Ron's View

Jeremy Lin going up against Deron Williams yesterday

[Bill Kostroun/Associated Press]

That hotbed of college basketball, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is having quite a year, what with Harvard ranked #23 in the ESPN/USA Today poll, #26 in the AP poll, and likely to move up after a pair of league wins this weekend, while MIT is ranked #5 among Division III schools. Exciting times for Cantabrigians, as well as former Cantabs like me.

The best basketball player in Cambridge during my decade in residence (and my two subsequent years in Boston) didn’t play for Harvard or MIT. He starred at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, right next to Harvard: Patrick Ewing, locally famous long before he headed off to greater fame with Georgetown and the Knicks.

Second best? Maybe James Brown, a college classmate of mine who had been hotly recruited out of DC’s national basketball powerhouse, DeMatha. He passed up the big-time schools for Harvard, where he was all-Ivy in his three varsity years but couldn’t lead Harvard to a league title. He would go on to a different sort of fame, becoming the sports broadcaster and TV personality better known as JB.

And now Harvard has become the Ivy power JB couldn’t make them forty years ago. They tied Princeton for the league championship last year, narrowly losing a painful playoff game for the automatic NCAA tournament bid and being passed over for an at-large slot. This year, undefeated in league play and with an overall 20-2 record, Harvard has a good shot at an at-large bid if it fails to win the Ivy title.

Plus, recent Harvard alum Jeremy Lin may be at the start of a successful NBA career, in his second season, after last night’s breakout performance with the Knicks. Howard Beck explained in today’s NYT:

At some point in this frantic and peculiar season, a less likely, less expected story may arise from the chaos. But it will be difficult to beat a night when an undrafted prospect from Harvard took over Madison Square Garden, outshined three of the N.B.A.’s biggest stars and ignited an instant love affair with New York.

It happened Saturday night, although even the 17,763 in attendance might still doubt what they saw.

Jeremy Lin, whose unusual résumé is more well known than his game, emerged as the Knicks’ momentary savior, packing the box score with career highs and leading his team to a stress-relieving 99-92 victory over the Nets.

Lin scored 25 points, nearly doubling his previous career high, and finished with 7 assists and 5 rebounds, energizing a Knicks offense that desperately needed a boost. He outscored his celebrity teammates, Carmelo Anthony (11 points) and Amar’e Stoudemire (17 points), and outdueled Deron Williams (21 points), the Nets’ All-Star point guard.

Rapturous chants of “Je-re-my!” filled the arena. Every fourth-quarter basket was met with a booming, “Jeremy Linnnnn!” from the public-address announcer, Mike Walczewski. When the final buzzer sounded, Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” blasted from the arena sound system in tribute.

Don’t forget MIT. Alex Wolff wrote at SI Friday of their unlikely emergence as a D-III power.

Noel Hollingsworth, a 6-9 computer science and electrical engineering major, plays the role of immovable force. Recruited to Brown by First Brother-in-Law Craig Robinson, Hollingsworth transferred to MIT after Robinson left for Oregon State. His presence ensures that teammates Mitchell Kates, Jamie Karraker and Billy Bender get good looks. “The defense has to make a choice,” says Karraker, who leads the nation with 4.5 three-pointers per game. “If they double down on Noel, one of our shooters will get open. If they faceguard the shooters, Noel or Will [Tashman, the other frontcourt starter] will get loose.”

MIT held off Springfield* yesterday, 69-67, for their 20th win against a single loss, marking their fourth consecutive season of 20 wins or more.

The Beanpot hockey tournament — the best of all Boston college sporting traditions — starts tomorrow. BU vs. Harvard in the opening game, BC vs. Northeastern immediately after. For a change, local basketball may be getting more attention.

*Need I point out that Springfield College is the site of basketball’s creation, the one-time home of James Naismith? There’s a reason the Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield. See here for some of the history.

Fenway Park, set up for Boston Patriots football

[From the NYT, with credit to Boston Public Library, Sports Temples of Boston collection]

Bill Pennington had a great piece in yesterday’s NYT about the early vagabond years of the Patriots football team, when they were the Boston Patriots and moved from stadium to stadium. For the first decade, they were members of the American Football League. With the AFL-NFL merger, they joined the National Football League in 1970. A year later, they settled into their new stadium in Foxborough, in the remote (at least from my point of view, living in Cambridge then) southern suburbs, half the way to Providence, and re-branded themselves as the New England Patriots, after which things began to improve.

