Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Will old age and treachery translate into a trey?

By Robin Tovey '97 and Erik Brakstad '89 on January 31, 2014 11:00 AM
basketball

Don't miss the match-up of the season . . . no, not the Seahawks vs. Broncos, the student team vs. the alumni team on Reed’s basketball court, tonight at 7 p.m.! Gabe Zinn ’15 returns from a semester of pick-up games in Paris, and the geriatric set returns from the injured list. Come out to see if “age and treachery will overcome youth and skill” (with apologies to Waylon Jennings)?!

Some pre-game scoop from Erik Brakstad ’89:

Coach Ried Woodlee scheduled two student vs. alumni games this year. The first kicked off the season at the end of October (the alumni won, handily). The second (tonight!) kicks off the second half of the season after a long layoff. Another alumni/student game was played late in the fall when a team cancelled due to weather at the last second. The alumni pulled a team together on short notice (and beat the students.)

Plot lines:

  • The students, hungry for their first victory of the season, feature invigorated point guard Gabe, back from the hardscrabble streets of France.

  • Their other best player, Mathias (from Argentina), is rounding into shape after being out for most of the fall with a leg injury
  • Frosh phenom Cole appears to be out for the season with injury.
  • The students have an extra chip on their shoulder after enduring the indignity of being booted from the gym during Wednesday's basketball practice due to a scheduling mix up with the soccer team.
  • The alumni will be without their two best big guys, Matt Edwards and Jesse Graf.
  • Will the strident resistance of star point guard Owen Gross ’04 to playing zone defense fracture the fragile coalition of alumni players?
  • Old guy Erik Brakstad ’89 is back from his crunching shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Assistant Coach Lamar last fall: will his bitter old-guy demeanor be even more insufferable?
  • Will the oldest guy on the floor (Bruce Talmadge '88) insist on telling everyone how much better the basketball was back in the day?
  • Will the youngest alumnus on the team (Matt Yee ’13) join the rest for a post-game pint?

Check back on Monday . . . or come out and see for yourself tonight!

Tags: basketball