After Atalanta

So because I usually give ESPN a hard time about...well everything, I thought I would give them a shout out for the little piece that aired during tonight's coverage (on ESPN2) of the Baylor v. Oklahoma game. There were interviews with a couple of NBA players (I don't remember who because I have next to no familiarity with current NBAers) who talked about how they tune in to watch Baylor's Brittney Griner play. One of them sets a DVR alert to make sure he doesn't miss it. They think she is exciting and talented. One even said she should come play for the NBA when she's done at Baylor. She can dunk; she can rebound; she can knock balls down like no one else in the college game. And she scores points too! I thought this was especially appropriate given that the Women Talk Sports network published a question on their Facebook page today: Agree or disagree: "People don't watch women's sports because they aren't as exciting as men's sports." It ...

THE RAINY DAY Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the moldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past, But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast And the days are dark and dreary. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.

Yep--it's true. Girls wrestle. But girls who wrestle made news this past week (yes, I am late to post on this) when a boy forfeited a first-round tournament match rather than face female student-athlete Cassy Herkelman. Herkelman thus became the first girl ever to win a match at this particular state tournament. The big deal is not so much that girls wrestle. This we know. The big deal is that this is IOWA. IOWA has produced many an elite wrestler. This year marked the first time a girl had ever qualified for the state tournament (2 girls achieved that mark--Herkelman and Megan Black). But girls have been wrestling in the state for about two decades according to the article linked above. I haven't seen much anti-girl rhetoric in the coverage of this event--which is good. The defaulter, Joel Northrup, cited religious convictions in his statement about why he chose to forfeit his match. He did not believe it was right for a boy to engage in a combat sport against a girl. Not bein...

It's Langston Hughes's birthday month. I personally always liked his boogie and jazzy poems so... EASY BOOGIE Langston Hughes Down in the bass That steady beat Walking walking walking Like marching feet. Down in the bass They easy roll, Rolling like I like it In my soul. Riffs, smears, breaks. Hey, Lawdy Mama! Do you hear what I said? Easy like I rock it In my bed!

Or maybe the more appropriate title is "youth basketball these days." Let me first state my general lack of expertise in youth sports: I am not an expert in youth sports. I've doen the requisite reading but do not have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of youth sport. Say youth sports in the form of AAU basketball, the subject (kind of) of this article which, ok, is mostly about Geno Auriemma. Coach feels like kids, I would assume girls specifically since those are the players he is interested in, are not trying very hard these days when they are on the court: "I think what's happened in the AAU world in the last 10 years or so is kids don't play to win. They just play to play. They show up at a tournament on Friday and play a couple games. They play four or five more on Saturday, then play all morning Sunday before the leave." Hmm...perhaps the problem is that these girls are playing nearly 10 games in one weekend. One of the commenters to the artic...

Because I love a good/bad love poem. LOVE SONG (LAME) Courtney Queeney This is a little like high school he said, when I wouldn't take off my clothes. It was true, although in high school I would've come over to torture him deliberately and now the torture was an unfortunate side effect of my sadness, and had nothing to do with him at all. Sleeping with you would be like a drowning woman grabbing an anvil, I explained. A burning man guzzling gasoline. Lame analogies, but I was trying to make a point. When he got up for a drink, I missed him but that feeling disappeared once he came back. I sat there and tried to feel sad, tracking my blue mute form as it sank to a furrowed ocean floor.

The current issue of ESPN Magazine, which appeared on stands this week, features a very good article on homophobia in college recruiting. The story originally was published online at the end of January and thus has been well-covered in the blogosphere. But I would be remiss not to mention it--especially since several people have emailed me the link to the story thus making me think that it's kind of my bloggerly duty. "On homophobia and recruiting" co-written by Luke Cyphers and Kate Fagan acknowledges, actually focuses on the subtly of homophobia in recruiting. It's a major point that needs to be highlighted in this way. Homophobia is not dead just because fewer people shout dyke or fag to your face (or to your back as you walk down the street). And every coach knows overt homophobia will not be accepted by most administrators and recruits these days. The language cues center mostly on a family values and morals rhetoric. Not news to many of us. But again, glad to ha...

Sure the celebrity world often mixes famous athletes and famous actors, but this feature on AfterEllen.com--in honor/response (??) to the Superbowl--is a little puzzling. Play Like a Girl: The Top 20 Female Athletes on Screen features actresses who play athletes. Here is the rationale: While the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world (I said “one of,” don’t get mad at me fans of that other football), plenty of female athlete characters have had us glues [sic] to the screen – both large and small. So to balance out, I guess, those men in tight pants playing actual sports, AfterEllen opted to remind us of how women can act out athletics. It's somewhat tragic actually. You don't want to highlight actual female athletes who we should be paying attention to? Perhaps try to correct the huge disparities of coverage between men's and women's sports. And for the record, I am not saying that these female actors are not athletic or even athletes in thei...

9. ee cummings there are so many tictoc clocks everywhere telling people what toctic time it is for tictic instance five toc minutes toc past six tic Spring is not regulated and does not get out of order nor do its hands a little jerking move over numbers slowly we do not wind it up it has no weights springs wheels inside of its slender self no indeed dear nothing of the kind. (So,when kiss Spring comes we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss lips because tic clocks toc don't make a toctic difference to kisskiss you and to kiss me)

Almost paid no attention to this article not having any investment in the WBB teams from either Missouri State or Creighton. But here is the headline and first graf: Women's Basketball Game at Missouri State to be Televised The Missouri Valley Conference has selected the Creighton women's basketball game at Missouri State to be televised as part of the league’s Wildcard Weekend on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox College Sports and Comcast SportsNet Chicago on February 27. The contest, originally scheduled for 2:05 pm, has been moved to 12:05 pm for television purposes. There's the whole television controlling game schedules of intercollegiate athletics, which I am pretty much resigned to--bigger battles and all. But what does it say when the fact that a women's basketball game being televised makes headlines? It says that today, on this day after National Girls and Women in Sports Day, we still need to be paying a lot more attention ...