Spent the weekend up in the “Larry” for Friday nights Florida-Kansas matchup. It was an 8 O’clock game, which is usually plenty of time to get turnt up on that drank. We got a little flask hit the E-Dub a little and followed this big booty girl up to the Fieldhouse. We stumbled upon some good seats at face value for a cool hondo, thinking it was a good deal, until we ran into the guy’s brother-in-law, who was practically giving his away for 20 bucks. Turns out 100 dollars was NOT the cheapest offer we would find, our man “Mack” swore up and down the cheapest we’d find would be 200 bones. #lessonlearned.

It seemed longer than 8 months since my last visit to Allen Fieldhouse, the Texas drubbing that culminated with this dunk.

With more than an hour to go I couldn’t figure out why bro-in-law couldn’t get rid of his tickets. An hour later, and minus a buzz, the stadium looked like this
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The first half was dominated by the Gators, their guards kept penetrating into the paint and dishing off to their big men for easy dunks and layups. When the Jayhawks did get stops, they’d undermine their efforts by failing to get a defensive rebound. Kansas’ Frank Mason hit a shot at the buzzer, but the team was down by 18 points at the half. As listless as the Jayhawks looked, I knew that all they had to do was quit giving up penetration, get some rebounds, and shoot better shots.

The second half didn’t start off that great, but a hustle play by Perry Ellis, and Frank Mason got the crowd into the game (standing ovation even though Florida maintained possession). The crowd got loud and things got realy hype once the Jayhawks knocked the lead down to single digits. It was the loudest I’d ever heard the crowd since I’ve been going to the games, and by the 2 minute mark, it was clear who was going to win. As hype as Allen was, the town was pretty chill for a Friday night. Even the college radio station was playing some sleepy, whiny indie music that was killing my buzz.

Watching the sloppy first half reinforced my bias towards NBA over NCAA–just a better product to watch. I mentally crossed off three games I had circled on the Jayhawks’ schedule, Texas (missing their pg and not looking that great either), Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State (I may still go just to see what a game in Gallagher Arena is like). I plan to be at the Big Monday game against the Iowa State Hoibergs. That may be the Big 12 good ass game of the year as far as I’m concerned. On to the Good Ass Games of the Week:

Monday
Boston just lost a 2OT game to Washington. John Wall went gangbusters, 26 points 17 assists, but i’m trying to finish this thing up so I can watch that Suns-Clippers game. It’s been a long day so I’m happy there isn’t much action to cover tonight. I plan to be in bed no later than 12:30 tonight.

Tuesday
Dallas-Memphis in the battle of the barbecue states. I’ll be watching this one fa sho.

Wednesday
I’m curious how Dallas will feel on the back end of this back-to-back, but the good ass game of the night will certainly be Houston at Golden State (I hear it is going down out in the Bay Area with all the protests going on out there and in D.C. and New York–more on that later)

Thursday
Lebron comes to Oklahoma City. Wait. I live an hour and half from Oklahoma City. Why aren’t I trying to go to this game? Oh that’s right. I don’t want to put any money into Clay Bennett’s pockets. I’ll be watching this joint on tv at my favorite pub.

Friday
Portland-Chicago The Bulls may end up being involved in the Good Ass Game of The Week two weeks in a row. I can’t wait for this one. If you really need to tap that vein, peep the Lakers-Spurs or the Cleveland-New Orleans game.

Saturday
Start the night off by watching Golden State-Dallas and then go get a drink to celebrate. That one is definitely going to be worth stopping in on.

Sunday
mmppphhhhhhh Oklahoma City-Phoenix If you miss it, at least catch the highlights on this one. I can’t say I will attend it, but if I did, best believe I’m getting my ticket off a scalper.

But in all seriousness, this police brutality shit has got me bugging on some somber wavelengths. I love basketball, but it is hard to separate my political leanings with the people responsible for militarizing the police. It has been an emotional couple of months, and it hurts to think about the families who lost loved ones unnecessarily due to police violence. It is crazy as it ever was, and we all gotta take time to just breathe. Shit has got to get better in this country.

Peace,

BM