11-14-18
I watched most of the NASCAR finale-setting race in Phoenix
over the weekend. While it was an
interesting race, I wasn’t interested enough to take any notes. I plan on watching the championship
race. We’ll see if I care more
then. I saw a bit of an MLB versus Japan All-Stars game on Tuesday.
I liked the crowd there at Mazda
Zoom-Zoom Stadium (yes,
really). They filled the place and
chanted, sang, and played instruments in an impressively coordinated
manner. Again, I didn’t give a crap
about taking notes. The MLB blew a two-run
lead in the ninth and lost.
On Wednesday, the Aggie
Men’s Basketball team took on the St.
Mary’s Gaels at home. It’s rare
scheduling to get a good team to come here in the pre-conference season. On the radio, Jack Nixon was calling this a potential signature win for the
program before the game. I was more
skeptical that this could be a win on the level of a UNLV-beating game than that the Aggies could actually win
tonight.
Unfortunately, I was busy and irritated at work at the
time. I listened to the first half and
only noted that the Gaels led at the half by 9.
For the second half, I tried watching the video which was again on Twitch.
I had connection issues though.
The Aggies also had problems. The
Gaels mostly had a double-digit lead for the half. At one point, the Aggies did cut it to 8, but
that was as close as it got. 73-58 St. Mary’s was the final.
The Aggie defense had problems getting stops in the
game. On offense, they shot very poorly
at the three-point line. AJ Harris led the Aggies with 17 points.
Ivan Aurrecoechea (don’t ask me how to pronounce that) from Spain
was next with 12. At least it looked
like a good crowd and student section there for an exciting matchup. They’ve got big upcoming games with UNM and Washington State. Hopefully,
they’ll put it together to compete with them.
Twitch chat during the game was reasonably entertaining
with fans trash-talking each other. The
funniest exchange I saw was during an Aggie timeout. “It’s tampon time, coach. Time to stop the bleeding.” Oh, Lord.
A Gaels’ fan also referred to NM State as a “Poor academic standards” school
for recruiting their players. They were
at least a bit jealous of a hot pizza giveaway during the game to a fan. There were more than 700 viewers watching
that I saw count of.
I question Twitch obsessively running a Thursday Night NFL game stream commercial and targeting
it at gamers. They run that commercial on
non-sports streams too. I have sincere
doubts the typical Twitch gamer viewer is going to be fooled into watching the
NFL thinking it’s the same type of competition.
(Only if referees suddenly start interfering with play every minute in Fortnite and determining the outcomes
of matches.) I think the popularity of online
computer gaming came about because gamers were shutout of the physical sports,
but still had a competitive streak that needed to be satisfied.
11-17-18
Before going to the final Aggie Volleyball home game, I got to listen to a bit of Aggie Women’s Basketball. They were in El Paso playing the Miners.
The radio call was courtesy of KROD,
who carries the Lady Miner games. Aggie
broadcasting was out-of-town, as I’ll go into later. Regrettably, this is only meeting between the
two teams this year. No! I won’t get to see Katerina Zec in person before she graduates. No! I
don’t care that I have a crush on a rivalry opponent. I want to see Kat again (12-10-17)!
Oh, well. I’ll
live. I only got to hear the first
quarter while I was getting ready and before I had to leave. There was no scoring for like 5 minutes. I’ve seen this happen in enough Women’s games
to start to think this is not out-of-the-ordinary. Katerina Zec’s three-pointer was all of UTEP’s
scoring for most of quarter. Brooke Salas hit two three-pointers. Kaeli
Atkinson also made a three. A UTEP player
made a pass to the Gold Digger Cheerleaders
at one point to give you an idea of how it was going for them. (I said, “made a pass to,” not, “made a pass
at.” And is “Gold Diggers” really the
best name for your cheerleaders? I can
see that being potentially a little too on the nose.)
It was 18-8 Aggies after 10 minutes. I went to the volleyball game feeling
reasonably good about the basketball game.
