Hey, where did you go?
Today is Sunday which means it's time for installment #8 (really, 8 of these) of This (Non) Sporting Life, the blog post about sports written by a guy who knows nothing about sports. Here are some random sports-related thingies for this week.
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ITEM!
This past week in the Winter Olympics saw the gold medal chances of both the men AND women's hockey teams vanish in the face of defeats by their counterparts north of the border. Well, what are you gonna do? Canadians live and breathe hockey. It's a year round sport for them. Which is odd given Canada's overall reputation of being peaceful and friendly yet so passionately involved in a sport as violent as hockey. Maybe that explains how nice Canadians are: they work out their aggression on the ice. Whereas Americans typically release pent up pressure by shooting at things.
The real tragedy, though, of the one-two punch of both USA hockey teams being beaten by Canada was we've lost a couple of bets. Apparently President Obama owes a case of beer to Canada's Prime Minister for each of the lost games. Wow, shipping beer TO Canada. That's like sending a Volvo to Sweden, isn't it?
But the more ill-considered bet and the dire consequence of that bet being lost played out on an electronic billboard as seen below.
Maybe we can trade Bieber to Finland?
No. No, we can't.
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ITEM!
This week saw the first game (delayed from last week due to snow) of the 2 game match up between arch rivals North Carolina and Duke. I live in a house divided: my wife and daughter root for the Tarheels while I am fan of the Duke Blue Devils. Of course, I forgive them; they know not what they do.
But Thursday's game was a weird one. UNC has been on a tear lately after starting the ACC season on a bit of a wobbly footing. And it looked like it was going to continue as the Tarheels jumped to an early lead. Then Duke battled back and took the lead and held on to it. The end!
Wait, the game is not 38 minutes long, is it? No, it's 40 and in the end, Carolina surged back ahead while Duke kept frantically fouling in order to slow down the game. A strategy that backfired badly as the guy they kept fouling is Carolina's best free throw shooter. So a big ol' honkin' OUCH for the Blue Devils. I mean, come on! Duke is nationally ranked and UNC is not even in the Top 25. (Although that may change on Monday.)
Meanwhile, ACC newcomer Syracuse (#1 team in the nation) lost it's first game of the season and to Boston College who have not been having a great season.
So guess who was matched up Saturday?
A nationally ranked team pissed off by a previous loss versus ANOTHER nationally ranked team pissed off by a previous loss!
There would be hell to pay.
Long story made short: the Orangemen of Syracuse came to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on the Duke Blue Devils on Duke's home turf. Cameron is a barn of a facility with all the comforts and amenities of a 1950's high school gym. It's a tough place to play in and Duke likes it that way. Duke tops 'Cuse 66-60!
Go, Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke!
(For more details on the game, click here.)
Of course, what is a Duke win without someone for the opposing team going batshit crazy over a bad call. This time it was Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim who totally flips out to the point of drawing a technical and getting ejected. This gave Duke two free throws and possession of the ball. Without the technical, Duke was still up by two and had possession of the ball BUT Syracuse arguably still had a fighting chance to steal or foul a bad free shooting player.
Keep up the good work, Jim!
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ITEM!
After missing some days from the anchor chair for NBC's Winter Olympic coverage due to pink eye, Bob Costas was back to work and Bob, I've got good news and I've got bad news.
Good news: the shades work for you, man! Looking real cool!
Bad news: the camera's in the other direction.
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That's that for this week's sports post. AND I'm taking a bit of a break from what has unintentionally become a weekly feature of writing kind of/sort of about sports.
Next Sunday, I will take time out to
Remember to be good to one another.
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