  Xavier
4.  Villanova
The rest of the Big East.  Providence beat Creighton and Xavier gave Creighton a tough game.  Villanova couldn't make it to Friday night for me to see them in person.

5.  Manhattan
6.  Dayton
7.  Gonzaga
8.  Mount St. Mary's
9.  St. Louis
10.  St. Joe's
The other Catholic schools.  There's not much rhyme or reason to the order other than Manhattan (which is in the Bronx) is a local school.

11.  George Washington
My brother went there.  Also, George Washington was a great man.  He liberated Boston 238 years ago today.

12.  BYU
I like Mormons.

13.  UCLA
If I could go back in time and I had to pick a state university to attend, I'm thinking I'd want to go to UCLA.  It's in Los Angeles and they don't like USC.

14.  Cal Poly
15.  Albany
16.  Texas Southern
17.  Coastal Carolina
18.  Weber State
The 16 seeds other than Mount St. Mary's.  Obviously, they have no chance to win the tournament, but I would love to see a 1 seed lose their first game.

19.  Harvard
I don't like the Ivy League, but I respect schools that care about educating their athletes and Harvard obviously does.

20.  North Dakota State
How cool would it be if a team from North Dakota won a national championship in basketball?

21.  Wofford
22.  Western Michigan
23.  Kansas State
These schools are playing teams that I despise in the first round.  If any of them win, I'll be very grateful.

24.  American
I'm an American.  I love St. Patrick's Day as a Notre Dame alum, but when students ask me if I'm Irish, my response is always the same:  "I'm American."

25.  Eastern Kentucky
I was there for a 15 seed winning last year.  That's always fun to see.

26.  Stephen F. Austin
27.  Texas
Don't mess with Texas.

28.  San Diego State
I saw them play a nice game last year in Philadelphia.  Kyle is a fan.

29.  Wichita State
30.  Virginia
My first 1 seeds.  Wichita State going undefeated would be really cool.  And when I was visiting colleges back in the day, I was really impressed with Virginia's campus.  They're an ACC team and they care about academics.

31.  Delaware
One of my favorite former campers is a student there.

32.  VCU
Shaka Smart is a pretty awesome coach.

33.  Mercer
34.  North Carolina Central
Low seeds.  Whatever.

35.  New Mexico
36.  New Mexico State
Two teams from a state that I can't imagine having a reason to visit, which is a problem considering I want to get to all 50 states someday.

37.  NC State
38.  Pittsburgh
Two more ACC schools.

39.  Louisiana-Lafayette
I like the Marquis de Lafayette.

40.  Milwaukee
Our last school that doesn't play big time college football.  The last such team to win was Villanova in 1985.  Milwaukee would have been much higher on my list as a 15 seed if they weren't playing Villanova.

41.  Kansas
Kansas has a very high success to hateability ratio.  And Paul Pierce went to Kansas.

42.  Arizona State
43.  Tulsa
44.  Baylor
45.  Tennessee
46.  Arizona
I would have no problem with any of these teams winning, but I wouldn't be excited either.  I like the warm weather in the state of Arizona, but Arizona is the last of these four just because they're one of the favorites.

47.  Oklahoma
48.  Oklahoma State.
I have no thoughts about these two teams.

49.  Massachusetts
50.  Memphis
Two teams that used to be coached by John Calipari.  I'm not a fan.

51.  Duke
They care about academics.  I don't hate Duke like some people do, but I don't want them to win either.

52.  Cincinnati
53.  Iowa State
54.  Florida
55.  Colorado
Cincinnati is a former Big East school.  Iowa State beat Notre Dame last year.  Billy Donovan is a great coach.  And I'm not a fan of Colorado's drug laws.

56.  North Carolina
I was never a fan of Roy Williams, but this solidified it.  I just want to watch basketball.  I don't need to hear political nonsense from a basketball coach.

57.  Oregon
The only thing I associate with Oregon is terrible uniforms.

58.  Michigan State
Even though I despise the Big Ten, I like Tom Izzo.  Is that allowed?

59.  Stanford
They care about academics, but I can't stand Stanford.

60.  Iowa
61.  Nebraska
62.  Wisconsin
63.  Ohio State
I have nothing in particular against these schools other than being in the Big Ten.  That's enough.

64.  Connecticut
I've always disliked Connecticut.  It's a little harder to dislike them without Jim Calhoun.

65.  Kentucky
John Calipari and his team of mercenaries that probably never go to class.

66.  Louisville
Notre Dame's rivalry with Louisville will resume in the ACC next year and I'll never forgive Rick Pitino for what he did to the Celtics.

