HANZKY

four year of J.J Redick, and no championship title for the dukies..he didn't even have a good game to end his career.. the duke haters are now happy to see them gone. I personally never have anything against them, i don't hate them but i don't root for them either, i don't really understand the root of the duke hatred. it seems to me that they run a clean program that is not scandalous, a respectable program in all the land of college basketball. their players are far from the thug types, they stay out of trouble, they are good athletes and good students all around. you have to admire the loyalty from the athletes for sticking around for 4 years to get a degree while many other athletes jump straight to the NBA at the first opportunity that they encounter. maybe they learn the loyalty from the coach who has been there for more than 20 years, resisting to coach in the nba that can triple up his salary. i think he is a classy coach. lots of people hate him..but i guess it's all the media's faults who sometime go above and beyond with their loves for all things duke. overexposure can hurt you. anyway, kasian si JJ kemaren fighting back his tears..it must be sad realizing that it's all over..hehe..i just felt bad for him. but i didn't feel bad for morrison though, if anything, i'm glad i don't have to see him all the time now (if he decides to turn pro that is)..hehe..i just can't stand the guy, i know it's okay to cry and show emotion but at least be a man and try to suck it up instead of bawling like a little baby.

anyway..game2 sweet sixteen lainnya seru seru, the ending of west virginia vs. texas was tragic, they lived by the three..only to die by the three at the very last second..tsk tsk. Villanova Vs. BC and Uconn Vs Washington stretched to overtime with 4 of the washington players fouled out in the last minutes. two of my final four picks are still alive in the elite eight..yay!

Today officially is the first day of spring, but what do i see when i look through the window?? riight..pile of snow!!..yikes. I'm getting tired of this cold weather..especially since there's quite a few things to look forward to this summer..=))

arrghh, season is over for the salukis, huhu..soalnya kita kalah di first round kemaren. west virginia was just tooo much, i think we were just flat out outplayed by the better team. padahal beberapa menit pertama kita lumayan bagus, we led by 4, tapi setelah itu everything went blah..randal falker was a no-show, well who could blame him, the guy just lost 12 pounds due to stomach flu, so he wasn't 100% healthy..the west virginia team had more seniors on the starting line up than SIU has in its entire rooster..so cleary they were more experienced and they wanted to win more, they executed the game plan brilliantly, and they shot the three like mad. The final score was 64-46..ouch!!. Oh well..the loss didn't taint the good season that we've had, and especially the memory from the tournament weekend. We'll be back next year, and with all of the starters coming back..we'll be at least a sweet sixteen team next year....book it...;)

Pretty crazy game so far, that's why it is called MARCH MADNESS. Texas A&M upsets syracuse (COngrats Xinda...=)). Northwestern State Upsets Iowa on a buzza beata (damnit, the road to sweet 16 for SIU was actually much easier, oh well). And how about Bradley Vs. Kansas..??..just when people thought Kansas would streamroll on Bradley, Kansas actually got their rear handed to them.he (Sorry Ella Darling..=)) The first place team from the Big 12 got beat by the 5th team from the Missouri Valley Conference...tsk tsk...so much for the all mcdonalds american team, see..talent alone doesn't guarantee you the win if it is not paired with desire and better coaching. Bill self maybe a great recruiter..but not a good coach. first round exit, two times in a row where you're the much higher seed is unacceptable. Last year was Bucknell Bison, and this year is Bradley Braves..what's next year? Baylor Bears?...hehehe..

Wichita did a good job on Seton Hall, a whoopin 20 points win. Boston College and Pacific put quite a game too with 2 overtime. UW Milwaukee upset Oklahoma. Lots of upset..it's true when they said that the parity in college basketball has been on the rise nowadays.

The second round game was pretty entertaining too, wichita state pull up a win over Tennesse, and George Mason upsets North Carolina, Brad Pitt game (Bradley vs Pittsburgh) more or less the same with Bradley Kansas, another upset from Bradley..yayy..there are 2 teams from our conference in Sweet Sixteen and the same number of teams from the ACC, only 1 team left from the Big 12 and surprisingly there's no team from the Big 10 (I feel ya dee brown). it's called Valley-dation baby..=)).

yesterday was the selection sunday, the time when the committee announced the 64 teams that are invited to the NCAA tournametn. Of course i wasn't nervous like the previous years cause the salukis took matter into their own hands and punched their own card to the dance (read: NCAA), cuma pingin tau aja kita dapet seed berapa, lawannya siapa, mainnya di mana, dan siapa aja yang di invite dari conference kita. Oh iya nontonnya di rumahnya mandaadit, soalnya sekalian makan2 ulang taunnya adit, jadi rame banget, ada anak2 mansion, anak2 edwarsville, happy, ading, vahn, wulan, josh (jibran's new buddy), diah, joan, rubby etc.

