SLAG-91

I was much more on edge for the Kentucky game than I am today's game...today is a "do what we do, play fast, shoot 3's and see where it gets us" game for me, at least. Getting to a Final Four, especially for the first time, has been a dream come true. You want to play on the last weekend of the year, and here we are. Neither team in this game has an edge re: Final Four experience, so I expect some nerves to start with on both sides. Hopefully we settle in first.

I'll put it on par with the 2013 run to the BCS title game right now. Two more wins and it's even with the 2010 title run. This feels heavenly...at the end of the Lebo-Barbee error, I mean era, wait...no, I had it right the first time, error, a Final Four appearance seemed ridiculous to even mention. To see it happen, it's incredible. It's always been other teams, but today, it's us. We're in the club.

Ran into a buzzsaw in the second half and couldn't stop the bleeding. Offense deteriorated into too much 1-on-1, and when that went in the tank, so did the defensive effort. To their credit, Purdue was excellent in the second half. 17 of 26 from 3 is tough to do during shootaround, never mind a game. Better days are ahead...nights like that one will hopefully be few and far between going forward.

Yep, Smith with the block. My bad. Hope we get Purdue tomorrow...would be good experience for our guys, especially the frontcourt.

This is a game we probably lose last year...and yeah, the youth showed at the end. It's worth noting that arguably the two biggest plays were made by upperclassmen (steal and layup by Dunans, block by Smith). A learning experience and no loss at the end of it. Best of both worlds...AU wins and Pearl gets some good coaching points.

I wonder how many voters left the president slot empty and voted for everything else down their ballot. I thought about it, but didn't (voted 3rd party). I wish ranked-choice voting would gain more national traction, but I don't see it ever gaining much of a foothold outside of local elections.

Awful...prayers to his family and friends. RIP Quentin.

That's where my buddy from college (and HS) are right now. The offense looks rudderless and if it continues, the defense (which is improved but not elite) will eventually give out. All of the losing at home is wearing people out. Jordan-Hare has become a welcome mat, and that is not acceptable.

'89 Iron Bowl. Historic day in Auburn. It almost deserves a separate category. The anticipation for that game was years in the making. I had a bumper sticker on my car that said "Hey Bama, See You In Auburn"...in 1987.

I'm pretty sure each team gets to be the home team once, with a coin flip to determine home team for game 3 if needed.

Sidewalk/dirt road alumni are the absolute worst about running their mouths, no doubt about it. Alabama has many, many more of those than we do, based on my unscientific observations while growing up. I doubt it's changed much.

Hell, I'd take literally any other ACC school just for variety's sake. I'd like a little variety but the AU Administration seems to really like Clempsum for some reason. :dunno:/> Huge crowds at both ends...and low travel cost...equals very profitable weekend. I wouldn't mind watching AU kick GaTech's arse....we owe 'em a whooping. A couple of ass-whoopings...'03 and '05 still don't sit right.

Thanks for sharing this article. This would require a bit more careful consideration by voters, which is never a bad thing in my view. I'd be OK with it, personally.

http://static.gatewaypeople.com/students/fort_worth_transgender_student_guidelines.pdf I got this from a source that highlighted some of the, in their view, more noteworthy provisions. This is the part that just floors me: “No medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment is required in order to have a student’s gender identity recognized and respected. School personnel must not question any student’s sincerely held belief regarding his or her gender identity once established and known.” So, someone can just state that they're male or female, regardless of hard-wiring, and as long as they really, really, really believe it, then everyone else has to go along with it. Not only that, the restroom policy aspect of it would make the vast majority conform to the very distinct minority...restroom policies that apply to the convenience of the transgender person do not apply to the rest of the students. It's just incredible to me that things have gotten to this point. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by much of anything, but this just seems like a "solution" in search of a problem. It feels like we've gone straight through the looking glass and into the land of Jabberwock. The superintendent and the school board had been working on this for months in private, which would seem to be a violation of the Open Meetings Act in place in Texas. They had to know that this would be a powderkeg of an issue that would get (eminently justifiable) blowback and they did it behind closed doors anyway...and I'll be damned if I know why.

I'm with you on this. I don't know that there's one out there that can gin up the requisite support to really make a dent in electoral politics. If ever there is an election cycle that's just begging for a third party candidate to win a state or two, though, it's this one. I can't remember a presidential election with two major party candidates that were this unpalatable. Gary Johnson was a 2-term governor of New Mexico, but was in the Republican party then. I just hope that the Libertarian candidate can get to the 15% polling support level by September for inclusion in the debates...not counting on it, but one can always hope.