The Pflueger Pflick

I once ranked my ten favorite days of the year.  The first four days of the NCAA tournament took the number four spot (I cheated).  It's my policy that I don't work that Friday.  The first Friday of the tournament for me is like when it rains for Newman.  I've been teaching for eight years now.  I get two personal days a year.  My first year, I didn't take any personal days because my principal was crazy.  I've taken the first Friday of the tournament every year since then with one exception.  The exception was 2013 because I used my two personal days for the National Championship Game.  So instead I used a sick day (one of the three sick days in eight years, everybody was cool with it) and went to the tournament in Philadelphia.  So I knew I'd be taking last Friday off before basketball season even started.  Then Notre Dame ended up playing Brooklyn that day.  It was a night game so it didn't really matter if I was off or not, but I preferred the night game anyway.  I had been enjoying some age-appropriate beverages the night before while watching the games.

I got off to a great start in this tournament.  I had the first 15 games right.  Gonzaga beating Seton Hall was the only one I was wrong about.  Days 2-4 were not as good, but I ended up winning the first round in my pool at work.  But the only games I really cared about were the two games we played in.  I really don't care too much about my picks.  I just want Notre Dame to win.  My feelings for Michigan are well-known.  We beat them 31-0 (but really 37-0) in our last football game.  I'd be perfectly happy never playing them again in anything.  But the tournament committee had other ideas.  I was rooting against Michigan in the play in game because I could take losing to Tulsa, but I couldn't take losing to Michigan.  Of course, Notre Dame ended up playing Michigan.

Kyle and I bought tickets for the tournament shortly after the selection show.  Friday was a wild day of basketball, but I missed most of the exciting games.  I listened to the end of the Michigan State-Middle Tennessee game in the car on my way to the Hicksville train station.  Actually I stopped first at Chopt because it was a Friday in Lent and I figured there wouldn't be great meatless options at Barclays Center.  By the way, now that there's a Chopt on Long Island, I think it gets the number 2 spot on my Fast Food Power Rankings.  It's delicious and it's healthy.  I also missed the half-court shot by Northern Iowa to win and the late dunk that would have sent the St. Joseph's-Cincinnati game to overtime.  And that's one of the reasons that I don't love the idea of going to the tournament, especially during the first round with so many games going on.  I wouldn't have gone if Notre Dame wasn't in Brooklyn.  But a Notre Dame win would make missing some exciting finishes worth it.

The first game was West Virginia-Stephen F. Austin.  For the session we went to, Michigan had the most fans, we were second, West Virginia third, and Stephen F. Austin was last.  Wilhelm described Stephen F. Austin people as "backwoods folks" who "don't leave the state.  But neutral fans were definitely on their side.  I got there early, but Kyle was stuck at work.  Early on, I thought West Virginia was clearly better and they were on the verge of blowing Stephen F. Austin out.  They were up 20-11.  But Stephen F. Austin hung around and by the time Kyle got there, I think it was 20-19.  They really controlled the game from there.  Thomas Walkup was the story of the game for Stephen F. Austin.  He finished with 33 points (19-20 at the line), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block.  Stephen F. Austin won 70-56.

Our view from the last row

Then it was time for the main event.  Mike Brey made a lineup change with Matt Farrell in the starting lineup.  I still don't get it, but we've now won two tournament games with Farrell in the starting lineup, so whatever.  We played a pretty ugly first half and trailed 41-29 at halftime.  But I wasn't really too worried.  We've beaten good teams after getting down double digits (North Carolina, Louisville, Duke) and this was Michigan.  The second half was a different story.  Steve Vasturia didn't play a great game, but he made some plays early in the half.  V.J. Beachem played the best game of his college career (18 points, 7-7 shooting, 6 rebounds).  Rex Pflueger played some good defense.  Beachem gave us our first lead with a three that made it 51-48, but Michigan came right back with two threes to retake the lead.  Beachem later tied the game at 56 with a three.  When it was tied at 59, Beachem hit another three to give us the lead for good.  After making a mistake and taking a bad shot after getting an offensive rebound that gave Michigan the ball back down three with 44 seconds to go, Bonzie Colson hit two free throws to ice it with 11 seconds left.  We ended up defeating the forces of evil 70-63.  I got home around 2:00 in the morning.  I didn't care after a game like that.

I knew I was going back on Sunday.  Kyle ended up not being able to make it.  My dad was going to go, but he wasn't feeling good Sunday morning.  It was the earliest session of the day so I listed the extra ticket on Stubhub before going back to sleep.  My plan was to get up later and see if I could find somebody to come if the ticket hadn't sold.  But it sold for a profit of about $20 before I got up again.  So I went by myself on Sunday.  The first game was Villanova-Iowa.  This time, Villanova easily had the most fans, we were second again, and Iowa was third.  When I walked around Barclays Center, I didn't see a single person wearing a Stephen F. Austin shirt.  But again, the neutral fans would go for them (except for maybe Villanova basketball/Notre Dame football fans or Villanova fans who follow my policy of rooting for Catholic schools first).  Villanova pounded Iowa.  It's not worth talking about that.

Our game with Stephen F. Austin ended up being a classic.  A lot of fans left after the first game, so I moved to a seat near half court (still high up).  During pregame introductions, I applauded the Notre Dame players of course, but I also applauded Thomas Walkup for his performance on Friday night.  In this game, Walkup was very good, but he wasn't as dominant as he was against West Virginia (he did draw three fouls on one possession, but 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists wasn't going to kill us).  It was a back and forth game.  We went into halftime up 42-41 when V.J. Beachem made a three at the buzzer.  We got a couple of five-point leads in the second half and led by seven at one point, but Stephen F. Austin just wouldn't go away.  After getting that seven point lead, that was when Walkup drew three fouls on one possession and finished it off with a three-point play.  That started an 11-2 run for Stephen F. Austin.  We went back up 70-68, but then it looked like Stephen F. Austin was taking over.  Walkup hit two free throws to make it 75-70 with 2:05 to play.  Stephen F. Austin didn't score again.  Demetrius Jackson got a layup on an inbound play with 1:35 left.  Jackson hit two free throws with 47 seconds left to make it a one-point game (unlike last year against Kentucky, Brey went two for one, good call).  We got the ball back with 23 seconds left after Walkup missed a jumper.  Brey didn't call a timeout (good call again) and Jackson drove to the basket and missed.  Zach Auguste got the offensive rebound and missed (he was probably fouled, but he's not a great free throw shooter anyway).  Then Rex Pflueger scored his only basket of the game on a tip in with 1.5 seconds left (by the way, Dennis gets credit for the title of this post).  I gave a big fist pump and yelled out "Yeah!" when it went in.  Stephen F. Austin missed a heave that would have won it (it wasn't close).  Beachem had 15 points and 7 rebounds, Auguste had 16 points and 15 rebounds, Jackson had 18 points, and Pflueger had the two biggest points of the game.  It was pretty special.

