Basketball and snow don’t mix

My class’ expectations have never been high for the bi-annual Colby alumni basketball tournament. And while delusions of winning the whole thing never really crossed my mind, I suppose the bar to clear is a bit lower now than when we first started. “Win a couple games” has turned to “maybe take the 0-2 bracket if we are feeling particularly optimistic,” but largely is just “survive the weekend.” A task that seems to be getting harder with each passing tournament, but luckily enough, we more or less all made it out in one piece.

After the first day, we had set ourselves up perfectly by losing our two pool games to get ourselves in the Division III bracket on Sunday. All was proceeding as planned. A victory on the second day had us moving on, but the ultimate goal of being the best of the last bracket was derailed in our fourth game.Whether or not that loss was actually a blessing…well, I suppose that depends on who you ask, but I’m sure that there was certainly some sentiment that being done at that point was for the best, as it made the other objective of making it to Monday without major injury far more obtainable. On top of that, we had more wins than the Badgers did in their tournament, so there’s that at least.

Surprisingly, I did not feel too bad Monday morning. However, I guess the Wisconsin spring had other ideas for me. Turns out digging out of the driveway was a less than ideal activity immediately following the weekend. The numerous inches of snow that accumulated over the evening seemed like some sort of personal attack. By the time I trudged into the office, my legs were somewhere in a state between jelly and evaporating entirely. After sitting for several hours at a computer, they had gone in the opposite direction, feeling like they had instead been filled with lead.

Mother Nature and Father Time win again, it seems. Kind of an unfair team-up, in my opinion, but ah well. It was still fun to hang out with old friends and pretend like we know how to play basketball for a couple days. Another alumni basketball weekend in the books, hopefully more on the horizon. *** I’ve had a couple weeks to absorb the Aaron Jones trade and, while we will still have to just wait and see how it plays out, I find I have more or less come around on it. That was not necessarily the case a few weeks ago when the Packers announced that they would be moving on from the player that had become my favorite over the past couple years. On paper, of course, it makes sense. Even then, I could see the reasons why. The Packers picked up a younger, similarly-talented back in Josh Jacobs (yes it’s Jacobs, not Jacob’s, as half the comments online would have you believe), someone that could hold down the position for the foreseeable future while Jones was very quickly approaching the dreaded 30-year old mark for NFL running backs. A very business- like, calculated move, and again, one that I suppose makes sense.

But there are always aspects that are difficult to account for. Jones was very much a leader in the Packers locker room, especially on a young offense. I can distinctly remember him going up to one of the rookie receivers after a dropped pass and picking his head up and encouraging him. One could easily see the effect that he had both on and off the field and I do not know if Jacobs can replace him as easily as one might expect if you were just plugging him into a video game lineup. It’s incredibly difficult to evaluate the intangibles that Jones brought to the team, the effects of which we can only maybe kind of know now that he is gone.

The most unfortunate thing surrounding this whole thing though, is that now Jones is now a Viking. Like…almost anywhere else I would have found it easy to root for him. But Minnesota? Sigh. At least the Bears still have to play him twice this year, which I’m sure they are definitely not looking forward to. Misery loves company, I guess.

Spencer,

WI