California vs. Hawaii, Great Alaska Shootout semifinals, Friday, 11/24/06, Anchorage, Alaska, ESPN2

Howzit? Well, I’m whacking these illiterate notes from Honolulu, Hawaii, watching a college basketball game that starts LIVE at almost 8 PM Hawaii time (almost 1 AM in new york city) and how could that possibly be? Well, it’s in Alaska, fellers and ladies, and as the man on the worldwide leader numero dos mentioned, Anchorage is as far west as Honolulu and apparently in the same time zone, well WHO knew? Not me. The other ironic (cue alanis) thing is that as mentioned I am in Hawaii, but I am NOT rooting for the rainbow warriors in this matchup as they happen to be playing the golden bears of my alma mater, the university of california at Berkeley, end theme music.

SO, now that you know all that, well, the first half was all Cal, they’re up on UH 37-24. Hawaii really struggling, the only person really standing out for them is Ahmet Gueye, and he’s getting a lot of offensive boards and actually hitting those 15 footers (something I noticed when I saw UH live last week against Coppin State at the Stan Sheriff) but elsewhere, well, their leading scorer, Matt Lojeski is MIA and Bobby Nash is hit or miss and nobody else really seems to be stepping up.

For Cal on the other hand, Ubaka has hit a couple, but the catalyst has been Patrick Christopher, a freshman who I don’t remember even hearing his name during last nite’s marshall game, and Randle, another freshman who was prominent in last nite’s victory, and Ryan Anderson, yet another freshman, who has been scoring over 20 almost every game (except last nite, he had 19) has been busy, although it’s not TOO reflected in the stat sheet, but he’s been banging down low. Devon Hardin looking decent too, but he’s gotta pick his defense up. Anyway, right now Cal up big, but we’ll see what happens in half number two, now won’t we. Go bears, kids.

2nd half:

uh, cal blew the game open, UH came as close as 7 about midway through, but cal pulled away fast, won by a little under 20? Next for the bears, the title game against LMU (who defeated Pacific in a barnburner) on Saturday night.

California vs. Marshall, Great Alaska Shootout, Anchorage, Alaska, ESPN2

Cal down by one to marshall at the great Alaska shootout. Yup, it’s thanksgiving and I’m yelling at my dog. Well, marshall looks decent but cal is shooting way to much from outside for my liking. Um, their freshman that is supposedly really good is bone dry on his scoring, in & out, there’s a big guy from marshall bograby or something who keeps blocking shots. Yup, the first half is over and now the 2nd half shall commence. I never said it would be good I just said that I would write it. If people actually let this savor like a fine wine, a sweet premium, there’s way more chance it will all work out for the best. So, the darkness envelops me and then there’s some kind of catatonic sasquatch dance but beyond that I things stay copacetic. I will report back at the end of the game which hopefully will be a triumphant cal victory, which would put my beloved golden bears into a battle with my current hometown Hawaii rainbow warriors in the semifinals. Subplots and vile unbeknownst interrogations will be upon us shortly, I won’t let down the brigade on bridging the gap of newsness to the newsless.

2nd half

well, yup, sorry about that, you see, it’s now about 24 hours later, well, less than that, but yes. Call won. It was a nailbiter, a close one, but the golden bears prevailed in the frozen tundra, yadda yadda. Ryan Anderson, the freshman, wowed in the 2nd half, scoring 17 after only a deuce in the first, and Ubaka just went apeshit from outside the 3 point line and the bears held on. It was nice to see them win against a scrappy Marshall team while not necessarily playing their game to the fullest. Cal was shooting too many outside shots, not getting it inside to their bigs enough, looked sloppy on offense at times, especially with Marshall’s full court press which they ran almost the whole game, but, hey, a dub’s a dub, and here they are, about to take on Hawaii in the semi’s. The great Alaska shootout has lived up to its name up until now, as I guess the first game today, between LMU and Pacific was a classic double overtime battle, with Loyola Marymount coming out on top. So the winner of this faces the current reps of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble’s old stomping grounds. Should be interested. This is a tough Hawaii squad. I caught their home opener live against coppin state, whom they wiped the floor with, their only loss was on the road at UNLV, and aside from that they destroyed here in Honolulu an apparently overly pathetic Oregon state squad. We’ll see what happens as I sit mildly conflicted yet not nearly enough to prevent me cheering on the golden bears against my wife’s alma mater, the university of Hawaii. Salud and I’ll get back to ya, if you exist. Peace.


