We will call 📞 this one : The one about Northside, Spotswood, and the Lady Bruins of UCLA ➕️ what to do when your season ends !

One question that I ponder every time I am covering a sports team and their season ends, does the typical fan continue to follow the sport or not ?

A few years ago, the Northside Vikings came to Cavalier Park for a regional semifinal game against our Lady Cavaliers. The visitors left that day with a victory by the slimmest of margins, and a couple of weeks later, I smiled after Northside steamrolled the rest of the field and won the Softball State Championship.

The next opportunity to see this play out was the season before last when Anthony Barnes led our basketball program back to the State Tournament after a considerable absence. We fell that night up at Penn Laird to a talented Spotswood High five and two games later, the Trailblazers were celebrating in Richmond after their State 👑.

This year, we followed the Lady Blue Devils of Duke University Women’s Basketball team in a manor that we hadn’t been able to do before. It included a bazaar eight game trek that took us to games in Paris, France 🇫🇷, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Lynchburg. Heck, we even played a game inside of a Hotel 🏨 ( The Greenbriar Resort ). We saw them play Stanford University out on The Farm 🚜 in Palo Alto and naturally a few times inside Cameron Indoor Stadium 🏟.

Last Sunday, the team watched their season end in the Elite Eight for the second straight year. Last year, it was Dawn Staley and South Carolina that advanced to the Final Four in our place, and this time, it was the UCLA Bruins that did the honors.

We had hoped to be in the building with them when the ride ended but chose instead to attend Coach Barnes’s annual banquet.

Since the moment that our 10 point lead turned into a 12 point setback, I have been pulling for the Bruins to be the team that cut ✂️ down the nets in Phoenix.

It would have been okay if Dawn had been holding the scissors ✂️ for the fourth time because the former Hoo is a class act. But my heart ❤️ was with the Bruins. We missed the first half due to assisting Vickey Ritchie with our Special Olympics Easter celebration, but the second half has been a fun watch.

UCLA is a team with seven seniors, and each one has a story. Up 29 (67-38) with 6:31 left to play, it appears that for the third time in four years, a team I pulled for with my heart ❤️ and soul, at least can say, ” It took the eventual Champs to end our season.”

I’m not sure if it helps others, but it helps me !

Enjoy the rest of your Easter !

Let’s close the night 🌙 out by talking 👄 about gaps now that we know who is going to Phoenix in the Final Four.

Michigan, TCU , Notre Dame, and Duke University all have very, very talented teams. They now can claim that they unofficially finished up in a tie 👔 for fifth place as the Big Four head to the desert 🏜.

12,18, 26, and 36 points margin of victories over the last two nights show you that as good as the quartet was this season, there is still a sizable gap between the first four and the second four.

Michigan steamrolled both NC State and Louisville on their way to the Elite Eight, yet they simply had no chance against Texas.

TCU received a gift 🎁 from the University of Virginia when the Hoos removed Iowa from its path, and for three quarters tonight, it stayed on the court with South Carolina. But the game lasts 40 minutes, and Dawn Staley is excellent at pushing buttons.

That leaves the two ACC schools, both of which managed to stay within 20 points against two #1 seeds. Duke actually led UCLA by 10 points in the first half before their short rotation wore out against a powerful Bruins team. Hannah Hidalgo once again put on a show, enough that Coach Geno took the time to praise the Notre Dame guard in his post game presser.

For just the second time in the history of the women’s tournament, we have the same four teams returning to the Promise Land. There was never any real doubt about it playing out this way, and the Hoops next weekend should be electrifying.

92 points ÷ 4 = 23 points was the average margin of victory over four teams that made it to the edge of the Final Four.

The game is healthy right now and getting stronger by the day. Two from the SEC, two others with one being undefeated and a second one with just one loss against a fellow #1.

Texas is 34 – 3, with the setbacks coming at the hands of South Carolina, LSU, and Vanderbilt. The same Vandy team that our Alyssa Ervin dropped 16 points on back in November.

South Carolina is 34 – 3 with losses versus Texas (twice ) and Oklahoma.

UCLA (35-1) with the lone loss against Texas in the Las Vegas event on Thanksgiving weekend.

Geno and UConn is 38 – 0, making the fearsome foursome a combined 141-7 with four of the seven setbacks coming against each other !

