The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The movie.
Did you see it?
I did.
I had to.
Hey, if I’m gonna claim Robert De Niro as my favorite actor.
I had to see it.
In fact, I have to see any movie with De Niro in it.
No matter how many thumbs down Ebert gives it.
My love of De Niro is so bad.
I even own the DVD for the Bullwinkle movie.
Not the Blu-Ray.
Just the DVD.
You gotta draw the line somewhere.
But unconditional love is well... unconditional.
You know, that whole in sickness and in health thing.
Hey, just because Bobby D makes a stinker.
Doesn’t mean I don’t have to smell it.
That’s the way I am with De Niro.
U2.
Bruce Springsteen.
The Oakland Raiders.
And the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.
Love is love.
And that love is blind thing may explain why I was sitting in front of the TV on Tuesday night.
Watching women’s basketball.
Yes, women’s basketball.
You see, for the second straight year, my beloved Irish women were playing in the National Championship game.
Last year they lost a heartbreaker to Texas A&M.
This year, they were facing Baylor.
Another team from the Lone Star State.
A school with the biggest star in the women’s game today.
Literally.
Six-foot-eight Brittney Griner.
But Griner is not all size.
She is substance too.
As a freshman, she recorded the first triple-double in school history.
34 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocks.
11 BLOCKS!
As a sophomore, she led Baylor to the Final Four.
For only the second time in school history.
But this year, as a junior, Griner has taken this party to another level.
With a win Tuesday, Baylor would become the first team in college basketball history to finish the year with 40 wins.
And no losses.
The first team in history!
Men or women.
I wasn’t aware of that stat until Tuesday night.
But ESPN made sure I wouldn’t forget it.
They must’ve brought up the 40-0 thing... at least 40 times.
But hey, it’s a stat worth repeating.
Especially for someone like me who is hardly a fan of this sport.
Back in the day, watching women’s college basketball was worse than water torture.
With all due respect to the great Cheryl Miller.
If you thought Rocky and Bullwinkle was bad.
Try watching any women’s basketball game from the 70s or 80s.
ANY game.
But thankfully that has all changed.
These ladies that played on Tuesday night got some serious game.
Well, some of them.
Ok, a couple of them.
I know, it’s not the NBA.
It’s not men’s college basketball.
It’s not even good boys high school basketball.
But these women play the game right.
No smack-talking.
No neck tattoos.
No taking five steps before a layup.
Just good sound fundamental basketball.
Minus the high-flying, 360, between the legs, double-reverse, dunking stuff.
Except for Griner that is.
Just a few weeks ago she became only the second woman, ever, to dunk in an NCAA Tournament game.
In fact, she’s dunked six times in her college career.
This after 52 dunks during her senior year of high school.
This girl is borderline unstoppable.
Her game is more Shaq than Shakira.
Even if she sounds more Bernie than Brittney.
This girl can really play.
And she put on a whale of a show for the world to see on Tuesday night.
Or at least the people that had nothing else to watch.
Griner finished with 26 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks to lead the Lady Bears to the National Championship.
Before the game I asked my kids what you call a lady bear.
You know, like a female deer is a doe.
Or a female chicken is a hen.
They informed me that a lady bear is... a lady bear.
Hence the nickname.
The only person who came close to matching up to Griner on Tuesday night was Rebecca Lobo.
The ESPN sideline reporter.
Lobo is listed at 6-foot-4.
But courtesy of some heels, I'm guessing, Lobo stood nearly eye-to-eye with Griner for the post-game interview.
Notre Dame coach, little Miss Muffet McGraw, also wore heels on Tuesday night.
But when your name is Muffet, you need a little more than a pair of pumps to intimidate your opponent.
Especially when the star of that opponent wears a size 18 shoe.
A men’s size 18.
I can’t tell you the next time I will watch a women’s college basketball game again.
From start to finish.
As I did on Tuesday.
But it sure did beat Rocky and Bullwinkle.
3 comments:
Close your eyes and listen to Ms Griner talk and you will think you are listening to a man talk. Don't flame me without doing this and see I am right!
My daughter is twelve years old and now stand at 6 feet 1 inches.
I don't think she will reach 6 feet 8 but she does play basketball. She's been at it for two yars now and she is improving quite a lot.
No plan to make it a career tough.
Thanks for reading Chantal. Making sports a career used to be the goal. Now I just hope they turn it into a college scholarship. :) One can dream, right?
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