Since yesterday evening was Thursday evening, I was at the Lowbrow with the kids after piano lessons, and on the TVs above the bar I could barely make out the end of the Gopher basketball game at Ohio State. It seems that with between 1 and 2 seconds left in the game we made 2 foul shots to go ahead by 3 points. In that scenario, shouldn't you miss the second free throw on purpose? You then deny the other team the chance to gain half the court or more with a long inbound pass after your made shot. Coach Eric would have told the shooter, Garcia, to bang one off the rim. Clock starts soon as someone touches the ball in bounds.
Poor Ben Johnson. His team gets a big upset win and some anonymous blogger guy says he had the wrong strategy in the last 1.5 seconds.
How big an upset? The win probability chart at espn.com indicates that, at the start of the game, Ohio State had a 97 percent chance of winning. When with 5:15 left the Gophers made a basket to go up by 64-53, the chart still gave Ohio State a 5 percent chance. Turns out that might have been low: the Gophers did not score another field goal, turned the ball over once, and missed 5 free throws (out of 9, not including the two Garcia made with 1.5 seconds left).
Well, the Gophers are supposed to be the league door mat, so of course they're not going to blow out Ohio State in Columbus. Their last 3 games have been competitive and, before last night, entertainingly painful—lost narrowly at Wisconsin, lost in overtime at home against Nebraska, then beat Ohio State on the road. I seem to be trying to talk myself into another TV option for when it's too icy for senior citizens to walk the dog.
On the way to piano, we were passed by an emergency vehicle, which caused the 6th-grader to recall the time, "long ago," when she had said it was quite a coincidence that a fire department vehicle should have the license plate FIRE. After a pause she added, "God, was I dumb." Almost told her that the thought
I was stupid a few years ago but now I'm not
was apt to recur to her at regular intervals till she's at least 64.
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