1. The moment, described as tender/nurturing/loving between West Virginia's Coach Bob Huggins and player Da'Sean Butler happened when the latter went down with a knee injury during the semifinal game against Duke. With Butler writhing in pain on the floor, Huggins came out and knelt down and cradled his head and kind of stroked his face and got really really close and was talking to him trying to calm him down. I read it is as quite a queer moment in men's basketball. Not a "that's so gay" moment. I just thought it was interesting, especially given that coaches often do not come off the sidelines when players get injured (I watched a women's hockey coach talk strategy with his players on his bench while one of his players was down on the ice for an extended period of time, eventually going off on a stretcher with a season-ending back injury.) And the ones that do come out to check on things don't kneel down and whisper comforting words while cradling their player's head.
I haven't quite decided though if the moment was made more or less queer by the fact that Huggins is widely known as a jerk.
2. Speaking of coaches who fall in that category...Geno Auriemma gave a sit-down interview to ESPN on the eve of UConn's semifinal against Baylor. It aired last night before the game. In addition to being defensively arrogant about coaching women's basketball, he said that all the people who want UConn's streak to end just fuels his name. But he also said that he does not think it will last much longer; that there are too many good teams out there and line-ups are changing a lot next season. He even went so far as to say the streak will be broken by December. And if it isn't he said he wouldn't come back in January* (because he would be so dismayed at the poor coaching of his colleagues). So here's hoping that UConn stays unbeaten until December 31!!
3. If I was Elin Nordegren and/or John Daly I would be pissed right now at the sympathy spilling forth for Tiger Woods and his addiction. I mean ESPN is just bringing in people to talk about how hard it is to "work on yourself" so intensely. It's not that I don't believe that sex addiction exists (also note that the word sex is not being said; there are a variety of euphemisms being bandied about and Woods himself will not say what he was in treatment for). But other people who engage in drug and alcohol abuse don't garner this kind of sympathy. And even though everyone says, "oh what he did was wrong. But he acknowledges it and he went to treatment." If I was in his situation, I would have gone to a place where I could be isolated for 45 days, too.
4. I won a sports bra for participating in the Women Talk Sports NCAA bracket challenge! Not because I am doing well in the pool, but because I joined. I like winning things but mostly I liked that I got it today and can put off doing laundry for yet another day.
* Note that my incredulous nod matched those of both Kara Lawson and Carolyn Peck when they discussed the statement afterwards.
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