Who Cares….

I do. I guess. Even if the lack of content in this space the past several months makes it seem like, well, I just don’t give a shit. And, for a while, that was definitely kind of the case.

At some point around the 13:00 minute mark of the second half of the 2009 MAC championship game, when it became clear that my Buffalo Bulls did not have a comeback in them, I began the process of looking forward to the 2009-10 hoops season. One reason why I didn’t take UB’s 65-53 loss to Akron in the MAC Final so hard was my firm belief that this is a team that can win the MAC in 2009-10. I believed it then and I still believe it now. Given my excitement about next season, it was pretty hard to get pumped about March Madness; let alone the NBA playoffs.

It became tougher to get excited about March Madness when the feckless NCAA Tournament Selection Committee put together a field off 65 designed to please CBS’s corporate masters and the innumerable ex-BCS league coaches and players that CBS and ESPN have hired as college hoops analysts, commentators, and bloviators. This was a field missing two 26-win teams in Creighton and Niagara, as well as two of college hoops transcendent talents in Davidson’s Stephen Curry and St. Mary’s Patty Mills. Teams that don’t have athletic budgets swelling with the largess of BCS sponsors snared a mere four at-large invites to the 2009 NCAA tourney; an all-time low. This was not a Big Dance that I could get excited about.

Further tamping down my interest in March Madness was my feeling like this was the way it is going to be from now on. With fields compromised of many Mid-Majors that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve gone dancing, the College Basketball Invitational and College Basketball Insider.Com — as well as the NIT to a certain extent — seem on their way to becoming the college basketball version of non-BCS bowls. There’s not much money in them and there isn’t that much exposure, but it’s better than nothing.

And better than nothing is probably the best those of us in the Mid-Major nation can hope for when it comes to big-time college football and basketball. (Actually, my best friend and fellow UB alum Eric and I have been talking about an idea for non-BCS leagues when it comes to football for a while now that I’ll share in a later post.) And better than nothing pretty much sucks. So I officially checked out of the 2008-09 college hoops season on Sunday March 22nd when Cleveland State and Siena lost their second round Big Dance games.

As for the NBA, I haven’t been able to generate much enthusiasm for it. Certainly, the 2009 playoffs had some compelling moments, but nothing that got me motivated enough to post about it. And the fact is, the NBA just isn’t my bag anymore.

When I first started Notes From A Basketball Junkie in 2002 my life was a lot different than it is now. I was going on my second year living in New York City and had so few friends that I somehow ended up playing Dungeons and Dragons a couple times a month with a few guys that also had no friends. It was, to put it mildly, pathetic. But at least I was drinking someplace other than my apartment or Rudy’s a couple times a month. So playing D& was progress.

The embarrassingly complete lack of social life was complemented by a job with an NYC pension fund so mind-numbing that my erstwhile colleagues were able to satisfactorily fulfill their duties while napping at their desks, throwing up in garbage cans, having sex in the hallways, fighting in the restrooms, and typing with but a single hand. Working in that sort of environment and having nothing outside of work to do other than numb myself with too much beer (apologies to legendary Rochester hardcore outfit Hunger Artist), meant that I needed something to throw myself into just to stay semi-sane. That became this blog and the NBA.

I could always find a Knicks game to watch and since the NBA season lasts longer than an epoch, I could find a steady stream of NBA news on the web to post about. Plus, the busier I was with the blog, the less free time I had to play D&D. It was a win-win. For the time being.

Nearly seven years after my first post, I can happily say that my life in no way, shape, or form resembles what it was in 2002. I spent a few years earning an MS in Policy Analysis and Management, which allowed me to get out of the mind-numbing hell I was in, and find a gig that is challenging, interesting, and even frustrating. And I don’t mind since it beats not giving a shit. However, there are still some downsides. My pay still in no way, shape, or form is commensurate with my skill level and, most importantly for NFABJ, I often come home from work wanting nothing to do with, well, thinking. And that can make blogging tough.

My girlfriend and I have been the proud owners of the most stubborn, yet adorable and playful Shih Tzu-Lapso-mutt mix on the planet for the past year. It may sound stupid, but the dog requires a lot of attention. Walks, feeding, and playing take time and energy. And that’s time and energy I don’t have for other stuff. Like watching the Knicks and blogging about it.

I guess that’s the point of this post — life changes. I’m not who I was in 2002 and this blog isn’t what it was back then either. And I don’t really know what that means for the future. I can say that, thanks to a miracle worker named Turner Gill, I’m pretty excited about the upcoming college football season in forever. I’m also excited about the 2009-10 UB Bulls basketball team. That being said, I don’t foresee this space becoming all about UB athletics or anything like that. I do know that I’d like it to be more personal and to better reflect my interests and personality so once I get back in the groove of writing regularly, I anticipate that happening.

That means more posts about soccer. That means that my Bills and Sabres will be getting the occasional shout-out. That means that I might even share my top secret sangria recipe. Why not? After all, I pay Bluehost for this space every year. I might as well as have fun with it.

At the end of the day, I started writing this blog because, well, I was bored and wanted to do something that would make me happy and I could have fun with. I may not be bored anymore, but I still want this blog to be a source of fun and happiness for me, as well as being, at the very least, mildly amusing to those that read it.

Summer is usually my laziest time of the year when it comes blogging because I tend to spend more time outside and less time inside. Unless Brooklyn continues to be deluged with rains of biblical proportions, I expect that trend to continue. However, don’t be surprised if posts lamenting how terrible the New York Red Bulls are or counting down to UB vs UTEP on September 5th keep on popping up.

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