In Game: vs. Fordham

[Dr. Bliss]

I got in late last night and watched (in a manner of speaking--mostly the Black Screen of Death) the game on replay. That game was truly like seeing diamonds in a hog's butt--a few bright shining moments punctuated by long stretches of very mediocre play. Halftime scores in the twenties are not thrilling. (I'm not just talking about us; Fordham was awful. How did they play Dayton a close game?)

[MrMac]

Thanks, Steve, for sharing your eclipse story and pictures. It was my first total eclipse, also, and we went all out with the viewing party. Great experience, but not one I will get to repeat. I will enjoy the partial eclipse in April, and will watch the coverage on TV and the internet, satisfied that I had the in-person experience in 2017.

[DC69Wildcat]

Thanks, Steve, for sharing your eclipse story and pictures. It was my first total eclipse, also, and we went all out with the viewing party. Great experience, but not one I will get to repeat. I will enjoy the partial eclipse in April, and will watch the coverage on TV and the internet, satisfied that I had the in-person experience in 2017.

One of the coolest natural phenomena I have seen in my 77 years. My wife and I viewed it at Deep Creek Picnic Area just inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park with maybe 200 other people, while thousands were jockeying for parking places 3 miles away in Bryson City. I am seriously considering a road trip to a National Forest in Indiana or Ohio in April. Go Cats!

[stevelee]

Françe?

Cute. The cedilla is not needed and therefore not used when the ‘c’ is followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’. It is needed and used in “français” and “François”.

Not to be confused with Turkish usage.

[stevelee]

When I was making those test shots yesterday, I went across the street from the dog park near my house to have a clear shot at the sun. A neighbor out walking his dog told me that his wife is good friends with a woman who lives along the path of totality, and they will be visiting her.

A Davidson classmate lives in Dallas, and if he is there, I’d be welcome to visit. He has homes in Florida and has more recently bought one in Ecuador. (I resist the temptation to comment on the relative merits of government in Texas, Florida, and Ecuador. But I have suggested to Ron that he look up Freddy Ehlers, whom he didn’t really know at Davidson.) I did stay at Ron’s house during the last reunion I attended at SMU, in March 2020 just as things shut down, while he was in Florida. Tim D has suggested we go to Vermont, so he can visit his New England relatives.

I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow I’ll post here a smaller version of one of the current sun shots, but won’t take time to jump through the right hoops now to make it show up on this board in different brands of browsers.

If you are not going to somewhere with totality, I’d suggest that you get the glasses so you can safely look at the partial view anyway. (Where it is total, you can take off the glasses for the two or three minutes that the moon is blocking the sun, and just then.) Otherwise, punch a hole in a piece of cardboard and project the image on a piece of paper or inside a box or something. Leaves should be back on trees in April, so a cool thing to do would be to look at a tree’s shadow. The spaces between leaves should project images of the eclipse on the ground.

[MrMac]

In addition to the tree leaves, we found during the 2017 event, that a colander will project multiple eclipse-shaped shadows during the partial eclipse phase. And, as one of my junior high school friends demonstrated, you can also interlace your fingers at a 90⁰ angle, creating what I deemed a 'waffle fries' pattern (love the Chick-fil-a) and get a similar effect.

Come to think of it, between the projected eclipses and the super-sharp shadows of our bodies, I may have enjoyed the partial eclipse portion of the day as much as the actual totality. Possibly, there was just more time to enjoy those activities than the relatively short period of totality.

This past Fall, during the partial Annular eclipse, I was in a new town, assessing some issues at the house we had just purchased. I did not come prepared for eclipse viewing, and had no plans to do so. Still at the appointed time, I wandered outside and, placed the clean side of a piece of unsolicited mail under the rear windshield wiper of our vehicle, conveniently and coincidentally backed up facing the sun. I located a scrap of packaging cardboard and stuck a pen point through it. Holding the cardboard up at the appropriate angle to the sun, and distance from the paper, yielded a small, but accurate projection (reversed?) of the eclipse, which was probably no more than 25% of totality. I was quite surprised that this primitive tool worked, but was buoyed by the 2017 experience of projecting partial eclipses with trees, colanders and fingers.

