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The Academy Awards were on tonight…

And, as anticipated, The Lord of the Rings and company nabbed several awards. I wasn’t too surprised at that, but what did surprise me was when the announcer said that it had won 11 awards, tying Ben Hur and Titanic for the most awards given in a single night. I thought it sounded strange that Titanic had won that many awards. I mean, it was a pretty good movie, but 11? Maybe I should watch it again.

I was happy to see that Lost in Translation got Sofia Coppola an Award for Best Original Screenplay and, although I was sorta’ pullin’ for Bill Murray, I was glad to see Sean Penn finally get an Award (I thought he was robbed a couple years ago when Denzel won for Training Day). I haven’t seen Monster, but from the clips I’ve seen, Charlize Theron earned every ounce of her Oscar. I thought Billy Crystal did a great job hosting, but then he’s been doing it so long, I bet it’s old hat for him by now.

Overall, it was a good show, but I have to say I’m glad Lord of the Rings won’t be up for any Oscars next year. I mean, they were all good movies, but I’d like to see some other films get a chance at some awards. It’s gettin’ old seein’ the same people winning all the awards every year.

Aaaaaand my weekend is officially over.

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Won one on the road

Looks like the Gators pulled out another win today. Although Arkansas was one of the worst teams in the SEC going into today’s game, it was entirely possible that Florida could find a way to lose. They tried to, but managed winning in spite of a late-game meltdown that brought the Hogs within 5 points as the clock expired.

We had trouble with turnovers, just as we’ve had the past few games. I think that’s the one area of the game where losing Drejer has really hurt us. He protected the ball, made smart passes and always finished with several assists. Other guys–Roberson, Walsh–are stepping up and getting assists, but they’re not protecting the ball like they should be. I think we had about 20 turnovers today and that’s just unacceptable. The reason turnovers hurt us so much is that we simply can’t get back and stop the other team from scoring after we turn the ball over; we’re just not fast enough. Our defense is slow anyway, and giving the team multiple opportunities to explicitly exploit our slow transition defense is not a good way to win close games.

I think we’re doing pretty well offensively, but if our perimeter game goes cold for a day, we’ll be struggling to win. That may or may not be a problem with so many great shooters–Roberson, Walsh, Abukar, Humphrey–that can tow the line. I’m looking forward to closing out our SEC schedule against Georgia and Kentucky. If we can with both those games, it’ll give us a huge boost of confidence as we move into the NCAA Tourney, regardless of how we perform in the SEC Tourney.

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Another Noble Friday

Tonight was the second Friday that I spent at Barnes & Noble since I got here. Part of me thinks that makes me some sort of extravagant loser, while the rest of me thinks it was a good time and an excuse to drop 30 bucks on some magazines and a book. I got a 5-dollar copy of Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA by Kevin Davies. The magazines were on web design, digital photography and, yes, Nintendo Power. I couldn’t resist the Nintendo Power because I used to read it when I was a kid and I figured it was worth five bucks to see what sort of rubbish I used to enjoy. Turns out it’s the boring, short-on-actual-content sort of rubbish that I enjoyed so much when I was younger.

Florida game tomorrow

I think we play Arkansas tomorrow. I think they’re doing pretty poorly this year, so hopefully we’ll be able to grab a road win and build some confidence. I can’t make any sort of predictions because I don’t know much about their team. I think I read somewhere that they have a couple strong wingmen, so that could spell trouble for our perimeter defense, especially if we’re playing a zone again. I guess we’ll see…

Speaking of Basketball

I’m playing tomorrow morning at 9, so I’m gonna’ go ahead and get some sleep now.

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The Gators win two in a row

I only heard the last 15 minutes of the South Carolina vs. Florida game, but the last 5 minutes was all I needed to hear. When I tuned in, the score was something like 32-28, South Carolina. For the next 10 minutes, the differential stayed about the same and the Gators seemed to have trouble getting anything going in their halfcourt offense. Also, we couldn’t get a rebound at either end of the floor. I think Roberson was our only player in double figures with Lee and Walsh knockin’ on the door. Then, with about 4 minutes left in the game, those three completely took over. Lee had some nice plays inside for easy 2-pointers, Walsh made some clutch shots including a contested 3-pointer on an assist from Lee and Roberson continued selecting good shots and even made a difficult runner in the paint. On the other end of the floor, Lee, Walsh and Roberson all pulled down some boards to limit South Carolina to one shot on offense. Roberson finished with about 24 points on something like 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point land. Walsh and Lee both came on late, hitting clutch free-throws (I think both of those guys are Top 10 in the SEC in free-throw percentage) and basically owning Carolina by scoring at will, rebounding effectively, knocking down free-throws and stealing the ball a few times.

