Bloomington or Bust

She grew up in an Indiana town,
Had a good-lookin' mama who never was around.
But she grew up tall and she grew up right
With them Indiana boys on them Indiana nights.

Tom Petty

I had this dream this year that I would attend the Maui Classic basketball tournament in Hawaii. It featured my Terps and Wisconsin and 6 other college teams in a 3 day 12 game tournament. It took place just days before Thanksgiving and I watched it from my couch. Which turned out to be good in that the Terps played poorly, finished 4th, and lost two games including one to Wisconsin. So why did I pass up this opportunity? Because this week the Terps are in an even more exotic and tropical locale and this time I am headed to the game. Nothing says palm trees, beaches, light breezes and tropical drinks like an excursion to Bloomington, Indiana. And that's where I will be Tuesday night to watch the Terps play the Indiana Hoosiers in basketball at Assembly Hall.

I really don't ask much of you readers but I do have a slight favor to ask. It's time for the sweatbabyjames blog to adopt a favorite college basketball player and for us that is Eric Hayes of the University of Maryland. What did he do to earn such an "honor" ? Well, he is a great shooting, hard nosed player for my beloved Terps. But there's lots of players that fall into that category. His mom and dad can be seen at most games, Mom in her #5 jersey. I met them a few years ago at a game in Illinois. Between Mom and son they have made it possible for me to have extraordinary seats tomorrow night in Indiana and for that I am thankful. For that reason you are going to get a lot of Eric Hayes stats on the blog :)

It's about a 6.5 hour drive to Bloomington from Madison and I happily have a co-pilot for the trip. My good friend and former English teacher Paul Schwartz will be along for the ride and he is making it possible for me to attend the Wisconsin-Duke game the following night in Madison. 4 storied NCAA basketball programs in two nights. Should be fun, but only if Maryland wins of course...please...please..please

So one long basketball story that I am sure is not of much interest to many of the people that have stumbled onto this blog. How does it relate to what this blog is mostly about? Well I probably wouldn't have done this two years ago and if I had I would have spent all 6.5 hours worrying about how far a walk it was from the parking lot to the arena, how small the turnstile I would have to walk through was, and how miserable I would be wedging my ass into a small stadium seat. And while I'm still often miserable wedging my ass into that seat I don't let it bother me and I don't give the other two a parting thought. Unless it's really cold then I want no part of that long walk.

December starts tomorrow, still no snow yet in Madison, and fairly temperate for this time of year. No complaints from me. Ready for Christmas, the new year, more fun, more music, and more adventures. Peace, Jim