Well, the final was anti-climactic. UCLA never really had a chance as Florida just had too much talent in the NCAA finals tonight. Fortunately the Bruins are young, and we may get to see them again next year in the tournament. Hopefully they’ll continue to improve and come back even stronger next season.
I’ve always been a UCLA fan when it comes to the NCAA Tournament each March. That heritage comes from my Grandfather, who was an assistant coach for Wooden during summer clinics way back when UCLA owned this Tournament.
Thursday’s win was a thrill to watch - but only the last few minutes. The game was torture! UCLA seemed to just stare at the zone - and was content to hoist 3-pointers all night while the steadily lost ground to the Gonzaga team. Then they turned it on with 3 1/2 minutes left and somehow snuck out a victory from 9 points down! It was awesome.
They play again today at 4. Guess where I’ll be.
Last night we rematched the team that blew us out in City League basketball. The game went back and forth the whole night. They went up 10-0 in the first 5 minutes. We called a timeout and started to gain momentum. At halftime we were up 24-22!
By the middle of the second half, we’d extended our lead to 46-37. At that point we promptly did our best to lose the game. I made several bonehead plays - fouled a guy shooting a three, took an ill-advised shot against a double team, and picked up my fourth foul. We only had five guys playing since our big man went down with a bad ankle - so getting into foul trouble with almost 10 minutes to play was a bad move.
The score tightened up to 48-47 us, with about 16 seconds remaining. Our point got fouled and missed the front end of a 1 and 1. Our opponents called timeout and drew up a play. With 15.5 seconds left they inbounded the ball to their big man. We were in a 2-3 zone with me at the left forward spot. I saw their best player trying to spot up in the corner so I slid out to cover him.
As their big man drove to the top of the key, my man started to cut to the basket behind my back. I saw the big man out of the corner of my eye and was able to tip his pass away just as my man would have had an open look at the basket. My man chased the ball down to the oppposit corner, but I stayed with him. He had to put up an off-balance, leaning 3-pointer with me and a teammate in his face. The ball bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded - a narrow victory for us - but redemption nonetheless.
My city-league basketball team hit a brick wall this week. At least that’s what it felt like. We had a double-header scheduled, and only four people showed up! About 10 minutes into the first game, a fifth team member arrived, so we were able to run 5 on 5. Amazingly we were ahead with only four players! At the very end of the first game, our sixth player showed up - so I thought we’d be set for the second game.
How wrong I was.
We won the first game easily, I think by 20 points or so. The second game we played a weaker team - but somehow we just couldn’t play together as a team. We made bad passes. We stopped passing. We took bad shots. We didn’t stop shooting. We ended up losing by 22 to a team we should have blown out. I guess we lost our legs, I don’t know.
We’ll bounce back next week and hopefully resume our winning ways. I think we’re 7-2 on the season, so that’s pretty sweet.
This is how sad my life is. The Lakers waive Vlade Divac and I get excited!
I watched Vlade play in his “prime” about six years ago. He walked up and down the court the whole game and never broke a sweat. I was disgusted by his lack of effort, and began counting the days until the Lakers dumped him.
Sadly that day did not come soon enough, but somehow they got the Sacramento Kings to take the oaf. Then he boomeranged back to the Lakers - and Shaq left. Ouch.
Maybe now the Lakers will finally wake up and realize they need to build around a genuine big man. They mad Shaq mad, so he’s out, but they’ve got to start looking at who’s up and coming once the Diesel retires. Until now, I’m just happy Vlade’s gone.
Bill Walton once called him the #2 center in the league. If that was true, I could easily crack the top ten. And on a good day I’m 5′7.”
I was shooting baskets outside our house Sunday afternoon when a kid who was maybe 12 came up and asked if he could join me. I said sure, and he started shooting around with me.
Well it wasn’t long and I could tell he was more than a bit cocky. He kept saying, “Brick!” every time I shot a basket - trying to make me miss. If you don’t know me, there’s nothing that grates on me more than an ego with nothing to back it up. (Probably because I have an ego and can’t back it up, but that’s a topic for another day!)