Those are the highlights. From what I heard, we played with very little energy for most of the game. I think we finished with only 69 points, which is more than 10 points below our average, but this was a home game, so we should’ve been around 85 points. We didn’t seem to respond too well to Carolina’s pressure defense (they were running a full-court, three-quarter-court and half-court press, if I remember right) and, although we didn’t turn the ball over too many times, we certainly weren’t making anything happen on offense for most of the game. We couldn’t pull down many boards, which is unacceptable with Richard, Moss and Lee as our big guys and I don’t think we were playing with much energy throughout the game. The good news is that all things things can definitely be corrected by the Tourney (SEC or NCAA) as they’re mostly stemming from either inexperience or just a lackluster effort.

One thing that troubles me, as it has all season, is our half-court defense. Our zone is ineffective and we tend to give up points to slashers–guys who attack off the dribble either from the wings or the free-thrown line. I think this is a result of our low intensity in some of our games. The main problem is that our help is slow getting to the right spot and we seem to bail ourselves out with weak fouls that show that we’re allowing them to drive by us and then trying to slow them down by grabbing or hooking. Again, this can be partially corrected with more energy (gained by good coaching and maybe some rest and a little motivation before Tourney season), but I’m afraid the inexperience factor might be pretty severe. We have a lot of young guys and I think some of them just aren’t completely comfortable playing at the college level yet. It seems like there’s quite a bit of miscommunication–especially on the defensive end of the floor–and that’s going to hurt us against well-organized offensive teams. I hope that our older “veteran” players (although we only have one senior) can help the younger guys adapt to the game’s speed and intensity before the season’s over.

I think if we pick it up a little by scrapping for loose balls, playing more aggressive defense and crashing harder on the boards, we will have a reasonable shot at winning the SEC Tourney (I think the past few years have made it obvious that it’s anybody’s Tournament to win) and hopefully making it out of the first weekend for the NCAA Tourney. Only a few more regular-season games left and then the Madness begins.

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Phone home

The highlight of my day was a 45-minute conversation I had with a friend from back home. This has been a common theme since I got here and it seems that nothing I do is ever more refreshing than talking with someone from home. Tonight’s conversation was all over the place, but the common thread throughout the conversation was the commonalities that we share. It’s nice to realize that I’m not alone and, although I’ve begun a new phase in my life, there are many other people experiencing things just like I am. It’s interesting how we can be in different places in life, but still be experiencing the same things.

Group blog

I don’t think that I mentioned the other blog I’m a part of now. A friend of mine decided it would be good to have a blog where many people post to discuss our perspectives on transitions. Specifically, we’re all in some phase of the college-to-real-world transition. I think it’s a good idea and I hope I can contribute something meaningful. I’m not a super writer and I often have trouble thinking of interesting, useful and creative things to say, but if I do think of something that has all those attributes, I’ll post it over there.

Still reading the Chronicles

I’m in the third book and still enjoying the series. Nothing to report except that I’m still reading them and I’m going to knock out another chapter right now.

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Good workouts

I’ve been having some particularly good workouts lately. Here are some of the contributing factors:

Routine – I’m up at 7 and in bed at midnight every day; I work out around 5, so I’m good and ready for my workouts
Food – I’ve been eating three good meals a day for several weeks now; I feel more energetic and strong
Sleep – this may sound redundant, but I’m consistently getting about 7 hours’ sleep; I think that’s just what I need for a long day
No Spotter – In general, I think it’s a good idea to use a spotter, but when I don’t have one, I’m forced to work harder and do better reps because I don’t have a spot to bail me out if I get lazy
Warmup – Back at school, I tried to warm up before working out, but I couldn’t always do it; here, I can always shoot hoops for 20 minutes to a half hour before my workouts and that gives me more energy and helps build my endurance and overall strength

Hopefully, my workouts will continue to be productive for a while. It’s been too long since I was in good shape and I’m ready to get back to it.

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All cleaned up

It’s finally happened. I’m finally settled into my apartment. The only odd-ball thing that remains is my old, busted-up computer desk and that’s slowly being dismantled and shipped off to the junkyard. I’ve got everything set up as I want it and my place actually feels like a home.

Back to the grind

I’m not super excited about returning to work tomorrow, but I do feel like I had adequate time to relax and regroup this weekend. I guess some weekends feel too short–usually, this happens when I’m busy all weekend and never have a chance to stop and enjoy it–but this one felt about right. It doesn’t hurt knowing that tomorrow I’ll have a project waiting for me that I’m enjoying. There are still parts of my job that I don’t particularly enjoy, but that’s part of life and I’m very comfortable with taking the bad with the good.

