It’s been a long day and long week of hoop-related activity, so what am I doing now? Writing about basketball while watching basketball (Memphis-Tennessee) in the newsroom. Envy my life, minions.
Not to step on the quasi-diary of the District 3 high school tournament that will be in tomorrow’s paper, a spare observation or two:
Local teams’ first-round pairings for the state tournament are now available (and will also appear in tomorrow’s paper). The Lancaster Mennonite girls, who won the District 3 AAA title, appear to have gotten, deservedly, the best first-round break. They’ll play Nanticoke, the third seed from District 2, Saturday, probably in Lancaster County.
BTW, the York County crew that worked Mennonite’s district-final defeat of Gettysburg deserves some props. The Blazers can really guard people, but wouldn’t have been allowed to really do their thing with typical girls’ officiating.
The toughest draw? How about the Columbia boys, who were rewarded for their excellent win over Milton Hershey in the AA third-place game with a first-rounder against Strawberry Mansion, the Philly Public League AA champ, which features a 6-8 player getting D-1 looks.
Extrapolating beyond the first round is a fool’s errand, but it’s amazing how often good things happen, bracket-wise, if you get a first-round win. I’ve covered more than a few teams over the years that pulled off first-round upsets and found that their second-round game was easier than their first….
Reading, the 3-AAAA champ, is off to the western half of the bracket. The Red Knights seem good enough to get through to the state final, where they figure to run into monstrous Chester. Reading doesn’t seem that good. What was it I just said about extrapolating?…
Speaking of Reading, a quiz: The following are first names of Reading’s boys’ and girls’ rosters. Guess which are male and which female: By-Nee, J’Leisa, Deva’Nyar, Jah-Re.
In other news: Yes, Jim Cantafio is back. You knew that was coming, didn’t you?
I’m no Kelvin Sampson fan, but why do you shove him out the door now? Because you care a lot less about your basketball players than staying ahead of the NCAA posse…
Brad Lidge throws one pitch and hurts his knee. Is this supposed to be satire? Because it’s not that funny…
A few posts down there’s an item about Mike Huckabee’s wife going to Vegas for a boxing weekend. Its title, “I heart (punch) Huckabee,” seems to have caused come bafflement. One Talkback post called it moronic.
OK- “I heart Huckabees” is the name of a 2004 movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin and Jude Law.
Heart punch is the name of a pro wrestling manuever, and obviously also, here, a boxing reference.
Friggin’ genius is the name of a person who calls something moronic because they don’t get it…
And finally: By-Nee and Jah-Re are boys. Nothing to add, really…
