War and Basketball

Posted March 22nd, 2003 by Sean Williams

Eight in the morning on a Saturday, and I am awake. Everyone is out doing stuff, so I am here by myself, trying to decide if I should go to an audition being held at the same time as, and right in the middle of, a huge anti-war demonstration.

I feel as much fear of retribution, when I think of the war, as I do concern about the Iraqis. I trust that my government is making it a priority to hit military installations primarily. I know that people are dying in Iraq today, but I hope that fewer will die over the long haul than have been dying in the last 12 years.

You can debate all you want about whether or not we should be at war. But watching it is sickening. It is spontaneously horrifying, you don’t have to decide. The one image that will remain with me are the people wandering away from burning buildings. Obviously, it took me back.

I have spent my avoidance time watching basketball and being with my friends. I missed ten of the first 32 match-ups in my pool, which is about par for the course. However, I only called one team wrong for the next round.

And let me say this; I am frustrated by the total lack of upsets in this tournament. Last night, Maryland was outplayed, out-hustled, out-coached and out-hearted by the number eleven seed UNC Wilmington team, and they led by one with three second left. A Maryland player, not their star, not even their second option, made a running one handed heave at the buzzer that dropped through as if he was sitting on top of the backboard by himself and let it go. Maryland wins, to solidify that only one real upset (If you call a 10 over a 7) would occur on the whole South/East side of the bracket.

In fact, let’s say a 10-7 match-up isn’t an upset. Then you have two in the whole tournament, Central Michigan beating Creighton (an 11-6) and (the only real long shot) Tulsa beating Dayton (a 13-4). If you had just picked the seeds as is, you would have missed 6, and that’s including 3 nine-over-eight picks.

Speaking of long, I saw Spider last night. At about ten minutes in, I thought ‘Wait, did this character do X?’ and about thirty minutes in, I was like ‘Oh, these characters are not who he thinks they are.’ and it turns out I was right. It was ninety minutes long, but it didn’t really mean anything to me. Great acting.

Listen, if you want cohesive thought, look elsewhere. I can’t believe I write this much…