Spontaneous Roadtrip

OK, so now that Jenniffer has yelled at me, I will update this.

Picture it--Perkins in Coralville on Wednesday March 8. I'm meeting a couple of my friends for dinner. They had run into another friend from Sports Camps and she came along. Turns out this friend had won free tickets to the entire Big Ten Tournament, a hotel room in downtown Indy for the weekend and other prizes in a big package from the Hawks Nest (other prizes which included free season tickets for next year and a 100 dollar Hawk Shop gift certificate...lucky bitch)
Anyway, my friend Jackie, whom I was meeting originally did not have to work on Friday, so she convinced me to come down with a terrible flu and drive with her to Indy for the quarterfinal game against Minnesooota, since we could stay with our friend in her free hotel room.
Friday comes and we head out for Indy. We arrive downtown, have no problems parking right next to the hotel and start walking to Conseco Fieldhouse. Our plans included buying tickets on the street (scalping is legal in Indiana) and look for cheap tickets from teams who had already been eliminated. Our back-up plan was to just buy tickets from the box office for $45 each. Our thinking in this is that on a Friday night game with a 5:30 tipoff there would be few fans from either Iowa or Minnesota and tickets would be cheap.
So we see an old guy with a big white beard selling tickets on a corner and decide to ask him how much he was selling tickets for. Santa replied, "$150--it's a hot ticket". We think, "crazy old Santa-looking homeless man", and move on. As we walk, Jackie observes that there are a helluva lot of Illinois fans wandering about and we see a crowd of them around another guy selling tickets. This guy wants 130 bucks each. We finally figure out (we're geniuses, I know) that Illinois is playing the game after us, against Michigan St, and it's the same ticket as our game. We freak out and decide to get to the Fieldhouse and buy from the box office before we are stuck with either paying an insane amount or not going to the game after driving all the way there. As we get to the Fieldhouse, I ask a guy in an Iowa shirt what he is selling tix for. He says $65 and I think "Plan B". Box office=sold out and we are freaking. We decide to go for the $65 tickets (in section two-hundred-something in the upper balcony), talk the guy down to 60 bucks and meet up with the lucky ass friend and head into the game.
Lucky ass goes into the game with her free tickets in section one-hundred-something and we are rigth behind her when the scanner makes a funny noise when the dude scans our tickets. Funny noises are not good when you just bought your ticket from a guy on the street. The usher informs us that our tickets are for TOMORROW night's game. The only way you could describe the look on our faces was "sheer terror". We just got jobbed out of $65 a piece. We look at our friend who has already gone into the gate and she looks back, says "Sorry, call me" and walks into the arena. Bitch--if only we didn't have to rely on her for a place to crash.
We immediately start planning on how to find the guy, involve the police if we need to, etc, etc. Luckily, our dude is right where we left him, still whelling and dealing tickets. I approach him very calmly and say "Hey bud--I think you gave us the wrong tickets, we need tickets for tonight, not tomorrow night." He was very cool about it, apologized profusely and said he would give us tickets for tonight.
So he digs through his stack of tix and can't find anything (I am trying not to panic too much at this time), then turns to his co-scalper who gives him two tickets and says "That's all I got". Our dude hands us the tix and says "Sorry about that, have these for the same price, even though they are much better tickets. " We look at the date (something I will always do when buying tickets for the rest of my life now) and after ensuring that they were for the correct day, went back to Conseco Fieldhouse. As we go in the doors, Jackie sees someone she knows and stops to talk, while I take a closer look at the tickets. It was then that I realize our seats are in the lower section in row 16. Holy shit! Talk about a bargain (screw you and your $150 tickets, Santa!). So we enter the gates with no funny noises this time and find our seats. It was fairly early and the arena wasn't very full, so we decide to find our friend who had abandoned us earlier. We saw her--across the court and an entire section above us! We immediately did just as she told us when ditching us with our bogus tickets--we called her ass. We waved like idiots across the arena at her and the it dawned on her-- "You have better seats than I do".
The game was good--except for the random Ohio State fan who kept telling us to sit down. Excuse me--your team isn't even playing so shut the hell up. The next day we could find ourselves on TV easily in the highlights because we were standing up, wearing yellow and everybody around us was wearing orange. Which reminds me--it was really fun cheering for Michigan State in the second game as they upset the Illini. Serves the bastards right for driving up ticket prices and screwing up our plans. Lucky friend said it was funny to watch us stand up and do the Vader arm motions, since we were the only ones on that entire side of Conseco Fieldhouse cheering for the Hawks!
We crashed at the free hotel (on the floor, of course) then the next day drove to Chicago. Jackie had to catch her flight to Madrid, since she was going there for a few days to finalize her wedding plans for this summer. We checked her in at O'Hare, then went to a sports bar near the airport to watch the semifinal against MSU. We were pretty loud in our cheering and I am sure the other 10 people in the bar thought we were crazy. After the game, we got Jackie on her flight safe and sound and I drove back to Iowa and watched us take care of the Buckeyes the next day.
So the Big Ten Tournament was interesting this year. 3 games in 3 different states in 3 days. GO HAWKS!

are you happy now Jenniffer?