That first decade-plus was something special, as Pennington recalls. They bounced from BU’s athletic field, the one-time home of the Boston Braves baseball team, to Fenway Park to BC’s stadium to Harvard Stadium. Their one year in Harvard Stadium, that first year in the NFL, was my sophomore year. I could have taken a short walk from my room along the Charles to the Anderson Bridge, crossed over, and been at a game. I can’t believe I didn’t go. They won their home opener, against the Dolphins, and proceeded to lose all the remaining home games. OJ rushed for 123 yards when the Bills came; Johnny Unitas quarterbacked the Colts. Talk about missed opportunities!

Pennington tells one story from the 1970 season opener:

The former Notre Dame running back Bob Gladieux had been cut from the Patriots a few days earlier but decided to attend the season opener anyway with a friend.

Seated in the old concrete Harvard horseshoe before the start of the game, the two had already had a couple of beers when Gladieux’s friend agreed to get another round. Just after he left, the public address cackled: “Bob Gladieux, please report to the Patriots’ dressing room.”

Gladieux went downstairs and was told to suit up. Last-minute contract disputes had left the Patriots short. Gladieux, nicknamed Harpo for his flock of frizzy blond hair, hurriedly donned his pads and was soon running down the field on the opening kickoff against the Miami Dolphins.

Back in the stands, his friend wondered why he was alone. He looked up to see the Dolphins’ kick returner go down in the arms of No. 24 for the Patriots.

“Tackle by Bob Gladieux,” the public address announcer said.

Said St. Jean: “When we saw Harpo’s buddy later, he said: ‘I knew I was drinking, but not enough to be hearing things.’ ” The Patriots won the game, one of just two victories in another last-place season.

I was a Giants fan back then. (I could have seen them play at Harvard.) By 1975, I was a Patriots fan, and I suppose I still am. A little. Enough to know who I’ll be rooting for during next week’s Super Bowl. They’ve come a long way. Yet, some of the fun is gone.

Kyrie Irving with coach Byron Scott, December 11

[AP Photo, Carlos Osorio]

The Cavaliers (Cleveland’s NBA basketball team) opened their season tonight at home against Toronto. This means that Kyrie Irving, the first pick in last June’s NBA draft and my cousin (well, maybe not, but it’s fun to pretend), made his professional debut.

Three days after the draft, I wrote that “I’m not much for wearing official team clothing, but I see a Cleveland Cavalier jersey in my future.” If only I had remembered, as I surely would have if the NBA season weren’t delayed for two months, I would have put the jersey on my wish list for the holidays. But no matter, since the jersey wouldn’t have been available. According to the Cavalier online store, it still isn’t. I will be patient.

According to Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer,

The Kyrie Irving era got off to an inauspicious start Monday at The Q.
But to pin the Cavaliers’ 104-96 loss to the Toronto Raptors on a 19-year-old rookie point guard is roundly unfair, not to mention misleading. Especially on a night the club’s collective effort was bad enough to give it a running start on the No. 1 pick next season.

The Cavaliers defended poorly, shot worse and needed a strong effort from their second unit just to keep them in the game against one of the NBA’s bottom feeders.

Irving, the top selection in the June draft, managed just six points on 2-of-12 shooting and never found his rhythm before a sellout crowd of 20,562 fans. He spent a good portion of the second half on the bench as backup Ramon Sessions helped the Cavaliers stay close with a team-high 18 points and six assists.

“It’s disappointing,” said Irving, who played 26 minutes. “You want to play really well when the whole world is watching. It’s a learning process.”

The point is an unforgiving position for first-year players. Not only did Irving struggle at the offensive end, but he had difficulty keeping the Raptors’ Jose Calderon (15 points, 11 assists) in front of him.

How have other recent high-profile point guards fared in their NBA debuts?
According to Stats LLC, Washington’s John Wall had 14 points, Chicago’s Derrick Rose scored 11 points and New Orleans’ Chris Paul collected 13 points.

“He looked OK for what was like his fifth game in a year,” said coach Byron Scott, who named Irving his starter on Monday morning. “He had seven assists and one turnover. The only thing he didn’t do was shoot the ball well.”

I trust that by the time my jersey arrives, Kyrie will be playing better. We’ll put in a big order. I know Dad will enjoy his. (He doesn’t read Ron’s View, so don’t tell him. It will be a surprise.)