Finally, a win

Christian Drejer has defected and our team has been given the daunting task of finishing the season well enough to secure a spot in the Tourney. As I watched our game at Ole Miss on Saturday, I immediately saw a flash of something special. The score see-sawed throughout the first half, but, as I spoke to a good friend during half time, I knew the second half wouldn’t be a contest. I was confident that we’d keep our turnovers down and end up winning by 10 to 15 points. In fact, the final score was 81-66, Gators. That seems about right.

It’s still evident that we have trouble defending the paint and I’m really not sure what we can do about it except to move faster and play better help defense. It doesn’t seem like we’re playing the wrong defense, or that we’re incapable of playing the right defense, but that we’re simply not executing quickly enough to stop faster teams who attack the basket inside. Hopefully, Billy D. will figure something out over the next few games. I think our guys are doing a great job of hustling for loose balls, creating turnovers and selecting high-percentage shots. Our offense is strong and can out score any team in the country if our defense will just pick it up a bit. I think we just need to move faster to disrupt passing lanes and help the perimeter defenders when they’re beat off the dribble. That means a lot of switching and hustling to the weak spot on the floor. Our guys are capable of it and it looks like they’re starting to realize the importance of consistent, aggressive defense. I just hope they’re ready come March.

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Ah, sweet couch-naps!

That means the furniture’s here and I’ve already had an incredible nap on the couch. I can only hope future naps are as great as today’s.

The Prelude

Of course, a good nap is best when preceded by much busyness. I played ball this morning for only the second time since I moved here. I played much better than the previous time, but I still have a lot of work to do. I haven’t gotten my shooting rhythm back yet, and I need to work on my court vision. Overall, I was pleased with my progress and I’m looking forward to playing again next Saturday.

I also helped a friend move an armoire from his cousin’s house to his apartment. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as we thought it would be and I enjoyed eating lunch and hangin’ out a bit with my buddy and his wife. It’s nice to have friends with whom I can spend the occasional Saturday afternoon. I mean, I like my apartment and all that, but friendship is irreplaceable.

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Blogging on location

…and by “on location”, I mean from my little office where I’ve finally set up my computer desk. It’s about time too, ’cause I was gettin’ sick of my previous setup. At first, I enjoyed being able to watch TV and then, on a whim, turn to my right and check my e-mail. After a while, I got tired of constantly having the glare of the computer screen shining on me while I channel surfed. It was almost like my computer was a conspicuous voyeur, monitoring my TV viewing habits, constantly asking Whatcha’ watchin’?. Of course, I realize that’s exactly what TiVo’s doing, but at least TiVo doesn’t have a big, bright screen constantly reminding me it’s there.

Special Delivery

After over five weeks of patiently waiting, my couch and loveseat will arrive tomorrow. As I cleaned out my living room this evening, I realized I’d been living as though my apartment were a hotel room and I was on vacation for a week: stuff everywhere, no organization, little true comfort and a continuously unfulfilled hankerin’ to clean stuff. After they drop the plushness off, I’m declaring an official naptime on my new couch. I’ve been dyin’ to take a nap on a big, soft couch since I got here and there’s nothin’ more frustrating than having to go get in bed for a simple little nap.

I’m tired of babbling and I know I’ll be bored out of my mind when I read this later, so I’ll end the misery now.

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Windy?

Today was particularly windy and I’m beginning to think I might be in for much different weather than I was used to in Florida. Obviously, I expected things would be a little different here–colder winters, slightly hotter summers, less humidity, hail, funny grass that’s only green in the summer–but I didn’t expect things like several inches of snow, then a couple warm days, then a super windy day. In Florida, I could expect about the same thing all the time: heat, humidity and frequent thunder storms. I guess I’ll just add the weather to my list of things to get used to.

Out with the fellas

We had our first official guys’ night tonight and it was pretty fun. We basically just went out and got half-price appetizers and watched the Georgia Tech vs. Maryland basketball game. One of us is a GaTech alum, so it was good to see GaTech win. I used to know what it was like to see a men’s basketball team win, but that was before our only senior got suspended and our transfer from Denmark transferred to Barcelona. I’m afraid we’re gonna’ be a 10-seed if we’re in the Tourney at all… I’m not hoping for a Final Four appearance or anything, I just want us to make it out of the first weekend. But before we can do that, we gotta’ make it into the first weekend.