I anticipated getting some updates at the Pan-Am Center, as long as the Aggies were winning. (No chance of getting a weak AM signal inside
the arena.) PA Ed gave a halftime update before the volleyball match started,
30-22 Aggies. The final was announced at
the volleyball match halftime while I was waiting in line in the bathroom. The Aggies took it 69-65. That got close. Brooke Salas, of course, had a great
game. Both Mills sisters were playing and playing well, as each finished with
11 points. Kat Zec also had a good game,
but Zuzanna Puc had a great game
with 17.
Much later, after volleyball and dinner, Ron and I were
enjoying some ice cream at Sonic,
when I remembered that Aggie Men’s
Basketball was playing the Lobos
in Albuquerque tonight. I’d planned on
listening to the game; I just didn’t think I’d still be out this late. We came into the game about halfway through
second half. The Aggies were up 19
points, and Lobo Coach and ex-Aggie coach/traitor Paul Weir had just gotten hit with a technical. Adam
Young on the radio call said, “Can Aggie fans be having a better
night?”
From the game recap, the Aggies had been down 8 early in
game, but were up by 8 at halftime. Still,
the Lobos came back and got it within 8 with under five minutes to play. The lead was down to two points with 14
seconds. The Aggies were not converting
on their free throws when being intentionally fouled. Lobos had a chance to go ahead, but a steal by
CJ Bobbit foiled their attempt, and
he was fouled. He was 1 of 4 on free
throws this evening, but converted on a pair to ice the game. 98-94
Aggies final.
Coach
Jans
said afterward, “Its way more fun to win and learn from your mistakes than to
lose and grow that way.” Adam was really calling those last few seconds with
some passion. He was paying for it
later, as he started losing his voice in the postgame.
After three Aggie wins today, the streak came to an end
later that night. Aggie Football played the BYU
Cougars in Provo, Utah. The late
start was because the game was being broadcast on ESPN2. Jack Nixon I think mentioned that Aggie players were running around
30-degree stadium before the game without their shirts on to get acclimatized
to the cold.
The Aggies did reasonably well in the first quarter. Josh
Adkins hit Drew Dan after a long
drive of passing and rushing to give the Aggies a 7-0 lead. The Aggie defense blitzed well in first two
BYU possessions. On the second drive,
they got a sack to pin the Cougars inside their 10. The offense got good field position, but
ended up missing a long field goal.
Unfortunately, an interception on a deflection deep in
Aggie territory was converted by BYU for a tying touchdown, 7-7. From here, I was watching various TV shows
and not listening to the game fulltime.
In the second quarter, another interception led to another BYU TD, 7-14. From there it just got worse. It was 7-28 BYU before halftime, but they
managed to get the ball back and a field goal with under a minute left to make
it 7-31.
I tuned in during the third quarter and heard Dylan Brown kick a field goal to make
it 10-38. The final would be 10-45 BYU. It was not a good showing. Jack was amazed that their broadcast (over
the Internet) had a listener in Nottingham, England. I’d be amazed if there were too many people
listening in Las Cruces, as it was a blowout and finished at nearly midnight.
11-18-18
It’s NASCAR
Championship weekend! What a better way
to celebrate than by watching the Patriot
League Women’s Volleyball Championship.
What?
My reception on NBC
was iffy today for some reason. The TV
schedule listed volleyball on Stadium
before the start of the race. I think
said it was Men’s Volleyball, but I tuned in to check on it anyway, not really
caring about the prerace and bad reception.
It turned out to be the Women playing.
The matchup was the American
University Eagles versus the Navy
Midshipmen (or the Mids, as the announcers called them). This match was between #1 versus #2 and looked
good.
The AU arena was a large hanger. There were partitions on both sides covering
practice courts. Seating was only
available on one side. The other side
had the media table and a large board behind them which listed an intimidating
number conference championships. The
American coach had been there 30 years and was a 15-time champ. I’d seen Navy play a couple of times. AU had been talked about in every Patriot
League match I’d seen as they were undefeated in conference. I think this was my first look at AU (though
some of the girls seemed familiar). You
could characterize the team in general as being tall and good-looking.
Set 1 started off with Navy going up 6-1, prompting an
AU timeout. The Eagles would challenge a
call later. The play-by-play guy ragged
on the color guy about getting every prediction wrong about challenges during
the tournament. They were either both students,
or recently were, and did a really good job.
