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.

A Great Day for Canada

We're in sudden death with Canada for the gold medal.  I had to break out a running diary.  We were inches from the gold medal in the third period when we sent the puck down the ice and hit the post on the empty net.  Then Canada scored to tie with less than a minute left.  Now we have 20 minutes of sudden death and then possibly a shootout.  Hopefully this won't turn out to be a disaster.

2:36- Here we go.

2:37- Both teams get decent chances early.

2:37- The US gets a few good chances.  We're controlling the play early in overtime.

2:38- Canada has come on a little bit.

2:39- Glove save by the US goalie.  Now that we have a stoppage, it's worth mentioning that I definitely couldn't name more than three of the American players.  I don't care.  I want to beat Canada and win the gold.

2:42- Canada has played better than us for the last few minutes.

2:43- Penalty on Canada.  Let's win a gold medal.  13:51 to play.

2:45- Our power play lasted five seconds.  Slashing penalty on the US.  The NBC broadcasters don't like the call.

2:46- Three on three.  Why do they play four on four in overtime?  That's silly.  If I remember correctly, it started in the NHL to open up the ice in overtime.  They also started making an overtime loss worth one point.  The purpose was to have fewer ties (open ice, a loss being the same as a tie so you might as well go for the win).  But then the NHL put in the shootout so there are no more ties anyway.  They should have gone back to five on five overtime.

2:48- The US takes a penalty to stop a breakaway.  I'm not sure why this isn't a penalty shot, but okay.  12:29 to play.  I'd settle for a shootout at this point.

2:50- Now this is weird.  Canada is going to end up with five players on the ice because of the way the penalties are going to shake out here.

2:51- Canada scores.  Heart breaking loss.

Do I really care about women's hockey?  No, of course not.  However, the United States and Canada are the only women's hockey powers in the world.  We beat Canada twice in the 1998 Olympics and those are the only Olympic games they've ever lost (women's hockey has only been an Olympic sport since 1998).  In men's hockey, a silver medal isn't terrible because there are several countries that are good.  But in women's hockey, a silver medal means we failed.  I'll forget about this pretty soon, but for today, it's disappointing.  Hopefully we'll get revenge tomorrow in men's hockey.  I'll be back later for the women's curling gold medal game.

5:01- Open wide for some curling!  I'm back for the women's gold medal game.  They just showed Eve Muirhead's shot to win the bronze.  Canada takes on Sweden for the gold.  The game happened in the morning and I was going to do this live, but they didn't show it on TV live.  I could have watched it on my phone, but I didn't want to do that.  I tried to avoid finding out what happened.  Unfortunately, I was not successful, but I'm still going to do this anyway.

5:02- They show how Canada lost to Sweden in 2010 in the gold medal game.  Up two in the tenth, you have to hold on and win that one.  We get a rematch tonight.  This is quite a curling rivalry.

5:07- We have bagpipes and everything to get us ready for this game.

5:08- Canada beat Sweden in eight ends earlier in the Olympics.  The teams are being introduced.  I haven't seen Sweden play at all.  Unfortunately, it looks like there's not much talent on the Swedish team.  Canada has Kaitlyn Lawes (not terrible) and Jennifer Jones (probably the most talented curler of this Olympics).

5:10- Canada is 3-2 against Sweden.  Like I said, this is quite a rivalry.  Canada had a choice between the hammer or color of stones as the higher seed.  That's an interesting choice.  Canada takes the hammer.  Sweden takes the red rocks.  I'm not happy about that because I don't like it when countries have yellow or red in their flag and then have the opposite colored rocks.  If they switched colors, both countries would have rocks that match their flags.

5:11- Sweden's skip throws first rocks and she starts by putting one on the button, but Canada takes it out right away.

5:17- Two rocks in the house with three rocks left for each team in the first end.

5:18- The sideline reporter tells us that the Swiss team was bike riding and looking sad after losing the bronze medal game.

