My sports weekend involved three games, two on television and one in person. I'll take them in reverse order.
Of course the biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, was on TV Sunday night. When my students arrived at school Monday morning chattering about the Giants upset victory, I played dumb. My students will say that I don't "play dumb."
I told them that I forgot to watch the Super Bowl and I asked them who won. The few who know me really well from outside of school knew I was just pulling their leg. They know I have a hard time passing up any game, much less the Super Bowl. My bluff was confirmed when I told them I was instead reading a book.
For some reason, it seemed to me that the New England Patriots were totally reluctant to run the football. When they did run it, there wasn't much success, but by not staying patient they got quarterback Tom Brady mugged. On the other hand the Giants had very little luck running the ball either, but they stayed with it enough to avoid third down and forever situations. That gave Peyton, err, Eli, Manning just enough time to complete just enough passes to win.
On Saturday night, I took in the Thomson-Josey boys' basketball game at the Dog House. My information was that Josey had only two losses on the season, and when I looked at them I could not believe that. They were small, skinny even, and did not appear to be very athletic.
Thomson controlled the game early because Josey played mostly zone defense. The Bulldogs ran some nice set plays and exploited the middle of the Josey zone. As the game progressed, Josey played more man-to-man defense and forced Thomson into a hurried, up-tempo pace. This is where the game started to get away from Thomson, resulting in a close loss.
In essence, Josey appeared a tad quicker than Thomson and more suited to a run and gun style. Thomson has a nice looking team with some good shooters, but my brief observation is they may have better luck when they are able to control the tempo. That, of course, can be said of most basketball teams. Good luck to the Bulldogs in the region and state tournaments.
On Saturday afternoon, I watched on television as the Georgia Bulldogs played Kentucky. There's an old saying about bad basketball teams that, "they can't throw it in the ocean." Well, Georgia can't throw it in the ocean, Atlantic or Pacific combined!
Georgia, as it has since Coach Dennis Felton arrived, plays with a depleted roster, but that's no excuse. You still have to do the best you can with what you have, and for Georgia, that ain't bombing three-pointers. They do everything else fairly well but are married to perimeter shooting on offense when they can't shoot a lick.
Oh well, there's always gymnastics.
Ugh.
