Overtime with Kyle Brennan

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Round of Applause

Kyle Brennan

College basketball is about as heated up as it can get right about now, and it seems like nobody’s paying attention. There really is not one favorite to win the NCAA tournament at this point, which could make this March one of the maddest ever. That’s right, it might be even more crazy than last year, when VCU and Butler both made the Final Four. OK, well maybe it won’t be quite that crazy. But filling out brackets this year is either going to be a ton of fun or a nightmare. Probably a combination of both.

The internet is such an amazing piece of technology, and I am proud to say that I have continued my mastery of the medium. Of course, something has provoked my newfound appreciation for the internet. You see, one of my journalism professors at Quinnipiac refused to show us any of her TV work from her career, which stretched from 1979-1991. I love being challenged, so I took her refusal into my own hands and hit Google. Quickly, I found her LinkedIn page, which gave me her résumé and a list of all the stations at which she worked during her career. After about an hour, I found an old promo featuring her at her Peoria, Ill., station in 1979. In this bit, the narrator mentioned her name, which of course at this point was still her maiden name. I used this fantastic information to find a one-minute clip of her anchoring a 1991 news update in Texas, complete with frizzy hair. Finally, I somehow stumbled upon a 1987 newspaper clipping announcing her marriage to another one of my former professors. If that isn’t a good night’s work, I don’t know what is. Feel free to contact me for any private investigation requests.

Chorus of Boos

NBA All-Star Weekend is the worst. The NBA is the worst, overall, but its all-star festivities are totally unwatchable. First, games that end with a combined 300 points are not fun to watch. I would rather have a game end with 100 points than 300 any day of the week. Defense in sports is better than offense, but that’s not how things go anymore. Second, the dunk contest is a total abomination and needs to be abolished. Four guys that nobody’s ever heard of go out and miss a bunch of dunks while jumping over people. That sure sounds like a lot of fun. NOT. Everything’s been done already. Now it’s reduced to what/who someone can dunk over and what he’s wearing while doing so. What a waste. The 3-point contest is OK, just because my man Kevin Love can win, but everything throughout the whole weekend is awful. The NBA needs to take notes from the NHL and get all of its best players to participate in the skills competitions or just get rid of them. And maybe basketball can have a retroactive lockout in the process.

Winter decided to finally show up a few weeks after I decided to give up on the season and look forward to the spring. I talked to a few friends in the middle of last month when the warm weather was at its finest, and we figured there was no doubt that some sort of winter weather was going to come about just in time for the beginning of March and ruin our dreams of warm-weather baseball practice right off the bat. Sure enough, we had snow multiple times in the last week. Come on.

Lips to CN’s Ear

“We felt coming in here that if we kept the score in the fifties, we had a pretty good chance. Holding them to just 26 in the first half had us on track. If it got into a footrace up and down the floor, we would be in trouble. We did a good job on the boards and boxing out. When it came time to go to the free throw line, we did our job and knocked down our shots. I think once we get back into practice, we will be able to stress the positives that came out of this game and help us move forward as we prepare for the state tournament.”

Woodland boys basketball coach Tom Hunt after the Hawks nearly upset Wilby in Saturday’s Naugatuck Valley League quarterfinals. The loss snapped Woodland’s four-game winning streak, but the Hawks will open up state tournament play on Tuesday, trying to advance from the first round for the second year in a row.

“It was all positive in the locker room after the game. The states are a new season and we’re going to keep moving on. I told the guys ‘I’m proud of you.’ I’ll go anywhere on the road with this team.”

Naugatuck boys basketball coach Mike Wilson after the Greyhounds fell short of Watertown in Saturday’s Naugatuck Valley League quarterfinals. The ‘Hounds will hit the road for the first round of next week’s state tournament.

“At our wedding, there was Josh and all his buddies singing the Greyhounds fight song. We must have gone to 30 weddings together, and at every one of them they sing the Greyhounds fight song. No one loved their home town more than Josh loved Naugatuck.”

Naugatuck girls basketball coach Jodie Ruccio on her late husband, Josh, and his love for the borough. The Greyhounds rallied around Jodie after Josh’s passing and earned one of the most emotional victories of the season two weeks ago when they upset Watertown in the Naugatuck Valley League quarterfinals.