Sports Journal January 1-3, 2019

1-1-19

Happy New Year!  I don’t really mean that actually.  I’m just saying it since everybody else does.  I don’t think I actually celebrated any holidays last year or my birthday.  I’m just grateful things went smoothly last night for Year End processing.  Well, there was one big operator error: I didn’t bring anything for dinner.  I thought I would treat myself with a Big Tex sandwich at Church’s across the street instead.  Unfortunately, they didn’t wait for me and closed early.  The funny thing is, even without one of their sandwiches, I still had indigestion for the night.  I’ll give another chance to kill me with their food in the near future.    

No, I’m not going to be talking about the New Years’ bowl games.  I lost ABC over-the-air three weeks ago.  They don’t show the Rose Bowl anyway.  It was on the radio, but the station would be powering down for the night well before it ended.  (Bad reception.  The story of my life.) 

Who cares?  Today, it’s all about the hockey with the Winter Classic between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins.  Last time I watched a hockey game (11-23-18 Black Friday), I didn’t bother taking any notes.  This time I came prepared, though I still didn’t do much of a job of it.  At least I was well fed today.  I baked up a pizza from the freezer.  I wasn’t going to depend on a restaurant being open.

This year’s event was at historic Notre Dame football stadium.  It was 34 degrees with a breeze.  The skies were overcast and threatening, but it never snowed.  (They were hoping for some lake-effect snow.)  The stadium was a sellout with 76,000 very loud patrons.  The Blackhawks were perhaps favored, but both teams and other hockey teams were represented by the fans.  I think I counted eight broadcasters there for NBC, though I’m pretty sure they could have gotten by with just the expert play-by-play call of Mike Emrick.

The teams marched into the stadium to the Notre Dame fight song.  It was kind of majestic.  The Blackhawks got the scoring started with about 12 minutes left in the period on a power play goal on a point blank shot in front of the net, 1-0.  The Bruins came right back to tie it with seven minutes left, also on a power play on a shot in front of the net, 1-1.  In the last seconds of the period, Blackhawk goalie, Cam Ward, did the splits to stop a rush on him and got plowed over.  Patrick Kane immediately took the puck the other way on a breakaway.  Bruin goalie, Tuukka Rask, stoned him.

During the first intermission, Weezer was out performing.  They looked uncomfortable and there was some kind of sound problem.  That was about the only technical difficulty with the game.  In the second period, the announcers talked about the pucks, after one of them had gone out-of-play and ended up with them.  The pucks had a thermodynamic layer that changed color to purple, if they went above a freezing temperature and would then be taken out of play.  The guys there were coveting them, as they also had the special Winter Classic-Notre Dame logo on them. 

One of the Bruins, Zdeno Chara, is actually the tallest NHL player ever at 6’9”.  Viewing the game at a distance, you couldn’t really see his size until there was a closeup on the ice when he was standing next to another player.  He was involved in some light fisticuffs in the period, which was the only fight of the game (no penalties issued). 

Eight minutes left, there was a Blackhawk goal on a redirection to make it 2-1.  Three minutes left, two different players were taken off their feet on checks into the boards.  Pretty spectacular.  The Bruins tied the score, 2-2, on another power play goal.  (The penalty call seemed a little tacky though.)  Patrice Bergeron scored.  Before that, he’d made a great hustle play to breakup a short-handed breakaway attempt by the Blackhawks on the power play.

The third period started with a carryover power play for the Bruins from the second period.  There were two more penalties in that time which resulted in a 4 on 3 and a 5 on 3.  The Blackhawks killed it to the roar of the crowd.  They went on to stifle another power play right after. 

A referee went down on a check, so you knew the game was getting serious.  Nine minutes left, the Bruins got a 3-2 lead off a goal on a rebound by Sean Kuraly, who played up to the crowd afterward.  He got some cheers, though the crowd was mostly for the Blackhawks.  On one contested play later, the crowd wanted a call.  From Mike Emrick, “The fans want a penalty, but it’s not up to a vote.” 

Two minutes left, Ward stopped two-man breakaway by himself.  He left the net empty with about 90 seconds in the game with the crowd making deafening noise.  But, the Bruins got a breakaway on a delayed penalty and fired one in unopposed to make it 4-2 Bruins, which was the final.

What a great game!  Part of that was the great ice surface for today’s game.  This is the first Winter Classics I’ve seen that didn’t have any delays for weather, sunshine, or having to fix problems with the ice.  It’s going to be used for public skating and then a Notre Dame hockey game versus Michigan over the weekend.  The players made a handshake line as fireworks went off, and then they raised their sticks to salute the crowd.  All the players said in interviews afterward that they were appreciating this, since there was no guarantee of getting to do this again in their careers.  This certainly got my new year off right.

1-3-19

This was my second missed game for Aggie Women’s Basketball this season.  I can’t take off work for every game, if for no other reason than I can’t deal with all the makeup work when I get back.  I nearly fell a day behind just trying to watch this game on TV in the break room.  I actually had enough literal paper-shuffling type work that I was still busy while watching, even without being around my computer. 

