Elliot – we expect a full report (with pictures) of today’s events. Hope you’re having a great one (although I hear you have classes until 9:30).
Be safe!!
Me and the World Series Trophy
The White Sox World Series Trophy Tour was at work today. So I waited in line for about 10 – 15 minutes and they snapped a polaroid.
Here I am! Pretty cool except they move you out of there in about 5 seconds to get the next person in.
Wall of Flame
Quaker Steak and Lube has just opened a new restuarant in town so I went there to celebrate my birthday last night. One of their gimmicks is a “Wall of Flame” where you can get your name posted if you eat six of their “atomic” wings. Naturally I had to step up to the challenge. The first wing had a definite bite to it. After I finished the second I had to take off my glasses because my eyes were tearing up. By the fourth my nose was running and I was having difficulty swallowing. I did manage to eat all six but I might not have been able to handle eight.
I did learn a little secret though. After I finished the wings, the bartender gave me a shot of Hershey’s chocolate syrup which substantially helped clear up the burning sensation in my mouth. I obviously couldn’t spread chocolate all over my face but the wetnap he gave me helped somewhat (still left a residual sting however). But I really didn’t realize that I hadn’t gotten it all off my hands. On the way out, I stopped in the bathroom to take care of all the Rolling Rocks I had had. Fortunately, this was about an hour after I finished the wings so most of the sauce had worn off my hands but there was definitely enough left to leave an uncomfortable tingling down there.
What a Great Night!!!
As you all may know I just recently turned the big two one (A.K.A DRUNK) haha just kidding dad! To celebrate this wonderful occasion my wonderful cousin Shannon came out to celebrate with me and a couple of my friends down at some of the ISU bars. She felt right at home. Basically I’m just posting this to say that not only do I wish all of you could have joined us but also to thank Shannon soooo very much for driving down to celebrate a birthday I’ll never be able to remember.
Just to let everyone know all is well
Gary called last night to check up on me since I hadn’t posted on the blog for a while (thanks for looking out for me Gar). He was concerned since it appeared I was coming down with something while out in Chicago. When I got back, I just hunkered down for four days and took it extra easy. It looks like I shook whatever bug it was (or maybe my asthma medicine really did something) because the sore throat and cough are gone knock on wood).
Coach UncleLar
Set your TiVo’s and VCR’s. Coach UncleLar makes his TV appearance Saturday when the Wisconsin Badgers visit the Penn State Nittany Lions in a basketball game being broadcast by ESPN2 at 4PM EST (3PM CST).
The timing of this couldn’t be better. We had a HUGE upset win over Illinois in Champaign on Saturday. At the time, Illinois had won 33 games in a row at home, at the time, the longest home winning streak in the nation.
The team showed incredible grit in their win. They went down 13-0 early in the game and scored all of 12 points in the first 14 minutes of play. At that point they trailed 26-12 and things weren’t looking good. From that point on though, things started to change. First, they suddenly found their offense, scoring 13 points in the next 6 minutes. Unfortunately, Illinois kept scoring so, at the half, PSU still trailed by 14 at 39-25.
The second half was a different story. Penn State’s offense continued to hit and they tightened their defense up considerably. PSU scored 41 points in the second half against the B10’s best defense while holding the Illini to only 26 points. That resulted in a one point win that wasn’t decided until a good 2-3 minutes after the buzzer sounded.
Illinois guard Rich McBride sank a 3 pointer as the game ended. The officials on the floor ruled the shot good and the Orange Krush, Illinois’ student section, stormed the court. However, the NCAA has instructed their officials to use replay to confirm game ending buzzer beating winners, so they went to the videotape. Sure enough, the video confirmed that the ball was still in McBride’s hand when the red light behind the basket went on signalling the end of the game. The arena got very very quite as the only celebrants were a bunch of happy young guys in blue. Read the story here.
Some photos:
Here’s the shot at the end (you can’t see the clock though).
Here it is going through the net.
The ref signals it good:
Fans on the court:
Not so fast, it’s time for the guys in blue to party.
