I couldn’t stand it, I got out of bed to watch the second half of the game. 115am ending! What a game! Otega Oweh broke Oklahoma’s back again.

The refs were *horrible*. Awful. We got mugged multiple times with no call. I have to say, I’m learning to hate the OK team, especially Jeremiah Fears – glad I won’t have to see them again for a while. This Sea of Blue comment said it well:

The refs treated Fears like he was a 10 time NBA All-Star. He pushed off nearly every time and we couldn’t touch him or even get close to him. Last second wins & cold beer RULE!!!

764 comments on the game thread, by the way. Big Blue Nation showed up in person and online. Gonna be hard to get to sleep now after a heart-pounding half. Easier than if we lost, though.

All four games today were barn burners. I’m tempted to drive to Nashville tomorrow for the KY-Alabama game.

Today is my normal day for a writer’s read/review session in Socal. But…I’m not writing much lately, and I’m not in Socal.

It’s not that I’m laying around – I’m staying busy. Just today, I’ve planted a truckload of flowering plants, cleaned out junk from the basement, played 9 holes of golf, read most of a book, did some minor cleaning around the house…and now I’m watching SEC basketball. And it’s not even 5pm. In the previous couple of days, it’s been a lot of staying with the grandsons while their parents are busy. So no grass growing under these feet.

Not sure why, just haven’t felt like writing. Other than short blog posts. I suppose that’s OK, but you can’t get published if you don’t get finished.

Part of it is that I’m just tired of the Lost Hope story. Bored with it. In my head it’s complete, but on paper…not. Maybe I should start a new story, pure SF, my happy place. Fuck all those people who say they don’t like world building. I’ll leave on that positive thought and think about it a bit more.

Well, it’s gameday. Tonight, *late* tonight, it’ll be the Cats versus Oklahoma in the second round of the SEC tournament. And that brings up some questions.

As a fan, I care a lot more about UK progressing deep into the NCAA tournament, the Big Show, that starts next week. March Madness. So who in the world thought it would be a good idea to take our teams and put them through a rapid fire meat grinder called the SEC tournament, the week before the NCAA? I don’t know the answer to who, but I can safely say that it’s a TERRIBLE idea. The teams need a week of rest, time to heal. Not a hellacious day-after-day competition with the same dudes who beat the crap out of them all season long. Crown the SEC Champion based on the regular season record, not after some made-for-TV, crammed-in-between tournament. Auburn, you win. Here’s a trophy. Now let’s rest a week and get ready for competing with the rest of the nation’s teams.

This might be the one thing I agreed with Cal on – the SEC tournament doesn’t matter. It’s a damaging distraction, particularly in the SEC, as the level of competition is waaaay tougher than in most conferences. If ACC or PAC12 teams had to play in the SEC they’d be at the dead bottom.

You can try to make the Darwinistic “competition creates stronger teams” argument, and that is probably true in the long term. But in the short term, getting the hell beat out of you a few days in a row just makes you weaker. Tired. Injured.

So I’ll watch the games, because my team is playing, but I think the whole SEC Tourney thing is a horrible idea. A disservice to the players.