[Jason Lara, from his blog Tom Fulery]

The geographic illogic of US sports conferences is hardly news. As a recent example, three weeks ago we learned that Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros would leave the the National League’s Central Division for the American League West. A little crazy, but at least they would be united with a natural geographic rival already in the American League West, the Texas Rangers. And today brings genuinely crazy news, with the Big East conference announcing, in the wake of the departure of Syracuse, Pitt, and West Virginia to the Atlantic Coast Conference, that they would add Central Florida (sure), Houston and SMU (huh?), and, in football only, Boise State (!) and San Diego State (!!!).

I should point out that the addition of Boise State has been rumored for weeks. It’s not news. And after their snub on Sunday, left out of any of the five BCS bowls despite being one of the top five or six teams in the country, who can blame them for joining whatever BCS conference will take them? But still, the Big East with a team from Idaho? And a team whose home city sits on the Pacific Ocean? I suppose it could be worse — what if SDSU joined the ACC, joining the Pacific to the Atlantic? We wouldn’t need the Panama Canal anymore.

Which brings me to some good news: the announcement yesterday of plans for a realignment of the National Hockey League into four geographically-based conferences, approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors. The NHL Players Union still needs to weigh in, so this isn’t a done deal, but I’m guessing it will happen.

The plan has some features I’m not sold on, such as matching up teams within conferences in the first two rounds of the playoffs. More often than not, this is likely to lead to the elimination of at least one of the best teams before the playoff semifinals through no fault of its own. Nonetheless, I admire the league’s effort to introduce geographic sense. And how about the cool map, above, depicting the conference alignments? (Hat tip: Stu Hackel in Sports Illustrated, who linked to it.)

The lone oddity is the placement of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. But the underlying problem is that there are hockey teams in Florida to begin with. I think I have a solution: move them to Québec and Hamilton. That would make for a wonderfully compact conference, wouldn’t it? Perhaps I should write Commissioner Bettman with my proposal.

2012 North Carolina Men's Lacrosse Team

It is an annual tradition at Ron’s View that come May, I write about the NCAA men’s lacrosse championships. (See here for last year’s addition, to which I added brief follow-ups in later posts.) Here in Seattle, we’re far removed from the lacrosse big-time. But the big-time is getting closer. High school lacrosse continues to grow here in Washington and throughout the west. The University of Denver is in the process of joining Notre Dame as a perennial power in a state not adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Still, if I want to see major college lacrosse, I have to go east, where the historic powers reside. Hopkins. Syracuse. Cornell, Princeton. Virginia. Maryland. North Carolina. And recently Duke, to name the only schools ever to win the NCAA championships. Plus sub-powers such as Navy, Hofstra, Delaware, UMass. (See, they all really are in Atlantic-touching states.) You can imagine, then, that when I learned Joel was accepted into a graduate program at UNC, my initial wave of excitement was closely followed by a second one, the “Hooray, I get to see big-time lacrosse!” wave.

I’ve been waiting patiently for UNC to post the 2012 schedule. All fall, whenever I checked, I would have to content myself with a review of 2011. Not a bad year — UNC was highly ranked — but one ending in disappointment when Maryland beat them in the first round of the NCAA tournament on its way to a runner-up finish. Last week, at last, I visited the UNC men’s lacrosse site and found the the upcoming schedule.

I can’t just take off for Chapel Hill whenever I want. Early spring is the obvious time. And the lacrosse regular season ends shortly after the start of spring in order to leave room for the ACC championship in late April and the NCAA championship, beginning in mid May. Plus, there has been a trend in recent years to schedule several games involving traditional powers on the same day at one of the major football stadiums in lacrosse country, to give the sport more exposure and bring in lots of fans.

Looking over the UNC schedule, we find three such games: against Princeton at the Ravens football stadium in Baltimore, against Hopkins at the Giants/Jets football stadium in New Jersey, and against Hofstra at the Carolina Panthers football stadium in Charlotte. That doesn’t leave a lot of big matchups in Chapel Hill itself. But I only want one, and one there is: at home against reigning national champion and arch-rival Virginia on April 7. Or, two weeks earlier, there’s the March 24 rematch with Maryland, another ACC rival. Another option would be UNC’s game against the remaining ACC power, Duke, which hosts them just down the road on March 16, but I won’t be able to get away then.