5:19- Jennifer Jones is about to throw her first rock.  She has the best percentage of anybody who threw last rocks in the Olympics.  I have absolutely no idea how curling percentages are calculated.

5:21- Last rock for Sweden in the first end.  They have shot rock.  They knock a Canadian rock out of the house and they're lying three.  Canada will have to settle for one in the first end.

5:23- Good sweeping to get around a guard and Canada moves Sweden's shot rock out of the way to take one.

5:28- CNBC comes back from commercial and we're already halfway through the second end.  Really cool camera shot that followed the Canadian rock down the ice.  Canada has two rocks in the house.

5:31- Sweden misses with a shot.  They tapped Canada's shot rock closer to the button and gave it better protection from a few guards out in front of the house.

5:33- Sweden moves some guards around and gets one of their stones second closest to the button.

5:35- Jennifer Jones puts up a guard with her final rock of the second end.  Four rocks in the house.  Canada has shot rock.

5:36- I have no idea what Sweden's going to try here.

5:37- Nice shot to get one.  They hit a guard into a Swedish rock into the Canadian shot rock to tie the game.

5:41- I'm googling pictures of Jennifer Jones to find one to put in here.

There we go.  Like I said, the most talented curler of the 2014 Olympics.

5:43- We could have our first blank end.  One rock in the house with three to go in the end.

5:46- Last rock for Canada.  There's a Swedish rock in the house.  Jennifer Jones will try to get that out and blank the end.  And she nailed the shot.  1-1 after three.

5:51- Halfway through the fourth end, Sweden is lying two.

5:55- I just googled Cheryl Bernard (Canada's skip in 2010).

Canada had the most talented curler in 2010 also.

5:57- One Canadian rock and one Swedish rock in the house.  Canada is going to play the runback to get rid of the Swedish rock.

5:58- Jennifer Jones almost got rid of both rocks in the house, but the Canadian rock hangs on.

5:59- Jennifer Jones is at 96% for the game.  She's thrown seven rocks so far.  I have no idea how you get 96% out of seven.

6:00- Sweden goes for a double with their last rock, but they can only get one Canadian rock out of the house.  This should be an easy two for Canada.  Canada scores at least two 51% of the time with the hammer.  The Americans did not score two 51% of the time with the hammer.

6:01- Some vigorous sweeping gets the rock into the house easily and Canada scores two.  They lead 3-1.

6:02- Which picture of Cassie and Jamie Johnson should I use to show the most talented curlers in Olympic history?

USA! USA! USA!  I miss them.

6:04- I put on the Starters on NBATV.  I do love Leigh Ellis's Australian accent (the Aussies clearly have the best accent).  They're talking about the Pacers trading for Evan Turner.  I'm definitely rooting for Larry Bird's Pacers to win the championship this year.

6:07- Pretty cool Coca-Cola commercial right now.

6:09- Nice shot by Sweden to bump a Canadian rock that was shot rock.  Sweden is lying two in the fifth end.

6:10- Jill Officer and Kaitlyn Lawes are struggling for Canada, but Officer just came up with a nice shot to get rid of both Swedish rocks in the house.  Canada is lying two now.

6:11- Bad shot by Kaitlyn Lawes.  She's down to 47%.

6:13- Another bad shot for Lawes.  We get an "eh" from Jennifer Jones.  I mentioned how I love the Aussie accent.  The Canadians don't really have an accent that's distinguishable from my accent, they just say words wrong.  If I just heard a Canadian, I wouldn't be able to tell they were Canadian until they said something like "aboot" or "organ-eye-zation" or "eh."

6:14- Sweden is lying three with skip stones still to come in the fifth.

6:17- "Never ever ever ever."  Jennifer Jones was not happy with that shot.

6:18- Big shot by Sweden.  They're lying three again and both countries have one rock left.

6:20- Good shot by Jennifer Jones.  Sweden is lying one, but if they can get a double here, they'll score four.

6:23- Sweden can't get the double.  They score two to tie the game 3-3 after five ends.

6:31- After the fifth end break, Sweden starts the sixth end by putting their first rock very close to the button.

