Pitchin with Pritch: Good week for Husker fans
Lots of things going on in the world of sports and I am not sure if all of it would have happened in a normal year, but this is 2020 and nothing should surprise anyone this late in the year.
The last few days there have been many sporting events to watch.
Some of them have been very entertaining. Some have been ones that I am really happy that we have more than just three channels like the old days of TV.
Fort Hays vs. K State?
I think that of all the basketball games that I watched—the one that if it hadn’t been for my son Troy calling me and telling me about—I certainly would have missed it.
Plus, it was on ESPN+. The boys had given me a subscription to it last Christmas. The game was Fort Hays State University against Kansas State.
Fort Hays through the years has had some pretty good basketball teams. They have even played K-State and KU in the past but it isn’t a match-up that you see a lot of during basketball season.
FHSU hasn’t gotten off to a great start, going into the game at 0-3. Granted, K-State hasn’t started all that well either.
One of the comments a couple of days before the game was that even the back half of the bench should win this game by 10 points.” I would think that not very many people would have disagreed with that thought.
But it is 2020 and strange things happen. Fort Hays had lost to Washburn by two, Emporia State by two and to University of Nebraska at Kearney by four. Close to all of them but still 0-3.
No one including this old Fort Hays grad would have a lot of confidence in the Tigers beating the Wildcats. Remember it is 2020. Fort Hays never trailed in the game and at one time in the second half was up by 20 points.
Now K-State was missing some players due to Covid-19 but a Big 12 team doesn’t lose to a Division II team even with some missing parts.
Fort Hays was picked to finish seventh in their conference. Nothing in the world would have made me think that the Tigers would win 81-68.
The loss had to be very disappointing and a bit embarrassing for the Wildcats. But when you are a KU fan and you are a Fort Hays fan and a graduate, seeing K-State lose isn’t all that bad of an evening.
Speaking of KU, they were lucky. KU and Creighton played and it was a fun game to watch.
I have made the comment before that it is a hard game for me to watch because Head Coach Gregg McDermott at Creighton is a friend of mine and you hate to see them not win a game.
Coach McDermott helped me in a lot of different ways when he was the coach at Wayne State and even when he was at Iowa State. I will always be indebted to him. He is a great coach.
The game was a one-point loss for Creighton when probably their best player had three free throws with one second or so left and hit the first two but missed the third one. It didn’t get to overtime with the miss.
It was a fun game to watch. I hope both of the teams keep on improving and meet in the Final Four or something like that.
Another Husker letdown
Saturday was a disappointment in that the Huskers couldn’t get by Minnesota in Lincoln.
I hope that next year Nebraska can put it all together again and be a very competitive team in the Big 10. Right now they have a lot of improvement to make.
Wait until next year seems to be Big Red’s motto.
“I love old people”
I had a very interesting situation last Thursday. Some people might not have liked it, but I did.
I was at the elementary building getting ready to meet my TeamMate mentee for our first meeting.
As I was waiting in the hallway, a line of students came up towards me and I step out of the way.
The little girl at the front of the line stopped, came over to me and wrapped her arms around me and then gave me this little bit of information about herself.
She said, and I quote, “I love old people.” Then she got back in line and marched off. I couldn’t help but laugh. She was right about me being old, but it was a bright spot in my day!