Tightwad Hill


Marshall loses consolation game Friday to Hofstra (first round losers to Hawaii)

Welcome to the first edition of the new phase in a dog named clipper. Shit, I don’t want to say phase, maybe it’s the opposite of that, the first phase of the new addition (or edition? Cool it now, girl, watch out, you’re gonna fall in love) of a dog named clipper. Anyway, this ain’t some new shit, it’s been around, shit, forever, but this is kind of a new format. The name of the game is I watch a game and then blab about shit after every quarter (or half, if it’s a college game). Don’t look for anything resembling consistency, cuz you’ll be disappointed, and in that respect I really don’t know why I’m explaining this shit. Links and comments to come, serially. I figure in a month I’ll be world famous, at which point, I’ll disappear again, so enjoy this shit while it’s percolating.

Anyway, tonite’s action, the Miami Heat at the San Antonio Spurs (ESPN)

1st quarter:

well, you gotta give respect to the Heat for staying tough and hanging around and yadda yadda, all that shit. Dwayne Wade, or however the fuck you spell his name, is, well, shit, maybe I underestimated him, he’s got eyes on defense, can’t deny him that, and is damn good at getting to the rack. Zo, Zo, shit, man, you can still patrol the defense and get shit done in the post, and I’m proud. Shaq, where the fuck are you? He’s too much the big papi to even be sitting on the sidelines nowadays? What the fuck, is he filming Kazaam 2 somewhere and nobody sent me the memo? Wtf? Jason Williams hurt, but he’s still sitting on the sidelines with his 93 carat diamond earring, same with James Posey, minus the bling. Michael Doleac, you have really been in the league for 9 years? Someone page my oncologist cuz a mofo is getting OLD. Ok, you can prolly tell I had a couple rums plus diet pepsi, that doesn’t matter.

SO, what do we have here? We have a very good (currently) team, the spurs, who jumped out to a decent size lead and then a pretty good yet struggling team, Miami, came back on their asses, with defense and good timing as to when to run and when to set up their offense, etc., etc.,, etc. so on to the 2nd quarter, it’s a pretty tight game. Lots of interesting little subplots of which I barely touched on, and, uh, I’ll talk more shit after the 2nd quarter. Remember where you are right now, because in 85 years, your kids will come visit you at the old folks home (trust me, people will live a LOT longer in about 20-30 years) and ask you where you were when you first read the next generation of a dog named clipper. You don’t want to disappoint them by saying “I don’t remember.”

2nd quarter:

whoah, did I say that was a close game? Spurs kinda just blew it out. What was a 1 or 2 point game is now a 19 point one, in favor of san antone. Tony Parker with 17 points, man is that guy fast. That last move before the half, with the left and the English, holy smokes (was it English or French, eh, whatever). Brent Barry. Who knew? Boy is 2nd? In the league in 3 point shooting, behind Luke Walton of the lakers, but Walton taking about half the attempts, shooting something sick like 55% from 3. I remember the days when Brent Barry was a clipper (hence the name a dog named clipper, I am a HUGE clipper fan, and if there ever is a game on a station that I get that will be the game featured herein, deal with it Afghanistan) anyway… so, uh, spurs wiping the floor, tony parker looking fantastic, gary payton looking frisky yet tired, Tim Duncan looking sharp yet nonchalant, Shaq looking not in the building, Wade looking determined yet immensely frustrated, not sure what’s going on, maybe bruce bowen (actually, yep, bowen) that makes sense. Sigh, bruce bowen, 35 years old and still the preeminent outside defender, how does he do it? Oh well. Zo struggling both on the boards and the blocks, basically san antone wiping the floor, ginobli playing pretty well too, but parker definitely the catalyst, we’ll see what happens in the 3rd, if anything, to turn this all around.

After the 3rd:

Still a blowout, even worse, spurs up 85-62. Believe it or not, my player of the game up to this point would be Bruce Bowen, and he’s only got 5 points. Loco, si, but he’s been all over the place, basically blanketing wade and just about getting in the way of everything that miami’s been trying to do. As annoying as he is, I still have to say kudos.

4th quarter:

I wisely veer away from the tivo and check live television and quickly discover that the spurs won by 20. Thus is why my funke funke knowledge is only rivaled by kool moe dee. Yup, the spurs look good, look like contenders, they do, and the heat, well, they look like they got some serious problems, at least for now. Granted, they’re heavily injured, but, well, it’s not pretty. Salud and aloha.


Pounding the Rock


Crazy from the Heat