My view for Notre Dame's win over Stephen F. Austin

It's probably the best basketball game I've been to.  I've never been to a game with more on the line (I've never been to an NBA playoff game, these are the only two games I've been to this deep into the NCAA Tournament).  I've seen some good games, but this one meant more, it was back and forth the whole game, it had a great finish, and my favorite team moved closer to a championship.  I think it's kind of like the basketball version of the 2014 Stanford game.

So this NCAA Tournament experience was pretty awesome.  I might try to go next year to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden.  Notre Dame has made it to consecutive Sweet Sixteens for the first time since the 1970s.  And we're not done.  We play Wisconsin tomorrow.  That's a game that could go either way.  If we win that, we play a team that we've beaten once this year (and got blown out by, but check out what happened in our three games against Duke last year) or a team we should have beaten.  We definitely aren't the favorite to come out of this weekend, but making the Final Four is not impossible.

Three notes about the NCAA Tournament to finish.  First, they fixed the naming of the rounds (I was ready to make some joke about how Brey's streak of making it to at least the second round in four straight tournament appearances could be snapped this year).  We don't have 60 teams getting a bye into the second round anymore (out of the 64 that play in that round).  The other thing that they sort of fixed was the courts.  I absolutely hated those bland standardized courts.  The courts this year are better, but they should just have one color out of bounds (other than whatever writing there is).  And I don't like the key being white (any other color would be better) and the free throw semicircle being a different shade from the rest of the non-key area inside the three point line.  It's much better than what it was, but they really should just let each arena use its own court.  If you want to slap a March Madness logo at halfcourt and some NCAA Tournament decals out of bounds, I'm fine with that, but they each arena should have its own personality (like Brooklyn's black theme).  And the last thing is not selling alcohol.  It's ridiculous.  This is America.  An adult should be able to buy a beer at a basketball game.  Whatever, there was plenty of beer waiting at home for me to celebrate.

We're not done yet.  Go Irish!

Bill Murray and Basketball

I wasn't planning on blogging the Big East Tournament this year.  I was only going to three games and I've blogged about the Big East Tournament before (2013, 2014, and 2015).  Two years ago, I went to seven Big East games.  Last year, I only did five, but I also did the two Atlantic 10 semifinal games.  The only games I planned on going to this year were the Thursday night doubleheader and the championship game on Saturday (the Big East Championship starting at 5:30 made the Saturday triple-header that I did last year impossible).

So why am I doing this post?  On Thursday night, I went with Vin for the fourth time in five years (he sat out in 2013 because he got sick).  After watching what I could of Notre Dame's awesome win over Duke on my iPad, I got to Madison Square Garden shortly after the start of the first game (thanks to the other middle school teachers at my school who let me skip our last parent-teacher conference because she was running late and I had a train to catch) and Vin got there maybe ten minutes after I did.  We were sitting in the same section as last year, just one row closer.  Xavier beat Marquette pretty easily in the first game.  Seton Hall won a more competitive game over Creighton.  We actually stayed for the entirety of the two games.  That doesn't often happen (especially when I go on the Thursday night and I have work the next day).  Cole Huff had 35 points of Creighton.  Isaiah Whitehead had 24 points and 12 rebounds and Khadeen Carrington had 27 points for Seton Hall.  Staying for the whole thing turned out to be perfect timing because we ended up walking out of Madison Square Garden right as Bill Murray was walking out of the Garden.  His son is an assistant coach with Xavier.  Vin caught up to him and was talking to him as I walked behind.  Bill wouldn't stop for pictures, but he allowed Vin to take pictures as they walked.  And you can see me in the background of one of the pictures.  I ended up missing my train as a result and had to take one about a half hour later.  I got home around 1:45 and got to sleep around 2:00.

My view for the Big East Tournament

Phil?  Phil Connors?

The other reason I wanted to blog about the Big East Tournament is that although I couldn't do a Saturday triple-header, I was able to do a Saturday double-header.  Stony Brook was playing in the America East Championship Game for the fifth time in six years.  They had never made it to the NCAA Tournament before.  They were hosting the game on campus at 11:00.  Their website explained how they were selling tickets.  Season ticket holders got tickets first and a certain amount were allotted for students.  Then I think university employees could buy tickets.  If there were any left, they would go on sale to the public on Thursday, but you had to buy them in person.  If there were any left after that, anybody could buy them on Friday.  They didn't even get to the public sale on Thursday, but you could send an email to be put on a waiting list.  I figured I wasn't likely to get tickets, but it was worth a shot.  On Friday morning, I got a call from Stony Brook.  I got another teacher to watch my class so I could call and get tickets.  So I went to Stony Brook on Saturday morning.  I've mentioned it before on the blog, but I spent a year as a student at Stony Brook.  Look, I have no allegiance to Stony Brook because of that.  Not only did I never attend a Stony Brook sporting event as a student, I had no idea what was going on with Stony Brook sports other than the fact that they were Division I.  The only reason I wanted Stony Brook to win was because I wanted a local team in the tournament (sadly, Hofstra blew a 12 point lead in the second half of their championship game).