67.  Syracuse
Jim Boeheim.

68.  Michigan makes the championship game and it's determined before the game that all of their players are ineligible and so the game is never played.

69.  Michigan makes the championship game and some catastrophic event prevents the game from being played without anybody dying.

70.  Michigan
Nightmare.

Four Nights at Madison Square Garden

This week was the first of back to back weeks where having a job is problematic.  Championship Week in college basketball.  I love the conference tournaments.  If I could stay up late every night and watch games, I would.  If I could go to the entire Big East Tournament, I would.  I almost did.

You have two different types of conference tournaments.  There are the tournaments that really mean nothing.  Does it really matter who wins the ACC Tournament?  Sure, if Notre Dame had won, that would have mattered (not just to Notre Dame fans, it would have kicked somebody else out of the NCAA tournament).  But Duke-Virginia in the ACC Championship Game?  It means nothing.  Both teams were in before the ACC Tournament started and both were going to get a good seed.  On the other hand, you have tournaments that make the regular season totally meaningless.  I did a running diary of the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Game because that game was for all the marbles.  One team was going to be in and the other was going to be out.  It's pretty silly that the regular season is totally meaningless, but it makes games between two teams that I've never seen before totally watchable.  I watched a good amount of the MAAC Championship Game (Manhattan became the first Catholic school to qualify for the NCAA tournament this year).  Yesterday, I wanted to go to the America East Championship Game at Stony Brook, but there were no tickets available to the general public because they were playing in their old gym that holds 1,700 (their newer basketball arena is being renovated).  Stony Brook has been pretty good in the America East for the last four years or so, but they can't get over the hump and win the conference tournament.  It was a back and forth, but Albany pulled away in the last two minutes.

So I really enjoy those tournaments that mean everything.  I also enjoy the tradition of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.  Usually the Big East Tournament is one that doesn't mean much.  Sadly for me, Notre Dame never won the Big East Tournament, but we had still been in the NCAA tournament six out of the last seven years.  This year was a little bit different.  We had two teams that we knew were in, Villanova and Creighton.  Seton Hall, Butler, and DePaul were definitely out unless they won the tournament.  And Xavier, Providence, St. John's, Marquette, and Georgetown were bubble teams.  It seemed like one or two of those teams would make it, but there was no way to know which ones until the tournament happened.

I bought tickets the day they came out.  Obviously, my seats were high up, but I was pretty happy with them.  I was section 224, row 18.  That's right in the middle of the court.  I purposely picked seats 11 and 12 because there were 22 seats in the row, which makes 11 and 12 the two in the middle.  There was only one afternoon session this year.  I considered taking the day off and going to all four games that day, but my class had a field trip (not my doing, there were several classes involved).  It turns out that session had the best game of the tournament (Seton Hall beating Villanova at the buzzer), but I can't control that.  I sold those tickets and made a profit of $14 on the face value.  So that worked out.

Anyway, it all got started on Wednesday night.  I went with my dad.  I was rooting for a quick game in the first game (Seton Hall-Butler) and a Georgetown blowout over DePaul.  The first game got off to a fast start.  They got to halftime around 7:45.  It slowed down in the second half and ended right around 9:00.  Seton Hall led by one at halftime.  They controlled most of the second half, but then tried to give it away late.  They held on for a 51-50 win when Alex Barlow missed a last second shot.  In the second game, I was rooting for Georgetown for two reasons.  First, my brother is an alum.  Second, I thought they had a chance of giving Creighton a game, but DePaul would get blown out.  Georgetown got off to a good start.  They were up 17-9 less than 10 minutes into the game.  Then they had a lot of trouble scoring for the rest of the first half.  They were up 25-23 at halftime.  Georgetown was playing so poorly that I really didn't care about staying.  We left at halftime and found out that DePaul won.  I wasn't that surprised.  I ended up getting home around midnight.

The beginning of the first game on Wednesday night.  Lots of empty seats, but it filled up a bit.

