UVM vs. Duke: What a game!

Thanks to my friend, Lynn, I was able to attend Sunday night's game between Duke and the University of Vermont.  On paper, this game should have been a rout for Duke; what happened is something entirely different.

Duke entered the game ranked sixth in the country. The only flaw in its 4-1 record came from a loss to fifth-ranked Kansas.  Its roster is one of the best in the country, thanks to the usual superb recruiting of Coach Krzyzewski and his staff.  Cameron Indoor Stadium is one of the hardest places in the country for a non-ACC team to play; the last time Duke lost a non-conference game there was on February 26, 2000. 

Vermont walked into the building with a 1-4 record, a small section of fans, and the certain knowledge that everyone in the basketball world expected them to lose badly.

Then the game started. 

UVM hung with Duke but fell slowly behind in the first half, at times facing a 13-point deficit but ending the half down eight. 

In the second half, UVM simply outplayed Duke.  They out-rebounded Duke, out-worked Duke, and out-shot Duke.  The buzzer sounded a split second before a UVM player let go of a baseline lay-up that swished through the basket.  A fraction of a second was all that stopped UVM from winning.

The game was as exciting as it sounds.  I feel privileged to have been able to see it.  In many ways, it was the kind of game that makes college sports so exciting. 

I hope Duke's players learn from this game that they should never, ever, ever take any victory for granted and that they should respect each and every opponent. 

I hope the UVM players go home fired up, more confident, and more determined than ever to play their best, because on this night their best was enough to give one of the best teams in the country all that it could handle.

Sarah graduates

Earlier today, after a weekend full of activities, Sarah graduated from Duke.  I won't brag on her too much, but just to note some of the key moments of the weekend, Sarah

• was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
• graduated with distinction
• graduated Summa Cum Laude
• won the college-wide Bascom Headen Palmer Literary Prize for her honor's thesis
• won the college-wide Louis Sudler Prize in the Creative and Performing Arts for her honor's thesis

Yeah, she's amazing, and, yeah, I'm very proud of her.

The graduation itself was outdoors in Duke's football stadium. 

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Afterward, we got to spend a little time with Sarah. 

Not to take anything away from Sarah's many accomplishments, what I'm most proud of is what a fine person she is. 

As I have said for over two decades, I have the best daughter in the world. 

Cameron Crazie for a day

Thanks to the combination of Parents Weekend at Duke and a friend and housemate of Sarah's, we found ourselves this afternoon sitting with Sarah on the narrow benches of Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium and watching a Duke basketball game. 

The game was an exhibition event, one that would not count against either team's record.  The opponent was Western Washington University, a Division II team, so the outcome was never really in doubt. 

None of that mattered a whit to me.  I had a wonderful time!  I've always wanted to see a game in this famous venue, so it was great to finally get to do that.  It was cool to see a kid playing whom I knew, a guy who went to school with Sarah.  Most of all, though, it was just great to get to see a basketball game!  I had forgotten how much I love this sport.  I was tense and completely engaged the whole time, cheering at each good play and wincing at every terrible one. 

With children in two local schools, I do my best to remain steadfastly neutral in college basketball season, but for a few hours today, I was definitely a Cameron Crazie.  (The spelling is not mine; if you don't believe me, check here.)  I can't wait to attend another game there!

The children danced

Sarah auditioned for and won a seat in Duke's symphony orchestra. Tonight at 6:00, after only about four hours of rehearsal, they made their debut performance of this school year, an outdoor Labor Day pops concert. I attended primarily to watch my daughter perform, but by the end I was very happy indeed that I was there.

I'm not a classical-music guy. I'm a rock-and-roll guy through and through. Because this was a pops show, however, it included music that even I at least somewhat recognized--and a lot of it was not classical but rather other music I actually knew. The concert ran a tad over an hour and proceeded roughly like this:

* some Strauss
* some Mendelssohn
* some Brahms
* a Duke Ellington medley
* a Leonard Bernstein medley, all from West Side Story
* a medley from Grease (Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, sez Wikipedia)
* a piece from The Pirates of the Caribbean (Klaus Badelt)
* a John Williams Stars Wars medley
* John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever

The afternoon was beautiful, the temperature perfect, the white-flecked sky melding the best of summer's end with a hint of the fall to come. People spread blankets and folding chairs, ate cheese and chips, drank wine and water and soda, and watched as their little children played and listened and danced.

The children, you see, didn't know any of the pieces were classical or show tunes or movie soundtrack songs; they just knew it made them want to move. They bounced in time to the rhythms, they danced when the music possessed them, they turned away at the scary bits, they laughed at the funny bits--they reacted, as children so often do, directly and from the heart.

I am a very bad dancer. Somewhere long ago, I learned this fact, and I know it to be true. Every now and then, though, I wish I hadn't. I wish I could dance without inhibition, uncaring of how stupid I looked, simply because the music moved me and I was once again a child. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do that, but in the meantime, it gives me great joy to listen to the music, to watch and hear my own wonderfully talented children perform, and to see the children dancing.

Public vs. private life and an odd letter

Some people have asked me why I don't more often list the names of folks who go with me to events or provide more details when I discuss family topics. The answer is two simple statements:

1) I accept that by blogging I have decided to share part of my life publicly.

2) Those others have not made that choice.

I don't discuss information from others without their permission. I often blog late at night or in a break from work, times when reaching others can be difficult, so I also rarely have the time to get such permissions.

Having said all that, Sarah did give me the okay to let folks know that her high-school graduation--an event I expect to find quite emotional--is tomorrow, and she will be attending Duke University next. I mention this last bit not because of how extremely proud of her I am (though I am, of course, very proud of her and Scott), but because of the rather amazing letter I received today from Duke.

To be more accurate, the letter itself was not amazing; it was the expected long missive about the money I will soon owe them. What was amazing was the salutation on the front of the envelope above Sarah's name and our address:

To the payer of the tuition for

As far as I'm concerned, political correctness has gone too far when it leads institutions to have to write such impersonal addresses. I'm not a parent, I'm a payer of tuition!

Of course, it is an accurate designation, but really, Duke folks, couldn't you have found something either nicer or at least funnier? For example, I would vastly have preferred any of the following:

Yo, Moneypants!

It's tuition time; are you ready to rumble?

You should have thought of this before you let her apply!

Sure, our endowment would buy Africa, but now we want your money, too!

Sold that kidney yet?

or even

Stop whining and get out your checkbook. You're our bitch now.

Yes, indeed I am, and happy to be it. I cannot imagine a better investment than the education of my children.

I wonder if I'll get a "Duke's Bitch" t-shirt....