It will be tough to root against Virginia. I’ve long admired their coach, Dom Starsia. We’re the same age, we grew up just a few miles apart on Long Island, and I probably saw him play against us when he starred at Brown. (One of my best friends in college was a defenseman and I went to several of our games.) But I’m a UNC fan now, and I will act accordingly. In fact, once I post this, I’ll visit the UNC online athletics store and plan my lacrosse gear purchases.

Don’t worry, Joel. If we do visit, you don’t have to attend the game with us.

You know, of course, that Joe Frazier died last night. I write only to note my surprise at how moved I’ve been today by some of the pieces I’ve read about him, most notably David Remnick’s reflections at The New Yorker.

I so dislike the mere existence of boxing that I avert my eyes when I accidentally stumble on an article about it in the paper or at a website, turning the page or clicking away as quickly as possible. Yet, I grew up at a time when boxing still was part of mainstream culture. Indeed, heavyweight championship bouts were as big a part of the sporting calendar as the World Series, or as the Super Bowl is now. Surely the first Swede I knew of, or, to be more precise, the first person whose existence brought to my attention the notion that there were such things as Swedes, was Ingemar Johansson. (But then there’s that contemporaneous Swede, Dag_Hammarskjöld. I’m pretty sure I knew of Johansson first. Hammarskjöld would be Swede number two.) Johansson’s championship victory over Floyd Patterson, or maybe Patterson’s win in the re-match, would have been the first boxing match I knew of. And then Patterson lost to Sonny Liston, and then Liston lost to Muhammed Ali (still Cassius Clay), and so on, until we came to the two great Ali-Frazier matches, the first and third of three.

I can almost make myself believe, as I read today about the third one, the Thrilla in Manila, that I watched it live. Then I remember that that wasn’t an option. The major boxing matches would be shown on TV days later. For live action, one would have to be content with round-by-round summaries on the radio. I listened to those summaries. I actually cared.

Remnick, who knows a thing or two about Ali and Frazier, gives some sense in his remembrance of why one might care:

I’ve watched the fight more times than I can count. I rarely watch boxing much these days, mainly because it’s hard to countenance a sport that I would never let my kids take part in. And yet I can’t resist this spectacle of will. As Frazier sat on his stool after the fourteenth round, a round in which Ali had punched him so hard with a right hand that Frazier’s mouthpiece went flying into the seats, a round in which it became obvious that he could no longer defend himself, his manager Eddie Futch had to insist that it was over. He would not allow his man to die in the ring—which, if you watch the video, seems like a distinct possibility.

“Joe,” Futch said, “I’m going to stop it.”

“No, no, Eddie you can’t do that to me,” Frazier said softly.

“You couldn’t see in the last two rounds,” Futch said. “What makes you think ya gonna see in the fifteenth?”

“I want him, boss,” Frazier said.

“Sit down, son,” Futch said, placing a hand on his fighter’s shoulder. “It’s all over. No one will ever forget what you did here today.”

[Stuart Isett for The New York Times]

I’m a little late on this one, but I don’t want the NYT’s coverage of University of Washington football culture to go unmentioned. Not that I care all that much about UW football. Let’s be clear about that. Yet the intersection of UW football and the Puget Sound-Lake Washington boating scene, as depicted above and in the accompanying slideshow, is pretty special.

On fall Saturdays, like this fall Saturday, when Washington plays at home, the occupants of Husky Harbor emerge near the stadium’s east end like some sort of tailgate flotilla. They come on charters, luxury yachts and smaller vessels, in sailboats, motorboats and speedboats, even boats coated in purple paint, to the same docks where Rick Neuheisel, a former coach, once drew N.C.A.A. scrutiny for boosters ferrying recruits to the university at below cost.

Once docked or anchored, they tailgate with a twist, a practice the locals have alternately called boatgating, sailgating and sterngating. Here, all of the captains hope Coach Steve Sarkisian and the 4-1 Huskies can, well, continue to right the ship.

[snip]

At Washington and at Tennessee, they can choose to arrive by boat. Yet Huskies fans view their harbor as unparalleled, based on surrounding views (Cascade Mountains to the east, Olympic Mountains to the west), water color (blue as opposed to brown) and proximity (closer to the stadium).

Husky Stadium opened in 1920, and soon after, the boat tradition started, with fans stashing vessels in tall grass not 200 yards from the end zone. Docks were built around 1960, according to Dave Torrell, the curator of the university’s hall of fame, and early transportation from anchored boats often came from members of the rowing teams in exchange for tips.