Thursday was a fun day at the tournament.  Seton Hall pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament after almost finding a way to lose against Butler.  But I missed that and Providence beating St. John's.  After missing the afternoon session, I headed into the city to meet up with Vin for the night games.  He was still at work when I got into the city around 6:10, so I waited for him at Penn Station.  We got in a little bit late for the Creighton-DePaul game.  I expected Creighton to win easily and that's what happened.  But it was worth watching Doug McDermott.  He scored 27 points in the first half, a Big East Tournament record.  He ended up with 35 for the game on 14-22 shooting.  What annoyed me was that a woman in the row in front of us asked us not to talk with about five minutes left in the game.  Maybe were a little loud, but it's a basketball game.  We weren't being profane or obnoxious or anything, we were just having a conversation.  At a basketball game.  This wasn't golf or tennis.  It was a basketball game.  She asked Vin so I didn't hear her, but he said she was British.  We really could have been like, no, we're at a basketball game (that isn't even close, Creighton ended up winning by 22), we're going to have a conversation.  But we were fairly quiet for the rest of the game and then we moved for the second game.  The second game was Xavier-Marquette.  Whatever happened in that game was going to have a hard time topping McDermott's performance.  Vin left at halftime.  I stayed for a little bit of the second half and moved down to the lower level.  It was a competitive game and I would have loved to stay until the end, but I was tired and I had work and Friday night at the tournament to think about so I left at the under 12:00 timeout in the second half.  Xavier ended up winning 68-65 and I got home around 12:30.

Friday night was the last doubleheader of the tournament.  Despite drinking a little bit the night before and getting somewhere between nine and eleven hours of sleep over the previous two nights, I felt pretty good.  I met Tom at Penn Station for the games.  Last year, he came on Thursday night.  Friday night was definitely better for him with the trip he had to make.  Tom pointed out the lack of diversity in the colors of Big East teams.  Every team except for Providence and St. John's has a shade of blue as one of its main colors (and St. John's had blue uniforms this year).  No teams have green as one of their colors.  I hate Syracuse and Louisville, but orange and another red team would be good.  Anyway, it would have been awesome to see Villanova-St. John's, but that was not to be.  Instead, we got Providence-Seton Hall.  That was still interesting as Seton Hall needed to win the tournament and Providence was still not assured a spot in the tournament.  LaDontae Henton had himself a game for Providence with 26 points and 14 rebounds.  Providence was in control for most of the game, but only ended up winning by six.  The second game was the main event.  I figured that a lot of people would leave because the two more local teams played in the first game, but Creighton clearly had the best support out of any of the four teams.  I think it was a combination of Creighton fans being excited to play in the Big East Tournament for the first time and any neutral fans jumping on the Doug McDermott bandwagon.  I was one of those people.  McDermott was 12 points away from sixth place in all time Division I scoring and 20 points away from fifth place.  He had 19 in the first half.  Creighton seemed in control, so Tom left at halftime.  I wanted to see him get to fifth place, so I stayed.  I moved down to the lower level, 11 rows up from the court along the sideline, but closer to the basket where Creighton was shooting.  McDermott got to fifth place in the second half.  At one point, I was about to leave, but then Xavier went on a little run.  At that point, I figured I might as well stay until the end.  It never looked like Xavier was going to win, but they hung around until the end.  Creighton won 86-78 and McDermott ended up with 32 points.  Ethan Wragge had 17 on 5-9 shooting (all threes).  I ran to make a train so that I wouldn't have to change at Jamaica on the next train and got home around 1:30, which was just a little bit after Tom got home.  It was nice to not have work the next day.

Pope Francis at the game for a match up of two Jesuit schools.

Doug McDermott with the ball on the left wing.

He ended up with 94 points in three tournament games.  I'm a fan.  I'll be rooting for Creighton in the big tournament.

My dad came back for the championship game the next day.  There was a great atmosphere for the game.  At the beginning of the game, it seemed like Creighton had a slight edge in fans, but the Providence fans were more boisterous during the game.  Of course, they had more reason to cheer.  Creighton had a terrible first half.  After scoring 49 and 45 in the first half the previous two nights, they had only 17 at halftime.  McDermott had nine and the rest of the team had eight.  Providence led by nine.  Creighton played a much better second half and the crowd really came to life.  McDermott made a three to get Creighton as close as 58-56.  Providence scored to make it 60-56 and then McDermott missed a long three.  Providence hung on for the 65-58 win.  Bryce Cotton led the way with 23 points and five assists.  He was named tournament MVP.  I think it should have been McDermott even though Creighton lost.  He finished with 27 (giving him 121 in four games that I've seen him play in person going back to last year's NCAA tournament in Philadelphia).  The next leading scorer for Creighton in the game was Avery Dingman, with 10 off the bench.  Nobody else had more than five.  As I was leaving, a Providence fan assumed I was a Creighton fan because of my Dodgers sweatshirt that was partially covered by my jacket.  They are the same colors and I did that purposely.  He said something to me like, "Good game, you guys are going to be really tough to beat in the tournament."  My reaction from the Big East Tournament is that Creighton could get to the Final Four if they shoot the ball the way they did against Xavier (I like Xavier because they gave Creighton a game despite Creighton's great shooting) or they could lose if they shoot the way they did against Providence.  Actually after a terrible first half, they ended up shooting better than Providence for the game.  My dad noted that the Madison Square Garden scoreboard listed two different shooting percentages for the teams on threes even though Creighton was 8-30 and Providence was 4-15, but overall Creighton shot 42.9% and Providence shot 38.8%.  The difference was Providence was 23-26 at the line and Creighton was 8-10.