So my dad was going to come to Stony Brook and the Big East Championship with me, but he got sick.  So I went to Stony Brook by myself.  Unlike the Big East Championship, this was a game that actually meant something (Villanova and Seton Hall were both going to the tournament either way).  Stony Brook's arena was recently renovated and it only holds a little over 4,000.  It was nice and it was a great atmosphere.  Besides the game actually meaning something, everybody there really cared.  Stony Brook was taking on Vermont.  I wanted to see Jameel Warney and he didn't disappoint.  Also, Stony Brook's starting point guard went to Harborfields (Lucas Woodhouse), but he only scored two points.  Early on, Warney was the only one doing anything for Stony Brook.  Vermont led by 15 in the second half, but Stony Brook battled back.  Carson Puriefoy started helping out Warney and he finished with 23 points.  But Warney couldn't be stopped.  He had 43 points (18 for 22 shooting) and 10 rebounds.  Stony Brook ended up winning by six.  I took a video of the last couple of seconds and the aftermath because I knew the students would storm the court.  It was really cool.

My view for the Stony Brook game

As for the Big East, my dad was still hoping to go, but by the time I got back from Stony Brook, he had decided not to go.  I had to run out quickly for my train, so I quickly listed my other ticket on Stubhub.  My plan was to text a few of my friends in the city once I got on the train to see if they wanted to join and then delete the listing on Stubhub if I could find somebody, but it sold before I even made it to the train station (fortunately I made a profit).  So after going to mass at St. Francis right by Penn Station, I headed back to Madison Square Garden.  It was nice having two old Big East teams playing for the championship.  The game was announced as a sellout (the first in the Big East Tournament since all the football schools left) and the crowd was into it.  It seemed to me like there were more Villanova fans, but Seton Hall was well represented also.  Seton Hall played a great first half.  Villanova came back and took the lead late.  But Isaiah Whitehead had a three-point play to give Seton Hall the lead again with 18 seconds left.  Whitehead finished with 26 points.

For Seton Hall, it was there first Big East Championship in 23 years.  It was nice to have the Garden really excited.  There are five teams in the Big East that will bring a lot of fans to the Garden (the old teams:  St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Providence), and five teams that won't (the new teams:  Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, and Creighton).  So I always prefer to see the old teams because that will get the Garden excited.  What we really need is for St. John's to be good.  St. John's now has the longest Big East Championship drought (2000 was their last one).  And the new teams haven't won any yet (and Marquette and DePaul have been in the conference for a while now).  I would still love to see the Big East add two more teams to improve the Wednesday night of the tournament (it was a dreadful pair of games this year).  Ideally, they'd add teams that would draw to the Garden.  Holy Cross would be great if they committed to basketball again (they could make up for their mistake of not joining in 1979).  They probably could take anybody they wanted from the Atlantic 10, but they only school that would bring fans to the Garden share markets with teams already in the Big East.  Dayton and St. Louis make some sense for financial reasons, but they probably won't bring too many fans to the Garden.

I don't really know what I'm going to do next year.  The ACC is coming to Brooklyn at the same time as the Big East Tournament.  I think my plan is to try to get tickets for both and then decide what I want to go to (hopefully getting to at least one session at both, but it could really depend on what Notre Dame's schedule is) and sell the rest.

So let's get to my annual tournament rankings (here are 2014 and 2015).  This has very little to do with how good I think the teams are.  It is entirely based on what I want to see happen.  You know who's number one and you should know who's number 70 (yes, I know, it's a 68 team tournament).  Here we go:

70. Michigan
The worst case scenario.

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

67. Syracuse
66. Kentucky
Boeheim or Calipari.  Which is worse?  Tough call.

65. USC
Notre Dame's one true rival in football.  I don't hate them the way I hate Michigan, but I don't want to see them win either.

64.   North Carolina
63.   Duke
I hate both of these teams.  Duke gets the edge for caring about academics and because Notre Dame owns them, so they can win a championship, but Coach K knows that his former assistant owns him.  We're 5-1 against Duke since joining the ACC (3-3 against North Carolina, not bad).

That's right.

62. Indiana
61. Wisconsin
60. Purdue
59. Maryland
58. Iowa
57. Michigan State
I had the Big Ten teams ranked behind Duke and North Carolina last year, but that was wrong.  I was rooting for Wisconsin to beat Duke in the championship game.  But I do still hate the Big Ten.

56. Oregon
55. West Virginia
Ugly uniforms and Bob Huggins.

54. Pittsburgh
Notre Dame had a solid year in basketball, but we lost to them on my birthday.  And they're usually annoying when we play them in football.

53. Tulsa
52. Chattanooga
51. Stephen F. Austin
50. Weber State
Tulsa would be in a much different spot because they do play Michigan in the first round and I would love to see them beat Michigan, but winning the championship would mean that they would beat Notre Dame also.  These teams are only really here because they're in the same bracket as Notre Dame.

49. Cal
Dirty smelly hippies.

48. Miami
Convicts.

47. Connecticut
I used to hate Connecticut a lot more, but Jim Calhoun isn't there anymore.  I have nothing against Kevin Ollie.  Their women's team is as detestable as a women's basketball team could be.

46. Cincinnati
A non-Catholic school from the old Big East.

45. Colorado
A state with terrible drug laws.

44. Oklahoma
Their football program has no academic standards.  I imagine the basketball team doesn't either.

43. Iowa State
42. Vanderbilt
41. Oregon State
40. Utah
39. Arizona
A bunch of power conference teams that I have no thoughts about.

38. Temple
Whatever.

37. Kansas
Paul Pierce went to Kansas.

36. Fresno State
We're getting into teams that don't play in major conferences.

35. Hawaii
It would be pretty cool if a team from one of three states in the entire country without a professional baseball team (Alaska and Wyoming are the others) did anything and they're playing the dirty smelly hippies from Cal.

34. Middle Tennessee
33. Buffalo
More teams that don't play in major conferences.

32. Virginia
Thomas Jefferson's school and a school that cares about academics.

31. Texas Tech
30. Baylor
29. Texas A&M
28. Texas
Don't mess with Texas.

27. UNC Ashville
26. Northern Iowa
25. Little Rock
24. Wichita State
23. VCU
22. South Dakota State
21. Cal State Bakersfield
20. Green Bay
19. UNC Wilmington
Now we're getting into schools that don't play major college football.  We haven't had a team like that win a National Championship in basketball since Villanova in 1984.

18. Yale
They haven't been to the tournament since 1962.  I'm not much of a fan of the Ivy League, but they do care about educating their athletes.