I’ve been to my share of Husky football games. I’ve never arrived by boat though. Of course, we can see the stadium from our house and walk there easily enough, so there’s no obvious reason why we’d boat over, assuming we had a boat.

No doubt I’m missing the point. (When it comes to fun I often do.) The ride might be an adventure in itself, even if I can get to the stadium more easily on foot. Why, just two days ago, my friend Russ and his family got to the Colorado game by boat. They took the Ivar’s Salmon House brunch cruise.

Gail is surely thinking, “What can be better than that?” The merger of multiple Seattle traditions that she grew up with: Husky football, boating, salmon, Norwegian culture, and northwest coast native culture. Well, some day. Maybe.

Last November I wrote a short post about a freshman basketball player at Duke who, based on the first few games of the season, looked like he might be the top college player in the country. Alas, he would be injured soon thereafter and not return until the NCAA tournament in March. The reason for the post? The photo of him that I featured at the top and have copied above. Yes, as you can see, his name is Irving. Kyrie Irving. And he’s #1. How could I resist?

Irving is now #1 in another sense. It was always understood that he would leave Duke after his freshman year to turn professional and enter the NBA draft. And so he did. The draft was on Thursday. To no one’s surprise, he was the #1 pick, selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a key part of their rebuilding plan in the wake of LeBron’s departure a year ago.

I’m not much for wearing official team clothing, but I see a Cleveland Cavalier jersey in my future.

Denver vs. Johns Hopkins, May 21, 2011

This is the time of year when I write a post (or more) about the NCAA men’s lacrosse championships. I let last weekend’s action go by without a post. Time to catch up.

First, my traditional stage setting. Until recently, seven schools dominated the sport: Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, North Carolina, Princeton, Syracuse, and Virginia. They were the only schools to win the championship. But more than that, they accounted for almost every championship game appearance, the only interlopers until 2005 being Maryland schools, once each: Loyola, Towson, and Navy. And the super seven accounted for almost all semi-final appearances as well.

But the game is changing. It is a growing sport at the high school level across the country. As a result, there is a larger pool of talented players, and more schools are competitive. As one example of the sport’s move westward, Notre Dame was a quarterfinalist in 1995 and 2000 and a semi-finalist in 2001. More recently, it has joined the super seven as a power, making the quarterfinals in 2008, then going undefeated in 2009 and being ranked #2 but being upset in the first round of the tournament. As for their performance last year and this year, more in a moment.

The school that has been on the verge of breaking into the elite throughout the last decade is Duke. They were runner-up to Hopkins in 2005, losing by a single goal. 2006? Well, you know. There was that scandal that dominated the national news, and the program was shut down in mid-season. In 2007, they returned to the championship game, losing once again to Hopkins by a single goal. Another one-goal loss to Hopkins in the 2008 semi-final and a blowout loss to Syracuse in the 2009 semi-final added to their frustration. But last year, they upset #1 ranked Virginia by a goal in the semi-final, landing in the championship game opposite Notre Dame.

If you’re following, you understand that this means the two teams who had been knocking at the door had simultaneously arrived in last year’s championship game. One of them would break through. After 60 minutes of regulation play, they were tied 5-5. Finally, Duke scored, winning their first championship and joining the super seven as a member of the new elite eight.

Then there’s Denver. Bill Tierney, the long-time Princeton coach, shocked the lacrosse world by uprooting and moving to Denver before last season. At Princeton, he had won national championships in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2001, the team finishing as runner-up in 2000 and 2002. This year, in only his second season at Denver, they were one of the top teams in the country. Might they be knocking at the door next?

Well, there you have it. The setup. Let’s turn to this year’s tournament. The NCAA invites 16 teams, 8 of which are seeded 1 through 8. In the first round, the 8 seeds play at home, each hosting one of the unseeded teams. That took place last weekend. The quarterfinal games are played at two neutral sites, two games at one site and two at another. Then the semi-finals and finals are held on Memorial Day weekend, in recent years at some NFL football stadium — the home of the Eagles, the Ravens, or the Patriots.

Of the elite eight, only Princeton didn’t qualify for the tournament. It was an off year for them. Joining the other seven elite programs were Notre Dame and Denver. These were the top 9 teams, but only 8 could be seeded and thereby get to host their first-round game. Maryland had won the ACC tournament, beating North Carolina and Duke. Yet, they were the odd team out, not being given a seed. The seeds in order, 1 through 8, were Syracuse, Cornell, Hopkins, ND, Duke, Denver, Virginia, and UNC.

