As discussed in my previous blog entry I decided to head out to Taco Mac on Thursday to watch some hoops and take advantage of their weekly Pint Night.
Unfortunately my buddy got stuck at work so we got to Taco Mac later than I would have liked and they ended up running out of glasses. Anyways we got to to T-Mac around 8pm and even at that hour there was a wait. Fortunately having friends employed at the restaurant allow you to move to the front of the line so we were seated immediately.
We got a seated and were handed both food and drink menus. Being a self-proclaimed regular at Taco Mac I can tell you that I have no need for the food menu, I get the same thing nearly every time (10wings hot crispy, sometimes swimming, with blue cheese and fries). I also had no need for the beer menu having recently discovered that you can view the beers you've consumed and what specific beers are available at each Taco Mac location on-line. Basically I was able to read up on what's available and plan out my attack for the evening.
Including last night I am up to 42 beers on my Brewniversity account, which is pretty sad considering I've heard of people with over 1,000 different beers on their account but it's a work in progress. One of the really cool things about the online account is the ability to look over all the beers you've consumed and find out what variety of beer you tend to enjoy more. Of my 42 beers 26 of them have been ales with 16 of the 26 ales being IPA's.
IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale and was previously called pale ale prepared for India. Among the earliest known named brewers whose beers were exported to India was George Hodgson of the Bow Brewery. Bow Brewery beers became popular among East India traders in the late 18th century because of the brewery's location and Hodgson's liberal credit line of 18 months. East Indiamen transported a number of Hodgson's beers to India (British colony at the time) and was apparently highly regarded among consumers there. Demand for the exported IPA developed in England around 1840 and India Pale Ale became a popular product in England. Apologies for the min history lesson but it is my major.
My 1st selection was an IPA called Bell's Hopslam which brewed by the Bell's Brewery. Bell's is an excellent brewery and is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Hopslam is a seasonal release and it released in very limited qualities, 55,000 cases over a 16 state market, so I was really looking forward to it. The beer is super hoppy and pretty high in alcohol content at 10.5% abv. Just for a point of reference Miller Light comes in around 4% abv. I thought it was really good and would recommend it for anyone who likes a big/bold IPA. Its started with six different hop varietals. Hopslam Ale is billed as possessing the most complex hopping schedule that Bell's Brewery undertakes.
Second beer that I had was a Dogfish Head 90min IPA. I've actually had the beer before but the server we had that night, a friend of mine, put that beer on another person's brewniversity account. I didn't really mind though because it allowed me to drink one of my favorite beers again. If you haven't had it I'd recommend it.
Last beer I tasted was a Lagunitas 'Lil Sumpin'. This selection is an ale, almost golden tasting a little wheat beer. This was a recommendation from my server friend who said I'd enjoy it and that they don't have it too often so I figured I'd give it a shot and get it on my Brewniversity account.
Yesterday had some awesome college basketball games. This is one of my favorite times of the year with conference tournaments starting leading up the the NCAA tournament, the GHSA high school basketball tournaments concluding, and the weather starting to get warm. Lets just put this out there, Kemba Walker is stud and his game winner against Pitt was awesome. If you didn't see it please watch it, you can thank me later. I'd also like to thank ESPN3 for letting me watch this live. Having a Pitt vs UConn match up on at 1pm on a Thursday doesn't seem right, but that's just one thing that makes this time of year awesome. Good games on at any hour at any day of the week.
Anyways about the Tennessee game. I thought that after a little bit of a shaky start in the first few minutes that they looked like a team that was motivated. Like a team that was on a mission to secure a NCAA tournament berth and prove that their earlier loss to Arkansas was a fluke. Tobias Harris was an absolute man really putting the team on his back, especially at the beginning of the game. Harris scored 16 of his game total 20 points in the first 15 minutes. My friend said to me, right around when Tennessee was up 15pts with like 8mins to go, that Tennessee had this game in the bag. My reply to him was that I thought they'd win but Arkansas would go on a run and cut it to 6 or so. I turned out to be partially right but they actually ended up tying the game before Tennessee pulled ahead to win by 6pts. The last thing that I'll say about Arkansas is that Rotnei (really?) Clarke looks like the type of player who you'd love if he played for your team but if he doesn't you'd hate him. Well he doesn't play for the Vols....
I'm going to look forward to the today's match up versus Florida. Coach Bruce Pearl (CBP) has an excellent career record against the Gators but the Vols have struggled this year losing both match ups. I think that this is certainly a game that we can win but Scotty Hopson is going to have to perform better than he did last night against Arkansas.
My three keys to victory for the Vols tonight are as follows:
- Control the tempo
- Offensively I think that the Vols need to get out and get some easy buckets in transition when they can but if they don't have numbers they need to pull it out, run offense, and work the clock. Defensively they can't give the Gators anything easy. Make them work hard to score, close out on their shooters, and don't give them anything in transition.
- Make good decisions
- The Vols need to make good decisions both offensively and defensively. They need to have the right players taking the right shots during good times in the possession. That means no quick threes out of the flow of the offense early in the possession. Offensively they need to limit turnovers and stay out of foul trouble. This goes for the Vols defensively as well. They can't have lapses in concentration and give up easy buckets or uncontested jumpers.
- Someone needs to step up
- For the Vols to win I think that both Harris and Hopson will need to produce offensively and play well. I think that's a given but there needs to be that 3rd option. I've been hoping all year long that it would be Cam Tatum but he has not played well lately and that's putting it really lightly. For the Vols to advance to the weekend round of play for the 4th consecutive year they'll need contributions from another guy.
Hope you all have a good rest of your Friday and a great weekend.
GBOB
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