Students react:
The win was a huge one for our program. Illinois was the highest ranked team, #6, that we had ever beaten on their court. We’ve had bigger wins, over #2 Michigan State, #5 Ohio State, and #5 North Carolina but they were all on neutral courts. We’ve been really suffering in hoops, last in the B10 for the last four years but we’ve shown signs of improving.
We hired a new coach two years ago and the team has had considerable turnover over the last two years as the old coaches recruits decided to transfer. This is the first year that our new coach, Ed DeChellis, has had mostly his own recruits on the floor. We are the youngest team in the B10 with 1 senior, 2 juniors, 4 sophomores, 5 freshmen. We are also the smallest team in the B10 with no starter over 6’6″. Despite our lack of height we are one of the leading rebounding teams in the league – that’s a tribute to the heart and fight in these kids.
Fan support, including the student body, has been very lukewarm – losing will do that. But over the last five game stretch, all against ranked opponents, we hard started to show signs of improvement. We lost badly in the first of five at Ohio State but we were in every other game until the final minutes. We led Michigan State with five minutes to go in East Lansing before the Spartans pulled out the victory. Following the game, MSU coach Tom Izzo proved to be a prophet when he said that we were a good team and would beat somebody on the road. Some of us diehards believe that also but I don’t think any of us thought it would happen in Champaign.
We’ve not got a chance to get momentum on our side. We’ve got a very beatable Minnesota team here in Happy Valley tomorrow (Minn has ONE Big Ten win). Wisconsin comes in Saturday. The have been a force for most of the year but have been in a freefall the last 2 1/2 weeks so they are beatable also. We then get Indiana next Wednesday, also at home. If we can build on Saturday’s win and take at least 2 of the next 3 we may have turned the corner.
And to make things even better, I really am going to be a coach – OK an honorary coach but I’ll be on the bench just the same. Look for me. I’ll be the guy way way down on the right. As an honorary coach, I get to go to practice on Friday, the shootaround Saturday morning before the game, have lunch with the team after the shootarond, and then sit on the bench for the game. I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Hey Ron – how long until Eric can do this?
Couldn’t help but think of you and Eric when I first saw this:
Then when he gets older he can move up to:
This belongs down in the axe thread but I was afraid everyone would miss it if I put it there.
Central Bucks West Basketball
I rarely watch live TV these days other than some live sports. I was just checking the TiVo guide to see if there was any B10 game currently on, so that I could warm up before the Penn State/Illinois game at 9PM (8PM Central) when I noticed that the Pennsylvania Cable Network’s High School Game of the Week was on – CB West at Norristown.
CB West and Norristown are two of the four teams all within a game of each other fighting for the Suburban League Continental Conference championship. CBW beat Norristown in their first game so this will be a grudge battle. I’ve seen a couple of CBW football games since I left town but this is the first basketball game of theirs that I’ve watched in over 40 years. I’ll report the final once the game is over (CBW leads 9-8 after 1Q).
PS – for those in the Chicago area the PSU/Ill game tonight is on WCIU. One of my best friends, Brian Allen, will be doing the color commentary for the broadcast.
FINAL SCORE: Norristown 62 CB West 51. That eliminates CB West from winning the conference but they still should make the state playoffs.
Missing
I’m here. Sorry. I really only check the blog at best once a week on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Nick ties up the computer most of the rest of the time. I hope to be setting up a home office in the near future and should be on more often. I think I need to get a digital camera so I can participate in some of the mundane.
Anyway, Chris is now off to college. Started at ISU this past Tuesday. We drove him there on Friday 1/13. He is staying in Hamilton Hall. Man, I forgot how small a dorm room can be.
Yes, Larry I am jeolous of your little golf weekend. Looks like fun. I’m looking forward to the end of March whh I have plans on going to Mesquite, NV for a week with a group from my golf league. Anyone care to join me?
One of my favorites
Shannon’s 21st birthday. Gary and I flew in and teamed up with Ron and Steve to surprise her. We just walked into the bar where she was celebrating the birthday with her girlfriends. When she saw us, she did this double take that was almost as amazing as the look we got from Kenny when we surprised him for his birthday (or the look I got from Marilyn, Mary, and Mary Ann the time I surprised them at a Chippendales show). She then let out a scream and ran over to hug us. I’m sure her girlfriends didn’t have a clue what was going on.