Providence won their first Big East Tournament since 1994.

Just a little more on McDermott.  He's 60 points away from fourth place in all time scoring (he should get there if he plays three tournament games, maybe two).  He's 112 away from third place (he'd probably need at least four games for that).  He's 144 away from second place.  To get to second, he'd probably have to at least get to the Final Four.  He'd have to average 28.8 points over five games or 24 points over six games.  He's 562 points away from Pete Maravich for first.  That's not happening.

Attendance by session:
Wednesday night- 13,177
Thursday afternoon- 14,925
Thursday night- 13,807
Friday night- 15,580
Saturday night- 15,290

I really enjoyed the tournament.  A little over a year ago, I worried that 2013 was going to be the last Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.  The Big East survived and it showed that it's alive and well.  The Big East isn't the same, but it's in much better shape than it was when it looked like it was going to die.  The crowds were a little small, but they were great crowds every night except for Wednesday.  It didn't help that St. John's, Villanova, and Georgetown all lost their first game.  I would like to see the Big East go to 12 teams.  There was talk about that, but I haven't heard anything lately.  That would make Wednesday a full day and it would make the Wednesday night session better.  Instead of having the four worst teams in the conference play that night, you'd get a 7-10 game and 6-11 game.  The 10th and 11th place teams would probably be bad, but the 6th and 7th place teams could be decent.  More than anything else, what the Big East really needs is for Georgetown and St. John's to be powers.  This was a down year for Georgetown.  Despite my brother Sean's frustration with their lack of tournament success, Georgetown has been a pretty good regular season team over the last nine years (seven tournament appearances in the eight years before this season).  St. John's needs to get it together.  DePaul being good would help too.  Why are they terrible?  They were once good.  They made the tournament 14 times from 1976-1992.

I would do things a little differently next year.  I will definitely buy tickets for the entire tournament again, but I would probably only go three nights and sell the other one (probably Wednesday even though I wouldn't get much for those tickets).  If the schedules remain the same, I would make Saturday a big day.  The Atlantic 10 had their semifinals at the Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon.  There would have been enough time to go to those two games and then take the subway to Madison Square Garden for the Big East Championship Game at 8:30.  That would be a fun day.

I love Big East basketball.  I wish Notre Dame had never left.  I have in mind how that could have happened, but this has gone on long enough.  I'll see you next year, Big East Tournament.

Happy March!

Finally, winter is coming to an end.  I have tickets for the entire Big East tournament.  I was considering taking Thursday off and going to the afternoon session, but it turns out that I have a field trip (I was not responsible for the scheduling, at least it isn't the following Thursday).  So I'm selling those tickets.  If you want them, let me know.  I'll be there for every other session.  I'm pretty sure I've never gone more than two nights, so it should be fun.  To gear up for a fun week of basketball, I'm breaking out the running diary for the Ohio Valley Championship Game.  Yep, that's right.

7:01- Eastern Kentucky vs. Belmont from Nashville.  Belmont won the Ohio Valley last year.  Could I name a single player on either team?  No, of course not.  I don't care.  This is basketball for a spot in the big tournament.  Harvard is already in by winning the Ivy League.  This will be the first tournament spot decided by a conference tournament.

7:03- Don't chase imaginary butterflies into something highly illegal.  Those DirecTV commercials are the best.

7:04- A quick check of the conference tournament schedule shows that the Atlantic Sun, Big South, and Missouri Valley have their championship games tomorrow.  I won't be doing another running diary.

7:05- Belmont wins the tip and misses a quick shot.

7:07- Eastern Kentucky just hit a three to go up 6-0.  I missed their first three while doing some googling.

7:08- Traveling on Belmont.  Rough start for them.  9-0.

7:09- Belmont is 13th in the nation in three point percentage and ninth in makes.  We're almost three minutes in and they're still not on the board.

7:10- Eastern Kentucky takes a charge.  Belmont has turned the ball over four times in five possessions.

7:10- Eastern Kentucky hits another three.  Timeout, Belmont.  I don't care who wins, but I want to see an interesting game.

7:12- Nice back door play leads to a slam for Belmont.  They're on the board after nearly four minutes.

