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.
No comments:
Post a Comment