Books Bygone

Sunday, December 11, 2011

NCAA B'ball Blogging

Just a little something different on this Sunday morning.

Apparently, the Cross-Town Shoot Out did not end well. 
Five thoughts from No. 8 Xavier's 76-53 win over crosstown rival Cincinnati:
1. The game didn't end, literally. Nor have the repercussions.
An ugly brawl erupted with 9.4 seconds left in the game. Benches cleared, fists flew. Xavier's senior All-America guard Tu Holloway readily admitted afterward that he was taunting Cincinnati players and coaches in front of Cincinnati's bench, as the clock wound down. What ensued was a basketball brawl as ugly as any in memory. At one point, Xavier center Kenny Frease emerged from the pile on all fours, blood dripping from a gash below his left cheek, courtesy of a punch thrown by Cincinnati forward Yancy Gates.
The referees stopped the game at that point. There will be suspensions, though nothing had been announced as of 6 p.m. Saturday. Expect Holloway, Gates, Cincinnati center Cheikh Mbodj and possibly Xavier freshman forward Dez Wells to be suspended, possibly for multiple games.
Mbodj is seen in video stepping on Frease after he was down; Wells shoved a UC player early in the fight.
2. Holloway defended his actions, and those of his teammates, for their parts in the fight.
[snip]
"This is my city,'' Holloway explained. "I'm cut from a different cloth. None of them guys on their team is like me. We got disrespected. Maybe it looked bad to you (media), but this is what I'm used to. This is where I'm from. This wasn't bad.''
More Paul Daugherty here. [Miss M. took a class from Doc once.]

To repeat: 
"None of them guys on their team is like me. We got disrespected."
That was painful to type.

According to that infallible source, Wikipedia, Xavier University was ranked #42 of 100 "Best Values in Private Colleges" by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. You'd think Mr. Holloway, a student at Xavier, ... . What the hell? Who am I kidding?

9 comments:

  1. I understand your pain. It pains me even more - I'm Catholic!

    I can think of only one possible explanation:

    Years ago (many many years!) I had a classmate who had terrible speech grammar. Her class work - English grammar included - was top notch. She was an A+ student in almost every subject. But her speech patterns...oy! Her explanation was that her parents had little education - and wanted her not to be equally handicapped which is why they sent her to this private school - and her speech patterns mimicked theirs. According to her, she tried valiantly to correct her English, but it was an impossible task. As often as we corrected her, the next time it came out the same way. It was even worse because she _knew_ it was wrong.

    To be honest, I don't understand it. On the other hand, I still correct my own children when they make grammatical errors (but not their spouses - although sometimes I have to bite my tongue!) so maybe it's just a matter of luck and good imprinting when you first start to establishing your speech patterns.

    Or maybe the school has sadly succumbed to the desire for national prominence through its sports teams. I have no familiarity with the school or the teams - so I have no idea.

    But I _will_ tell you - my classmate taught me to be cautious about forming judging people based on first impressions of their speech patterns...

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  2. I once got into an awful fight with a young woman who I really admire about grammar. She is a well-spoken young women, and as I said, I admire her. Her point was that good grammar was/could be used as a filter. True enough. If you don't talk right, I don't need to listen to you.

    That is bullshit.

    Thanks, suek, for the inspiration.

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  3. By the way, I think the Xavier "student" is a mercenary B'ball player. I doubt that he's at Xavier on account of any religious conviction.

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  4. >>If you don't talk right, I don't need to listen to you.>>

    This is the mindset of those who consider all "good ol' boys" to be stupid hicks.

    Those who think this way are fools who seem unable to recognize the difference between stupid and ignorant. Stupid cannot be changed...ignorant can.

    Additionally, the old story of "City Mouse, Country Mouse" always comes to mind - people can be incredibly ignorant about one set of conditions, while being equally incredibly brilliant in another set of conditions.

    There's just so much to learn in the world - having a corner on one small piece of it just doesn't mean diddley...

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  5. "This is the mindset of those who consider all "good ol' boys" to be stupid hicks."

    Right you are! When we travel and interact with the Educated Class, we are constantly asked what we talk about with the folks out here in rural Mississippi. Apparently they really believe our neighbors are stupid bitter clingers unable to carry on a conversation in English.

    And come to think of it, we only have to travel up the road to Oxford, MS to come across this arrogance.

    Ah well. Some of us know how to replace a car battery and some of know how to diagram a sentence. It's best to know both!

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  6. I always enjoyed diagramming sentences. Do they do that any more?

    I _might_ be able to replace a battery - and at my age, I should probably make sure I know how. I used to be very good at "battering" my eyelashes to get things like batteries changed...but no more!

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  7. "I always enjoyed diagramming sentences. Do they do that any more?"

    If by "they" you're referring to students in public schools, then, sadly, no. BUT-- all caps-- Miss M., my youngest, could if she were pressed. She's the home school drop out (class of 2000something) so her education was a bit more ... . Well, she keeps a dictionary in her car. And she corrects my grammar!

    Changing a battery isn't all that hard if you have the right tools. I honestly didn't know how until we moved out here and acquired a lot of tools!

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  8. >>Well, she keeps a dictionary in her car. And she corrects my grammar!>>

    I don't carry a dictionary - there's so little need. Sadly. I cannot remember having heard a word I didn't know on either radio or television.

    Now...reading a William J.Buckley article??? for _that_ I needed a dictionary! If I have a vocabulary of 50,000, he has one of 100,000 - or maybe 150,000!!

    Unfortunately, it seems that radio and TV make a point of limiting the use of vocabulary so that it can be understood by the average high schooler - or eighth grader, and no one seems interested in extending those limits.

    Still - if it's of use to her in whatever application, I admire her for being willing to use it. She's going against the trend right there!

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  9. Oops.

    That would be William _F_ Buckley...

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