Last Saturday, Maryland wasted no time showing they should have been seeded, beating host UNC handily. The other seven seeds all won, Virginia having the toughest time, eking out an overtime win over surprising Bucknell. That set up this weekend’s quarterfinals. Yesterday, at Hofstra’s stadium on Long Island, Cornell (seeded 2) would play Virginia (7) and Hopkins (3) would play Denver (6). Today, at the Patriots’ stadium in Foxborough, Syracuse (1) would play Maryland and Notre Dame (4) would play Duke (5) in a rematch of last year’s championship game.

I watched parts of all four games. In yesterday’s opening game, Cornell opened a 4-1 lead, but Virginia came back with 10 consecutive goals to take a 10-4 halftime lead. Cornell fought back, outscoring Virginia 3-1 in the third quarter before succumbing 13-9. The second game was stunning, as Denver flew to a 6-1 lead early in the second quarter with 6 straight goals. Hopkins settled down and closed to within a goal at 8-7 midway through the third quarter, but Denver responded with a 5-goal run to make the score 13-7, finally winning 14-9. This was a landmark in lacrosse history, a team from the mountain west making the semi-finals, and doing so by beating the team with the greatest tradition in the game. Unbelievable.

Today, Syracuse and Maryland opened the action at Foxborough with a hard fought defensive struggle. Syracuse started the scoring with a goal late in the first period and another late in the second. But Maryland, held scoreless for the first 26 minutes of the game, finally got two goals of its own in the final four minutes of the first half. They followed with 2 more in the first half of the third quarter to open a 4-2 lead. Syracuse closed to 4-3 late in the third period and then Maryland scored a shocking goal with 1 second left in the period to lead 5-3. Syracuse fought back, shutting out Maryland in the fourth quarter and getting the tying goal with 1:03 left in regulation. They had the momentum and looked poised to win, as would befit their #1 seed. Alas, Maryland controlled the ball throughout the first overtime period, scoring the winning goal three and a half minutes in.

The last quarterfinal was Duke vs. Notre Dame. Another low scoring game, tied 4-4 through three periods, at which point Duke started to take control, scoring 3 goals to open up a 7-4 lead. ND got a goal with 16 seconds left, by which time the result was determined.

Great weekend. Four great games. And all four top seeds lost. Next week, Virginia will take on Denver in one semi-final, with Maryland and Duke in the other. Two schools from the old super seven, one from the new elite eight, and one taking center stage far earlier than anyone would have dreamed. After what Denver did to Hopkins yesterday, no one will be counting them out.

I wouldn’t dream of predicting the results. I know only that we’re in for three exciting games. I suggest you watch.

This idiocy is an old theme, but one we west coasters don’t pay the price for. I paid the price this past week, though, what with flying into New York on Saturday, the day of the NCAA men’s basketball final four round, and then being in New York Sunday for the women’s final four and Monday for the men’s championship game.

The idiocy? Games that start at 9:20 PM or 9:30 PM eastern time. For the semi-final rounds, that was the start time of the second games. And on Monday night, the championship game started around 9:30.

It’s not like I actually care all that much, but believe me, I don’t care enough to stay up that late. On the other hand, we did just get in from Seattle, so we weren’t exactly on eastern time. Which is to say, I did catch the end of the UConn-Kentucky men’s semi-final Saturday. As for Texas A&M’s upset of the UConn women on Sunday, I missed that one. And the UConn men beating Butler Monday? Well, I was reading, but still awake, so I turned it on to catch the end. However, if I lived in the eastern time zone and were going to work the next day, I would have skipped it.

By Tuesday, I was fully adjusted to east coast time, but that was our night to fly home, so we would be missing the the women’s championship. Plus, with our 8:00 PM flight delayed and our arrival in Seattle scheduled for near midnight PDT (or 3:00 AM EDT), I mostly wanted to sleep. As it turned out, I could have watched the entire game, since a selection of TV stations was available via satellite on the small screens in the airplane seat backs, but this didn’t even occur to me. After a late dinner, I went to sleep. When I awoke somewhere around 2:00 AM EDT, I turned my screen on for the first time and stumbled on the game highlights on ESPN.

I watched about as much of the basketball as I wanted to. It remains a mystery to me why the powers that be think it’s in anyone’s interests to have games end at 11:30 on weeknights. Or later. I’m just thankful that I’m usually here in the Pacific time zone.