Everything’s up to date in Kansas City

Oops … I just realized Stan sent me a journal entry a few days ago which I forgot to put up. Sorry Stan!

Oak-laaa-homa … No it’s not the musical but another Stan entry in Lori’s journal with a Sooner State flare.

The 15th-seeded Red Flash of St. Francis (Pa.) came close to upsetting fellow intra-state neighbor and second seeded Villanova in the first round of the NCAA Women’s tourney in Norman, Okla., last weekend.

Monday was the semifinals of NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Championships in Jackson, Tenn., featuring three teams from the Sooner Athletic Conference. Oklahoma City defeated Univ. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma while Southern Nazarene (Okla.) got past Vanguard (Calif.).

That set up Tuesday’s battle between two of the most storied NAIA programs. Both entered with five championships each. The Crimson Storm of Southern Nazarene hit the game winner with nine seconds left to shoot past the Stars of OCU.

Saturday was the NCAA Division II Championship with an Oklahoman flare as well. Northeastern State (Okla.) won the men’s title while the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State hopped their way to their first Division II women’s title. And get this, their coach is just 28 years old.

Lori gave out some travel advice the other day. If you ever visit the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind., (which is far from Terre Haute, Ind.), you should bring some protective gear cause the Fighting Irish lived up to their name and won the NCAA Fencing Championship last Sunday at the Air Force Academy.

South Bend is near Mishiwaka, Ind., home of the Lady Pilots of Bethel College, the National Christian College Athletic Association women’s Division I champs.
That about concludes my promotion of small college women’s basketball for this season. They might not embody the same skills as players on the Tennessee or UConn rosters but their love and devotion for the game is just as strong (plus its fun when you watch their games and realize you can play better than them and wish somebody would give you a wig and jersey so you could enter the game).

Lori: We think Stan watches too much basketball. Oops, gotta go check out start times for final four games today!

Basketballed out.

I’m dead tired right now because I stayed up to watch three of four Sweet Sixteen games on Saturday. I woke up in time to catch the second half of Tennessee’s blowout of Penn State. Penn State had a former Wahine on the roster, Mel Croser, and she saw some playing time against Tennessee, but still of course I had to root for my Lady Vols. Then in the early afternoon I watched the Division II Championship because Stan kept hounding me all week about how I had to watch it. Course, then Stan emails me afterwards telling me how boring he found it. Thanks for the tip, Stan. The Duke-Georgia game more than made up for it. I originally was planning to just sort of have it on in the background while I take a nap, but that game had me glued to the screen. The Lady Dawgs playing the underdawgs really should have won that game, but a couple of stretches of poor shot selection gave the dukies the late lead. Still, the Lady Dawgs were down by just three, with the ball, with 10 seconds left, when Georgia’s freshman star made a freshman mistake and turned the ball over before they could get a shot off. Then the game I had been really excited to see, New Mexico-Texas Tech, since New Mexico is a former WAC school after all and it’s always good to see ol’ conference rivals doing good. ‘Cept they did so bad against Tech I turned the station half an hour into the game. (Don’t be too insulted, Lobos, after all, you were competing with a Crossing Jordan rerun on A&E.)

So many sports, so little time

Hi folks, if you’re wondering where my most recent playlist is, I know, I’m sorry, but I forgot it on the KTUH computer and that’s why I’m extra late in uploading it. I will try to get it Monday or Tuesday.

So I have to apologize to Stan for calling him lazy in my last post. Literally seconds after I finished typing that, he called and I convinced him to go down to softball with me. And all I had to do was buy him dinner. Bribery does work.

So Stan and I went down to watch Na Wahine take on Tokyo in Wahine Softball Stadium. I think we were good luck charms, cause we got there just as Tracie Uchima was stepping into the batters box for the first time, and after the first five Wahine stepped up to the plate, the ‘Bows had five runs, capped by Kate Judd’s homer. Stan was antsy though and wanted to go watch track and water polo, but I convinced him to hang around until Stacey Porter’s next at-bat. As the Tokyo pitcher released the changeup, I watched Porter line it up and knew it was going to end up in the tennis courts. It did.