6:34- I just googled Pyeongchang, which is the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics.  They're fourteen hours ahead.  Sochi is nine hours ahead.  Nine hours ahead wasn't too bad.  Tomorrow's hockey game is at noon.  That's pretty good (especially since I don't have work).  We've had hockey games at 7:30 in the morning.  Not as good as noon, but not terrible.  If we're playing hockey games at 2:30 in the morning in four years, that's no good.

6:38- Good news for the 2016 Olympics.  Rio de Janeiro is two hours ahead.  That's going to be fantastic.

6:39- Canada blanks the sixth end.  Sweden would love to force Canada to take one in the seventh and get the hammer back for the even ends.

6:41- It looks like Canada wants to blank this end also.  Kaitlyn Lawes leaves a rock out in front of the house.

6:42- No rocks in play after Sweden takes out Canada's rock.

6:43- Canada puts one in the house, but Sweden will get rid of it.  The play by play guy points out that there aren't many team sports where you can't take out a player that is performing poorly.  The analyst points out that you can bring in the alternate at the start of an end, but that would be very unusual.

6:45- Jennifer Jones gets rid of the Swedish rock and we have another blank end.  Tied at three with three ends to play.

6:48- Canada is 8-1 when tied with three ends to go and with the hammer.  Sweden is 7-7 when they don't have the hammer in that situation.

6:49- We have some rocks in play early.  This won't be another blank end.

6:50- Big double for Jill Officer.

6:55- Another bad shot by Kaitlyn Lawes as Canada is looking to score in the eighth.  Sweden is lying one as we're down to skip stones.

6:57- Sweden puts another one in the house.

6:58- Nice shot by Jennifer Jones.  Canada has shot rock.

7:00- Jennifer Jones has one shot left.  Sweden just put another rock in the house and it's tough to tell which team has shot rock.  I think it's Canada, but I'm not sure.  We might get a measurement if nothing moves on this last shot.

7:02- Jennifer Jones comes up short.  We're going to have a measurement to see who gets one.

7:04- The measurement gives the point to Canada.  They lead 4-3 going to the ninth.

7:14- Sweden has a rock on the button.  They really want to score two.

7:15- Sweden's rock picked.  You could see it just turn to its left.  The analyst points out that you should always have one broom on the ice to keep that from happening.

7:16- Kaitlyn Lawes makes a big shot to get rid of a Swedish rock.  Canada is lying three.

7:20- Big miss by Sweden.  Canada is still lying three with skip stones left in the ninth.

7:22- Jennifer Jones puts one close to the button.  Canada is lying four.

7:26- Canada is strategizing.  As Vernon Davis says, there's more strategy in curling than football.

7:28- Jennifer Jones puts one right by the button.  Sweden will have to take one.

7:29- Huge miss by Sweden and Canada steals two.  Canada leads 6-3 with one end to play.  Sweden has the hammer, but I don't see them scoring three.  Canada will just keep the house clean.

7:34- Canada just throws their first rock right through the house.

7:35- Sweden puts up a guard, which Canada can't move for now because of the free guard zone rule.  Canada puts another one through the house.

7:36- Another guard for Sweden on the other side of the center line.  Canada peels it off.

7:37- Sweden puts a guard closer to the house.  Canada peels off the first guard.  Five rocks left for Sweden and they need three of them to score.

7:38- Another guard.  I'm certainly no expert on curling strategy, but I think you have to come into the house sooner.  You're running out of rocks.

7:39- Canada peels a guard.  Sweden puts a shot through the house with the help of some sweeping by Jennifer Jones.  Sweden has to score all of their last three rocks.  That's not going to happen.

7:40- Canada peels Sweden's last guard.  Sweden will put one in the house and Canada will get rid of it and win the gold.

7:42- Jennifer Jones is cleaning the bottom of the rock.  She can win the gold medal with this shot.

7:43- There it is.  Canada wins.  Somewhere, Stephen Abootman is very proud.

Congratulations, Stephen.