President Obama was there with British Prime Minister David Cameron. They watched the first game of the night, and they thought they'd seen a greatest comeback when Western Kentucky recovered from a 16-point deficit to beat Mississippi Valley State.
The President and Prime Minister decided to call it a night - because honestly they probably have better things to do than watch college basketball all night.
The NCAA tournament is also called March Madness...and there is a reason.
Turns out Obama and Cameron missed the biggest comeback in the history of the tournament. BYU was down by 25 points in the first half. I watched - and it was ugly. They flailed as they failed to guard, to shoot, to do ANYTHING!
Then I watched as they changed their game. I watched the zone defense come alive, and their two big men go to work. I was facebooking with friends, I was texting my brother-in-law and my dad while I was on the phone with another brother. I cheered too loud and nearly woke my sleeping children.
My wife was snickering at me as I was fully decked out in my BYU shirt...and jacket, which were shimmering in the glow of the computer screen
It was beautiful.
I know I shouldn't judge the Commander-in-Chief for leaving a basketball game. But I hope when he went to bed last night he felt a little twinge of regret of not having stayed for the second game. It's like my dad taught me as a kid. If you don't stay till the end, you'll miss the greatest games, because the improbable end is what makes them great.
Here are a few highlights.
1 comment:
Obama's got nothing on my wife, who is a huge fan of the Dodgers. She was on vacation with some of her friends from grad school in 1988, during the World Series, when the Dodgers played the Oakland As.
With the Dodgers trailing late in the first game at Dodger Statium, my wife and her friends stopped watching the game. In the bottom of the 9th, Gibson made his only appearance in the series.
He had some sort of stomach virus and hobbled up to the plate on two bad legs. He took and fouled off a lot of pithes, before he smacked a 3–2 slider over the right-field fence and won the game for the Dodgers.
We were both at a Dodger game a few years ago when, down by four runs late in the game, the Dodgers hit four home runs in a row to tie it, and then went on to win in extra innings. Most of the "fans" had left the stadium, and many of them came streaming back after the second home run. That was the most exciting sporting event I've ever attended.
I'm an Obama fan - I hope, whoever he faces in November, he doesn't take for granted, even if it turns out the polls show him way ahead late in the game.
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