So then Stan and I hiked it over to the pool to watch water polo. We caught up with Ben there, thankfully, so he could explain what the hell was going on (it was my first water polo game). There were quite a few people there, and the large group in front of us had pizza (and didn’t offer us any, how rude). Stan got all excited when he realized he could see the track from the pool and kept climbing up to the top to watch the meet during timeouts. I went up once and realized why I don’t watch track — it’s boring. Plus, Stan said there were high school runners and middle aged folk competing. Didn’t sound too thrilling to me.

After water polo was over (these games are super short, but I guess I wouldn’t want to be treading water for more than an hour either), Ben and Stan and I went back to Wahine Softball Stadium and arrived just as Tracie Uchima was stepping into the batter’s box for the first time against Wisconsin. We positioned ourselves along the first base line, about even with the bag, per Stan’s orders. At first I wasn’t too fond of the seats since I always used to sit along the third base line when I used to go to Wahine softball games in high school. But then I quickly realized the wisdom in Stan’s decision when I noticed there were a bunch of football players sitting right above the Wahine dugout, yelling and jumping up and down and looking like fools, to put it nicely. Stan and I kept joking to each other, imagine Campus Beat first issue back: March 21: 7:38 p.m. Unidentified members of the football team crashed through the roof of the Wahine dugout. John Nakamura was injured in the accident.

Ben went to get some “water” during the second or third inning and I bet Stan lunch he’d come back with a “beer” instead. Remember, you owe me lunch, Stan!

About the fourth inning or so, Stan noticed some familiar folks walking toward us — Jade Abele and April Atuaia from the Wahine basketball team. They sure came back fast. They sat behind us and kept yelling at Porter every time the Wahine took the field. (For those of you who don’t know, Porter and Abele are both Aussies.)

The game was scoreless through the top of the sixth inning, when Bob Coolen came out with a rake and started raking the dirt behind the pitcher’s circle. You’d think they’d pay people to do that for him (I think they’re called “groundscrew”). I commented, what is this, the sixth inning stretch? Well whatever Coolen did worked, because in the bottom of the sixth either Uchima or Izumi reached. Ben commented how lackadaisical the Wisconsin catcher was, throwing the ball back to the pitcher from her squat, and that the Hawai`i runner should take off on her. Then the Hawai`i runner did take off and slid into second without a throw, and I was loudly cheering and making fun of the Wisconsin catcher for the stolen base, when I noticed that Stacey Porter was walking down the line toward first. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw the count had been 3-2 — it was a walk. In my embarrassment, I gave Stan a little nudge and he went flying which prompted wild laughter from Jade sitting behind us. (I think Stan needs to spend more hours in the gym, he’ll never be an offensive lineman that way.) Anyway, the Wahine ended up having the bases loaded with two out when I believe Denise Dahlberg (or maybe Ashley Ruff) hit a ball to the second basewoman, who tried to force Judd at second but ended up throwing the ball into left center, scoring Uchima/Izumi and Porter. Coogan made things interesting in the top of the seventh but held on for the win.

And … Stan, Ka Leo investigative reporter, pushover, resident swami and official vegetable, makes another appearance in “Lori’s” Journal!
Give me Liberty … or Division III women’s basketball.

Congrats to Trinity (Texas), the 2003 DIII champs who won in Terre Haute, Indiana (my new favorite city behind Lanai City and Nowheresville, Montana). The Tigers defeated Eastern Connecticut State 60-58 on the game winner nailed with 11 seconds left. In the 3rd place game, Wisconsin Eau-Claire held off Rochester 82-77 in double overtime.

Top ranked Eau Claire lost in Friday’s semis to ECSU in overtime. Whew, wish I saw it on TV or was there. The four games attracted 1,100 fans per game. That’s more than Rainbow Wahine basketball! For more info, stats, pics, visit this site

So we’re now officially into tourney time and with me being the potty-mouth, unintentional investigative reporter/opinions writer, I take back a comment I made two weeks ago. My comment was made without any prior thought or reasoning behind it and I apologize.

