How did we almost win?

Unbelievably, we had a fighting chance in last night's game. The whole game, until the final five or so minutes, we played like the scared, intimidated team of old. Finally, after nearing the point of sheer humiliation, we played like a team that was, again, going to steal a win from a better team. Even though Ramel spazzed his way to 22 points, he really forced some plays in key situations. I know that we need him scoring for our offense to work, but he was absolutely out of control for much of the game. If we are going to spread a defense and look to penetrate, we need the ball in Crawford's hands, who at times looks unstoppable when barreling to the basket. Patterson needs to figure out how to score against tall people. Fans want to literally cry foul on many of those blocks, but you are never going to get that call on the nation's top shot-blocker. However, had it been Hansbrough instead of Patterson, we shoot 30 free throws and Hansbrough gets praised for his ability to get to the line. Oh well, we got a huge game in Gainesville Friday. Maybe we can finally be healthy.

In case you missed SportsCenter, the top mascot of all-time was...I can't remember. Good Lord, that show can suck sometimes.

For some reason, probably because I'm not locked in my shitty apartment watching Cheap Seats all day, I find that I have a lot more to talk about, other than sports. So stop reading now.

At IU, almost everyone takes the bus. That may not be true at all, but I do, and so do a lot of other people. Anyway, I've noticed a trend. You don't need a keen cynic's eye to see this, but it's pretty funny each time it happens. When a person does the super awkward walk-run to catch the waiting bus, they will always then stroll through the aisle, attempting to look as awesome as possible. The best part always occurs when the driver, ready to finally movve on, jerks the transmission into gear, and Joe-cool is effectively jarred back to his original state of awkwardness, despite his best efforts. Generally, the cooler this chump tries to look when walking through the bus, the more off-balance he will be when we start moving again. My tactic in this situation is simple: If I cannot comfortably board, I missed the bus.

A final word about this topic, and that is the cell phone use by generally fat, trendy girls. Nary fifteen minutes ago, I was on the bus and some porker rolls on with a cell phone plastered to her fat face. She was talking with her "boyfriend," and she was discussing their respective schedules. It was enthralling, luckily, since everyone could hear her. About the time that I was about to tune her out and stare at my shoes, she said to him, and I'm not making this up, "well, you can come for dinner, I guess....Oh, OK. Well, I'm not trying to be annoying, but...." It was pretty unbelievable. I was dangerously close to saying, fairly loudly, "Really?!" But, judging by her own size, her boyfriend is probably some sort of monster. I could tell by the smirk on the African-American gentleman across from me that he heard the same thing, and couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.

OK, enough about me.