i love morris: Relief from the cold with UMM hoops

Friday, January 23, 2026

Relief from the cold with UMM hoops

(KHOU image)

We're in another of those occasions where the weather preoccupies us in Minnesota. And we pride ourselves on being so resilient. Is it an intrinsic quality or just a matter of practicality, of survival? Well, rhetorical question. We have no choice in the matter. We do what we have to.

While so much of normal life slows down or comes to a halt, we can feel some enthusiasm about a home UMM basketball game on Saturday. It's a 3 p.m. start at the place I still call the P.E. Center. Is it "Cougar Sports Center" now?

I remember all the years before the RFC existed. I remember all the years when UMM teams played in the NIC and then the NSIC grouping. That's "Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference."

Today we're in the UMAC which hasn't exactly stimulated my enthusiasm but that's the way it is. We play a lot of religious-themed schools. Meanwhile we are quite secular in our orientation with UMM. So there's an irony? Mark Fohl proclaimed that we can get along with these other schools just fine if we "stick to sports." It appears that objective has been accomplished.
The UMM women's basketball team will face off against UW-Superior at 3 p.m. Not sure if I will walk or drive over. My car had a new battery installed just a couple weeks ago at Heartland Motors. It should be able to deal with the cold.
The utter cold is the biggest story right now. So many days in a row: that is the novel thing. Looks like it'll continue right through Sunday morning when the Apostolic crowd of guys likes to gather at the Willie's Cafe. I sit close by and I always learn something!

(B.W. photo)

This morning (Friday) I had an interesting social experience also. I attended a gathering of the UMM folks at Common Cup where Mike Rodriguez was the featured individual. He of course is the new UMM chancellor. I was invited by Erin Christensen. So I was definitely welcome. I have to be sure of these things. The UMM crowd has not always been a suitable milieu for yours truly.
I am so fortunate to have had so much interaction with Rodriguez thus far. My association has been totally agreeable. Nice coffee cake available at Common Cup for the affair, gratis too. More than one type of coffee too. Very relaxed and fun interaction.
It was a time to feel totally good about UMM even though we all know some storm clouds could be on the horizon. The big clarion call was issued by the Fourth Estate a while back. Talk about milieus: the press or the media has been my milieu all my life. Report and share opinions in a totally unencumbered way.
It is possible to get a foothold in the Fourth Estate - to have real reach with your writing - even if you don't have a particular degree or pedigree. But maybe my thoughts on this are most apt when reflecting on the pre-Internet age. Today any one of us can have reach. And it is a good thing, to an extent. It does appear that political conservatives have mastered the contemporary landscape to wield real power. This concerns me a great deal.

Whither Minnesota?
Minnesota continues to try to navigate as a "blue state." We might have sensed storm clouds about this a while back. Ah, so it is coming home to roost now? With the nation's president unleashing his power with ICE, i.e. the "Federal police." Do I have to tell you once again that Federal police are fundamentally different from the kind of police that we have always assumed to be around?
ICE has built up a menacing presence in Minnesota. And maybe you cheer for it. I'm sure many of you do. Be careful what you wish for. We may see the "Federal police" burgeon in our Land of 10,000 Lakes, slowly so it would have the "boiling frog" effect. And then it may start asserting itself in ways that most of you would find objectionable. Like to spread around and keep close watch on polling places for the mid-terms, intimidating us.
It would intimidate us because we all know the preferred outcome for elections by those who wield power in D.C. now. It is the president in concert with his fellow Republicans who are not your father's Republicans, to be sure. Maybe you only sense this in the abstract now. And you might attend a church that is cheerleading with what the MAGA crowd wants. So this is the purpose of church now: to twist arms for political objectives?
And you pretend that Jesus Christ walks hand-in-hand with you? That is your fantasy or imagination. Well, religion is sort of a fantastical thing by definition, n'est-ce pas?
Federal police could easily start morphing into the sort of thing we saw with the German autocratic empire of the mid-20th Century. Once the momentum for that starts building, we may well wake up only when it's too late. Do you think the German people are stupid? Well of course they aren't. But look what they acquiesced to.

The seeds
Here in America we are dealing with dysfunction that started with the 2008 "financial crisis" and how it was not dealt with properly. I actually think that's the whole story. We don't want to accept recessions anymore. But recessions have to be sustained in any properly ordered capitalistic system. To deny that is to invite potential catastrophe. The Federal Reserve may be dragging us to all-out crisis. Will you heed my words? Probably not.
I may be taking risks for myself just expressing the kind of views that I do. Right at the present time, I am hunkered down at home because of the cold. Welcome to Greenland, you might say. Even Greenland can't escape Donald Trump. The polar bears might feel exasperated.

Maddy Grove
Cougars 73, Crown 39
Hey, the UMM women's basketball team is coming off a win! Good news! It was by a score of 73-39 at St. Bonifacius. Crown is one of those religious-themed schools in the UMAC.
Maddy Grove co-led the scoring charge for our Cougars: 16 points. She made 8 of 15 field goal attempts. She had four rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots and three steals.
My favorite player Gianna Klarenbeek from Iowa was back on course with her shooting. Following a sub-par game she came to life with 16 points to match Grove. And she was quite back on course with her 3-point shooting. She made three of her five long-range attempts and was six of nine overall. She had five rebounds, four assists, one shot block and one steal. She made her only freethrow try. Our third double figures scorer was Shelby Mortenson with 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Our top rebounder was Grace Perry with nine. She also led in assists with six. Anna Myers led in steals with four.