I told Lori I was shocked that CBS was planning on covering the war instead of the men’s tournament games (this was before the U.S. attacked Iraq earlier last week). But after hearing the reactions of Vince Goo and the coach of a major league baseball team, I felt like kicking myself.

Here I am concerned about college basketball games, players who don’t give a damn about their education and enter the NBA draft when they’re sophomores while receiving priority registration over other students. Out there are people out there putting their lives at stake. My high school classmate was stationed in Kuwait a few years ago and even though she wasn’t doing combat, she and many, many others have been and currently sacrificing themselves for me and you. Even though I’m opposed to war, people shouldn’t die so young and “innocently.” And here I am worrying I won’t get my fix of basketball during the spring break. It’s just a game. I guess guys are insensitive after all, but at least I had the mindset to apologize for my offensive words (unlike other journalists).

But back to women’s hoops on ESPN and ESPN2 (and there’s a lot of it if you haven’t checked it out yet), the Liberty Flames came close to torching Vandy. Did anybody see the ODU-Boston College game? What about Austin Peay State-North Carolina? That was the best game I’ve seen all year.

I changed my mind and went to softball with Lori on Friday. I realized how unattentive I am at softball games with questions like, “she got caught off the bag?” and “how did she get to first?” But I did hear the Wisconsin rightfielder yell, “she’s going (stealing), no she’s not.” Now that’s indecisive.

Then Lori physically harrassed me. I was just sitting there and Lori got all excited cause a Rainbow Wahine walked so she shoved me aside. And here I was minding my own business and then I’m falling over. What do you think she was thinking? I’m filling a complaint Monday.

Between softball games, me and Lori, walked past the track meet, baseball game, soccer scrimmage to visit water polo and associate sports editor Ben. Water polo is an awesome sport. If you haven’t seen it, you should definetly go cause its free and after every UH goal, they throw Luna Bars and UH paraphanelia into the stands.

Water polo is pretty physical, but not as physical as ice hockey. Speaking of which, the Soaring Eagles of Elmira College skated off with their second straight and second ever DIII Women’s Ice Hockey title over Manhattanville (also for the second time). The DI women’s hockey title game is today between Minnesota-Duluth and Harvard.

Watching Championship Week and the tournament games on ESPN in the past month has made me realized two things. One, Stacy Dales-Schuman is a damn good commentator. And what, she’s just a year out of college ball? I guess age doesn’t matter anymore. Secondly, you know in the media guides, they ask players, ‘if there was one person you want to meet, who would it be?’. The answer came to me and mine is Jimmy Valvano, another person who died too early.

Happy Spring Break!

Lori: Feeling mortal, Stan? That was a little sad. And I did not “physicaly harrass” you, I barely touched you! (Okay, maybe I got in a good push.)

1-900-Score-A-Stan

Stan has received so many calls for his NCAA predictions since my last posting that he has set up a 900 number to accomodate the requests. So if you’re bummin’ cause you’ve lost the office pool 10 years straight, dial 1-900-Score-A-Stan for bracket predictions from Ka Leo’s resident swami for the NCAA Division I and NIT men’s and women’s tournaments. Just $2.99 for the first round, $.99 each additional round. And as a special bonus, if you call within the next 10 minutes, Stan will throw in his picks for the NCAA Division III winners absolutely free of charge. That’s 1-900-Score-A-Stan. Cause you want to win.
Note: These are predictions, not guarantees. 1-900-Score-A-Stan accepts no responsibility for problems caused by inaccurate predictions or what happens when your boss/the IRS finds out you’re gambling huge sums on company time. Void where prohibited by law.

Mortality

I know, I know, I did that no-write-for-a-week thing again. Pretty hectic week last week though. If you haven’t heard yet, one of the UH swimmers, Mike Sheldt, passed away last week. He was just 18. It was incredibly sad, and left me feeling quite mortal, but as a journalist, it also meant I had to go to work, finding out about this, literally, kid and why he died. Ben commented that chasing stories like these, that must be why news reporters are so weird. It is kind of morbid to dive wholeheartedly into the thrill of seeking out a story about a death, and yet I have to admit, while I kept thinking to myself, this isn’t supposed to happen, people don’t die in sports, it was kind of exciting, calling the coroner’s office and hearing the gruesome details about how an 18-year-old, fit and seemingly healthy athlete, can suddenly wind up unconscious at the bottom of a pool.

