Perpetual search for positives in Pullman

In the old “Star Trek” series, there was an episode called “A Taste of Armageddon” in which the Enterprise’s crew visits a planet that engages in “computer-simulated” warfare with another planet.

Each simulated attack results in a certain number of “casualties” on each side, and people are then informed they had been “killed.” Alas, with a heavy sigh, they dutifully report to disintegration booths and are executed.

The citizenry of both planets have agreed to this rather than “real” war, relieving the financial burden of rebuilding all that is destroyed by bombs, tanks, guns, etc. Plus, this kind of “war” is much better for the environment.

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Tech’s best foot forward comes at KU’s expense

You might say it’s folly to read too much into the first weekend of Big 12 play … except for the fact that if you’re a fan of certain teams, it’s probably very hard not to do that.

Getting off on the wrong foot in the league shouldn’t necessarily be that big of a deal, considering how much can happen through the course of the season. However, there are some fans that are very hungry – ravenous, in fact – for a chance to believe that things are going to be different this time, that there is good reason to have their hopes up.

And Saturday, the two groups of followers who likely feel the most acute sense of desperation right now saw their teams face off in a conference opener that may be a harbinger: Did we see the start of “Well, here we go again,” for Kansas and “We’re going back to the Dance” for Texas Tech?

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Closing the year in California

Over the Christmas weekend, I wrote a long, long entry reflecting more on the whole UConn streak/UCLA streak topic  … but realized (after writing it) that I’m very weary of that particular “debate” right now, and that you might be, too.

So I put that entry on the shelf. I may decide to post it later, or maybe it’s one of those blog entries that just never sees the light of day. (It would hardly be the first.) For now, let’s just move on completely from the Bruins and their record streak for men’s basketball, and instead talk about the next few days and where the spotlight will be for women’s hoops.

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Is Whiz not a numbers whiz?

Or did he just have a “convenient” memory lapse? Did he fudge on some records, figuring no one would recognize that?

In a recent WNBA.com Q and A, the New York Liberty’s new coach/general manager John Whisenant discussed various topics, including the final season of the Sacramento Monarchs.

Whisenant has his new opportunity in the Big Apple and a superstar player in Cappie Pondexter; life seems pretty good for him. So it’s hard to understand why he would feel the need to distort anything that happened at Sacramento.

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Meanwhile, away from Huskiemania …

The rest of the women’s basketball world did not just shut down to watch UConn’s 89-in-a-row-and-counting locomotive take a trip over Florida State. In fact, some of the other games – yes, there really were other games – Tuesday night involved teams that are, or should be, part of the championship conversation this season.

Does that mean any of them will beat UConn? We won’t go so far as to predict anything like that. One’s already had its chance, and may get another in the NCAA tournament. But, overall, Tuesday was an interesting night to examine what was going on beyond the bright spotlight shining on Hartford.

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The nicest kind of story

When I was a young teen, Pete Axthelm wrote a sports commentary piece in “Newsweek” that really ticked me off. The details may be a little hazy after three decades. But if memory serves, he was lamenting the fact that the Washington Redskins had been squeezed out of an NFL playoff spot because my team, the St. Louis Cardinals, had lost listlessly to another team.

And I thought, “Tough luck! Why didn’t your dumb Redskins just win more games?” The Cardinals had enough to be worried about doing damage to their own selves year after year, let alone getting blamed for hated Washington’s disappointment.

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Hoops (and Swoopes) for Hope

Supposedly, the Mystics will have “news” soon … and while we wait for that, let’s look ahead to few weeks from now, when at the end of October I head out to Western Kansas and run into Sheryl Swoopes and Jackie Stiles.

Well, among others, including the Atlanta Dream’s Shalee Lehning, the New York Liberty’s Sidney Spencer, the San Antonio Silver Stars’ Helen Darling, and former WNBA player Edna Campbell, a cancer survivor. They are all scheduled to take part in the WEPAC “Hoops for Hope” exhibition basketball game, an event that began last year.

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In the midst of life …

As I watched Game 3 of the WNBA finals with such admiration for Sue Bird and Swin Cash _ what terrific people they are, not just great basketball players _ I didn’t know that a player who’d competed against them in that unforgettable 2002 Final Four lay dead at age 30.
I was writing late into the evening about the Seattle Storm’s triumph and the Atlanta Dream’s also-fine season when I got a message about Rosalind Ross’ death.

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Off to Atlanta

I actually went home to Kansas City first – good to see the homefront for a day – and now am headed south for Game 3 tonight at Philips Arena.
If the timing works out, I think we may still have an ESPN.com chat today, but at 4 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. Eastern time.
It was fun chatting with Georgia coach Andy Landers about the Miller twins for a feature that should be up soon today on ESPN.com.
By the way, it never fails that if anything women’s basketball-related hits ESPN.com’s front page, that sad breed of “threatened male” jumps to high alert to click on the link to say, “Get this off the front page! Nobody cares!”
It’s a turf thing, of course. You know, it’s bad enough women’s basketball exists … it’s really criminal to actually have a link to coverage on the sacred front page where people, eh, men who aren’t interested (they can’t possibly stress to you enough how NOT interested they are, of course) have it SHOVED DOWN THEIR THROATS!!!
Because it’s so incredibly difficult to just look past a link that doesn’t interest you.
Anyway, I go back and forth about whether it’s even worth commenting on this ridiculous phenomenon. The other day during Game 2, we had a link to the front, and the trolls started migrating to the “Cover It Live” chat to say how much they didn’t care, how no one cared, how utterly awful the sport was, etc.
You can’t help but laugh at people who claim they couldn’t possibly care less about something … and then go to the trouble of crashing into a chat on this thing that they couldn’t possibly care less about.

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You choose

I don’t know about you, but the more choices I have, the worse decision-maker I seem to be.

As an example, when the WNBA finals are over, I’m supposedly going to try to get a new vehicle, and give a break to the one that I’ve got 160,000-plus miles on.

But I have to say ”supposedly” because I was going to do this last fall, then couldn’t make up my mind and decided, “Well, one more year.” Now here it is a year later, and I’m being wishy-washy again. It’s not that I can’t choose between a couple of different vehicles. I can’t even seem to get it narrowed down to that.

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