I’ll lead off with that. Today capped the worst weekend of basketball yet this season. Kentucky lost yesterday to Georgia in the SEC Tournament. Duke lost yesterday to Clemson, which I could take, but then Clemson lost today to Carolina in the ACC Championship game. After taking the Tar Heels to the line in their two previous meetings this year, I really thought Clemson was due. They hung in there for most of the game, but towards the end you could feel they were going to lose. They made it exciting towards the end, but Tyler Hansbrough, who can do no wrong, got a wild rebound and put it up to clinch the game in the final seconds.
So let’s back up. Church was really good today. The music was just awesome and the guy who did the sermon was really good. I can’t remember his name, but he’s the person who does the middle school ministry. You could tell that at points, but he was good.
After church we went to Mike and Kaitlyn Boscaljon’s place for pancakes and sausage. Dave Sapp went too, and he made smoothies for everyone. Kyle and Lorin were there too.
The wind was really cold this morning, but the weather got nicer later in the day, which was good because Mike and Kaitlyn had plans to take the ferry to Southport for a bit.
My parents had left this morning before we went to church. They were going to stop by Adam and Renee’s apartment since they hadn’t been there. Well, stop by isn’t exactly the right term, I guess, since they live about 20 minutes south of our house (maybe less without traffic, which is how it was that early in the morning), and we live on the way out of town.
Harvey and Elmo were getting along fine this morning.
After Amanda and I got home she turned on some cheesy Sci-Fi Channel movies. Once the NCAA bracket selection stuff came on we watched that. UNC is, of course, number one overall, but they didn’t get much help for it. I guess since they get to play until the Final Four (should they make it that far) in Raleigh and Charlotte the selection committee made things a little tougher for them. From what I’ve gathered the teams in their region aren’t the easiest matchups for them, particularly Indiana, which could be Carolina’s second game. I really hope Indiana makes it past Arizona, but even if they do, knowing Carolina’s luck they’ll either blow them out or win on (yet another) last second shot. Really, their luck has to run out sometime, right? Right?
Duke ended up a two-seed in the west, which is actually pretty favorable. The possible second-round matchup with Xavier is supposed to be a pretty tough one, but if the Blue Devils can make it past that then they should be good until the Elite Eight, where most people think they’ll meet UCLA. UCLA’s biggest challenge will be UConn, and I’d almost like Duke to meet the Huskies because they’ve had some key tournament wins against Duke that I’d like avenged. Then again, I’d really, really hate for Duke to lose to them in the NCAA tournament again.
Of course, Duke has to make it that far first, and with the way Duke’s played their last nine game or so, it may not matter. Hopefully with some time off and all the analysts picking them as an upset, a fire will be lit under their asses and they’ll play like they were at the beginning of the season. Back then Duke looked like they could play with anybody, and if they do play like that I’d pick them going to at least the Final Four.
UCLA, by the way, while looking every bit a strong team, has been bailed out by some late-game questionable calls lately.
Moving on from sports, I read a book a while back called 1776, written by one David McCullough. He also wrote a book about John Adams, which I have wanted to read because I liked 1776 so much. Well, about a year ago I heard that HBO was making a miniseries about McCullough’s John Adams. The first two episodes came on tonight, each one just over an hour. I was going to just watch the recordings later, but I was intrigued so I went ahead with it. I really liked that show. I mean, you can’t go wrong with Paul Giamatti. They did a great job of making the politics of the Revolutionary War interesting and dramatic.
Zach Dotsey