The good news: the spelling bee ended early (we lost, which is less good news, but not a big deal either), so I got back to my desk just a few minutes in to the second half.
The bad news: I think the Gophers are going down. It’s not hopeless; they’re down by 7 right now with just under 10 minutes to go. But looking over the game stats, I’m not sure the Gophers can pull it out Sigh.
Oh, and before I forget it completely, the quote of the day yesterday came from Rick Majerus talking to the local doofuses on our ESPN radio affiliate in between games about Washington’s relatively unimpressive first-round game: “I don’t know, the [Washington] Huskies, Pittsburgh, Alabama…they all looked to me like a bunch of Catholic guys who gave up defense for Lent.” Heh.
Update: Yeah, the Gophers lost. So I missed my opportunity to see my favorite team in their first and now only tournament game in the last six years. Sigh.
My Gophers are playing at 12:30 ET today, but instead of being glued to my computer watching the scoreboard refresh every 30 seconds, I’ll be competing in the company spelling bee—something I do every year, and something to which I committed long before I knew if the Gophers would even make the tournament. (I are a gud speler. My team has won the company bee twice in the last three years and gone on to the citywide corporate spelling bee—it’s a benefit for a local literacy organization—where we won once and came in second the other time, the latter due to my misspelling “diaphanous.” I spelled it “diaphonous.” It was a last-minute choke, and I still feel deeply guilty about it.)
If I’m lucky, I’ll make it back to my desk for the last few minutes of the game. I’m incredibly nervous about the game, because Iowa State had some really big wins this year, and as I’ve said before, this Gophers team has been playing beyond its natural abilities, and that’s the sort of thing that tends to disintegrate in the tournament. It’s hard to describe how much the Gophers matter to me; in a way, I’m more passionate about them than any other sports team, even my adored Yankees. The Timberwolves are probably just as important to me–they started up shortly after I moved to Mpls., and I patiently endured their years of suckage before KG came along. But the Gophers, well…t’s just that my years in Mpls. coincided with some very good and hugely likable Gopher teams, and my ex and I went to at least a few games every year, and I developed a strong emotional attachment to the team that’s never changed, even through their last six years of turmoil and disappointing play.
My last year in Mpls. included their wonderful run to the Final Four led by Bobby Jackson and his backcourt mate Eric Harris, whose failure to be drafted after graduation absolutely astonished me; he was small and not the world’s greatest shooter, especially for a guard, but he was the top defensive player in the country coming out of high school (Christ the King, I think, in the Bronx), and I’d have thought some NBA team would have snapped him up for his defensive skiills alone. But no. I think he played in Europe for a while; not sure where he is now, but I don’t think he’s playing anywhere.
But I digress. That Gopher team was so great, such an unmitigated joy to watch, that we actually sat for over four hours in Williams Arena (better known as the Barn, and one of the weirdest but best college basketball venues in the country), not waiting to see a game, just waiting to welcome them home between their Elite Eight win and their trip to the Final Four. Their flight was delayed, and it was a weeknight and we were tired, but we sat there with the other thousand or so Minnesotans patiently waiting to cheer the Gophers when they walked into the Barn and listen to them thank their fans. That’s how much I loved that team.
Then the scandals came and Clem was disgraced and the team lost a ton of scholarships and Dan “Remind Me Again: Why Haven’t I Been Fired Yet?” Monson came in and gave us five years of mediocrity and disappointment. He’s finally doing something right. though, because the team has played better than it should have for most of the season. They’re facing a really tough opponent today, though, and 8-9 pairings are usually toss-ups anyway, so I’m excited and nervous and mostly pretty devastated that I won’t get to follow most (or possibly any) of the game. It’s no fair, I tells ya…