Anyway, we got seed #11, playing the #6 west virginia (the mountaineers) in Auburn Hills Michigan, and it will be on Friday the 17th. UNI, Wichita State and Bradley were invited too, so there are 4 teams from our conference. I feel Missouri state should have been invited too since their RPI is so high, they got snubbed. Some of the analysts took a few verbal jabs at the committee for inviting too many mid majors team and belittling our conference..damnit..don't they know that there are good basketball outside of the BCS conferences??

Anyway...at first I didn't know much about west virginia except that they went to the elite eight last year..turned out that they return 4 starters from previous season and that they finished 3rd in the big east and is actually a scary team since they can shoot the three lights in lights out. They played 1-3-1 zone that gives trouble to the team that is not accustomed to play with them. Pokonya style of play nya beda banget sama salukis..so it will be interesting to see the match ups. Hope we can pull up an upset and move on to the second round...!!

d went home around noon, we watched wichita vs. indiana game and as expected, wichita won. after that, we watched creighton vs. bradley. bradley was the hottest team in the league, they had been on a nice winning streak coming into the tournament while creighton played without one of their starters due to injury, but dana altman is a very good coach so it still possible for creighton to come up with a win, but too bad they lost, i think it's the first time in a few years that they lost in the first round game. anyway..ben came right when the game was over so we left the house right away, picked up hana at school and went to savvis center. we already have the ticket that we bought yesterday, using the 10% off coupons from taco bell, hehe. tapi sayangnya duduknya di upper bowl, but there were lots of empty seats at the lower level so we just sit on those empty seats. it was a of course an exciting game, pretty high scoring for us who are not good offensively...we played against evansville, we lost the last time we played them so i knew we weren't gonna lose again..payback is a biatch baby. Jamal Tatum was the star that night, i know from now on we will always go to him no matter what, for better or worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health.. Foster had a hell of a game too, the crowd went crazy when he threw in a dunk..he actually almost had a double2 that night. the sweet part was when the students started chanting for smithpeters to play, and when he had the ball and was wide open at the 3 point line, the students screamed..SHOOOOTT..haha..he shoot it and it went it..3 points for him..hehe.

abis itu ben went home and we decided to stay to watch missouri state vs. northern iowa, we're gonna face the winner of this game tomorrow. the game started 20 minutes after our session..jadi muter muter aja dulu, ordered some food and stuff. jibran seneng banget deh di ajak ke ball game gini, proudly wearing his salukis t-shirt..high fiving orang orang yang lewat di depannya, hehe..banyak yang manggil jibran lil' salukis. anyway..the first half of the next game nya lumayan seru sih, fansnya juga rame banget. Jibrannya udah mulai kecapean pas jam segitu..iya lah udah jam 9.30 an..jadi dia duduk aja di pangku. the salukis players came out of the locker room and sit around behind the bench and watched the game. pas half time d went to the ticket office to buy tickets for tomorrows game tapi sayang udah tutup..so we just had to get the ticket before the game tomorrow. pas second half kurang seru game nya, msu suddenly turned flat on the offensive end..so northern iowa it is for us tomorrow. Kita sampe rumah jam 11 malem, adit smsed congratulating on the win dan bilang kalo besok mau ikutan..yaayyy..the more the merrier...

saturday, March 4
pagi pagi udah bangun..hehe..padahal game nya jam 4..:p but we actually left the house around 11. Stopped by savvis center to buy the student tickets..tapi katanya boothnya baru buka sejam sebelum game nya mulai..huu. jadi ya udah kita ke delmar aja dulu, bought bubble tea and crispy chicken trus jemput adit di rumahnya, tante anne nawarin apa jibran mau di titipin ajaa...tapi kasian sih jibrannya soalnya dia udah tau kalo mau di ajak nonton basket dan udah teriak teriak S-I-U gitu..hehe, kan kasian..akhirnya gue bilang besok aja deh kalo misalnya nanti menang..:D. Di sana sekalian nonton wichita vs. bradley..tapi cuma sebentar sih nontonnya..soalnya harus buru2 balik ke savvis center lagi untuk beli ticket..ngantri nya panjang soalnya. sampe sana jam 3-an dan udah mulai pada ngantri, padahal ticket boothnya juga belum buka..and we only have 2 student id, jadi harus 2 orang yang ngantri..untung nggak ketauan pake ID yang sama. Setelah itu langsung masuk dan sempet nonton 3 menit terakhir gamenya wichita vs. bradley, and bradley prevailed and moved on to the final vs either us or UNI. This time kita dapet duduknya di student section, right behind the basket..jadi aja harus berdiri terus the entire game, hehe. Agak ngeri juga nih game ini, while we played good last night..UNI played good too although I don't know if they were that good last night or it was just MSU playing like crap.

