sadThen I got up this morning to check the newspaper writeup first. In the sports subsection of the Tribune's home page, the second headline is "Weber will coach despite mom's death". And that kills every buzz you've got going on. You don't need to know details, all you need to know is right there. On what should've been a huge night, one of your friends lost his mom.
The press has been centered around Bruce, as Illinois was in town for the Big Ten tournament. But my thoughts were of his brother Dave, who I've known since he came to North as an assistant coach in 1994. He's a great guy, he really is, and I feel just awful for him. I can only imagine how hard it is to focus on a game when you've just walked out of the hospital. And I can only imagine how hard it hits you when three or four hours later, they tell you she died just after you left, before the game you just won even started.
It was indeed one hell of a battle, that game. There was no scoring the last 4:09 of the game. Conant got two shots off in the last five seconds, trailing by a point, and neither fell. Go figure...
