Steve, Allen, Dave and I made our way to D.C. last Wednesday to see the NCAA first and second rounds on Thursday and Saturday. We met at the airport and decided to ride the Metro to a station fairly close to our Hotel. After waiting 20 minutes or so with a distinct hunger in our stomachs, this Metro ride cemented itself as the last we would take. We checked in a headed out at about 10:45 pm to grab dinner. The George Washington University was pretty dead and we ended up at Friday’s, where Al surprisingly downed a handful of sliders. We proceeded to a small dive bar downtown where we passed the infamous Mayflower Hotel (see Spitzer, Elliot) and Dave squeeled like a schoolgirl.

On Thursday, we got to see the UGA/Xavier and Baylor/Purdue games in the early afternoon session. Georgia led throughout the first thirty minutes as XU missed a bunch of threes and layups. Georgia wasn’t playing particularly well so I was optimistic they would win. Dave was seriously upset about the game and kept bitching about all aspects. Luckily for him, the refs decided to start calling every foul in the second half on Georgia as XU ended up shooting 33 free throws to UGA’s 5. Suddenly Goodman was all smiles. The second game produced no defense from Baylor as the Big Ten opponent opened up a sizable lead and held off a short rally from the team from Waco. There was a fat Baylor fan with his chubby son in front of us that resembled the kid from Two and a Half Men. He got on my nerves by cheering for Xavier so I was glad to see Baylor lose. After this session, we met Dave’s buddy at the Mexican bar/restaurant across the street. There was some excellent calls made including a true-life Danny Ferry call. Guess he was there to see Duke lose.

 In the night session, Belmont kept it close and even lead Duke at points. Steve had us all dressed up in our red Belmont t-shirts so it looked like we might be the toast of the town a la Bucknell. Unfortunately, Belmont ran a terrible inbounds play resulting on no last second shot and Vince Gill went home unhappy. In the other game, West Virginia beat Arizona. I wasn’t too impressed by either team to be honest. The worst decision of the night was picking up a cold piece of “Papa John’s” pizza from the concession stand. It did not sit well and I ended up upchucking it later that night.

I’ll let the next person continue starting with our great White House tour the next day…….

Steve, I’d like to see you wear some of these on campus.

I took the whole family out to the Hawks-Magic game last night. This was one of the most important games of the year for the Hawks, and, for once, they didn’t disappoint. A 98-90 win over the Division-leading Magic meant that the Hawks opened up a 1 1/2 game lead over the Nets for the final playoff spot. Because of its importance and because of the close score throughout the game, I think that this was the most entertaining game of the season; at least of the ones that I have attended.

The Hawks looked dominant for the first 1 1/2 Quarters, amassing a 14 pt. lead. However, they fell apart midway through the 2nd Quarter and actually were down one at halftime. The Hawks actually had a decent 3rd Quarter and held firm against the Magic. In the 4th, Joe took over. He hit shot after shot and helped the Hawks maintain a lead that they would never relinquish. He finished with 34pts, 7a and 5 rebs. Mike Bibby threw in 20 pts and 8 assists, J-Smooth had 19 and 9 and my ROY Winner Al Horford had another 10p-11r double-double.  

Dwight Howard was highly unimpressive offensively, scoring only 11 pts. He really didn’t seem to get a lot of touches on the ball. Turkoglu had a great first half for Orlando, but had a quiet 2nd half. The Magic hit ten threes in the game, basically keeping them in a game that otherwise wouldn’t have been close.

The Spin: I won a Hawks bullhorn, but Janet won Thrashers vouchers. With only three games left and the Thrashers in 14th place in the Conference, the thought of going to watch a game wasn’t exactly all that thrilling.

 In Attendance: Evander Holyfield

etc.: This was the first time that I saw firsthand what damage was done by the tornado. A lot of the streets are still closed downtown and a ton of the windows at the Omni Hotel and the Congress Center were either broken or boarded up. It’s seemingly unreal that Philips escaped any damage, but somehow it was largely unharmed.  

Two tests for you guys:

Test One

Test Two

I got a 79 on the first part and 80 on the second part. Some all-stars in there.

I took Olivia and Ismail to this historic night to see the Hawks try for two wins vs. the hapless Heat. We got there in time to see the replay of the last 51.9 seconds. It was sort of surreal; the crowd was just settling in, so the fan intensity of a close, late game was somewhat lacking. Neither team scored in the final period and the Hawks won this game for the second time. The teams didn’t really seem to know what to do afterwards, but eventually they figured it out with the help of Hawks officials.

During the 15 minute intermission, I went down to the spin the wheel. I won leftover All-Star game items- beads and a shotglass; they gave Olivia a squishy ball. When we got back to the top of the escalator, Olivia dropped her ball. When I noticed this, I looked back and saw a guy pick it up. I assumed that he was going to hand it back to her. However, I looked up and it was Craig Sager, rocking a Cosby sweater! I was kind of in shock that it was him and became even more so when he then put the ball in his pocket. It was totally obvious that it was her ball, but he didn’t even attempt to give it back to her. We have plenty of these balls at home, so I didn’t ask for it back, especially since it makes for a better story that he kept it for himself. What makes this story even better is that Janet’s boss is Craig’s sister, so she’s going to tell his sister what he did!

The game had very little defense in the first half; Joe dropped 17 pts in the first quarter and 28 for the half, yet the Hawks were still losing 59-56 at the break. For probably the first time this season, the Hawks had a great 3rd Quarter, outscoring the Heat 21-11 and playing some good defense to take a seven point lead. In the 4th Quarter, the Hawks let the Heat back into the game by giving up quite a few three pointers, but in the end, Joe took over and the team won 97-94.

It was a memorable night with the two games and the Sager theft, but the thing i’ll remember the most is that the Hawks won two games in one night to propel them back into the playoff hunt, the Hawks now sitting in the 8th and final playoff spot.

According to the AJC, Knight has tried to fire Woody on at least three occasions, including once after they acquired Bibby, but ownership has said no each time. How can Waddell get to fire Hartley six games into the season after winning the Division last season, but Woody gets free pass after free pass from our sorry-assed ownership? Spirit this, bitches.