An Evening of Frustration

A quick note–due to a computer error on my part, I thought that yesterday I posted my thoughts from Monday’s Wisconsin vs. UW-Green Bay game, but I did not actually do so. I’ve made certain that they’re now up, though, so if you’re itching for some thoughts from a less-than-exciting contest, feel free to scroll down. Now, on to today’s thoughts.

Last night was a fiasco when it came to hoops. The world basically seemed like it was against me when it came to seeing the basketball that I wanted to watch last evening. There were three things that I wanted to watch, but none of them worked out for me. Here’s what I wanted to see, and what ended up happening:

Marquette vs. Wauwatosa East: It’s my favorite high school rivalry and was a game between two of the only four high school teams that I’ve seen this year. But I knew a little over a week ago that a commitment that I couldn’t get out of would keep me from going to see this one. I shrugged it off at the time, as the rivalry has died down a bit during recent years, with one team usually holding a strong edge heading into games. This year, between Tosa East’s uneven early play and Marquette’s strong senior class, it looked like the Hilltoppers would have that edge and walk away with a convincing win. Imagine my surprise to flip on the radio on the drive home (yes, I’m one of the 5 people out there that knows where to find a high school basketball game on the radio) and hear that it was a 29-point win for Wauwatosa East. I can’t believe I missed it. Mark me down for the next meeting right now, as it looks like the rivalry may be revived. There’s little doubt in my mind that the Hilltoppers will be as prepared as ever for when Tosa East heads to their gym later this season.

Jeronne Maymon’s Tennessee Debut: Because I didn’t have anywhere to be until 7pm last night, I was optimistic that I would be able to take in the first half of the Tennessee vs. Oakland game and perhaps see the Tennessee debut of former Madison Memorial star and controversial Marquette transfer Jeronne Maymon. No luck there. I was able to tune into the game, but Maymon is still awaiting clearance on his eligibility from the Tennessee administration (for seemingly ridiculous reasons, I might add). Adding insult to injury, while the game ended in an surprising upset by Oakland, I had long since been pulled away from my TV by that time. So really, I got almost nothing that I was looking for from this game.

UWM vs. DePaul: This one seemed like a very interesting game to me. UWM can’t compete with many Big East teams (Marquette’s near stumble against the Panthers a few weeks back, notwithstanding), but if there’s one that they might be able to take down, it’s a bottom-feeder like DePaul. The game was listed on two channels in my Directv expanded sports package. While it has become clear that Marquette games are going to be blacked out all year on these channels due to Time Warner Sports’ exclusive rights deal, I was keeping my fingers crossed that this one would not be. Because Time Warner Sports also holds exclusive rights to several UWM games, logically it would follow that this game would be blacked out. However, given that thousands of people locally would want to watch a Marquette basketball game, while maybe 100 people would go out of their way to find a UWM game on an obscure regional sports channel, I thought there might be a chance that the UWM blackouts would somehow be overlooked. They were not, and my DVR could not record the game. I later learned that the game was on ESPN3, but by the time that I figured that out, the game was close to being decided and the latter minutes were not really worth my time. Let this be a lesson–when in basketball-watching peril, always look to the computer.

It’s another night off for me, as the holiday season is full of strange commitments. Hopefully I’ll find something to watch on Thursday and be back with some more thoughts on Friday.