Quiet discipline is good; and tilting at Masters windmills

Well, anyone see that coming?

Best half of defence – at least in terms of opponent’s scoring – in franchise history, first three-game winning streak since 2010 and no sign of the traditional “fold when the game gets tough” attributes we’ve seen all year.

That’s why …

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THREE POINTERS

No one’s talking

Not sure what it was with James Johnson, even the most chatty people in the organization went silent, referring to it as an internal matter, but the suggestion in private conversations was that it wasn’t that big a deal.

Think it speaks to Dwane Casey, though, as much as it does Johnson.

This is a coach who’ll do whatever he deems necessary to keep this team headed in the right direction and I’m sure there have been other instances of clashes between coaches and players or players and players this year – it’s inevitable and it happens with every team in the league.

But as with just about everything Dwane’s done this year, even discipline was under-stated. There were no histrionics, no veiled references to whatever happen; it was dealt with quietly and in-house and no one seemed at all put out about it.

Kind of nice, isn’t it? No flare-ups, nothing too much in the public, just an issue that came up, was dealt with and will be forgotten.

Calm is good sometimes.

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The eye has it

Yes, that was a rather ugly gash over Jose’s right eye, four stitches and a nice little goose egg that flared up in the second half.

And when we were talking to him after the game there were the inevitable jokes.

He said he told everybody to stay on his left because he couldn’t really see peripherally out of his right eye; he’s worried about what his parents will think when they arrive for a visit this weekend and he was kind of glad his wife and young son are back in Spain for a little bit so they wouldn’t have to, you know, look at him.

But while it’s hardly a huge story that a guy played with a four-stitch cut over his eye, the fact he had six of his 13 assists in the second half, played 20 minutes of that half and hit the dagger of the three late in the game – from the right side so he could be looking mainly out of his left eye, it should be pointed out – was a pretty good tale.

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So, who stays?

Well, you heard that Justin Dentmon, a point guard who was toiling with Austin of the D League, is coming tomorrow – no sense starting the clock on a 10-day deal today on a day off – but it’s decision time on Alan Anderson and Ben Uzoh today and tomorrow, respectively.

I can’t see a way that they don’t re-do Anderson and, who knows, maybe Uzoh’s play last night allows him to stick around as a third point guard for emergency situations.

Not sure it’s a big deal either way – no one’s suggested any of these guys will be around next fall – so why not just add a fellow and keep the other two and leave the disruptions to a relative minimum.

Makes sense to me.

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More? There’s always more.

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Now, this is just wrong.

Dead wrong. Wronger than the whole Augusta thing (like how I just invented “wronger?”)

Did you hear that because of some zany sponsorship deal that, in the next Jams Bond movie, Bond is going to drink – gasp! – beer?

Yep, no more vodka martinis and I don’t know that there is an enduring cinematic character more closely associated with one thing than Bond and his “shaken, not stirred” martinis.

I hope no one goes to the movie.

Oh, yeah.

Sean Connery.

Best. Bond. Ever.

No debate.

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It’s Masters weekend, I see.

Azaleas, dogwoods, Butler Cabin, green jackets and an exclusionary club of men only.

What doesn’t fit?

Of course, there is no forward-thinking person who would look at Augusta National’s membership policy and not get at least a little irked: This is 2012 and the days of treating women as second class citizens is reprehensible to those of us with, you know, working brains. Save, those, of course, who are captains of industry and members of the club.

But – and this is the big but – this is their club, all the criticism in the world doesn’t seem to have an impact on them in the slightest and if they want to comport themselves like this, well, what are you going to do?

Boycott the tournament sponsors? Didn’t seem to work the year the lords of the Manor simply took advertising off the air.

Protest? To who? Yes, we know, it’s wrong, it’s dead wrong; the members don’t seem to care what we think and there have been far Taller Foreheads than I make far more compelling cases in print and in the spoken word to no avail.

So we do what we do: We hold our noses and watch and complain again next year and watch again next year.

Is that wrong? Don’t think so.

There is certainly about this tournament that draws us back. It’s not the field because it’s not as good as a handful of other tournaments over the course of the season; it’s not the course because although it’s beautiful it’s not necessarily all that challenging, the fairways are wide, the rough barely existent, it’s not like the U.S. Open or The Open Championship by any stretch of the imagination.

It’s not Jim Nance, that’s for sure, because he’s so saccharine I want to throw a shoe at the TV by early Sunday afternoon.

What do you think?

The weather? The camera shots?

How about the history?

Of all the biggies, this is the one that seldom changes, it’s the same course at the same time of year with many of the same cast of characters. It’s what we do around the first weekend of April, it’s got some allure to even non-golf fans, it would seem.

But to go on about the membership policies of a bunch of dinosaurs and their little club is really not worth it, I don’t think.

They’re not going to change, I believe we can say that with a high degree of certainty, it’s a bad policy to many right-thinking people but if history has shown us one thing, it’s this:

They don’t care and we love their show.

Enjoy the weekend.

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Mail? Love some. Have a flight this morning to work; tomorrow afternoon to work and even a bit of Saturday to work before setting out for the wild nights of OKC.

Do it here. Thanks.

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Comments

[kathyt]

Office masters pool picks:
Tiger
Mickelson
Mcllroy
Jason Day
Hunter Mahan
KJ Choi
All golf experts from the irregulars, please comment.

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Like your list, I would add Bubba Watson into the mix
Cheers.

[GM]

And I third Barry and Penny's feelings about the play-by-play. The game often seems incidental to their lame jocularity about college affiliation, age, singing or just about anything other than what's happening on the court. If they were in the slightest bit funny, I'd maybe enjoy it. But they're not. And I don't.

And what's all this talk about golf? Do people actually watch that pastime?

[santino]

I think you're conflating the issue. This isn't about women's rights so long as there are no laws against women playing golf. Morally speaking there may be an issue but it's not as grandiose as a rights issue.