The first few minutes of the game was pretty stressing to watch with the referees calling every ticky tack foul on our sides..huhu. the score at half time was 20-20..hehe, it's a pretty low scoring game, well what do you expect, we are a defensive minded team..:p. Dan lucunya..pas second half abis score nya 40-40..hehehe. northern Iowa was actually up by 2, 40 seconds left into the game..but mullins tied the game with a drive to the basket. Udah takut aja mereka bakalan hit game winning shot tapi untung aja jacobson missed his three..yayy..tony young did a good job defending him, so on to overtime. it started with a dunk from falker and he was fouled, so it was a 3-point play. shaw took over the game on overtime, i guess he wanted a win on his birthday!!

setelah itu, kita kemana yaaah...kayanya langsung ke party city di olive deh..sepanjang jalan ribut ngomongin game besok..hehe..iya lah championship game gitu loch and our post season is on the brink..kita mikirin pake baju apa, bawa sign apa..dll. adit came up with a few brilliant sign ideas..hehe..since it will be broadcasted on cbs, jadi lucu aja kalo ada CBS2 nya kaya: Curse Breaking Shoes (I will elabore more on that later..). Cool but So. ILL..haha..dan buat shaw ada I came, I shaw (instead of saw), I conquer..:D..waduuh udah excited banget dehh di jalan. Pas di party city juga ribuuutt banget kita..nyoba2 in wig dan pernak pernik lain, beli face paint, spidol, kacamata dan lain sebagainya. Abis itu kita ke northwest plaza untuk beli salukis t-shirt di steve and barry..trus langsung ke rumahnya adit dan mulai bikin signnya...eh enggak deh, adit, manda hana ke walmart dulu beli2 perlengkapan lagi..hehe..asli kita niaattt banget. Kayanya yang ada di sana (Reza, Freddy, Edwin, Melisa, Ading) pada bingung ngeliat kita mau pada ngapain sih sebenernya...hehehe. Tapi manda, Edwin sama Melisa jadi mau ikutan besok..sama happy juga..asiiiikk rame kaan jadinya. Ya udah Manda mulai bikin sign2nya..gue sih nontonin aja..hehe..maklum nggak kreatif..:p. Kita pulang sekitar jam 12 malem.

Sunday, March 5
This is the day..semalem sampe nggak bisa tidur gara gara mikirin hari ini, hehe..sampe jam 6 pagi juga udah bangun bangun terus..:p..akhirnya jam 8 bangun, siapin ini itu, siapin breakfastnya jibran, mandi, mandiin jibran dan lain lain sebagainya. Jam 10 lewat berangkat deh, ke rumahnya manda dulu..soalnya jibran mau di titipin di sana..sampe sana langsung pada pake atributnya masing masing, ada yang face painting, dll. Trus jam 11 lewat berangkat deh..Happy udah sampe sana duluan, lagi ngantri di ticket boothnya..padahal juga belum buka gitu.. Pas jam 12 baru buka, some girls from creighton were selling their student tickets for less than face value, jadi ya lumayan laahh.. we got our student tickets again and then off we went inside. Ternyata di dalem udah lumayan rame, dan kita lumayan di liatin orang orang..hahaha..seru deh pokonya seruuuu. Pas kita masuk aja itu kan masih 40 menit sebelum game nya mulai, tapi orang orang udah pada heboh. Pas first half nya seru gamenya..kita marah marahin wasitnya..hehehe, "wasit picek?!?!"..hihihi..sempet ketinggalan beberapa point juga but we managed to come back and only down by one at half time. the second half was another story..I don't know what got into the team during half time, but they really gave it their all and left everything on the court, it was by far the best effort from the team..really it was salukis basketball at its finest..they just kept scoring (i have never seen so many dunks in one game before) and scattered bradley's defense apart and they took their defense to another level, forcing turnovers and making bradley scoreless for more than 8 minutes. Pokonya seru seru seru...I screamed at the top of my lungs for the whole duration, sang the fight song and bouncing up and down till my belly h
ur
ts. Suasananya baru berubah waktu ada kejadian cheerleader jatuh seperti yang udah di ceritain di postingan sebelumnya. I think it was 3 minutes into the game, setelah gamenya di mulai lagi, Bradley stole an inbound pass twice and made two three pointer..huhu..i was a bit scared even though we were up by more than 10 point at that time, but we were fouled a couple of times and we made those free throws, shaw hit a three too and then some.