17. Southern
16. Fairleigh Dickinson
15. Austin Peay
14. Hampton
13. Florida Gulf Coast
I would love to see a 16 seed win a game.

12. Butler
The non-Catholic Big East school (I used to root against those teams, but not Butler) and the team that Brad Stevens used to coach.

11. Stony Brook
I already covered them.

10. Gonzaga
9. St. Joseph's
8. Dayton
7. Iona
6. Holy Cross
We're getting into the Catholic schools.  I know some people who went to Holy Cross.  Iona is a somewhat local team.  Dayton plays Syracuse in the first round, which puts them ahead of the other two.  Gonzaga has been in the tournament plenty over the years and they haven't done much in the tournament recently, so they're behind St. Joseph's.

5. Xavier
4. Villanova
3. Providence
2. Seton Hall
The Big East Catholic schools.  Seton Hall won the Big East Tournament (that might be my new determining factor for who gets number two on the list or number one if Notre Dame isn't in the tournament).  Xavier is last of the four because they're a new Big East team.  Providence goes ahead of Villanova because Providence plays USC in the first round and Villanova has been disappointing recently in the tournament.

1. Notre Dame
Of course.

I was planning on seeing Notre Dame play next year at the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, but the NCAA took care of me.  We play on Friday night in Brooklyn.  Of course, it's my policy that I don't work on the first Friday of the tournament (this will be seven straight years), so I could have gone if we were playing Friday afternoon, but I like this better.  I'll watch the afternoon games at home and then I'll head to Brooklyn for the night session with Kyle.  It will be my second trip to the NCAA Tournament (I went in Philadelphia in 2013), but my first with Notre Dame playing.  Go Irish!

Notre Dame Nostalgia

I've been back to Notre Dame 14 times since I graduated.  Every single time I was back was for football weekend in the fall, with one exception.  I went back for the Blue-Gold Game and a Cubs game in April of 2009.  And I do love Notre Dame football, but that certainly wasn't the only thing I love about Notre Dame.  So this weekend was the first time I was back for anything other than football.  This was also my first trip back in more than a year (since the Stanford game in 2014), which is the longest I've gone without being on campus since I graduated.

During that April 2009 trip, I also went to a Notre Dame baseball game that weekend to see Golden Tate play.  I think that was the only Notre Dame baseball game I've been to.  I was trying to think of how many basketball games I went to as a student and it wasn't many.  I'm pretty sure that the only games I went to my first semester were a win against Rutgers at home and then a loss to Rutgers at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament (when a win might have gotten us into the tournament).  The next year, the only games I remember going to were against Georgetown and Villanova.  I might have gone to one or two others (and I think I went to a women's game or two with Tim).  But for those games against Georgetown and Villanova, we got there really early and got into the first row of the student section.  We lost to Georgetown by three in double overtime.  Villanova was ranked number 6 and it was looking good for us.  I remember they cleared stuff out in front of the student section because they were preparing for us to rush the court.  It was tied and then Kyle Lowrie tipped in the game-winner with 1.7 seconds left.  On ESPN.com, there was a picture where you could clearly see me in the background.  And one of the Chicago newspapers put a picture from the end of the game on the cover of the sports section where you could very clearly see all of my friends in the front row and then I was cut off.  I'm pretty sure I didn't go to any basketball games my final semester.  I was not too enthusiastic about basketball after the two previous seasons and our non-conference home games probably weren't too exciting anyway.  I went to a few hockey games.  I think my last one was the night before my last football game as a student (the game Kyle played in).  We beat Michigan State 4-1 that night.  I remember wanting football to be my last sporting event as a student so I didn't go to any games my last month as a student.

I first arrived on campus as a student in January 2005.  It had snowed the day before I arrived.  The students were still a day away from returning for the spring semester.  I remember just walking around campus and looking at everything in the freshly fallen snow and thinking how great it looked.  I also remember how it just snowed all the time that winter.  When it wasn't snowing, it started snowing.  Usually the snow wasn't too heavy, but it was a constant presence.  It's all part of Notre Dame.  It was also cold.  There was one weekend in 2006 when it was so cold that I'm pretty sure I left the dorm once per day to get something to eat and that was it (I could go to mass in the dorm, so I didn't have to worry about leaving for that).  So it was appropriate that the high on Saturday for my first non-football trip back to campus was 13 degrees and it was snowing.  I actually thoroughly enjoyed it.  This coming weekend it's supposed to be 57.  I'm glad I went went it was cold and snowy.  It reminded me of my time as a student.  If it had been warm, it wouldn't have felt right for the winter.

So anyway, I flew in on Friday night.  I stayed at the O'Hare Airport Hilton and then took the bus early the next morning.  On Saturday night I was staying at the Inn at St. Mary's.  After dropping off my stuff, I headed to campus around 1:00.  I decided to walk and it was cold, but it didn't bother me (when I'm home, I hate anything below 30 degrees, but I was good). My first stop was the Grotto.  It's pretty much the first thing you come to when you're walking from St. Mary's, but I'm glad that was my first stop.  It looked gorgeous with the snow.  I stopped, lit a candle, and said some prayers.  I spent a good amount of time there when I was a student.  When you go for football, the Grotto is always so crowded.  That's why I would try to stop by early on Sunday morning when I would stay with Jon when he was in law school.  It was nice to be there again with just a few other people.

