the first of tonight's two final four games pitted the michigan st spartans (ranked #8 by the ap in the regular season) vs the uconn huskies (ranked #5). this year's final four festivities are taking place in front of 72K people (a final four attendance record) at detroit's ford field, so it's all historical & junk. let's take a look at the two teams...
the michigan st spartans are the hometown squad, coming from an hour and a half west up route 96, in east lansing. they're lucky, since home court advantage is HUGE sportswise & they're the first team in the last 15 years to play a final four game in their home state. also, magic johnson went to school at msu, so he was in the audience, which might have been inspirational where it not for him wearing some sort of wack-looking warmup jersey (not very gq, magic). overall, it's a big michigan lovefest, with nine of the spartan players originally from the ol mitt-shaped state or whatever the heck they call it.
the uconn huskies are always good for some good basketball playing. they were the men's NCAA champs in 1999 & 2004 and their women's squad is pretty much the best women's basketball team ever. seriously. this year's team...they're like amazonian cyborgs. the men's team features 7'3" hasheem thabeet, who is from tanzania, which makes me think of this npr story i recently heard about basketball in sudan & another about a movie about baseball & the dominican republic. so uconn only plays seven guys, which means the same guys are on the floor most of the time & as a result, they have four 1000 point players on same squad for first time in their history.
as for the game, it was one of those neck & neck, back & forth engagements. there was a little scrum & pushing at end of first half which was rather exciting...& then two minutes later came the longest halftime ever, with all sorts of presentations & awards & junk. the first half back & forth continued for most of the rest of the game, with lots of serious hustle. at one point, cbs used lcd soundsystem's "daft punk is playing at my house" as a lead-in to commercial, which was totally hip. anyway, by the end, msu pulled away & uconn tried to come back, but the hometown msu squad prevailed & are now going onto the championship game. go spartans.
my top player picks: kalin lucas, msu - 21 pts, lots of being fast & stuff / stanley robinson, uconn - 15 pts, 13 rebs, a bunch of loud, awesome dunks
#80a - final four (in two parts).
snack: pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies
drink: arcadia ales starboard stout
in honor of our two teams, i'm having a snack & drink pairing from their home states. for the snack, i'm trying to hold myself back from eating, right here & right now, an entire bag of pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies. they're crafted by god, via a series of miracles, on the magical pepperidge farm, located in norwalk, ct, which is almost two hours south of uconn, just down 95. the original magical farm was in the next town over from norwalk--fairfield.
the pepperidge farm has been overseen by the campbell soup co. since 1961, when they bought pepperidge & their amazing milano cookies. anyway, pretty much every milano cookie flavor is awesome & if you don't agree with me, you might consider consulting a physician regarding your mental state. they are the only good thing that has ever come out of that god-forsaken, armpit-of-new england state & should be commended as such for overcoming the shortcomings of their environment to create tasty, simple cookies.
the arcadia ales starboard stout is brewed in battle creek, mi, the place most famously known as the home of the kellogg co. the starboard stout's an oat malt stout with a dark complexion & a tan head & a toasty flavor that mixes quite well with the chocolate flavor in the cookies. it gets some quantity of thumbs up. unconfirmed rumor: there's a little bit of tony the tiger in every bottle.
bring on the next game!