Basketball and business

BERKELEY, Calif. – Iowa State used a furious 8-0 run over the final 1:10 to defeat Michigan State, 69-68, and advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Championships for the second time in school history. The Cyclones improve to 27-8 overall, tying the school record for wins which was set in 1998-99, the school’s other Elite Eight season.

Tonight's game against Stanford is on Sirius. If I listen, they'll lose, just like the only other game I caught on Sirius this year. :P

I'm still cranky that Sirius/XM won't make baseball available on Sirius receivers; I have to activate my old XM receiver--I switched to get NFL games, back before they merged (XM receivers will get NFL games). But I'm considering it a fee for leaving Milwaukee during baseball season. :P

Maybe Obama will tell Sirius-XM how to run their business and save me $4.99/mo. *snort* Probably won't be able to fit it in between retreats/television appearances.

I've been reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Last night I got to the part where newly-named Chancellor Hitler called the heads of the big corporations into his office--after they had supported the Nazis in the most recent election--and told them how it was going to be in Germany from then on. Eerie.

I have been remiss.

I was so otherwise occupied this week I didn't notice the Iowa State women made the Sweet Sixteen. Excellent. :)

Note to self: Next year pay more attention.

Ah well.

I enjoyed this article about a small Appalachian school making the Kentucky state basketball tournament (their leading scorer wore a Brewers' ball-and-glove cap for the top photo...), until the reporter felt the need to bring Obama into it.

Is there going to be halftime obeisance to O during the Final Four as there was during the Super Bowl?

What's the opposite of Schadenfruede?

The only way I can describe my loathing of the U of Kansas basketball program...you know how people who grew up in Wisconsin since the founding of the Packers loathe the Bears? Square it. The squaring comes from their classless recruiting of Iowa kids who have already signed a letter of intent with Iowa State (I'm looking at you, LaFrentz, you worthless piece of slime).

I really hope Bill Self takes the job at OK-State; that would be karma-riffic.

Wow, ten years between post-season wins

1998 feels like yesterday.

For yesterday reals:

Shawn Huff (Helsinki, Finland/Makelanrinne) scored the eventual game-winning basket with 2:45 to play and Valparaiso held Washington scoreless the rest of the way as the Crusaders earned a thrilling 72-71 victory over the Huskies in opening round action of the College Basketball Invitational Wednesday evening in Seattle, Wash. Valpo advances to the quarterfinals of the inaugural CBI and will face Houston on Monday.

The win was the first by the Crusaders in postseason play since the 1997-98 squad advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, it is Valpo’s first-ever victory over a current Pac-10 school.

I don't know what to make of this.

The money from the public auction of RCA Dome seats, chunks of its turf and roof and assorted items such as locker room urinals belongs to taxpayers and not to the two nonprofit groups that are in line to get it, a lawsuit claims.

If they'd brought this up several months ago when the idea of auctioning off bits of the Dome was first floated to the public, I'd probably agree. Especially since I didn't realize the city was still paying for the Dome (what did they do with all those fast-food taxes I paid when I lived there??). But reading further...

The law firm asks for its legal fees to be paid from auction proceeds if it wins the lawsuit.

Since they filed suit after the sale has begun (could this invalidate the sales, since advertising that the moneys go to charity but in actuality they'll go to a bunch of lawyers?--hello, fraud charges!), it reads like "ooh! we can get money!" more than any sort of protection of taxpayers.

Plus the sale was approved by the outgoing (D) mayor, and the sole plaintiff is a failed (R) local candidate. Feels like they're trying to use a noble concept they don't actually believe in to cover a shameful money/power play.

Mostly I'm going to be really pissed a) if I don't get my turf plaque after they already charged my credit card and b) the money I was told was going to go to literacy programs and sick kids goes to lawyers, because c) that's such a John Edwards thing to do.

Bah.


OTOH, this sounds like something I've been saying since 1997: The Big 11 isn't anywhere near as good as they think they are.

Oh, there's a basketball tournament?

Valpo is in the "College Basketball Invitational," which is apparently a new event this year designed to make kids feel better about not being good enough for the NCAA or the NIT. Like the "alternative prom" at the nursing home, so the ugly girl can wear a dress and watch Lawrence Welk with people who actually went to their HS prom in the 1920s and feel good about doing something "meaningful" instead feeling sad about being ugly. The pity burns worse than the original pain.

I'll enjoy watching Shawn Huff one more time, at least.

