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MoSup's Uncle Whitey died in Virgina Beach so we
drove down to the funeral yesterday. Whitey Forbes was perhaps
the nicest all-around man not my father that I ever met. MoSup so
admired their family that she tried molding me into him, with limited
success. He coached his kids in Little League, so she signed me
up to coach ours in baseball, which I had at least played, and
basketball, which I never played. It all worked out somehow, and the
happiest times of my life were spent coaching my kids the best I
could.
So, even though the services were scheduled for 3:00, and Maryland
tipped off with Butler at 3:20, the choice was easy. I went.
Afterwards we returned to the house for some grub. This was where I
returned MoSup on weekends while we were dating. In order
to sign out from nursing school she needed a "sponsor," and
Whitey and Mary Ellen were hers. They allowed her to stay out
until 1 AM. The first time I was introduced to them, one of their
precocious sons came right out and asked "are you going to marry
her?" Red faces all around. I loaded up a plate with
chicken, cole slaw, beans and crab salad and went out to the car where
I'd found a radio station carrying the game.
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Fast forward to the final minute. DJ cutting to the hole catches the
ball and gets blocked by a Butler player who was clearly late to the
spot. Offensive foul, Maryland. What? Were we playing Duke? How can a
professional official make a call like that? Ruin a team’s season on
such a terrible call? Whoever that guy is, he should be ashamed of
himself. If he happens to live in the Greater Chicago area, I wouldn’t
be surprised if he discovers his house TP’d.
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The officiating sounded questionable, but then it
always does when your team is playing. The announcer's
incredulity over that sequence however led me to believe that
we'd been shafted. Still, the Terps played like they had in
January, not February. Missed what? 9 of 17 free throws. Jeremy Gold, who had a similar experience to my own says it better than I.
Whitey wouldn't have cared. For him the only meaningful post
season tournament was the ACC's. He lived to see UVA break his
heart yet again.
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