UCon Coach Ken Ollie
It is not uncommon for some of my fondest childhood memories to be tied to summer vacations…whether those vacays were at a historic site within an hour’s drive of home or places many, many miles away. If the travel were by car, my sister and I would sometimes indulge in a good ole game of “Categories” to pass the time. It went something like this, “Categories, Such As”…for example–cars—from there we would name as many cars as we could—all said to a groovy beat, mind you.
So as I found myself reminiscing about those days, here are a few “Categories” that immediately came to mind…..
Clean Sweep Category: Now that most brackets have been recycled into another piece of paper, it is time to extend congrats to the University of Connecticut Huskies…two times…again! The men’s game didn’t disappoint….UConn answered each and every surge the Kentucky Wildcats had…it appears as though nothing was going to stop the Huskies from getting to the stage of champions. While the women’s game was not nearly as competitive, I believe that was the message in itself. There was a lot of talk leading up to the game of the animosity between the Lady Huskies and the Lady Fighting Irish of Notre Dame….in the end UConn started having the last word far sooner in the game than I’d predicted.
Does Anybody Really Want the #1 Seed Category: these last few weeks have seen the NBA’s Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers in a tug of war in which nobody really wants to pull the other team over to their side…even when they have all they need and more to do so!!…
Who Would Have Thunk It Category: goes to the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals for literally flipping the script….springtime post season will find the Wizards in the playoffs for the first time in six years…but there will be no need to worry about schedules overlapping at the Verizon Center as the Capitals find themselves on the outside looking in of the playoffs for, yep, the first time in six years….
Here We Go Again Category: Manny Pacquiao’s Welterweightbout with Timothy Bradley, Jr. felt like I was watching a serious boxing wrong correcting itself as Manny emerged the victor by unanimous decision. The judge’s decision almost two years ago that had Bradley winning felt like seeing the ball go in the basket for the game winning shot and then being told…ummm, no it didn’t actually go in by the way…the other team has won! And the powers that be within the world of boxing have the nerve to wonder what happen to all of the sport’s luster…really?
Oops He Did It Again Category: Bubba Watson has won a second sporty green jacket at the Masters in Augusta. When the game’s two top stars aren’t in the running… Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, for very different reasons…it sure doesn’t hurt to have a crowd favorite at the top of the leader board…Bubba is no doubt the man for that job!
Leave It Alone Category: Baseball is a slow game, deal with it or don’t watch. I have no problem with this year’s new replay system…some plays are simply too hard to catch with the naked eye…being able to challenge is reasonable thing—within limits, just like NFL coaches have a X amount of challenges. But the chatter about changing the number of innings must cease immediately! That is the nature of the game, period. Besides, fewer innings won’t change the fact that you can have an inning where both teams go three up, three down…then turn right around and have an inning where the batters bat around…leave.it.alone!
All of these fond thoughts about vacay has my mind wandering….perhaps, I need to plan a road trip and introduce “Categories” to my kids…long gone are the days of marathon game playing—something tells me somebody’s electronic gadget will butt in and ruin all of the fun!!!