[MrMac]

If I did this correctly (and I suspect that I did not), above is the image that I got of the partial annular eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023. It is as primitive as SteveLee's photos are sophisticated. Since the windshield wiper was doing it's job of holding the object paper in place, I was able--very shakily--to hold the projecting cardboard in one hand, while snapping a somewhat blurry picture with my phone.

[MrMac]

I hope the picture is visible to some of you (it is not to me, because of browser issues which I have not yet fixed).

[mccabemi]

Boy does Brizzi jamming it home, Hunter sending a lay-up away, and even Kochera with a hesitation blow by (ok, that one is kinda a reach), make us look like one of the most athletic teams we have ever had... an interesting thought.

Winning is nice, but watching an enjoyable product (when not blacked out) is even nicer. I think the team we saw in the 2nd half was a very good A-10 team-- and certainly one of the best products we have seen this year.

I find Goldfarb nearly impossible to listen to-- everything ever done correctly in a game is a testament to the wonderful things we already knew about the players and coaches on the court. When the product sucks... well, let's just find the evidence that we are still the best darned thing since sliced bread by cherry picking the three good plays that did happen. It's like we're stuck in a North Korean broadcast about the merits of Dear Leader but we haven't eaten for 3 days.

Matt deserves credit for the team's performance in this game, just like the bucks stops with him when we lose. Hopefully he is onto something for the final stretch of games.

[RichmondCat]

Boy does Brizzi jamming it home, Hunter sending a lay-up away, and even Kochera with a hesitation blow by (ok, that one is kinda a reach), make us look like one of the most athletic teams we have ever had... an interesting thought.

Winning is nice, but watching an enjoyable product (when not blacked out) is even nicer. I think the team we saw in the 2nd half was a very good A-10 team-- and certainly one of the best products we have seen this year.

I find Goldfarb nearly impossible to listen to-- everything ever done correctly in a game is a testament to the wonderful things we already knew about the players and coaches on the court. When the product sucks... well, let's just find the evidence that we are still the best darned thing since sliced bread by cherry picking the three good plays that did happen. It's like we're stuck in a North Korean broadcast about the merits of Dear Leader but we haven't eaten for 3 days.

Matt deserves credit for the team's performance in this game, just like the bucks stops with him when we lose. Hopefully he is onto something for the final stretch of games.

Couldn't disagree more on Sam Goldfarb. I find him informative and even-handed in his coverage. For evidence, you need only listen to his call on the Jackson Threadgill winner from last season. There are a lot of over-the-top homer announcers in the A10 (see, e.g., La Salle and GW broadcasts), but Sam Goldfarb isn't one of them.

[i77cat]

When we first started hearing Sam years ago, I thought he was really good on soccer and lacrosse, okay on volleyball, less than that on basketball and football, really bad on baseball. He's improved across the board. Baseball is still his weakest , but he usually has a partner there. Give him a listen on lacrosse. Outstanding. He's always been very dedicated to his craft. Very prepared every time. Knows the opposing personnel, talks to both coaching staffs. It sounds like he even attends practices. He's doing some stuff for other local schools now as well. We're lucky to have him. My guess is that someone will hire him away for big dollars.

[catnhat]

For basketball I’ve heard him as a play by play man and as an analyst. I think I prefer him doing play by play. I suspect that will be his primary role if hired away from DC. There are a bunch of former players looking for analyst positions.

[collegecoach8502]

Sam is doing a great job. Works very, very hard at his craft and is always trying to get better.

Davidson is a small part of his “voice” business. He is doing a lot of business with High Point, Clemson and others. He is passionate about what he does.

[wildforthecats]

The lineup of Gelo, Grant, Reid, Adam and Connor was very effective in the late stages of the second half.

[stevelee]

Please don't take my sunshine away.