Boys host Paynesville, win big as Johnson leads

The home gym was a place to celebrate for fans of the MACA boys Friday. Amidst all the challenging weather, the Tigers got their game in vs. Payesville. We won decisively over the Bulldogs 67-38.
Click on the link below to read about the girls' 83-55 win over ACGC, the boys' 69-68 win over Parkers Prairie, and the girls' 48-42 win over Montevideo. These reviews are on my companion blog, "Morris of Course." It is a delight for yours truly to continue writing about Tiger athletics. I just saw Dale Henrich at Willie's and he shared about how his girls team won its tournament debut game over Minnewaska.
https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-thursday-full-of-success-for-maca.html

 

Jaret Johnson against Paynesville continued his productive ways so soon after his 1000-point career milestone. He kept humming Friday with his output of 23 points, team-best. So congrats again to Jaret who carries the family hoops banner, passed down from Dad Matt who once represented the orange and black.
Two other Tigers scored in double figures: Jackson Loge (16) and Camden Arndt (11). Joseph Kleinwolterink put in six points. Jaden Maanum and Kevin Asfeld scored four each, and Cade Fehr wraps up the list with his three. Johnson, Fehr and Loge each made one 3-pointer.
Loge snared the team-best ten rebounds. Johnson had impact in this department with eight. Arndt collected five boards and Fehr four.
Arndt and Zach Hughes each produced five assists. Johnson complemented his other stats with two steals. We had command by halftime of this game as we owned a 42-21 lead. Our W/L coming out: 16-8. Now it's on to post-season play for coach Mark Torgerson's optimistic crew.
 
"Sign" of the times, maybe
Remember the big sign from the Metrodome's early days: "We like it here?" It's a reference to how we feel total fondness for life in Minnesota despite the weather's vagaries and harshness. Somehow that old sign pops up in my memory now. I seem to recall the sign was eventually removed.
I remember an interview with the legendary baseball numbers guy Bill James, in which he seemed amused and perplexed by the sign. One reason I remember the interview so well is that it supported thoughts I had. Why do we need such a high-profile reminder of why we like living in Minnesota? Is it that we sometimes wonder if we should seek better? Do we wonder if re-locating south might actually be a wise thing sometimes?
James, the guy whose genius led to the movie "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt, said the sign "We like it here" struck him as "curiously defensive." He said "It's like you're saying 'we don't care what everyone else thinks.' "
I sense the same exact kind of defensiveness in the slogan promoting UMM these days: "In the middle of somewhere." It's like we know full well that the whole world considers Morris and is inclined to say we're "in the middle of. . ." Well you know. So I don't care for it. Perhaps I doth protest too much.
All my life I have been able to criticize UMM with impunity, when the spirit moved me, because I'm not on staff there! In fact, I studied mass communications at a time when the prevailing ideal within the field was to go out in the world, armed with typewriter (manual typewriter) and cut through the fog of pretense and mendacity. Really, the notion got totally ingrained in my head, to the point where it endangered my future in journalism. Because surely that set of attitudes came crashing down.
So I'm a dinosaur, as if my reference to manual typewriters didn't make that clear anyway. I am free and unfettered to criticize, and if I had wanted to, I could have written the name of the accuser in the celebrated (not that we celebrated) case of the Morris high school principal getting in a whole heap of trouble a few years back. I remember the guy who tipped me off to the whole story at McDonald's early one morning. He said "did you hear about the principal? Hoo boy." And then he said "hoo boy" again.
I was made aware of the identity of the accuser and didn't type it, but as I'm not employed in the law enforcement system, I could have done so unfettered. When all else fails, I do savor this kind of freedom. I suspect that others secretly envy me. "Burn baby burn" - remember that refrain? Oh, maybe you're too young.
I write about the old Metrodome sign because the weather of late has surely challenged all our love of Minnesota, right? I'm writing this at the absolute apex of our "winter blahs" for 2019. I feel as though I am hanging in there. How about you?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com