7:13- We reach the first TV timeout.  14-2 Eastern Kentucky.  Apparently Belmont is in Tennessee.  I was thinking about my only Kentucky and Tennessee experiences.  We drove from Notre Dame to Atlanta for the Georgia Tech game in in 2006.  We drove through central Kentucky and central Tennessee and Dennis was fascinated by the accent of a girl working at Arby's.  On the way back, there was talk of going down an alpine slide (it was in either Kentucky or Tennessee, I'm not sure).  Jon and I just wanted to get back to campus and argued against stopping.  Wilhelm dubbed us the no-fun Nazis.

7:20- Belmont makes two free throws.  They're on a 7-0 run.  17-9.

7:21- TV timeout.  One tournament I'm keeping an eye on is the America East tournament.  It looks like it would be a pretty big upset if anybody other than Vermont or Stony Brook won.  I'm definitely rooting for Stony Brook.  It would be fun to have a local team in the tournament.  They've been good for the last few years, but they just can't win their tournament.  I'm guessing they would be the first ever Suffolk County team to make the tournament.  Their semifinals would be tomorrow and the championship game would be next Saturday.  If Stony Brook makes it to the championship game, they would play at Vermont or they would host any other team from the conference.

7:25- Eastern Kentucky hits a three.  We need another 7-0 run from Belmont.  23-9.

7:29- Another three puts Eastern Kentucky up by two touchdowns, 28-14.  Timeout, Belmont.

7:30- Another TV timeout with 7:36 left in the first half.  I'm going to start drinking.

7:34- Guinness put out a variety pack of eight cans (the cans are 14.9 ounces).  It's four Irish beers, two of each.  I call it St. Patrick's Day in a box.  Right now I'm drinking Smithwick's Pale Ale.  Not bad.  Speaking of beer, it's March 8.  Sam Adams Summer Ale should be coming out any day now.

7:40- This game has stabilized a little bit.  Eastern Kentucky is up by eight.

7:42- TV timeout with 2:47 to go.  Nobody has scored in a while.

7:43- Back to beer, I have a question.  Does anybody know of any Australian beer that you can find in the US besides Foster's?  The Dodgers start the season in Australia in two weeks.  I'd love to drink some Australian beer.  Apparently Foster's isn't really Australian so I'd like to find some legit beer that Aussies would drink.

7:45- Excellent defense by Eastern Kentucky forces a tough shot, which is missed and leads to a loose ball foul on Belmont.  Eastern Kentucky will shoot one and one.

7:46- Tarius Johnson makes both on the one and one.  One and one is one reason that I like college basketball.  It's an interesting wrinkle that the NBA doesn't have.

7:49- Tarius Johnson is back at the line with 1:00 left in the half.  He has 11 tonight, but he misses both this time.  Belmont goes the other way and gets an easy basket.  34-28.  This is the closest it's been in a long time.

7:50- We go to halftime with Eastern Kentucky up 36-28.  After the way Belmont started this game, they have to be happy to only be down eight at the half.

7:52- I check out ESPN.  Michigan is up seven on Indiana.  I hate the entire Big 10, but I really really hate Michigan.

7:58- I put the Notre Dame hockey game on my phone.  We're up 1-0 on Boston University in the second.

7:59- 30 for 30 on the Big East next weekend.  I'll probably check that out.

8:00- North Carolina at Duke at 9:00.  This game is the problem with college basketball.  It means nothing.  For both of those teams, their season starts in two weeks.  And yes, you could say the same thing about the NBA.  For the Heat and Pacers, their season starts in the playoffs.  But really, it starts in the Eastern Conference Finals.

8:06- I'm going to get a jump on complaining about the standardized courts in the tournament this year.  They need to go.  Who thinks they are a good idea?  I might hate them even more than I hate the standardized Super Bowl logos.

8:09- Why can Adidas make a good uniform for Indiana, but not for Notre Dame?  At least we're almost done with them.

8:11- Indiana is down by two with 4.2 seconds left.  Michigan has the ball.  Hopefully they find a way to lose this.

8:15- I've switched to Bluepoint Blueberry Ale.  It has to be one of the best things made on Long Island.  Sam Adams tried to make a blueberry beer and it wasn't nearly as good.  And it took four minutes to play the last 4.2 seconds in the Indiana-Michigan game.  Evil won.  Nuts.

8:17- Back in the Ohio Valley, Eastern Kentucky is up by seven with 16:00 to play.  And Notre Dame scored in hockey.  I have that on without sound so I hadn't noticed.  2-0 Irish.