Tonight the Aggies were playing their first conference game against California Baptist, who were playing their first-ever WAC game.  CBU has a nice-looking team and some attractive assistant coaches.  Their Britney Thomas is actually the daughter of a former Aggie Women’s basketball star.  I noticed Georgia Dale from Australia.  She’s kinda cute.  On that matter, one of the female referees, while severe in expression, was rather attractive.   

It looked like a light crowd tonight.  I think the students are still on break, though there were some young people dressed as bananas.  I didn’t get an explanation for that.  The band was a no-show, but the Cheerleaders were there.  I missed noting Coach Atkinson’s outfit tonight, but for my team fashion segment, the Mills twins both had their hair colored red.  I might be a bit standoffish on this change; they looked good to begin with.       

What also looked good was Brooke Salas in the first quarter.  She had some points, a steal, and four rebounds early on.  As it turned out, CBU was barely trying to rebound.  They were more focused on their specialty of shooting three’s, which was keeping them in the game.  Gia Pack added one of her own at the quarter buzzer to make it 26-15 Aggies after ten minutes. 

The Aggie girls kept up the lead, 38-28, in the second.  I saw Dominique Mills make a very pretty pass to her sister Monique Mills under the basket.  CBU didn’t let them get away with that play twice though.  Graduate student Stabresa McDaniel came off the bench and added an authoritative three.  I basically missed the third quarter, 57-45, but Bre must have turned it on then, because she was scoring like crazy. 

In the fourth with three minutes left, I stopped everything to watch.  The Lancers had closed it to 67-62.  Bre set a great screen for Brooke, who hit a jumper, 72-63.  Then Brooke got a layup and the foul shot to make it 74-63.  CBU would stay with the Aggies thanks to some deep three’s, but NMSU would close it out, 76-69.   

Stabresa McDaniel had a heck of a game with 21 points.  Brooke Salas followed that with 20 points and 17 rebounds.  Ron was at the game without me, incurring my jealousy.  He e-mailed me after and said the Dino Dash was hysterical.  I asked for some details, so he sent this back.

It was a good game, but they started the 4th up by 12 and proceeded to blow the lead down to 5.  They weren't flat, but just not making good shots & racking up 4 team fouls in first 3 or 4 minutes.

Dino Dash was two girls, they did the same going across the court, getting a ball, dribbling back and making the basket, then it got interesting.  One got the mid court ball and the other put up a great defense.  Everyone was cheering and laughing.  I'll have to start recording them.

(I may also be jealous of Ron’s recap writing.)

About when this game finished, the Aggie Men took on CBU in Riverside, California.  I was trying to catch up working while this game was on, so I was having trouble paying attention.  The Aggies came out shooting flat and the Lancer Men were putting up three’s like the CBU ladies, but the guys were rebounding well.  It was 11-22 Lancers about halfway through the first half. 

At one point there was a foul on the Aggies.  The referees had an extended discussion about it.  Jack Nixon said, “I don’t remember who the foul was on, it’s been so long.”  The refs talked to the coaches, “Coach Jans doesn’t look unhappy.  Well, no more unhappy than usual.”  It turned out to be a foul and technical foul shots which resulted in a five-point trip, 20-28.  Jojo Zamora got a slam as part of a seven-point run to make it 25-32.  It was 29-32 Lancers at the half.

Back at my desk, CBU was putting up video of the game over the Internet.  It looked like a good crowd there.  The Lancer announcer said the team was looking for a “signature win” in their maiden WAC game.  I picked up the game again with 12 minutes left in the second half.  CBU was up by 10, though one of their players had already fouled out.  In fact, both teams were in the bonus.  Oh no, I thought.  The game slowed to a crawl with constant foul shots.

I was busy enough that it was difficult to continue following along as the game dragged on.  Another Lancer fouled out with five minutes left.  They’d end up losing four players before the end.  The Aggies played 12, so they were able to distribute their fouls better.  With a bit under three minutes, the Aggies were down five. 

With a bit over a minute left, there were a couple of steals in quick succession.  An Aggie got called for a reach on the last one.  Coach Jans got hit with a technical for arguing.  Milan Acquaah (Aqua), who finished with 36 points in the game, made all four free throws and put the Aggies down eight.  That was about it.  76-82 CBU final.

Terrell Brown led the Aggies with 22.  Jojo Zamora, AJ Harris, and CJ Bobbitt also scored in double figures.  Noticeably absent was Ivan Aurrecoechea, who didn’t score.  I wonder if he’s injured.  (From the Lancers’ announcer, we also got another pronunciation of his last name.)  I checked the final stats and the Aggies did better at about everything, even rebounds, but not in shooting percentage.  Dad, who was listening to game, said CBU was also making their free throws at the end (they shot more and better).  I wasn’t able to listen to the postgame.  I wonder if Coach Jans apologized for that technical.  Much like Coach Atkinson’s last week (12-28-18), that really didn’t help.