The kid was starting to irritate me, so I asked him if he thought he could make 10 shots in a row from right in front of the basket. Of course he was sure he could do it. So I asked him, “If you miss, will you do 10 push-ups? I’ll do them if I miss.”
“Oh yeah. I do push-ups for football all the time.”
He missed the first shot.
I said, “Alright, you get one miss,” and handed him the ball to try again. He made two in a row, then missed again. To my surprise, he dropped and started doing his push-ups. I had expected him to try to negotiate his way out of them, but he pumped out 10 push-ups.
I took the ball and promptly sank my 10 shots. We continued the drill from a couple of other spots until I could tell he couldn’t do any more push-ups. I had to do a couple of push-ups at one point as I missed from a corner spot, and I think that probably made him feel better.
In the end, I could see that even though the kid was a bit cocky, he at least wasn’t afraid of a challenge, or unwilling to work hard. That impressed me, and left me a little less irked by his original attitude. I’m not sure I’d have the guts to go up to a college kid when I was 12 and ask, “Can I shoot hoops with you?”
I woke up early this morning - early being 5:00 a.m. - to get some reading done that I had fallen behind on. Usually when I wake up that early I’m headed off to the gym for some basketball with the dawn patrol crew, but this morning was just to catch up. Unfortunately, I was a bit groggy as I rolled out of bed and habitually started preparing to play basketball. I’d gotten dressed, put my gym bag together, and was just about to put my shoes on when I realized, today is Thursday, not Friday!
I ended up getting some good reading done, and was grateful for the extra time today. Tomorrow will genuinely be a basketball morning, so I’ll repeat the drill but actually put on my shoes and head for the YMCA at 5:30. Amazing what a year out of college does to you - just last year I was up until 6 a.m. to wrap up a project. Now I’m getting up at dawn to read or play basketball!
I came across this picture of Dwayne Wade blocking the shot of Ben Wallace in a playoff game this year, and was just in awe. Realize that Dwayne Wade plays point guard - typically the shortest player on the team, and Ben Wallace plays center - typically the tallest player on the team (though Ben is undersized for his position). Regardless of their physical differences, plays like this have made me hop on the D-Wade bandwagon with reckless abandon. The kid can flat play ball!
Dwayne Wade blocks Ben Wallace’s shot
I had my first chiropractor visit today.
The history goes like this: a month or so ago I tweaked my lower back and was in some good pain for a week or two. I scheduled a visit with the chiropractor, but they couldn’t fit me in (as a new patient) until today. In the mean time, the pain has gone away. I figured I’d keep the appointment anyway since it would probably be good to establish a baseline for when I feel good so that I know what’s wrong when I feel bad.
The chiropractor was extremely nice, and worked me through several motions to determine my range of motion and such. A few times he noticed some aberrations, but for the most part I was looking pretty good. At one point, he had me lay on my back on a massage table, and as I lay there, he immediately noticed my right leg was shorter than my left leg. Hmmmm.. That’s cute.
He had me pull each leg up to my chest, and as I did, he showed me how my right ankle came in during the motion while my left stayed in line with my knee. Apparently my right femur is rotated slightly outward at the hip which causes my right leg muscles to be tight, and the leg to appear shorter. We didn’t measure bone length, so I don’t know if this is a permanent situation - but the doc seemed to be confident we can adjust it and I’ll be back to my normal, less lopsided self in no time.
He even thought I’d see an improvement in my hoops game. So watch out. All of you who thought I couldn’t play ball just cause I’m short and white — it’s actually because my right leg is shorter than my left. Now you’re all in trouble 
~J
Now Reading:Wooden - A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
I’ve been a Lakers fan my whole life, and still remember when the Portland Trailblazers led by Clyde Drexler, Buck Williams, and Terry Porter ran us off the court — only to be thoroughly dominated by the MJ-led Bulls. Now the Trailblazers have a reputation for paying too much money for the “thugs” of the league. They finally got rid of Rasheed, and then this happens.
Some kid named Qyntel Woods goes and uses his pit bull in dog fights. If only he was high at the time… then he’d really trump Rasheed.
Maybe Paul Allen will finally get the hint and pursue some quality guys to play on his team. Or maybe not.