Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Running and basketball

More bare-legged shuffling this morning. It was one of those near-perfect running mornings: temp around 50F (10C), with a light rain/soft mist. A slightly too-strong breeze from the south and east (somewhat unusual here) was a tiny fly in the ointment, but it was pretty nice. Spring hasn’t really sprung yet (it wasn’t so great yesterday, and the rest of the week will be colder, windier and/or wetter) but we’re beginning to be able to imagine what it might be like when it arrives.

I mentioned at the end of an earlier post that we are big fans of the University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball team. This is the time of year when the national championship tournament is being played, and our Huskies, at 35-1, are favored to win it. They play a wonderful fast, smart, precise, and fluid game that I think soccer (okay, okay: football) fans would really appreciate. Tonight they’re playing Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, for the opportunity to move on to the Final Four. Rutgers is a despised arch rival, and is responsible for that “1” in our record, though we returned the favor in a subsequent game.

Men’s college sports in the US are a swamp of corrupt, mendacious, hypocrisy, and even some women’s programs are neck deep in this smelly muck. But ours is not, though it’s all too possible that someday, under a different coach and under different pressures, it will be. For now, though, we in Connecticut love “our girls.” Although I still carry the genetic New England allegiance to the Boston Red Sox, I’ve gotten tired of Major League Baseball’s act. The UConn women are the only team in any sport that I still really follow. A men’s game? Wouldn’t walk across the street for it.

Go Huskies!

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