First stop

Next up was my old home, St. Edward's Hall.  I'm pretty sure I hadn't been inside since I last stayed with Jon when he was an AR there in 2013.  It's been renovated since then.  The lounge looked very different.  It looked nice, but the furniture is already beaten up. And there should really just be two recliners there permanently in honor of Jon and me.  I walked around for a little bit.  The old place looked good.  I went up to the fourth floor where I lived during my entire time there.  There was my first semester with Kyle when we had a quad that was pretty much a glorified double because Dan and Jorge were very rarely there.  They almost never slept there (I could probably count on one hand the number of times that all four of us were asleep in our beds at the same time).  And then at the end of the semester Dan got kicked out for a keg party (not that it really changed much since he was never there anyway).  My favorite memory from living there was when Kyle, Jorge, and I stole cable in the middle of the night.  We got a cable splitter and laid a cable from the fourth floor lounge to our room.  We did it in the middle of the night as if that was going to keep people from noticing.  We had to disconnect it after a week, but we did have it for St. Patrick's Day 2005, which was the greatest random Thursday in the history of sports.  My next year I lived in a glorified single because my roommate was a football player that probably spent 10-20 nights there the whole year.  And I was with Nick my final semester.  I was really the honorary fifth roommate with Jon, Dennis, Wilhelm, and Chris that semester.  The best story from living with Nick was very unfortunate for him.  His bed was the victim of some drunken freshman shenanigans one night that he wasn't in the room.  I'm not going into details, but that probably made it sound even worse than it was.  Before leaving, I checked out some pictures of all the guys from the dorm each year that were on the wall on the first floor.  I found the one from the spring of 2006, but I couldn't find myself in it.  I feel like I would have participated in that, but maybe not.

My old home

After St. Ed's, I walked around Main Quad and took some pictures.  Then I went to the bookstore and looked around, but I didn't buy anything.  From there, I walked over to the library to take a look at Touchdown Jesus.

Such a beautiful sight

Touchdown Jesus

Stay warm, Father Joyce and Father Hesburgh.

Finally, it was time for my stadium tour.  If I remember correctly, they didn't do those when I was a student.  I remember that the RAs got to take a stadium tour, but I don't think that they had them for the public (although let's not rule out the possibility that I was an idiot and didn't realize that they were available then).  So I've always wanted to do it, but they never had them on football weekends.  Back in 2013 when I was out there a day early because I was off on a Friday for All Saints Day, I did the tunnel tour, which is where you can walk down the tunnel to the field (something I had done as a student), but that was all you got to see.  The stadium tour actually starts in the Joyce Center.  They were already letting people in for the basketball game, so they kind of rushed us through the Purcell Pavilion side (with a short stop in Heritage Hall, which is pretty cool) and into the field house.  I think the first time I was ever in there was with Jorge for some fencing and I met Mariel Zagunis, who won gold medals in 2004 and 2008.  Jorge didn't tell me until later that it was the gold medal winner.  That used to be where we played hockey.  And it was a crappy set up for hockey.  I'm glad I got to see it again because later it would help me to appreciate the Compton Family Ice Arena even more.  The highlight of course is the football stadium.  It was interesting to see how it looks from the inside with the renovations going on (they've definitely made some progress since our last home game in November).  You don't really see all that much inside the stadium other than the locker room and the field, but that's all I needed to see anyway.  I guess it would be nice to go into the press box, but I don't think we have a press box right now with the current state of the renovations.  The locker room was really cool.  They tell some stories in there about the history of Notre Dame football (most of which I knew already anyway).  Then you get to walk down the steps and touch the Play Like a Champion Today sign.  This was awesome.  I have a Learn Like a Champion Today sign in my classroom so my students will appreciate the picture of me touching the sign.  Then you get to walk out to the field.  It was covered in snow, but I did get to stand in the end zone.  People had dug out a couple of small patches where you could see the field turf (I miss the grass, but alas).  I dragged my foot along the field turf to kick up the black rubber pellets.  I picked up a couple of them.

Win just one for the Gipper.

The locker room

Play Like a Champion Today

The east side of the stadium

The west side of the stadium

Me in the end zone

I could have stayed on the field for as long as they would let us, but I had a ticket for the basketball game, which was already starting.  So I rushed over to Purcell Pavilion.  I got in right at the first TV timeout.  Missing four and a half minutes of the game for the stadium tour was totally worth it (a couple of people actually left the tour early to go to the game and missed touching the Play Like a Champion Today sign and going on the field).  It was back and forth for most of the first half, but we had a pretty bad finish to the half and we went in down 43-36.  Nobody was really playing well for us except for Demetrius Jackson, who had 20.  We got out to a slow start in the second half too.  I think Louisville's biggest lead was 11.  But we finished the game very strong.  We led by six late in the game, but Louisville hit a three and then V.J. Beachem missed the front end of a 1 and 1.  Louisville missed a three that would have tied it and Zach Auguste was fouled with 4.4 seconds left.  He just needed to make the first to secure the victory, but he made both.  Auguste wasn't great, but he rebounded and made some big plays on both ends late in the game.  Jackson finished with 27 points and five assists.  Steve Vasturia was excellent in the second half and finished with 20 points.  Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton were both in attendance with the NBA All Star break this weekend.  They both got a rousing ovation when they were recognized during a timeout.  Well deserved.  I was reminded of Grant going nuts at the end of regulation against Louisville in my favorite college basketball game of all time.

My view for the basketball game

I was thinking about who our biggest basketball rival is.  Greg mentioned Louisville, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.  All legitimate choices.  Kyle said Boston College, Marquette, and Louisville.  I wish we still played Marquette, but we don't anymore.  And Boston College is just so bad that it's hard to say them (Greg also said Boston College when we were students).  I would say Louisville.  We've been playing great games against them for a while.  The ACC scheduling formula has every team playing two teams twice annually, two teams twice on a rotating basis, and everybody else once.  The two teams we play twice annually are Boston College and Georgia Tech.  I'm fine with Boston College (the only other Catholic school in the ACC), but I wish we could replace Georgia Tech with Louisville.  We were really developing a great rivalry at the end of the Big East days and they're fairly close geographically.  Check out these numbers on Notre Dame-Louisville games, which have all been played since 2006 (13 overtime periods in 15 games).  So we should play them twice per year, but oh well.

After the basketball game, I headed across the parking lot to the Compton Family Ice Arena.  I had tried to check it out my last time on campus before the Stanford game.  Before meeting up with Wilhelm, I figured Compton would be open so I walked over there and the doors were locked.  On the doors were signs saying that the building was open until 1:00 and the doors would lock at 12:50.  I checked my watch and it was 12:51.  It is a beautiful facility.  It holds just over 5000.  Despite the small size, it does have some decent concession options.  In each corner of the arena was a different version of the interlocking ND logo.  This was my second Notre Dame hockey game of the year and third in the last three years (I saw us play UConn at Barclays Center in November and Boston College at Fenway Park in 2014).  I was sitting pretty much on one of the blue lines in the ninth row behind Maine's bench.  We had beaten Maine the night before 4-1.  We definitely got off to the better start in this game, but Maine's goalie had a pretty good first period.  We were out-shooting Maine early, but we couldn't break through until about 14 minutes into the game.  Maine ended up out-shooting us for the game 41-35, but I really felt like we were getting the better chances.  We ended up going up 5-0 in the third period.  I was hoping for the shutout, but Maine finally scored with just under three minutes left.  The final score was 5-1.

