It wasn't a blow-out in the first half. Minnewaska Area kept things a little more interesting than MACA fans would have liked, for a time. This was one of those No. 1 vs. No. 8 games in the post-season, seeding-wise.
On paper of course it's a mismatch. But surprises can happen, like when No. 8 Paynesville upended the Tigers at our gym several years ago. I'd hate to try to guess the year. You know how the years roll by. I'm on Medicare and time can just become a blur.
Minnewaska Area came to our gym for first-round action in the 2022 hoops post-season. How much "March madness" lies ahead for our Tigers in the 2022 spring? It is really spring or ought to feel like it. At least a little? I have never had a winter grate on me so much. My driveway out on Northridge Drive still has slippery spots - I almost fell on my a-- this morning.
The winter drones on, reinforced by the decidedly pro-Republican talk at a certain local diner. Republicans have all the answers while Democrats are stupid and evil - I hear it nearly every day. I have taken gray duct tape and covered up the small "Kamala" sticker I had on the back of my vehicle for a while. I decided it might be actually dangerous to promote such sentiment.
In the "old days," Republicans and Democrats could have reasonable disagreements. Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill could act like friends at the end of the day. To the present: Republican leader Jim Jordan, the yapping barking dog from Ohio, is floating the idea that known adversaries of Donald Trump could be executed. Certainly not the America of my young days.
Are we becoming like Russia with Trump stepping into the role of Putin? Of course, you all could do some re-thinking and cast your votes for Democrats. Would only happen in a fantasy world now.
It's no fantasy that the MACA boys basketball team is loaded for bear. We needed some time to get going on all cylinders in our post-season debut. We led 31-22 at halftime versus the Lakers on Saturday. Obviously the game was in Motown, the "Tiger Center." Well, the second half was a different story, as we began firing our Howitzers. We won by a 65-41 score.
Now it's on to round 2.
We had nine players score points. That makes lots of parents happy. I once failed as a sportswriter in keeping enough parents happy. My own family dentist wrote a letter to the editor in the Morris paper describing me as a "miserable failure." Tough to go through life with that recollection. I only wrote for the Morris paper because the owners allowed me to. My dentist probably was/is a Republican.
Jackson Loge wowed the fans with another top-notch evening of play: 30 points on 12 of 16 shooting - that's 75 percent. The totals are all pretty modest below him. Here they are: Cole Wente 7, Durgin Decker 6, Tyler Berlinger 5, Brandon Jergenson 5, Thomas Tiernan 5, Sam Kleinwolterink 4, Evan Oberg 2 and Toby Gonnerman 1. Our team field goal shooting numbers were 25 of 50, and even I can figure the shooting percentage.
Loge made two of our four 3-pointers. Decker and Tiernan each made one. We were four of eleven, 36 percent. And in freefhrows our numbers were 11 of 23, 48 percent. Loge had four of the makes. Loge was the standout in rebounds too with eleven, one offensive. The Tigers got 30 rebounds, three of which were offensive.
Jergenson had six of our 16 total assists. He had two of our seven steals. Again, I hope fans are not chanting "let's go Brandon." This is code for "fuck Joe Biden." The America of today puzzles me in so many ways. I wouldn't put it past the fans.
The Tigers had eleven turnovers. Loge blocked two shots while Berlinger and Wente each blocked one.
We are climbing in Section 3AA-North. Our season record now is 24-2.
Minnewaska's Hunter Kostelecky led his team with 12 points/12 rebounds, in his final game as a prepster.
OK, what's next for our orange and black? Well, it's a Thursday contest with Litchfield as the opponent. It'll be the sub-section semis. Game-time is 6 p.m. at the Willmar gym. Remember the days when so many of these games, boys and girls, would be played at the UMM P.E. Center? Remember how the place could get packed with absolutely raucous and loud humanity? The good old days? Well it was convenient, certainly.
Trouble for UMM?
This is serious. It is no fun to rain on anyone's parade, but we simply must pay attention to what is going on around us. Take a look at South Dakota, our quite nearby neighbor to the west. South Dakotans aren't programmed a whole lot differently than Minnesotans. Donald Trump has set the tone for all this: emboldening the reactionary conservative element of our society like never before. And it is starting to have real consequences.
Bills are climbing through state houses. I read about one in Idaho just yesterday re. librarians. If passed, it could easily result in the shutdown of all public libraries. But today let's look at South Dakota. The South Dakota senate passed a bill Monday limiting promotion of "divisive concepts" that Republican lawmakers have linked to critical race theory. The vote was 27-8.
This type of thing, the way it could be interpreted - and just watch the lawyers slice and dice - could be poison for our UMM (or UMN). Maybe we should call the institution "Crookston-South" but let's not get distracted by that now. The South Dakota bill is now headed to Gov. Kristi Noem's desk for final approval. She's the governor who floated the possibility of Trump's face being added to Mount Rushmore.
Why are so many people so damned scared of "critical race theory?" Can't you at least back off and see it as benign, as at least being well-intentioned? C'mon all you knaves, why so excitable?
Our UMM or Crookston-South is ultra-"woke," we all know that. I am not even dissing it here, not at all. Some of it might get a little excessive, but if you let the anti-CRT crowd get their way, are you all prepared to accept the consequences?
I have a theory that the U might already be bracing for this, and may have tasked the Crookston chancellor with re-shaping the Morris campus in Crookston's image. The Morris interests have wanted to be secretive about all this. Therefore I risk becoming a pariah, again, for writing about it. Change is a constant these days, as a realize when I fail to understand how the McDonald's "kiosk" works.
If I had a girlfriend, maybe she could show me how.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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