I prefer college basketball to the professional variant, the former being comprised of aspiring young athletes that play both ends of the court, and the latter – to my way of thinking, anyway – consisting of 10 overpaid guys that jump into the air every 22 seconds. But I typically don’t spend much time watching early season ball, preferring to wait until the sweet sixteen have winnowed the field down to something more manageable. I didn’t watch the season opener yesterday, but I would have liked to.
Courtesy of his status as something in between a complete anonymity and a quasi- pseudo- hemi- demi – blogger of ambiguous influence, your host was provided numerous and diverse varieties of official correspondence telling him that there was going to be a college basketball game aboard the USS Carl Vinson yesterday evening. Summat of an event, it was foretold. No room at the inn and all, but worth writing about.
I was otherwise engaged of course, and in any even had sort of assumed that they’d be cranking down the hoops in the hangar bay, installed who knows when and intermittently employed when the bay itself isn’t all full of yellow gear and aircraft. I was mistaken.
I should have known better, of course. Big Navy doesn’t do things in small ways, and the word that the Basketball-Fan-In-Chief planned to be in attendance on Veteran’s Day should have clued me in that it was going to be Kind of a Big Deal.
Everyone seemed to have fun:
That’s (accuracy outside the arc) not what this was about, and that’s not what anybody will remember about this event. North Carolina will win more games, and Michigan State will indeed shoot better. The on-the-court product will improve for both squads, the on-the-court memories will stack. But in terms of spectacles, this was the pinnacle, perhaps even more of an experience than a trip to the Final Four. This was unique — from meeting the President to dunking under the moon, from walking around a Navy base to having to wonder whether a basketball game might get rained out.
The whole event was first-class and special.
It culminated with players removing their jerseys and handing them to wounded soldiers.
It was just a small token of appreciation.
But it was a token.
And it was sweet to watch.
“It’s the neatest thing that I’ve ever been a part of,” said UNC coach Roy Williams. “I absolutely loved it.”
It was probably worth the price of entry just to watch two college basketball teams stop play in honor of evening colors.
BZ, Navy. Well done, ‘Heels. Keep practicing, Spartans.
And, thank heavens, somebody had the brains to say “let’s make sure our sailors look like, uh, sailors. Let’s make sure they’re in their blues and don’t look like a bunch of over-ripe blueberries.” Nothings says “United States Navy” like a sailor in crackerjacks.
The USN should go back to Dungarees and Chambray shirts. Let the Sailors look like Sailors. Crackerjacks are Uber USN, I agree.
Gives new meaning to the term, “foul deck.” Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all night!
I’m sorry to be the skunk at the party, but it would seem a lot of people have short memories. Not one hint that this whole affair was mainly a PR set-up for a CinC whose relationship with the armed services is iffy at best and who is poised, along with his party, to gut the very sort of capability he used as his propaganda backdrop. Oh, to be sure, the troops enjoyed and appreciated it on one level, but I have a hard time forgetting the avalanche of criticism and opprobrium heaped on “W” when he flew onto the Babraham Lincoln (well, that’s what the swabbies call her, isn’t it?–’cause of all the pregnancies? Least I hear tell..) to greet the returning carrier and celebrate the official end of major hostilities in Iraq . “Overly theatrical and needlessly expensive”–wasn’t that how his critics characterized it? Strange, “crickets chirping” from the MSM this time.
“The whole event was first-class and special” writes our flack. “And it was sweet to watch,” he concludes.
Well isn’t that special….
I’ll second that, Virgil.
Now, if they had done it in the N. Atlantic in, say, January…
Would have hurt the stats a bit.
But think how much more exciting it would have been.
I like the drift of that Joe. A man after my own dark heart! Eg. I’d support bullfighting if the Spanish had to put up one matador against 6 bulls, rather than the other way round..
Perfect basketball weather: http://ussfranklindroosevelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2c-north-atlantic-storm.jpg
Off the North Cape, preferably.
VX,
It’s both parties gutting the armed forces.
Enjoyed the game. The overly long, pandering campaign speech delivered beforehand….not so much.
Caught a few minutes while waiting for my ride to the monthly card game. I’m not much of a hoops fan, which is my way of saying I don’t watch hoops at all, but I enjoyed what I saw. With the exception of the Twit in Chief grinning.
I was particularly moved when they stopped the game to lower the colors.
I couldn’t be bothered to watch it. In fact, I called a buddy who works for HP, and after some back-of-the-envelope calculations he thought it would take his team between 18 months and 2 years to come up with an instrument that could even *measure* how little I give a whit.