8:20- I check on Providence-Creighton in the Big East.  Creighton has an early 12-7 lead.  This game means nothing for Creighton in the Big East standings.  A win would give Providence the three seed in the Big East Tournament.  A loss would put them in a three-way tie with Xavier and St. John's.  I don't know what happens then.  But Providence is a bubble team, so this is a huge game for them no matter what.

8:22- Shot clock violation for Eastern Kentucky.  One change I would make for college basketball is shortening the shot clock to 30 or even 25.  What's the harm?  But I definitely wouldn't make it 24.  I like having some differences between college and the pros (even if it's only one second).

8:23- Boston University scored.  The Irish lead by one in hockey.

8:26- Big three for Belmont.  It's a five-point game.

8:29- Belmont cuts the lead to four.  Timeout, Eastern Kentucky.  And I have the hiccups, which is discouraging because I'm only on my second beer.  What's the deal with hiccups?

8:33- Creighton is taking it to Providence.  34-14.  I saw Doug McDermott last year in the NCAA Tournament in Philadelphia.  I'm looking forward to seeing him next week at Madison Square Garden.

8:35- A Belmont three makes it 51-48.

8:40- One and one for Belmont with a chance to cut it to one.

8:41- Blake Jenkins makes both.  51-50.

8:43- Belmont misses a three that would have given them their first lead of the game.  52-50.

8:45- Reece Chamberlain makes two free throws to tie the game for the first time since 0-0.

8:46- The Dodgers are on MLB Network at 9:00.  I won't watch much of the game, but it's nice to have baseball on TV.

8:47- Deep three puts Eastern Kentucky back up by three.

8:49- A three for Eastern Kentucky puts them up by eight.  The analyst said that one of the toughest shots to make is an open shot.  I'm going to disagree.  But I was calling for the timeout, but Belmont didn't and then proceeded to turn the ball over.

8:50- Belmont gets a much needed TV timeout.  We're under 4:00.

8:52- Creighton is up 45-22 at halftime.  Providence will have some work to do at Madison Square Garden.

8:55- For my final beer of the night, I'm drinking Sam Adams Escape Route.  It's not their best work so I'm not even going to bother pouring it into a glass.  Whatever, I've had some good beer already.

8:56- Eastern Kentucky has one and one with 3:29 left.  They lead by six.

8:57- They make the first and miss the second.

8:57- Belmont turns it over, but Eastern Kentucky can't score on the fast break.  Belmont needs to make a run.

8:58- J.J. Mann makes a three to cut the lead to four.  But Eastern Kentucky answers with a layup.

8:59- Timeout, Eastern Kentucky.  They lead by four with 1:57 left.

9:00- Huge three for Eastern Kentucky.

9:01- Evan Bradds scores on a nice drive to make it a five-point game with 1:19 left.  Timeout, Belmont.

9:02- Belmont fouls and puts Eastern Kentucky in the double bonus and puts an 83% free throw shooter on the line.

9:03- He makes both.  This is slipping away from Belmont.

9:04- 72-65 with 51.8 to play.

9:06- Layup for Eastern Kentucky.  Game over.

9:09- Notre Dame is up 3-1 in hockey.

9:11- Belmont made a basket and got a free throw.  They tried to miss on purpose, but the ball didn't hit the rim.  They trail by six with 24.8 to play.

9:13- Boston University just made it 3-2 with 5:38 to play.

9:15- Eastern Kentucky wins 79-73.  They're going to the tournament for the first time in seven years.  I'll be at Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament in about 93 hours.  March is a good month.

USA Curling National Championships

During the Olympics, I was doing some googling about curling and found out that the USA National Championships were in March in Aston, Pennsylvania.  When I found out that Aston was pretty close to Philadelphia, I knew I had to go.  I got both of my brothers on board and we met in Philadelphia late last Saturday morning.

Sean, Tom, Erin, and I started the day by getting brunch in Philadelphia.  After that, Sean, Tom, and I were off to do some historical stuff in Philadelphia.  We saw the outline of the president's house where George Washington and John Adams once lived.  Then we went to Independence Hall.  Tom and I went to Valley Forge last summer and we went to Independence Hall in the winter.  So we did that a little backwards, but whatever.

The president lived inside these walls in the 1790s.

The park ranger giving the tour called Independence Hall the most important building in the country.  Obviously, it's not today, but you can make the case that it's the most important building in the history of the United States.  It's where George Washington was put in charge of the Continental Army.  It's where the colonies voted for independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776 and the Declaration of Independence was signed in August.  It's where the Constitution was written.  I don't know how it took me so long to get there.

