Cal and New Mexico Last NightFor sport’s fans, today open’s the greatest four weeks of the year, the start of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. For me this is the best sporting event of the year, more exciting than the NFL, more passion than the NBA (that’s not hard to beat), two to three buzzer beating shots each day of the first two weeks, and a good reason to take an extended lunch if your team is playing an afternoon game.
Since my California Golden missed the NCAA Tournament, again, I sat through an opening round game of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) as the Bears hosted New Mexico. I had not seen New Mexico play this season but the game had peak my interest with former Indiana star Steve Alford coaching. Alford, the former Mr. Basketball for Indiana, is the same age as I am and enjoyed watching him play. In 1987, Alford led the Hoosiers to the NCAA Championship Game against Syracuse. The Hoosiers won the game on a late baseline jumpshot by Keith Smart. But, Alford did his part, shooting 7-10 from the 3-point line, scoring 23 points.
Alford as a coach has his team shooting the three. In his first year with New Mexico he and the Lobos went 24-9, and led the nation in three-point shooting at 42.5 percent. Just like Alford in his playing days this was a patient and disciplined team. Down by 10 at half they climbed back into the game on the back of JR Giddens, who had 26-points, 13 rebounds and six assists. The big fellow could do it all, and you could tell was well coached in the motion offense that Alford learned from Bobby Knight. The Bears pulled out the win (68-66) with two freethrows by Jamal Boykin, but I was impressed with the Lobos.
After the exciting finish, I stopped at Blake’s on Telegraph. They have recently remodeled and the place looks cleaned up. I never went to Blake’s as a student because I could not afford to eat or drink there. As a got older it has become a standard when I head over to campus for an event. They have 11 beers on tap and drink specials every night. It looks as if they are trying to get a younger crowd with drink specials every night of the week. An example is: $5 Long Island’s on Monday’s, $1 Beer on Wednesday’s or $3.75 Jack and Cola on Saturday. The food at Blake’s is always very good, but the service at times can be slow. Try the Burger and the fries.
