Defense

At the heart of the latest controversy is this guy, Brady Morningstar. He is a young gym rat that plays defense as hard as it can be played. After defending Dennis Clemente in some kind of junk defense called a triangle and two, Dennis just lost it. He threw an elbow and was called for an intentional foul and later slapped Brady's head as Brady filled the lane after a free throw. The Big XII is looking in to suspension for Mr. Clemente. I think an apology to Brady would be first on the list.

I also wrote to the Capitol Journal that I felt they should not have run the Dennis Clemente comments about feeling "Punked" and that justified the elbow. In spite of the Sports Editor's protest, the paper toned down the rhetoric and have done a fairly straight forward coverage of the events of the game.

There is a side article today that some member of the K-State staff reported that he heard ethnic comments from some of the players on the KU bench. I have my doubts that the KU players would do that and am damn sure that the coaches, including Danny Manning would not tolerate such madness. Would a Fan holler such crap. In most arenas, damn straight skippy. Would Bill Self allow it to be hollered from his bench. Hell NO! Stupid is as stupid says and actions speak so much louder than words.

Dave stopped by yesterday and reported that he was having a grinding noise coming from his left front wheel. We pulled the wheel and sure enough, the outboard pad was down to the plate and the rotor was shot. We had replaced the pads this last summer and I was pretty sure that it wasn't normal wear and tear. Sure enough a caliper was stuck and it left the brake applied enough that it wore the pad off. After replacing the rotor, the caliper and the pads, I inspected the passenger side. It was just as I expected. There was less than a 1/16th if an inch of wear on the new pads and the rotor was smooth and shiny. We will wait until this summer and replace the pads on that side when it is a little warmer outside. It was sunny and in the 40's yesterday but just not the kind of weather that my old bones need when I sit on the cold cement driveway.

Well, the State is having problems making payroll and sending tax refunds. Dave's wife, Barb Jr. is a State employee and may get caught up in this mess. I'm sure that we can keep the afloat for a little while but will sure as hell not pay my owed State taxes and the kids at the same time.

Oh well, it was almost 40 outside this morning because of a southerly wind. Guess we'll catch hell either tomorrow or the next day. After all, it is still February in Kansas.

MUD