While it’s been a rather sobering week, I did find some humor in my trips to lower campus on Wednesday. I made four trips down to the depths of Manoa, each time my entourage growing. First, I went down at 7:30 in the morning by myself to make up a class. I went back up to Ka Leo and (evil) Mary sent me back down to the dorms, and I dragged Stan along. Returned to Ka Leo, then about one, Stan and Chris and I went back down to the pool to see if anything was happening. Back to Ka Leo, then at 3:30 there was a press conference, so Stan and Chris and Ben and I went down to the pool to hear what would be said. I certainly got my exercise in that day.

It’s the return of Stan! Mr. I’m-not-a-math-major makes his second entry in the ol’ journal:
It’s Stan again. The potty-mouth, indecesive, math major who despises particular peoples at the gym. Anyway, here’s another one of my cameos in Lori’s journal.

It’s that time of the year again when I become reacquainted with that black thingie in my living room called a TV set. It’s March Madness, as I have been reminding Lori since late February.

The Madness began for the “only in Division III” teams (check former journal entry) in February. My fave D-III teams, Lake Forest and Manhattanville, failed to gain invites to the tournament but Manhattanville did receive a consolation trip to the ECAC Metro Tournament, losing in the first round to Staten Island Wednesday night. The Dolphins of Staten Island play at New York Univ. this morning (1pm EST) for the ECAC title. Go Violets!

Back to D-I, the ladies of Harvard became the first of 64 teams to qualify for the Big Dance, winning the Ivy regular title on the last day of February. Yesterday, two of what will be several teams from the Volunteer state scored invitations. The Governors of Austin Peay State, led by tourney MVP and my all-name team pick Brooke Armistead, won, along with the Lady Mocs (as in Mockingbirds) of Tennessee-Chattanooga, led by tourney MVP and another one of my all-namers, Miranda Warfield.

Speaking of Harvard, anybody remember its thrilling upset of top seed Stanford several years ago as a 16th seed? Arkansas-Hawai`i were paired in the other side of the subregional and everybody was worried Hawai`i wouldn’t do well against the Cardinal. Hah! Arkansas beat Harvard in the second round and advanced to the Final Four that year.

On the men’s side of The Dance, UNC-Ashville scored a ticket with a 14-16 record. Guess they’re playing that stupid play in game of the 65-team tourney.
Of course, we must root for the Hawai`i men and women (though we know who has the better chance at ANY sort of postseason chance).

I swung by KTUH the other as I was “sick” from work. You can tell when I was there cause I had Lori deviate from her folkin folk stuff to some rockin stuff like K’s Choice, Dixie Chicks and Cat Power *meow*

In other championship notes, Utah won the NCAA Skiing Champs and Wartburg (Iowa) won the D-III Wrestling Champs. And good luck to the UH diving team at their zone champs this week. The D-III women’s basketball champs will be held in Terre Haute, Indiana next week. I don’t know who’ll end up there but me and Lori are gonna get shirts from there (somehow….).

So stop watching Ed, Edd, and Eddy or the Animal Planet. Tune in to ESPN and ESPN2 the next couple weeks. Put aside the studying and watch for fast breaks, 3-pointers and crazies rushing the floor. It’s mayhem in March and its marvelous.

Women’s basketball all-namers:
Carrie Bacon, Wyoming
Christy Bacon, Wyoming
Brenda Pickup, Wyoming
Chassie Wiersma, Wyoming
Cherrith Wiersma (Young), Wyoming
Sara Hippen, Wyoming
Brooke Armistead, Austin Peay
Miranda Warfield, Tennessee-Chattanooga
Cassandra Shotwell, Mississippi Valley State

Lori: Don’t let Stan fool you too much — UT-Chattanooga hasn’t always been that PC. And I guess Carly Stucky must have graduated from Wyoming, or else she should have been on that list. (Could you imagine her profile’s headline? “Stuck on Stucky”) And with a name like “Shotwell”, you *have* to play basketball, don’t you.