Michael Hurlbut
Leave it to me, in my chance to shine, to blow it because my feet are too big. I finally got the chance to represent Pepperdine in a volleyball game this last Saturday night, a dream of mine since I got here and what do I do? Make an idiot out of myself trying to get into the game.
Head coach Marv Dunphy gave me the nod with a 28-22 lead in the third game of our win over UC Irvine. I immediately panicked, trying as hard as I could to get my sweat pants off over the top of my size 14 shoes. They weren’t really made to do that, unfortunately, but somehow through the course of falling backward into the water cooler and having two teammates grab a leg, I made it happen. Note to self: You own tearaways.
So the men’s basketball team lost to Gonzaga. You know what I say to that? It doesn’t matter. We can still get the conference championship. Granted, it may be by a coin toss, but hey, I’ll take them anyway we can get them.
Looking ahead to the WCC Tournament, I think a team could knock off Gonzaga in the early round. They struggled at San Diego this year, winning by only one over the Toreros, and Santa Clara also played them tough this year. The tournament is going to be an interesting three days.
Who is running the International Skating Union? Seriously, has Russia taken over? Monty Python would claim, “Violence is inheriting the system!” How do you share the pairs figure skating gold medal when it was so obvious that the Canucks won it outright and legally?
Yeah, that’s right, Canada deserves to win. Don’t get me wrong. I watch “South Park” every week and I’ll sing “Blame Canada” with the best of them, but Canada was robbed by the ISU and French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne. Pull another stunt like that and “we’ll give you something to cry aboot!”
I’m not the biggest NASCAR fan there ever was, but I will admit that I did enjoy watching the Daytona 500 highlights on SportsCenter. There were more crashes and hijinx in that race than a full season of “Dukes of Hazzard.” I think Boss Hog needs to drive the pace car one of these years. No, Daisy … yeah.
I’ve decided that playing golf has to be the best sport to play in college. I was checking out the men’s golf team schedule and they are basically going on vacation every week. So far they’ve gone to Tennessee, Arizona, New Mexico, Palm Desert, Washington and Hawaii. All to play golf for three days. I think the only thing that could be better than that would be full access to the golf carts during your round.
The semester is half over! Summer is only two months away and for most of you that spells freedom, friends and family. To me though, I’m sweating the fact that I don’t have a job and that the Bucs haven’t called me back yet about the head-coaching job. I’ll do it for less than Jon Gruden, but I can’t make any promises on the season. They might be better off saving the money and letting Keyshawn Johnson call the plays this next year. Maybe he’ll get more than one touchdown in the season …
February 21, 2002