My view for the hockey game

After the hockey game, I finished up my day by going to the Subway at LaFortune for old time's sake.  It was also nice to walk around at night because it reminded me of the first time I was ever on campus (at night in November 2004).  I loved having Subway for free maybe 200 yards away from the dorm when I was a student.  I walked back to my hotel and went past the Grotto again (it looks great at night with all the candles glowing).  When I got back to the hotel, I had a victory beer at the bar for a great day of sports.

The Golden Dome in the dark

I got up early the next morning to go to mass in the crypt of the basilica.  I would have liked to go to a regular basilica mass, but they didn't have one early enough.  So the 6:30 mass in the basement worked well enough.  I walked around Main Quad one last time not knowing when I'll be back again (I don't know what I'm doing for football next season yet).  It was so good to be back.  I finished up by walking past the Grotto one last time.  It was three degrees that morning.  That morning and the night before, I felt warm standing at the Grotto.  It was a strange feeling.  Once I started walking back to the hotel, that was the only time I felt really really cold.  It was strange that it was colder walking back when the sun was coming up than when I was walking over in the dark.

The Grotto glowing at night with the Golden Dome in the background.  I felt warm despite the weather.

So the next time I'll be back will probably be for football.  But I'm glad I got back for something else.  The stadium tour was great.  Beating Louisville in basketball was awesome too.  Whatever happened in the hockey game wasn't going to disappoint me, but I'm glad that was an easy win as well.  Dodger Stadium is probably my second favorite place in the world (even though I have it ranked behind Fenway Park in my stadium rankings).  Notre Dame is number 1.

Supporting the Team

I took my first trip out of the state of 2016 on Super Bowl weekend.  I had been to 44 states.  Surprisingly, one of the states I hadn't been to borders New York.  I finally got to Maine last summer, so this trip to Vermont finished off New England.  Now the closest state that I haven't been to is South Carolina.

John had mentioned this weekend to me as a possibility back in the summer.  It was John, Sean, and Sean's wife Anne doing a Penguin Plunge in Lake Champlain.  I was glad to use this as my excuse to cross off Vermont.  They were raising money for the Special Olympics.  I definitely was not interested in participating, but much like David Puddy, I was willing to support the team.

Burlington is the biggest city in Vermont.  It's the smallest city to be the biggest in a state.  Its population is about the same as Hicksville, New York, where I work.  It's less densely populated than Hicksville because it's geographically bigger.  I flew up to Burlington on Friday night.  I figured a $137 round trip was worth it.  John drove up early Saturday morning.  We got breakfast at the Skinny Pancake and met Sean and Anne there.  I had the Crepedilla, which was quite good.

The view of Lake Champlain from my room.  Just kidding, my view was a parking garage.  This was from Sean and Anne's room.

We headed down to the lake around noon.  The weather was about as warm as you could reasonably hope for in Vermont in February.  John and Sean said that usually there's snow on the ground and the lake is frozen.  Not this time.  The high was 37 degrees.  They got pretty lucky because eight days later the high was 3.  I did notice that it felt much colder down by the water because the wind was blowing a lot more down there.  John was in and out as quickly as he could be.  He was the first one out of the water from his group.  Sean and Anne lingered in there for a little longer.  After the plunge, we met up with John's friend Rebecca (former Camp Alvernia employee) and her husband.

If not for those two people bundled up in the background, you might think it was warm.

After going back to the hotel and warming up for a bit, we went to a late lunch at a pizza place.  But apparently you weren't allowed to call the food pizza.  They were flatbreads (but if you had leftovers, they gave you a pizza box to pack them up in).  It's well known that I'm a pizza snob, but this wasn't bad.  John and I split a breakfast pizza (they were still serving brunch).  I cut out quickly to make it to the 4:00 vigil mass at St. Joseph's.

Pizza that we weren't allowed to call pizza.

After mass, I headed back to the hotel. John and Sean were watching some movie.  I wasn't really paying attention.  After the movie, we were planning on going to dinner, but not for a little while.  So I went back to my room and watched some of the Notre Dame-North Carolina game.  We left for dinner in the second half so I didn't see the end of the game.  I think we had tied it right around when we headed out.  I had to follow the end of our victory on my phone.  We got dinner at a Chinese place for Chinese New Year.  Then we went out and did some drinking.  I enjoyed various Vermont beers.  And at one point we met a Burlington TV personality who was friends with Anne (I don't remember her name).

I think this was a Grodziskie (a Polish Oak-Smoked Wheat Ale), which John ordered for me in honor of St. John Paul II.

So that was my 45th state.  It was a good time up in Vermont with everybody.  Number 46 will probably be South Carolina or Louisiana.  If it's Louisiana, Mississippi will by number 47 (that will be the same trip).  Alaska is most likely to be number 50.  

Saturday Sports Spectacular

Today is a pretty good Saturday considering that it's not a regular Saturday of college football.  We have the start of bowl season, some good basketball games, and Jets-Cowboys tonight.  I was going to update my bowl name rankings, but it seems that names haven't changed and the only new ones don't have good names (the Cure Bowl and the Arizona Bowl).  Instead, let's go over who I'm rooting for in each game:

New Mexico Bowl:  New Mexico over Arizona.  I don't want to root for Bob Davie, but he's going against Rich Rodriguez.

Las Vegas Bowl:  BYU over Utah.  I like Mormons and independent college football programs.

Camellia Bowl:  Appalachian State over Ohio.  I'll always appreciate Appalachian State for when they beat Michigan.

Cure Bowl:  Georgia State over San Jose State.  If I can avoid rooting for a team named the Spartans, I will.

New Orleans Bowl:  Louisiana Tech over Arkansas State.  Louisiana Tech is the Bulldogs, which was Orel Hershiser's nickname.  And they wear red, white, and blue.