The most important building in the country

I've said that our nation was conceived in Boston, but it was born in this room.

The tour isn't very long and it's free if you get tickets the day of the tour.  You can reserve tickets in advance for $1.50 each.  The first stop was a court room.  Then you go to the most famous part, the room where the Second Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention met.  Apparently the chair that Washington sat in during the Constitutional Convention is still there.  It has a rising sun on it.  According to James Madison, Benjamin Franklin said, "I have often...in the course of this session...looked at that...without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."  For all of the problems with our government, we still have a great Constitution.  And our Constitution would not have been possible without George Washington.  The delegates would not have agreed to the way the executive branch was set up if they had not trusted George Washington.  They knew Washington would be the first president, and once again, he proved worthy of their trust.  Unlike so many others throughout history that abused their power, Washington led our country well and then voluntarily gave up his power.  The last stop on the tour is upstairs.  Apparently that's been used for different purposes.  I think prisoners were kept their when the British controlled Philadelphia during the Revolution.  Parties were held up there.  Artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition were once displayed there as well.  Outside Independence Hall is a statue of George Washington in the front.  Right by the statue are markers of where Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy made speeches.  On the other side is a statue of Commodore John Barry, the Father of the Navy.  I always thought John Paul Jones was the Father of the Navy.  So I googled it and apparently they're both considered the Father of the Navy.

Standing below the Father of the Country

Following that, we went to the newly opened Benjamin Franklin Museum.  It's right by where he lived toward the end of his life.  His house is outlined since it no longer stands (the only place where he lived that still stands is in London, I visited last summer).  The museum isn't that big.  It's good if you have a half hour to an hour to kill in Philadelphia.  It was only $5.  I was able to take some pictures that I used with my class this week (a copy of Poor Richard's Almanack, a pair of bifocals, stuff like that).

This was the second best selling book in the colonies for 25 years.  I'll let you figure out what was number 1.

Other stuff we saw in Philadelphia:  the building that was the National Bank that Andrew Jackson killed, the Liberty Bell, Carpenters' Hall, and European Republic.  I have some thoughts/notes about each one.  Andrew Jackson has no business being on money.  The Liberty Bell probably did not ring on July 4, 1776, but apparently it was probably one of many bells rung to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.  Carpenters' Hall was the site of the First Continental Congress.  The First Continental Congress didn't do much.  They did agree to boycott British goods, but as I know from taking Irish History at Notre Dame, they didn't call it a boycott.  How do I know that?  The word "boycott" comes from Irish history.  Charles Boycott was a British land agent in Ireland who was ostracized by the Irish in 1880.  That's where the word comes from.  So the colonies boycotted British goods, but that word didn't exist in the 1770s.  The First Continental Congress also agreed to another meeting if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed.  That meeting was the Second Continental Congress.  And we didn't go to European Republic, but I absolutely love the Huntington location.  The owner is an awesome guy.

The Liberty Bell

After that, we were off to Aston for curling.  There were five curling sheets set up.  There were 10 teams of men and women.  So all the women's teams played at 4:30 and then all the men's teams played at 8:30.  They should have put the women second.  They were the main event.  Curling is the only sport where I'm more interested in the women than the men.  Notre Dame's women's basketball team has been very successful lately.  If I had to choose between being consistently in the top 5 in women's basketball (which we have been lately) or being consistently in the top 20 in men's basketball (which we weren't that far off from for the last few years until this year), I'm definitely picking the men being in the top 20.  But our men's team is terrible this year, so I'm really rooting for the women to win the national championship (it would be a big upset if anybody other than Notre Dame or UConn won).

A panoramic shot of the curling sheets

Anyway, we saw all of our favorite curling stars.  Like Johnson!  Johnson 2!  Joraanstad!  Fenson!  And Shuster!  All of them are former Olympians.  Unfortunately for me, Johnson and Johnson 2 are married and they're Potter and Haskell now. The good news was they were on sheet A, which was closest to the stands.  There were times that I was probably 10-15 feet from them.  It was eight years ago that they were in the Olympics in their 20s, but they've still got it.  Olympic curling trials should just be Cassie and Jamie picking who they want for the other two spots on their team (Nicole Joraanstad and Jessica Schultz would be my choices).  Cassie and Jamie took on their 2006 Olympic teammate, Courtney George.  Courtney George started with the hammer and took a 1-0 lead in the first end.  Cassie and Jamie responded with three in the second end and they were in control of the game after that.  They went up 8-2 after seven ends and I was conflicted.  I wanted them to win, but I also didn't want the game to end early.  I was worried that Courtney George might concede.  Fortunately, she didn't and she scored two in the eighth and then stole two in the ninth.  So with the score 8-6, they played the tenth end.  Cassie made a shot that made it impossible for Courtney George to score two, so that was the game.  The 2014 USA Curling Nationals website says the score was "8-6 Final (9)."  I thought that was a mistake because they definitely played the tenth end, but I think I've figured out how that was correct.  I don't think all the rocks were played in the tenth end, so only nine ends were completed.  Cassie Potter and Courtney George both had one more rock, but Courtney George couldn't score two with one rock left.

