Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Idle rants and a little bias

Congrats to the Oregon State lady's basketball team for reaching the Final Four. But wait a second....

How in the world can a women's team be proud to call itself the....... Beavers? Really? Say it ain't so. Where's the politically correct police when you need them? Then again, maybe all is not as it appears at first glance. Instead of a negative sexual connotation, could it be that all these girls have an older brother named Wally? And had to put up with some sleaze ball named Eddie Haskell along the way in el-hi school?

The Beavers weren't supposed to win, you know. After all, they were the #2 seed going up against a #1 in Baylor. And the game was played in Texas, giving the Bears basically home court advantage. Further, a mostly white team beating a mostly black team in a high level basketball game isn't supposed to happen in this day and age. Maybe those PC cops need to start working a little overtime or put on another shift.

[And now a word from our commercial sponsors. This is brought to you by the "just when you think it couldn't possibly get any stupider department".

See Sammy Jack, Chuck, and some runt named Spike on a "road trip" in a car. These three stooges offer up dialog that would make Larry, Moe and Curly look like Nobel prize winners in comparison. Have they no shame? Turrible, and yes, that spelling is intentional. To boot, yours truly once had a teacup chihuahua named Spike, and the resemblance between my late boy and the dude in the commercials is striking. Especially when it came to "speaking". Yap, yap, yap. But one of them was at least lovable and had a little sense and dignity.]

The Beaves advanced in spite of what looked like highly biased officiating against them. Da Bears repeatedly committed fouls that weren't called. Wide bodies aren't supposed to be able to bull over opponents all over the court, particularly close to the basket, and not get whistled for it.

Compare the two head coaches. Scott Rueck, age 46, of OSU, and Kim Mulkey, age 53, of BU.
Rueck showed up in a conservative suit and tie befitting his position. He acted professionally throughout the contest.

Mulkey showed up in a garish orange jacket, leg-hugging white jeans, and 6-inch stiletto heels. She appeared to go "off her meds" when things didn't go according to plan. See Kim take off her jacket and throw it. See a ref notice it and call a well-deserved technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. See Kim going ballistic and continuing to bark at the refs. At that point, she should have been T-ed up again and ejected. Sure, this was an important game, but Mulkey's been around the block and got enough miles on her to know better than to throw a temper tantrum. Besides, what kind of message does such an outburst send to her players? If the coach is out of control, how can she expect her players to maintain any sort of discipline on the court?

See Kim put her neon jacket back on. Then take it off again. Was this a basketball game or a geriatric tease show?

In the end the, ahem, Beavers (and their coach) maintained their composure and dispatched the roughneck Bears in spite of a lot of factors working against them. (Here's wishing good luck to Mr. Mulkey when Kim gets home and vents. How would you like to be THAT guy?)

That's the good news.

The bad news is they get a date with mighty UConn in the semi-finals. Hope they enjoyed cutting down the nets in Dallas.

Because the next go-round in Indy could get ugly.

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