First, I knew there would be a speech full of hope and change and dreams and assorted hyperbole which would, in the end, boil down to precisely nothing.
Second, it’s basketball. Insofar as my life is concerned, the health and happiness of me and mine, I’ve pondered this for several minutes and came away assured that no matter who wins or loses it will not affect me one whit. Nor will it provide spectacle such as to be found in sports. It is merely a game, and one I’m not a part of.
Finally, it was being held on a warship. Let’s me say it again, a By-Gawd ship-of-the-line. Hosting a game best played in a high school gym on a wooden floor. Debasing is the only adjective that springs to mind. You want to play a game on a boat, play it on a Princess Cruise Line between rounds of canasta and shuffleboard.
The Good Lord has allotted me only so many hours on this Earth, I’ll spend them elsewhere.
– Max
I am still waiting for a performance of “Madame Butterfly” performed on the hangar deck of USS Abraham Lincoln. Hey, you let one of those elevators down partway, it makes a fair stage. We should do it in Yokohama, and see if we can’t find an actual Ensign Pinkerton.
Which reminds me, do we have a Lieutenant Juan Rico in the USMC? “Bugs, Mr. Rico! Thousands of Bugs!
Being a Lansing, MI native, I’ve been aware that this game has been in the works for some time. I believe the AD at MSU started trying back in 2006 or 2007 to interest the Navy in a game like this. It took him several years of rebuffs to get anywhere, but it finally happened after a lot of effort and coordination. The president may have jumped on the train and taken advantage, but that shouldn’t spoil the moment; it was a great time to show off our Navy and hopefully bring some exposure to a different audience.
Yeah, I get all that, Mike M., and on one analytical level you’re perfectly correct, it all makes sense. But viewed from another level it simply galls the hell out of me because of the different way the whole thing was handled by the MSM, The fact that it was the VERY carrier used to deep-six Bin Laden’s body not only CANNOT have escaped anyone’s notice, it was, in fact, repeatedly highlighted by the MS in a very positive way–as opposed to the treatment/coverage President Geo Bush got. This affair was, at bottom, a PR thing for OBAMA’s sake as much as it was for the Navys. And, yes, I realize that ALL Presidents seek to maximize their “strengths” thru good set-piece PR, it’s the double-standard that the MSM uses when governing Donkeys vs Elephants that galls me so. It’s everywhere one turns; this being only the most glaring and and recent example.
*** “covering” viz “governing” (although the MSM wouldn’t mind “governing” as well, when you get right down to it)
Max and Vx said it for me. Hope the sailors had a good time. Could careless about the teams. O’Bama should know better, but he is O’Bama.
Agree, I could not care less about B’ball on any level (and being in Raleigh, NC that is almost as much a sin as being an ex-Yankee).
If the troops had fun and walk away with good memories -then it was a good thing. Frack all BHO and his chums, just vervently hoping he is a one termer (that is the Hope & Change I want).
Woulda been nice if Michelle had at least tried to pretend during colors:
http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2011/11/michelle-not-proud-to-be-just-now.html
A classic–pictures really are worth more than 10,000 words, aren’t they?
PS: Reminds me of that old Lilly Tomlin tv skit as a give-a-shit rude, non-helpful telephone operator when she ends by saying: “Snort–We don’t have to–we’re the telephone company!” Michelle baby doesn’t have to pretend anymore–she’s already won the prize, right?
Butch/
As if on cue, see the latest statement on her love for her country by our jumped-up affirmative-action Queen as quoted in the Washington Times 13 Nov ed. “Michelle Obama says she feels welcome in Hawaii.” (Sorry, tho I copied link directly no joy, so you’ll have to hit the Times itself) Anyone w. better link?
The chronic rejection of any patriotic gesture by those two socialists is really disturbing!
Especially by that fat cow who is quite adept at wasting tax dollars on her various perks.
I just hope that not a dime of Navy money was spent to facilitate this basketball game. I guess it was kind of neat and if the schools or NCAA or someone paid every dime, and it did not disrupt the ship’s schedule or work, then we can tolerate it as free publicity.
Again, the media double standard of blasting Bush for his carrier visit, and sycophant worshiping of Obama is disgusting.
I’ve a buddy at IBM to whom I pitched an idea: the linkage between games and our military will not be complete until IBM sponsors a chess match… Wait for it… In a missile silo!
I’m thinking Kasparov (though any Russian Grand Master would do) and Big Blue (done up as the WOPR from the movie War Games, complete with blinkenlights and synthetic voice, “Would you like to play a game?”) in the re-match of the century!
Loser launches in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Yeah. He’ll get back to me on that.
– Max