A Forced Night Off

Was yesterday a national holiday for everyone playing basketball? None of the big state teams were playing, I couldn’t find a game on ESPN or any of the other 800 sports channels that I looked through, and even the local division three teams were idle (though the division three thing didn’t hurt too much, since a standing Monday night commitment keeps me from going to Monday games, anyway). It was like a conspiracy to keep me from watching basketball. I can’t think of a night quite like this in the last two years.

So, instead of watching games last night (save for a bit of my recording of the Marquette-Wisconsin broadcast, just to get a fix), I flipped on the most fascinating channel in the history of mankind, Discovery Health, where they were taking a break from their usual programming about morbidly obese people and showing a feature entitled "My Skin Could Kill Me." You’ve got to savor those nights off.

With those pesky exams limiting the amount of college basketball available for consumption, it looks like I’ll probably find myself at a high school game tonight, or perhaps breaking down an episode of The White Shadow. Either way, I’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, here are two links for your reading pleasure today:

1) During the build up to Saturday’s big game, I was directed to the blog of former Marquette star, and current Marquette radio color commentator Jim McIlvaine. Though some of my Wisconsin friends took mild offense at McIlvaine’s December 8th entry regarding manipulation of stats for media guides, I take the opinion that although he focused on absurd things from the Wisconsin media guide, it was okay because a) he clearly pointed out that most schools do the same sort of thing, b) he was right about everything that he said and c) it was an entertaining piece of writing. McIlvaine seems like the kind of guy you’d like to hang out with. And that’s why you should read about what’s on his mind.

2) I’m not much of a baseball fan these days, but up until about the age of 9 or 10, baseball was to me what basketball is today. So I can truly appreciate this brilliant Joe Sports Fan piece breaking down what it would cost to pay the 1986 Mets in 2006 dollars.

Back tomorrow with something or other...