I kind of get a kick out of pretending I'm confused over which post-season tournament is being discussed when someone mentions "the" tournament as if women don't exist (ISU women are seeded 7), but other than that I'm not really feeling post-season basketball this year. Maybe Scott Drew will have a good run; I'm pretty apathetic as long as Kansas goes home early.

Roundball Roundup

• Iowa State got stomped on ESPN last night by !&$(!$* Kansas. Thank God I don't have cable.
• Iowa State is on ESPN Classic Saturday at 5 p.m. against Colorado. Bummer I don't have cable.
• Valpo is on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. Saturday. I'm not above eating lunch in a bar to watch basketball. *srednop*
• The West Marshall *snicker* Trojans are in the Iowa High School Boys State Basketball Tournament next week for the only time since 1990 (we lost in the finals to the Montezuma Revenge...er, Braves). None of my classmates' children seem to be starters--some of them play varsity football--but there's a wave of unwanted nostalgia anyway. The GOOD memories are Milli Vanilli and bangs hairsprayed six inches off the top of my forehead...

I'll move this outside the list because it's actually not uninteresting: My cousin Cole (OK, his mother is my cousin, but outside of Iowa no one can follow) got his picture in the paper. He's on the all-conference team, and going to the state tournament next week.

Wow. I hardly paid any attention to basketball the last two seasons, and this year it's nuts.

Go Crusaders

After a thrilling double-overtime victory over Miami on Saturday, Valparaiso begins a stretch of three Horizon League games over a six-day span today when the Crusaders take on Milwaukee. Valpo is currently in a fight for one of the top six seeds heading into the Horizon League tournament, which would give the Crusaders a first-round home game. An evenly-matched series, Valpo has won seven of the 13 previous matchups between the two squads.

My friends recorded the Valpo-Miami game on their DVR so I could watch it after we got back from dinner Saturday. It cut off with 2 minutes left in regulation, when the cable company told the box the channel had switched to boxing. Someone has to figure out a better way to transmit program information for live programs...

Anyway, I watched enough that I won't feel like a poseur this evening when I join the Alumni Club for hors d'oeurves before the game. I expect to be the only woman attending who isn't accompanying her husband, because that's EVERY Valpo alumni event, but at least I'll be able to hold my own in a conversation about Urule Igbavboa's hair. (Why am I going to a party if I'm going to be standing in a corner by myself? "Free parking and complimentary shuttle to and from the game." And being surrounded by other visiting fans should reduce my chances of being spat on by local fans...)

Valpo is one of just six schools to host three home games over that time span on one of the three ESPN networks, joining Indiana, Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Villanova.

Why didn't we upgrade to the Horizon League sooner?

Iowa State commemorates a century of basketball Saturday

Also scheduled to return are eight of the 12 living members of Iowa State's 15-man all-century team - [Gary] Thompson, Jeff Grayer, Fred Hoiberg, Hercle "Poison" Ivy, Zaid Abdul-Aziz, Victor Alexander, Kelvin Cato and Jake Sullivan.

The man who reinvented Iowa State basketball, coach Johnny Orr, will also be back.

I love Johnny Orr. The REAL Johnny Orr, not this poseur.

Key Iowa State Basketball Moments.

I remember that Big 8 title game like it was yesterday (in your face LaFrentz, you traitor!), but I don't remember the 2000 Big XII title game, probably because it was on ESPN and I didn't have cable. I do remember the quilts I was working on during that winter and the Big XII tournament--all the other games were on local TV. (Barry Stevens is fuzzy, probably because that's the week I got a little brother.)

The ISU women were also back-to-back conference champions in 2000 and 2001 (I saw a lot of their games with my aunt and uncle). I will never throw out that T-shirt.


Anyway, if the trends hold, ISU basketball will stop sucking around 2013 or 2026.

Now that football's over...

I got an e-mail from the Big XII offering me a chance to pre-buy tix to the first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA men's tournament in Kansas City. There's a Slurpee's chance in Hell ISU will be one of the top 16 seeds and get to play close to home, so no personal interest (dangit, last year football went long enough I didn't notice how bad my basketball teams sucked; why couldn't that happen this year, too?).

The part that surprised me...they want $189, plus $9 in "fees", for each three session ticket, two games per session. Good grief! In 2002 I went to the first day in St. Louis for $60. That's a 315% increase. Food prices are through the roof and they haven't even gone up that much since 2002! My pay certainly hasn't gone up that much since 2002...

I hope food doesn't go up that much over the next year. Damn.


There's some nice stuff about Scott Drew in this article about Baylor's comeback. Of course, I knew all along he'd do great. ;)