LSU, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt University were the only three teams to best this group in 144 games.

The tournament has been fun, but the true challenge begins on Friday night in Phoenix.

Being that Duke University fell by the smallest margin, can we say, “Fifth place, ?”

On a serious note 📝, the biggest winner up to this point has to be Virginia. After being on the bubble 🫧 and one of the last teams in, the Cavaliers went to Iowa and won three straight games, with the third one disappointing 15,000 fans.

Did I mention that Carroll County graduate 🎓, Alyssa Ervin played at Vanderbilt and scored 16 points that night 🌙 ?

The back half of the Women’s Elite Eight is set to play out tonight with no Cinderella in sight. Two tough games should make for a good watch !

Thanks for the ride, Ladies ! UCLA out muscled us over the second 20 minutes. Great effort across the five months….

We were still leading 45 – 40 when I left the basketball banquet, but the UCLA Bruins went on a 20-5 run 🏃‍♂️ and finished up with a 12 point victory.

From day one in Paris, France 🇫🇷 to the ending a few minutes ago, Kira Lawson coached them up, and they responded.

For the second straight season, the team fell in the Elite Eight to a number one seed.

ACC regular season crown 👑 and tournament crown 👑 to build on !

Sunday, March 29th, has arrived, and it would appear that the day will center around the number 3 on the clock ⏰️

Travis Osborne and his Bible Verse of the Day :

John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The Golden Bears 🐻 will look to have a bounce back day up in Portsmouth, Ohio, as we play a conference doubleheader at Shawnee State.

Three things at 3 pm create a unique situation, to say the least.

The decision to not use the plane tickets last night ( miles that were able to be redeposited ) to fly out to Sacramento for the Duke University Women’s Elite Eight game took it from being inside Golden 1 arena to missing the game all together.

This year, chasing the story about Kira Lawson and the team has been nothing short of a blast for us. The combination of believing in the sport, the coach, and the school in the manner that we do made it a fun few months. The fact that you can be a season ticket holder for the Ladies for less money 💰 than it cost to attend 1 Men’s Basketball game at Cameron Indoor still boggles my mind, but it is what it is.

Vickey Ritchie is a kind, kind 😇 Soul and that is a non- disputable fact. Even after we were both at it from before Sun up and until the stroke of midnight, Coach is still going to open up the Gym at Hillsville Elementary School for practice today from 2-4 pm.

Not everyone in our group could travel and hold up to a 12 hour day like the one the group had yesterday going to and from Lexington. So, in order to not exclude anyone who wants to participate, practice will take place per the norm.

There’s no actual obligation to be at every practice or event that Vickey Ritchie is responsible for. it’s simply therapeutic for the heart. Our missions in life are so similar : to create an environment where people all feel that they matter equally. It’s not easy, but it is a mission statement that we are both chasing with everything that we have.

Yesterday was a BIG day for her, and being that we experienced that same day together last year, there are stories to tell, and I can’t wait to hear them.

That brings us to the third place to be at 3 pm.

Anthony Barnes is holding his annual end of the season gathering today on The Hill, and it happens to be in the exact same time slot as Duke – UCLA.

Even though I wasn’t in the gymnasium with them this season, I did everything that I could to support the program. This included watching every game but 2 and creating a game story for each contest along the way.

The room at the Church ⛪️ will look different from years past as Kris Richardson, the Smoots, and many others have moved on since last year. That is how graduation works. I’m not really sure how the room will feel with a number of different faces, but I do know how much his program means to Coach Barnes.

One of two things will happen today out in California. We were in the Arena out in Vegas in late November when UCLA was coming off their lone loss to Texas the night before, and they beat us by 30 points. They could very well do it again, but I don’t think they can because we are way better than we were four months ago.

But I don’t think that we can make enough plays to move on to the Final Four in Phoenix next weekend. Know that if Duke wins 🏆 that PHX is going to happen.

So it will be hanging out with Vickey Ritchie until it’s time to do the same with Anthony Barnes. Then driving 🚗 back to Laurel Fork to watch the post game coverage and sleep 😴💤 as naps are truly my friend !

This now has become one of my favorite Photos 📸 and in part because of the two frames on the wall 🧱 in the background. Neat, Neat Lady, who is incredibly smart yet just a proud, proud Mother 👩 at the end of the day !