Miami Beach Bowl:  Western Kentucky over USF because we once lost a miserable game to USF.

Boca Raton Bowl:  Temple over Toledo since we played Temple.

Poinsettia Bowl:  Boise State over Northern Illinois.  I was in Boise this summer.

GoDaddy Bowl:  Georgia Southern over Bowling Green.  I don't really care, but Urban Meyer used to coach at Bowling Green.

Bahamas Bowl:  Middle Tennessee over Western Michigan because Western Michigan has ugly colors.

Hawaii Bowl:  San Diego State over Cincinnati for Kyle and Lauren.

St. Petersburg Bowl:  UConn over Marshall.  I can root for Bob Diaco.

Sun Bowl:  Washington State over Miami.  This one is obvious.

Heart of Dallas Bowl:  Southern Miss over Washington.  I'll usually go with a Group of 5 team over a Power 5 team.

Pinstripe Bowl:  Duke over Indiana.  ACC over Big 10.

Independence Bowl:  Virginia Tech over Tulsa.  I have nothing against Frank Beamer and it's his last game.

Foster Farms Bowl:  UCLA over Nebraska.  If I had to pick a Pac 12 team to root for, it's definitely UCLA.

Military Bowl:  Navy over Pittsburgh. This one is easy.

Quick Lane Bowl:  Minnesota over Central Michigan for Courtney and Dennis.  And Lou Holtz coached at Minnesota.

Armed Forces Bowl:  Air Force over Cal.  The military over dirty smelly hippies.  Easy.  But I am considering going to Cal's opener next year.

Russell Athletic Bowl:  Baylor over North Carolina.  I don't like North Carolina.

Arizona Bowl:  Colorado State over Nevada.  One state has legalized marijuana. The other has legalized gambling and prostitution.  I guess legalized marijuana is less bad.

Texas Bowl.  Texas Tech over LSU.  I can't root for Les Miles.

Birmingham Bowl:  Memphis over Auburn.  Group of 5 team against an SEC team.

Belk Bowl:  NC State over Mississippi State.  ACC over SEC.  And Lou Holtz coached at NC State.

Music City Bowl:  Notre Dame over LSU.  Wait, that's what happened last year.  Louisville over Texas A&M.  Again, ACC over SEC.

Holiday Bowl:  Wisconsin over USC.  Barry Alvarez is a former Lou Holtz assistant and Wisconsin's current athletic director.  And USC is USC.

Peach Bowl:  Houston over Florida State.  Even if Everett Golson was playing, it would still be hard to root for Florida State.

Orange Bowl:  Clemson over Oklahoma.  It would be nice if Clemson went undefeated and won the National Championship and we were the team that was closest to beating them.

Cotton Bowl:  Michigan State over Alabama.  Michigan State is nowhere near as evil as Michigan and I can't root for Alabama so this time I will root for the Spartans.

Outback Bowl:  Tennessee over Northwestern.  Tennessee is not as despicable as most SEC teams and I don't like the Big 10.

Fiesta Bowl:  Notre Dame over Ohio State.  Good over evil.

Citrus Bowl:  Florida over Michigan.  Not quite evil over very evil.

Rose Bowl:  Iowa over Stanford.  I really dislike Stanford.

Sugar Bowl:  Ole Miss over Oklahoma State.  I'm mad at Oklahoma State for not helping us and getting destroyed against Oklahoma (our defense didn't help us either, but still).

TaxSlayer Bowl:  Georgia over Penn State.  I have no interest in rooting for Penn State.

Liberty Bowl:  Arkansas over Kansas State.  Lou Holtz coached at Arkansas.

Alamo Bowl:  TCU over Oregon.  I'm assuming TCU's uniforms will be less offensive than Oregon's.

Cactus Bowl:  Arizona State over West Virginia.  Just because West Virginia is a school that has employed Rich Rodriguez and Bob Huggins.


So I'm going to be working on a running diary here starting around 2:00.  New Dodgers' road game broadcaster Joe Davis is calling Auburn-Xavier on Fox Sports 1 right now.  I was listening to an interview with him.  He's 27 years old and he grew up in Michigan.  When he was asked if he was a Michigan or Michigan State fan, he said he grew up a big Notre Dame fan.  I like this guy.  As much as I don't want Vin Scully to retire, I hope Joe Davis is good and takes over for Vin when that very unfortunate day comes.  As for other basketball, Utah is up on Duke at Madison Square Garden right now.  Virginia is beating Villanova.

Let's get the running diary going:

1:59- Utah and Duke are tied with less than a minute to play.  And now Utah can get the last shot.

2:00- Timeout, Utah with 12.8 left.

2:01- Utah's uniforms have a little Houton Rockets thing going on.

2:02- Utah misses an NBA three at the buzzer.  It was a good look, but you have to go to the basket there.

2:05- Notre Dame and Indiana tip off.  This is a big game for us.  If we can go in to conference play with three wins against Big 10 teams away from home, that would be pretty solid.

2:06- Indiana gets on the board first.

2:07- V.J. Beachem hits a three for Notre Dame's first points.  5-3 Indiana.

2:10- Bonzie Colson scores to give us our first lead, but Indiana quickly takes it back with a three.

2:12- Bonzie gives us the lead again and draws the foul as we head to our first TV timeout.

2:13- Utah is up six on Duke with less than a minute to go.

2:19- It's taking several minutes to play the last minute of this Utah-Duke game.  Utah is making their free throws and they're going to win.

2:20- Duke has a chance for a four-point play to cut it to two with 6.7 left.  How do you foul there?

2:21- The free throw is good and Utah had to call a timeout because they couldn't get the ball in.  This isn't over yet.  Meanwhile, Notre Dame is up 25-17 and Bonzie is off to a very nice start.

2:23- Utah turned it over.  This is ridiculous.  They're going to review it, but it's off Utah.

2:25- Duke has it with 6.4 left and they're down two.

2:26- Duke was having it trouble getting it in, but they get bailed out because the clock started running.

2:27- Duke misses a short shot off the back rim.  It was a great opportunity after the defender fell down.  They fouled with 0.6 left.