The Big Ten Tournament

This should be one of the most interesting editions of the conference tournament yet. Michigan State is playing on Thursday for the first time ever, The top five teams finished so close to each other in the regular season and there were few sweeps of opposing teams during the season. Ohio State looks to top off its outright championship with a tournament victory too, which would duplicate their women's team's tourney crown from Monday night. That would make the Buckeyes only the second school to sweep both basketball tournaments in the same year, with Iowa pulling it off in 2001.
Jeff( http://jeffrey.theutechs.com/blog) posted some of his counterpoints to my earlier post about Alford and this year's team. I used to think that Alford would improve and be a very good coach someday, and maybe I do still believe that to some degree. My point is that in games like this year's loss in Evanston, he still gets outcoached on a fairly consisitent basis. There is some improvement there, and Jeff is very right about that. However, the fact remains that he has yet to really develop a player to his fullest potential and his teams suffer from a lack of motivation at times. If the improvement of Alford's coaching is on the way, next year would be a good time to show it. With a very young team that will lack the leadership and intensity of Horner and Brunner and the inside defensive presence of Hansen, Alford will need to do his best coaching job yet in order to avoid yet another sub .500 season in Big Ten play.

As if I needed another reason

So, I hate Northwestern. See earlier post about the Hawks' debacle in Evanston earlier this year. But after last night, when they had a chance at redemption, a chance to knock-off Big Ten leaders Ohio State, they blew it. With just seconds left to go, they had the game in their hands and screwed us over. If they were playing us in that game, there's no way they screw it up. But no, they had one more chance to kick us while we're down and they took it by lousing up the last possessions of the game.
It is easy to blame the 'Cats for their evil ways toward the Hawks. However, the fact remains that if we pull out the game in Evanston, which was easily within our grasp, we would be still be sitting in first place. We had another chance in Minneapolis to keep our grips on the top spot, but in that game, Alford gets outcoached and the Hawks get out-hustled and out-rebounded in a loss that sent us to Champaign needing a win in probably the second-toughest arena in the conference (Breslin Center). So, when it comes down to it, although there is still a theoretical shot at claiming a share of the title, I am not putting any hopes in the Purdue upset of OSU.Not on senior day in Columbus and not with this pansy version of the Boilermakers. Although, the scene is set for a poetic justice-type of ending. Remember last year when league leading #1 Illinois went into Columbus for the season finale? A bottom-feeding Buckeye team with a first-year coach upset the Illini on a last second three-pointer. How sweet would it be for first-year head coach Matt Painter to take Purdue into Columbus and upset the Buckeyes' chances of an outright conference championship? Keep dreamin' Hawk fans (and Illini fans).
Can Alford coach a favorite in the Big Ten Tournament, or does he save the real stuff for the underdog teams that have to play in Thursday's first round? A tournament title could give us as high as a 3 seed in the NCAA's (which is where ESPN had predicted us before the two game losing streak on the road).
Which brings me to the final thought on the Big Ten season this year. Alford has enjoyed his best year as head coach due to the effort of Horner, Brunner, Haluska, and a much improved Hansen. Their gutsy play has lifted the team to a level that Alford has never seen as Iowa's coach. Many may be tempted to say, "Let's see if Alford can keep up the improvement", but without the leadership of this year, I only see a return to the typical Alford underachievers. Here's to you, Indiana--please take our coach. We need a fresh start

Here it is...

as promised, my look at this year's Oscar race.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Will win: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
Should win: Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Will win: George Clooney (Syriana)
Should win: George Clooney (Syriana)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Will win: Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Should win: Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Will win: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
Should win: Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)

DIRECTOR
Will win: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
Should win: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)

MUSICAL SCORE
Will win: John Williams (Munich--also nominated for Memoirs of a Geisha)
Should win: John Williams (Munich)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Will win: Brokeback Mountain
Should win: Brokeback Mountain

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Will win: Crash
Should win: Good Night and Good Luck

PICTURE
Will win: Brokeback Mountain
Should win: Brokeback Mountain

I'm predicting a big night for the gay cowboys. Although I am warming up to Munich, after reading some different perspectives on it and seeing it from a different angle. I think it is Spielberg's best effort since Schindler's List. The final image and the thematic parallels to today's world situation are just haunting. I just think the movie was misunderstood by many (myself included) and the reaction to it has been polarized.
I also have cooled down on my feelings toward Crash. It is just too obvious and preachy, although it would not be surprising to see Oscar lean that way, especially if the Academy wants to support a social issue film without touching off a potential controversy by picking Brokeback Mountain.
I loved Good Night and Good Luck, but I just can't see it winning much, and in almost every category there is another nominee that I think was just a little better. George gets his catch-all reward with the supporting actor nod.
I'm looking forward to the show on Sunday, especially with Jon Stewart. Keep a notepad handy to tally all the Dick Cheney jokes.
But for now, it's a nice fish dinner (yeah, Ash Wednesday) and then off to Carver for the Iowa vs. Penn State basketball game. Penn State, you're really mean, nobody likes you, you suck.
GO HAWKS!!