I'm not doing too well on my NCAA bracket this year...which is not surprising since I spent all of 5 minutes making my choices. I looked at seeding numbers and records of course - they were right there on the brackets. But mostly I looked at the team names.
I'm married to Pablo. He loves hoops. Jud is my son he too loves basketball. Amy and Jud both played basketball from birth through high school, and even in intramurals in college. We're a ballin' fam. Through the years I've formed relationships with some teams - due to a certain coach, team or even a player.
Like UCONN - I really dislike Jim Calhoun, the coach. But I'm not dumb - so I'll pick them for a couple games, but will pick against them as soon as I can! Same with other cheater coaches - and their teams. Last year I picked all the Big 12 teams to do well and they hurt me - so I didn't do that this year.
And I didn't want to just go with top seeds - that's a cop out. I saw North Carolina vs Duke the week before and both looked darn good. I picked each of those teams to do well. Florida was my other team to do well. Butler just took care of them. And Arizona polished off Duke - my pick to win the whole thing.
UCONN has them on the ropes right now. Cheater! Fun games to watch though.
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 19, 2010
hoopin'
Been spending the night watching basketball with the guys - it's NCAAs you know. Or maybe you're blissfully ignorant. Watching wall-to-wall basketball takes me back to the days when I lived hardwood and the round ball.
Oh not that I was ever good. We didn't even get girls basketball until I was a sophomore in high school. The little schools around us had girls hoops way before we did - places like Audubon and Elk Horn. But we could only be cheerleader - and I struck out on that accord in 7th grade, failing to be selected after trying out in front of a panel of teachers.
The only basketball skill I acquired before fall of 10th grade were from playing in the driveway and at the YMCA where Harl Holt organized us and actually let us play 5 on 5. Yeah, Iowa Girls Basketball back in 1973 was 6 on 6 - 2 half courts with guards and forwards. I was a forward though I wasn't much of a shooter.
I'm sure Coach Dale Allen was astonished when something like 70 girls showed up for the first practice - it took him like two weeks to weed out the looky lu's - the girls who just wanted to see what it was like. And once the uniforms were handed out, a bunch more quit. We had to share practice space with boys basketball and wrestlers.
In our athletic conference, the Hawkeye 8 - predecessor to the Hawkeye 10, most schools had girls basketball a year or two before we did. So they were light years ahead of our team. We were still learning how to play organized ball - how to check into a game, and where to stand. How to shoot a layup and set a screen. (I thought Coach Allen was a genius who invented screens - I'd never heard of them before).
I was thrilled to get a silver bullet - one of the uniforms, for the JV squad. Our colors were Black and gold, but since they decided to add girls hoops late, they didn't get the order in soon enough to choose uniform colors. Even so, I loved putting it on along with my Chuck Taylor high tops - until I got shin splints. Then I got Adidas Superstars, with thicker soles.
I'm not sure if we won a game that first year. Yet I loved every minute of it! I ate, breathed and slept hoops! The next year, my junior year I again dressed JV but also for varsity - but didn't get to play much. My senior year we got a new woman coach - we were slowly improving, and I played my role as practice player and all around cheerleader. My best game ever I scored 7 points including one reverse layup!
The best memories are of riding on the bus and hanging out with the girls after practice and games. We had to dress up for games and had polyester hounds tooth pants made and wore gold cardigans. On Fridays we'd go to Pizza Hut after we got back to town. It was a great way for a teenager to burn up time and energy. Come state tourney time our school took 2 busloads to shop and watch the finals - I idolized those players like rock stars today. Those were the good old days!
Oh not that I was ever good. We didn't even get girls basketball until I was a sophomore in high school. The little schools around us had girls hoops way before we did - places like Audubon and Elk Horn. But we could only be cheerleader - and I struck out on that accord in 7th grade, failing to be selected after trying out in front of a panel of teachers.
The only basketball skill I acquired before fall of 10th grade were from playing in the driveway and at the YMCA where Harl Holt organized us and actually let us play 5 on 5. Yeah, Iowa Girls Basketball back in 1973 was 6 on 6 - 2 half courts with guards and forwards. I was a forward though I wasn't much of a shooter.
I'm sure Coach Dale Allen was astonished when something like 70 girls showed up for the first practice - it took him like two weeks to weed out the looky lu's - the girls who just wanted to see what it was like. And once the uniforms were handed out, a bunch more quit. We had to share practice space with boys basketball and wrestlers.
In our athletic conference, the Hawkeye 8 - predecessor to the Hawkeye 10, most schools had girls basketball a year or two before we did. So they were light years ahead of our team. We were still learning how to play organized ball - how to check into a game, and where to stand. How to shoot a layup and set a screen. (I thought Coach Allen was a genius who invented screens - I'd never heard of them before).
I was thrilled to get a silver bullet - one of the uniforms, for the JV squad. Our colors were Black and gold, but since they decided to add girls hoops late, they didn't get the order in soon enough to choose uniform colors. Even so, I loved putting it on along with my Chuck Taylor high tops - until I got shin splints. Then I got Adidas Superstars, with thicker soles.
I'm not sure if we won a game that first year. Yet I loved every minute of it! I ate, breathed and slept hoops! The next year, my junior year I again dressed JV but also for varsity - but didn't get to play much. My senior year we got a new woman coach - we were slowly improving, and I played my role as practice player and all around cheerleader. My best game ever I scored 7 points including one reverse layup!
The best memories are of riding on the bus and hanging out with the girls after practice and games. We had to dress up for games and had polyester hounds tooth pants made and wore gold cardigans. On Fridays we'd go to Pizza Hut after we got back to town. It was a great way for a teenager to burn up time and energy. Come state tourney time our school took 2 busloads to shop and watch the finals - I idolized those players like rock stars today. Those were the good old days!
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