The Severed Cortex

Link: http://slubillikens.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2006-2007/game11.html

As usual, I'm a week behind on posts about Robert. Nancy took him to Bloomington on Saturday the 15th. One of the women she works with has a tradition of baking tons of desserts and entertaining people. I saw pictures of it and despite the overwhelming majority of chocolate it looked fantastic.

Hanging out with Robert during a school night is a rarity. This all started with my friend Jeff suggesting about a month ago we go see the game. Then it evolved into him wanting to take his son Ben. Since Ben and Robert are close to the same age Jeff thought taking Robert would be a good idea. I didn't think so at first, but the more I thought about it I decided that it might be a good idea. From there I said How about we invite Jay?. Then about a week ago my friend and co-worker Joe Legrand was standing at my cube. The conversation evolved around to college hoops and I mentioned I was going to the game. I also explained who I was going with. While Joe has no Missouri St. connection, he is a SLU High graduate in addition to being a graduate of another Missouri Valley school, Bradley. Joe pondered on the idea for about 2 seconds and decided that going to the game and taking his son Sandy, who is 4, would be a great idea. On the Saturday before the game I called everyone and instructed them to meet in front of The Fudgery in Union Station at 6:15. On Sunday Jeff called to say his wife Holly was coming too.

I took the whole day off from work for two reasons. One, I needed to finish up some Christmas shopping and two, I goofed up and almost left a PTO day on the books and needed to take one more day. At 3:00 I picked up Robert and informed him we had a lot of tasks to accomplish and little time to do it. There was no time for goofing around.

First on the list was to pick up some scents from the Bath and Body at the Alton Square Mall. Nancy sent me a list she was interested in and I thought we could pick some up for Robert's mother Tina. I found what I needed while Robert sniffed as many 'flavors' as possible in search of the best smelling one. He picked Japanese Cherry Blossom and we chose a couple of different types of it.

Next on the list was to find a gift for his sister Keyani. I chose Toys 'R Us as the venue. I wanted him to look around and find something on his own, but it was just impossible. I even tried to tell him the faster he found something for his sister, the more time he'd have to look around for himself. This didn't work either. At one point he said he thought she would like some wrestling action figures. That's when I knew my plan was futile; I just had to pick something out myself. We spent a little time wandering around the toys after that, but he didn't seem all that interested in them. I'm not sure whether he just wanted to go play the X-Box (which I wouldn't let him do) or he was excited about going to Union Station.

He definitely was excited about Union Station though and that was next on our list. When we got in the car he started yelling 'Union Station, Union Station!' We arrived with about 45 minutes to spare, which to me seemed barely enough time to eat some dinner. We decided to eat at The Hard Rock, mainly because I was afraid he'd go inside, see The Fudgery, and want to spend all our time dawdling around it. He asked for nachos as an appetizer so we ordered that first. He got a burger and fries and I got one of those big giant salads. As usual, the food was pretty mediocre. I guess I shouldn't speak for Robert though. He said the burger and fries were good. The waiter was very friendly and efficient and he called Robert 'little man' all night. I tipped him well. We ate in almost the requisite 45 minutes and walked inside to meet the gang. The Fudgery was closed and I think that bummed Robert out, but I let him play a bowling video game while we waited. Jeff, Holly, Ben and Jay were already there. I called Joe and he was walking in front of Union Station. He arrived shortly thereafter.

Once Joe arrived we headed over to get tickets. Holly took care of the details of dealing with the ticket lady. We bought the cheapest $9 seats which were up on the High End along the SLU bench side. We sat there for maybe 5 minutes before spotting a chunk of decent low end seats. We moved down to snag them before anyone else did. No one came to kick us out of them the whole game. Robert wanted cotton candy bad, but there was no way I was letting him get all hyped up on pure sugar. I'm not stupid. That made me the bad guy however and he kind of clammed up on me. We settled on a pretzel instead. Jay and Sandy shared their popcorn with everyone throughout the game.
The game itself turned out to be a pretty good one. (It seems that every SLU game I attend is a good one; I was there two years ago when they knocked off #2 Louisville). SLU jumped out to an early lead by low posting their big man Vouyoukas and then just continually feeding him the ball. Missouri St. figured out how to defend him eventually and by halftime had built a small lead. In the second half both teams pretty much matched each other by different methods. Missouri St. stifled SLU's offensive game by playing outstanding defense. SLU stifled Missouri State's offensive game by letting them shoot freely. Which they did; and did poorly. They couldn't hit the broad side of a barn inside with the doors closed at all in the second half. According to the stats they shot a whopping 23%. When SLU pulled within 1 point, it took all the air out of the Bears. Their defense went to sleep and they let SLU drive the lane and take a shot with time expiring. He missed, but Vouyoukas tipped it back in. From our vantage point, which was maybe 75 feet from where it all went down, it appeared that the tip in was too late. The referees conferred, watched the replay, and decided the basket was good. Later in the week it would show that the basket was not tipped in before time expired. It was a good win for SLU and despite the fact I'm a Missouri State fan, I'm glad that Brad Soderberg is doing well with the Billikins this year. It was a good game for the fans despite whichever team you were rooting for.

Robert, as usual, fell asleep on the ride home.