So the male basketball Tigers went up to Seattle and got absolutely throttled by the 17th-ranked Washington Huskies. My buddy with whom I attended the game, a UW grad, was flabbergasted all night by the play of the Husky big men, Brockman and Hawes. The concept that our the All American Big Baby could get dominated so thoroughly by a freshman (Hawes) was just beyond him. Seemed like the Huskies didn't miss a shot all night. And every time we'd get a big shot and threaten to make it a ballgame (i.e. at the point we pulled it to 64-53), the Huskies would answer right back - frequently with a 3 to match one of ours - and stomp us right back down. It was as thorough a domination as I've witnessed. If there was a single thing we could take away from the night that might have an ounce of positive in it, it was the play of Terry Martin in his first game as a Tiger. (Full background of his situation is here). Oh, and obligatory "proof I was there" pic (cellphone pic so pardon the resolution, please):
Opening tip. Closest we got all night
Anyway, those Men Tigers bounced back with a closer than it looks 68-52 victory over La Tech yesterday. I'm not going to say we're back on track, but a win is a win, and fingers crossed and whatnot. Hopefully we're getting all this out of our system now, in early December, before the real season starts. I'm happy we've got a solid non-conference schedule (Texas, Texas A&M, UW, UConn) to get us prepped.
Oh and football's still going on, and I really can't blame Les Miles for getting sick of all the Sugar Bowl blowout predictions. It's a tough spot for a coach, essentially a no-win situation. Pretty much the ONLY way LSU fans leave happy is if we win by double digits. The spread itself is 8.5-9 in our favor. The Irish have been eviscerated twice this year, 47-21 by Michigan and 44-24 by USC. Either we lose, which means we're overrated, or we win by a close margin, which means we're overrated, or we win by a ton and everyone says "Yeah, well, we all expected that anyway, it's not like Notre Dame is any good." So credit Charlie Weis for perpetuating it all with effusive praise for the Tigers. BIG risk we get caught in an emotional letdown after having lost out on the chance to play USC or Michigan, which would've been tremendous either way.
Lastly, FYI we'll be doing a Q&A with Notre Dame blog Her Loyal Sons here shortly, so stay tuned.