The color guy was really technical at times describing strategy.
AU came back and tied it at 13. Navy got two extraordinarily hard serves that
hit the sideline for aces that got the lead back to 16-13. Morgan
Uber, who I admit I’m fascinated with, reported in from the sidelines (just
audio though). I missed most of what she
said, but I think she talked about the Eagle coach and players thanking the
Navy players for their future service.
23-20 Navy, AU won the point after a long rally. One of the Navy girls jumped into the
scorer’s table to try and save the final hit.
AU won another long rally on the next point, but lost the set 25-22.
Between sets, I got a Morgan Uber report from the sidelines
with her on camera this time. Oh my
goodness, at the Eagle bench there was a shot of a 7’ girl in the huddle. She wasn’t dressed out to play. Everyone would have noticed her playing. She looked well taller than the starters, some
of whom were called at way over 6’, so I think my guess is close to right. I want to see her play next year.
Set 2 was very tight early on. AU managed at five-point lead at 15-10. They took it 25-19. “The Eagles bounce
back,” said one of the announcers. Goan. In Set 3, Navy took an early 8-4 lead. AU was having trouble serving. One serve even went under the net. AU would tie it and take a 15-14 lead. Timeout Navy.
There was a shot of the stands and there was a guy just wearing Speedos
in the crowd. I didn’t need to see
that. The teams would tie four more
times. During another timeout, there was
a shot of a lady wearing a large foam battleship hat for Navy. Colorful crowd. 24-21 Navy took the lead. They had an ace serve that hit the tape and
fell over. 25-21 Navy took the set.
Navy took a 1-0 lead in the fourth set as the AU libero
ran into the sideline table and actually knocked it out of alignment. The announcers started questioning a number
of uncalled lifts and double touches. I
guess it really does depend on who’s calling the game. 15-15 a shot hit a line judge. It was obviously out. AU had their band and cheerleaders there. The band played the Rocky theme during one timeout.
One of the Navy girls was loving it and dancing.
24-21 Navy had several championship points. The AU announcers were already
conceding. Timeout AU. 24-23 AU was making a comeback. Timeout Navy.
24-24 tense. 25-24 AU went
ahead. Navy challenged the point and
asked for a review though it was pretty clear play. This had happened a couple other times in the
match. The announcers were saying that
coaches were using their challenges as timeouts. They felt the rule on their usage was going
to have to be changed. 27-25 AU had fought off three
championship points and took the set.
The Eagles may have exhausted themselves. Navy went up 5-1 to start the fifth set. An AU player actually fell over a table
trying to get a shank on this point.
Timeout AU. Navy continued their
lead 10-6. There was another crowd shot
which showed some Navy fans (probably cadets) blowing soap bubbles in the
stands. Navy took the set 15-9 on their first opportunity to
close it out this time. With that, Navy
won their first Patriot League championship .
Anchors away! One of the Navy
girls had double the number of kills than anyone else. I’d guess she was the MVP.
Unfortunately, right before the end of the match, dad
came by to watch the NASCAR championship race.
(Ah, remember that thing from 10 paragraphs ago?) I’d invited him over yesterday. Doubly unfortunately, he didn’t bring any
food and didn’t let me go out later and get something. Worst of all, I didn’t get to see Morgan Uber
interview the winners. Pooh.
I guess I have to say something about the race. Here’s the first thing I’ll say: I didn’t
take any notes. We joined the race about
halfway through. Reception sucked, but
was watchable if you weren’t too picky.
Dad crabbed about the constant commercial breaks. I was actually pleasantly surprised that they
went split-screen for the most of the green flag breaks. Why can’t they do that all season?
My big complaint was that they were still doing this as
a stage race. Why? There’s no points at stake here. Whichever competitor finishes ahead of the
others wins the championship. There’s no
subtly to this. (Unless I’m mistaken
here, in which case, this format truly makes no sense.) Dad didn’t even stay for the end of the race. I had to call him later with the winner which
was Joey Logano. What I found suspicious was that the four
championship contenders were the top four finishing cars at the end. That seems statistically unlikely. So much for NASCAR this year.
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