Some basketball, some bias and some BS | Life in Ludlow

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Reader alert. This week’s column is full of family, basketball and some of my personal biases, some of which were challenged last Saturday and are herein embellished. You are now fairly warned.

A little background is helpful.

1. BJ is from Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of Saint Louis. When in high school she had Homer Drew as a friend. 

2. Both our son and our son-in-law went to Duke University in the early ‘90s. Duke and the University of North Carolina, (UNC), are avid rivals, particularly in basketball. 

3. We spent many years in the Kansas City area not far from Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, (KU), Jayhawks. 

4. We now live here in Port Ludlow and are loyal fans of the Gonzaga University basketball team.

Last Saturday started out great as we headed for a delightful picnic lunch with our son and his family in Kingston. Nice weather for a drive across the canal and then seeing small crowds of folks in line at Butcher and Baker in Port Gamble. The parking lots were full of cars which had probably held day hikers now out in the woods for the day. 

Upon our return home I turned on the basketball game between Florida State and UNC. The game went into three overtimes before UNC finally won the game in spite of my vocal support for FSU. 

UNC’s despicable coach, Roy Williams, successfully coached KU for several years before deserting them to coach at UNC and winning his 900th game Saturday. Dadgum it! 

Then it was time to watch Duke play Louisville at Duke. This was an extremely important game because the winner would most likely be selected to play in the NCAA tournament and the loser would probably not be selected. 

As I noted above my son went to Duke leading me to be a fan of the basketball team, unlike many in the country envious of their success over the past 50 years. Really, I understand. I am not a fan of Tom Brady’s. His success most recently skunking my KC Chiefs in the Super Bowl put the final touch on my disdain. 

As I have noted before, the Chiefs actually won the game due to the “mail in” touchdowns arriving late. 

Well, as you might surmise, Duke lost the game in overtime! 

Homer Drew was the College Basketball Hall of Fame basketball coach of the Valparaiso Crusaders from 1988 through 2011 except for a couple of breaks. In 1998 the Crusaders made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on the strength of a famous 3-point shot made by his son Bryce. Homer’s other son is currently the head coach of the No. 2 ranked Baylor Bears basketball team and they played KU last Saturday. 

Based on BJ’s relationship with Homer and the history of the Drew family we are fans of the Baylor team and cheer for them. KU’s recruiting of players from the nearby U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas and the arrogance of the folks around KU, gave us reason enough to not be fans of the folks in Lawrence. (There’s that bias and maybe even a little fake news.) No. 2 Baylor lost to No. 17 KU on Saturday.

So, by dinner on Saturday I had enjoyed a nice lunch with our son and his family and then witnessed the results of three basketball games during which I ended up cheering for the loser. 

The day started out great but then turned ugly on me.

Finally, the day ended with the No. 1-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs dominating the game with Loyola Marymount and turning my day around. I needed it. If you are a Gonzaga sports fan, like my friend Dick Durand in Port Ludlow who provided me with this statistic, you know Gonzaga has not lost a football game since 1941! Fabulous. 

Hey, the basketball team is the cover story in the current issue of Sports Illustrated.

So, there you are, a nice picnic, three losses, a win and some BS. Not bad for the middle of a pandemic.

Love a curmudgeon, play a little ball and have a great week! 

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident  whose car will probably get a visit from Baby Jay thanks to his harsh words about the Jayhawks this week. Reach Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)