Waktu 2 menit terakhir itu..orang orang yang duduk di atas mulai pada turun, jadi pada mendekat ke courtnya gitu, udah siap siap mau storm the court..hahaha..gue juga udah bilang pokonya kalo menang i am storming the court..hihi...and I did..with thousands other people..:p. Pokonya pas buzzernya bunyi..semuanya langsung pada lari ke court..and the string streamer fell down from the rafters with the WE ARE THE CHAMPION song in the background..it felt so surreal..haha *norak*...trus ya udah abis itu kita foto2 dong, ngeliatin pemainnya yang lagi pada di interview, trus di set up panggung di courtnya to give them the award. Pemainnya udah pada pake championship t-shirt aja. Randal Falker was the MVP...he was really unstoppable in the second half...i told you he is one tough motherFalker..:PP..hahaa...talk about MEET THE FALKER!!!. Mullins came up big too, he only played for 5 minutes in the first half cause he had a sprained ankle..but he played for 16 minutes in the second half and the difference was clear..our offense was much better with mullins on the floor. he is a true point guard..even UNI coach complimented him on the post game interview yesterday, he basically said that if you look the word point guard on the dictionary, mullin's picture is on there, he is thaatt goood..=). anyway...abis itu gunting net nya deh..dan fans2nya masih asik aja gitu di dalem sampe securitynya escorted everybody out the court..hehe. Dari situ kita makan di Hooters Union Station..of course i was still smiling and just couldn't stop talking about the game..:P

This victory gave us the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, that was why winning the conference tournament was so important..soalnya kalo kemaren itu kita nggak menang, kayanya nggak bakalan masuk NCAA as an at large bid, kalo 4 taun berikutnya sih masih bisa since we finished first in the regular season, but our record was not as impressive this year. Soo happy for them to be able to keep the streak of the NCAA appearance (there are only 16 school in the nation that have been to the tournament 5 times in a row), so it is quite a record for the salukis. We are a young team, with no senior on the starting line up, that's why we've been so inconsistent dan nge break banyak good streak; home winning streak, the regular season champion, etc. But in the end, they did break the bad streak too; udah 10 taun lebih kita nggak pernah menang di MVC tournament ini even with a much superior team, but this team is capable of doing so, and most importantly ya the NCAA streak itu. So in the end, they won the game that's counted the most. It's gotta be the shoes babyy...hehehe. Biasanya kan pemainnya pake sepatu putih maroon, tapi jamaal tatum and tony young had an idea to make a fashion statement by changing the shoes for the tournament, jadi sepatu hitam dan kaos kaki hitam..katanya ya siapa tau aja jadi bisa menang, hehe..superstitious banget yaa..but whatever it took to win lah pokonya..lagian kan kalo hitam2 gitu jadinya kan garang dan arrogant aja keliatannya, so maybe it boosted their confidences..and hey it worked!! Good job guys...now make some noise in the NCAA!!!

3 minutes before the game ended last sunday, the rowdy savvis center turned into a complete silent..you could definetely hear a pin drops. a saluki cheerleader (kristi yamaoka) lost her balance from the top of the pyramid and fell hard onto her head. she was motionless for a few minutes...kayanya semua orang udah mikir the worst possible scenario, people were praying..one student screamed "we love you kristi" while all of the medical teams tended to her..it was a pretty scary moment. the medical teams then moved her onto the board and raised her to the strecher with her head immobilized and then suddenly her knees were moving..all of the 14000 people took a collective sigh of relief. and then she waved to the crowd to let them know she was okay, people were cheering and clapping hands..and the band kicked in playing the salukis fight song..and she started doing her routines by moving her arms while being wheeled of the court..WOW..that was one of the coolest moments i have ever witnessed...trully inspiring. people were wiping their tears away when that happened..heh at least 3 people in our group did..;)

Keep the spirit alive Kristi, here's to a speedy recovery for you. and thank you for letting us know, in the midst of a competitive basketball game, that what unites us is really greater than what separates us.