Jamie and Cassie strategize.

There was another game that went ten ends, two games that went to extra ends, and one that was conceded after seven ends with a score of 12-2.  It would have been nice if Cassie had played an extra end, but I'm glad she won.  That was the first game of qualifying.  She lost her next two, but then ran off six in a row to make it to the playoffs.  Curling uses a weird playoff system.  The top two teams play each other.  The winner goes to the championship game.  The third and fourth place teams play each other.  The loser is out and the winner plays the loser of the game between the top two teams.  Then the winner of that game gets the other spot in the championship game.  Cassie was the 2 seed, but she ended up losing her two playoff games and got the bronze medal.  Oh well.  At least she got a medal.  All that really matters is that she gets back to the Olympics in 2018.

After the women's games, we got dinner in Media, where my friend Adam used to live.  We went to Iron Hill Brewery.  I had a nice seafood stew.  Unfortunately, I hadn't been feeling too good for a few days so I decided not to drink anything.

Then we went back for the men's games.  When we got there, the games were either in the second or third end.  So we didn't miss that much.  I was most interested in the games on sheets B and C.  Three-time Olympian John Shuster was on sheet B and the greatest curler in US history, Pete Fenson, was on sheet C.  Fenson was the skip of the only American team to ever win a medal in the Olympics.  One difference between men's and women's curling is that the men are much louder.  I could hear some of Cassie's calls.  Shuster was one sheet farther away and I could hear just about everything very clearly.  Both Shuster and Fenson won.  Shuster ended up going 5-4 and not making it to the playoffs.  That seems about right if you watched him in the Olympics (sorry, easy joke).  Pete Fenson finished the the 3 seed and has won two playoff games.  He's playing for the championship this afternoon.

John Shuster in the house on sheet B and Pete Fenson in the house on sheet C

Some final thoughts on curling.  There were a lot of sponsors, but the biggest one was definitely Labatt.  That just reminds me of Canada's dominance in curling.  We need to get an American beer to sponsor it in 2015.  It's a great sport to watch on TV when there are enough cameras.  I've been watching some of the tournament online and they have very limited cameras.  They have cameras that look down the ice from both sides and cameras over the houses (on some sheets).  I need those close up shots of Cassie and Jamie.  As for watching in person, it was fun.  It's easy to follow the games close to you and hard to follow the games far away.  I really didn't pay attention to what was happening on sheets D and E, but A, B, and C were not difficult to pay attention to.  They were selling beer and it would have been fun to drink, but like I said, I wasn't feeling up to it sadly.  I've spent a lot of time thinking about the best seats for different sports.  For baseball, I like sitting behind home plate at a little bit of an elevation (those seats are usually way too expensive in New York so I end up sitting behind home plate a little bit higher than would be ideal most of the time).  For football, the student section at Notre Dame is the best.  But in general, the 50 yard line at a little elevation would be ideal, but I usually end up in a corner somewhere (I usually don't have control over where I sit at Notre Dame).  For basketball, I greatly prefer the sideline over behind the basket.  Anywhere on the sideline close to the court is good.  For the Big East Tournament next week, I'll be at half court high up.  I should be able to move down for the late games.  For curling, I think the ideal location would be at a little bit of an elevation looking down the sheets.  That's where the broadcasters were for the Olympics.  We really didn't have much of a choice as the stands ran along the side of the hockey rink closest to sheet A.  Given that, curling was a little bit different from other sports.  We didn't want to be in the middle.  We sat by the house that they shot on during the odd ends.  For the odd ends, it was a pretty good seat.  For the even ends, it wasn't a particularly good seat.  We moved to the other side near the house for the tenth ends for both the women's games and the men's games.  It was fun and I'm glad I went.  It was my first time seeing curling in person and I hope it won't be the last.  I would definitely go again if it was someplace close or if it was someplace interesting that I could get to for a reasonable price.  Next year it's in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  I could probably get there for a reasonable price, but it's Kalamazoo, Michigan.  So maybe in 2016.