2:28- Utah misses both free throws, but survives 77-75.  It took fifteen minutes to play the last minute of the game.

2:32- Beachem hits a three to put Notre Dame up 30-21.

2:33- Steve Vasturia completes a three-point play.

2:34- Now that Utah-Duke is over, ESPN goes to the New Mexico Bowl.  Arizona is up 7-3 and Bob Davie is upset about something.  I believe this game is being played across the street from where the Albuquerque Isotopes play.

2:41- We take a timeout up by eight.  I'm going to take a break to get ready for mass after the game.

3:09- I'm back and we're up 14.  Bonzie Colson already has a career high with 18 points.

3:10- New Mexico kicks an extra point to cut Arizona's lead to 14-10.

3:15- Bonzie just got called for a flagrant foul.

3:16- Indiana makes the two free throws and they have the ball.  They're on an 8-0 run right now.

3:17- Beachem makes a three to stop the run and then he gets a dunk after a turnover.  Beautiful.  We're up 13.

3:25- Indiana's gone on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to six, but Bonzie scores again to put us back up eight.

3:30- We're up eight with 7:02 to play.  Indiana is hanging in there.

3:33- Demetrius Jackson just had a pretty nice put back dunk.

3:37- We just had a shot clock violation.  We're up five with five minutes to play.  We need to get it together.

3:38- Indiana just tied it.  This is ridiculous.

3:42- Bonzie gave us the lead again.

3:45- Bonzie is going to the line with the game tied and 1:15 to play.

3:46- He missed both.

3:47- Zach Auguste just fouled out with 57.5 seconds to play and Indiana just went up two.

3:48- We turn the ball over and commit a foul on the other end.

3:50- Steve Vasturia just missed a three.  We foul down four with 26.9 left.  It's not looking good.

3:51- Jackson just missed a three.  We couldn't hit anything from the outside late in this game.  This is a very disappointing loss.  We were in control for most of the game and played terrible basketball at the end.  Indiana finished on a 17-2 run.  But it's a college basketball game in December.  This would have been a nice one to win, but it's not going to keep us out of the NCAA Tournament.  If we get the job done in ACC play, we'll be fine.  This isn't like losing a football game.

3:54- Utah gets on the board first with a touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl.  Both teams are wearing dark jerseys.  It's a good contrast with Utah's red and BYU's blue.

3:55- They're reviewing the touchdown.  It definitely looks like the ball carrier was down short of the goal line.

3:56- The call stands.  I definitely disagree.  I'm going to a 4:30 mass.  I'm taking a break until mass and I'm eating dinner after.  So I'll probably be back around 6:00.

6:13- Well I'm back.  Arizona beat New Mexico.  BYU couldn't stop turning the ball over in the first half and they were down 35-0.  Now they're down 35-14.  This was one of the more interesting early bowl games, but it hasn't been too interesting so far.

6:16- Appalachian State is up 7-0 and Ohio just punted.  I'm going to take it easy for now and pick up these games again on the diary if they get interesting.  Scrooged comes on AMC at 7:00.  That's Plan B until the Jet game starts.

7:00- BYU is staying in it.  It's 35-21 with 9:30 to play.  During my break I bought my 2016 Big East Tournament tickets.  They are in the same section as last year and one row closer to the court.  Each ticket was $50 cheaper than last year.  I hope the Big East has a good year.  Obviously Notre Dame is my favorite basketball team.  But after us, I would love to see a Big East school win the National Championship.  It's been 31 years since a team that didn't play major college football win the National Championship in basketball (Villanova in 1985).

7:05- Utah has fourth and 1 in BYU territory.  It looks like they're going to go for it after a timeout.  Huge play coming up.

7:09- BYU gets the stop.  They have five minutes to make up the 14-point deficit.

7:11- BYU gets a first down on third and 10.

7:12- BYU completes a deep pass to the four yard line.  First and goal.

7:13- BYU scores, but this is probably getting reviewed.  The quarterback took off, extended the ball, and lost it.  Did he score before he lost the ball?  I think he did.

7:15- The ruling is confirmed.  The extra point is good.  3:23 left to play and it's 35-28.

7:17- BYU's kick goes out of bounds just short of the goal line.  Looking at the replay, I can't tell if that's the right call or not.  It was close.  It will cost BYU ten yards.

7:18- Utah gains six on first down.  Timeout, BYU.

7:19- It's going to be third and about one and a half for Utah.

7:21- Utah picks up the first down on the option.

7:22- Utah gets another first down.  That should do it.  BYU played a really good second half, but when you turn the ball over five times in the first half, you're in big trouble.

7:23- Apparently Utah's coach went to BYU.  I could never ever under any circumstances coach against Notre Dame.  I just couldn't do it.

7:29- The Cure Bowl is underway.  No score with about five minutes left in the first quarter.  Ithink I'm going to take it easy until the Jet game starts.

So I kept my running diary going through the Jets' victory over the Cowboys, but apparently I didn't save that part.  So it's gone.  Here are some quick thoughts:

I was very happy with the Jets going into this game, but still not optimistic about them getting into the playoffs.  Even if they went 3-0 to finish the season, they'd need either the Chiefs or Steelers to lose.  The Chiefs have a really easy schedule and the Steelers have an easy schedule after they play the Broncos today.  The Jets still have the Patriots and Bills left.  They're the most likely team to miss the playoffs, but I'll be rooting for the Ravens and Broncos today.  And Rex Ryan isn't the coach and Mark Sanchez isn't the quarterback anymore.  So things are looking up for the Jets.  It was kind of an ugly performance against the Cowboys, but I'll take the win.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on last night.  I quoted some good lines.  If you're reading this on Sunday afternoon, it's on again tonight at 7:00 followed by Elf.

Brent Musburger apparently said something about feeling bad for BYU fans not being able to drink when they were down 35-0.  I thought during the game as they were trying to pull off the comeback that it would be lame to celebrate the victory if they could pull it off without drinking.

Appalachian State, San Jose State, and Louisiana Tech won their bowls yesterday.  I've got Temple-Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night as the best pre-Christmas Bowl left.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch RedZone for the next six hours.  I'm rooting for the Giants, Bills, Ravens, Browns, Titans, Broncos, and Cardinals today.