She's all over the tv and the newspapers nationwide yesterday, CNN, MSNBC and ESPN showed the clip over and over again


Click here if you want to read the news and
click here if you want to see the video

kristi and the salukis performance last sunday was amazing..they epitomize everything good about being a saluki; tough, courageous, dedicated, determined and big-hearted. the coach always brags about him having the toughest team..and i saw that too. i saw it in mullins when he played with a painful sprained ankle and limped around, in shaw when he didn't whine after he was fouled hard and and still play with a bloody nose and bloods on his jersey, in falker when he took the ball to the rim and dunked lights out and no one could stopped him..in tatum's effort..in their guts by outhustling bigger and stronger opponents..and to top it off, in kristi when she still chanting S-I-U and doing her arm movement on the strecher after fallin from the top of the pyramid. they are one of the reasons why i'm so damn proud to call my self a saluki..=))

I'm still too excited to type...but wow..that was salukis basketball at its finest..=)). had sooo much fun this weekend, we were such a crazy bunch..hehehe..wait till you see the pictures...;)

Evansville (checked), Northern Iowa (checked), now BRING ON BRADLEY!!! and oh..it's on CBS at 1:05 PM.

this week is the longest week ever..i thought friday is never gonna come..but here we are...today is the day..I'll be on my way to savvis center in 5 minutes.

GO DAWGS!!..Grab the WIN!!





Thursday, March 2
Game 1 - Drake (12-18) vs. Indiana St. (12-15), 6:05 p.m.
Game 2 - Evansville (9-18) vs. Illinois St. (9-18), 8:35 p.m.

Friday, March 3
Game 3 – Wichita St. (23-7) vs. Indiana St. 12:05 p.m.
Game 4 – Creighton (19-8) vs. Bradley (18-9), 2:35 p.m.
Game 5 – SIU (19-10) vs. Evansville 2, 6:05 p.m.
Game 6 – Missouri St. (20-7) vs. Northern Iowa (22-8), 8:35 p.m.

Saturday, March 4
Game 7 - Wichita St. vs. Bradley 4, 1:35 p.m.
Game 8 - Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 4:05 p.m.

Sunday, March 5
Game 9 - Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 1:05 p.m.

someone just rang the bell a minute ago and when I opened the door..the gentleman asked me if MOM OR DAD IS AT HOME?!?!?!....haha..thank you thank you...you just made my day, pair it with the win from the salukis tonight...and i have a perfect friday!!!

translation: melissaaaa...where are youu??...hehehehe. melissa ini yang jaga kids club di ballys fitness center. sebenernya yang jaga ganti ganti sih, ada miss mona dan miss diane juga. tapi favoritnya jibran sih si melissa ini. soalnya dia selalu ngajak main dan ngobrol jibran..kalo melissa yang jaga..pasti deh jibran nggak mau di ajak pulang..padahal udah jam 8 malem kan kids clubnya juga mau tutup..hehe. tapi 2 minggu yang lalu nih si melissa nggak masuk, katanya sih sakit...jadi seminggu itu jibran nggak ketemu dia..sempet sih ketemu sekali tapi bukan pas shiftnya melissa..tapi dia emang lagi pas fitness aja di sana...lucu banget deh mereka berdua pas ngeliat langsung histeris gitu..jibran langsung lompat2 kegirangan sambil teriak teriak "issaa issaa"..melissa nya juga langsung turun dari treadmillnya lari nyamperin jibran..trus lompat lompatan aja gitu berdua..hehehe..kocak banget. trus minggu berikutnya kan dendre sempet sakit jadi nggak ke ballys deh tuh seminggu itu..trus minggu selanjutnya kesana tapi bukan pas shiftnya melissa..padahal pas di pintu masuknya jibran udah seneng banget tuh sambil manggil manggil melissa..hehe..eh kecewa dia pas liat bukan melissa yang jaga..pas besokannya juga bukan melissa lagi..trus jibrannya ngambek nggak mau main disana. trus besok2nya pas di tanya mau ke kids club apa enggak..dia pasti nanya dulu "issa there?"..kalo di bilang nggak ada pasti dia langsung bilang NOOO!!! kalo enggak cuma geleng geleng kepala aja..tapi untungnya pas hari senen ketemu melissa lagi..eh jibrannya malah sok cool gitu lagi..hehe..trus dia di kasih mainan sama melissa dan ternyata sekarang melissa kerja di situnya seminggu sekali aja..huhu..kasian dong jibrannya...=((