Soaked in Santa Barbara
The Back Roads to March, Altamirano’s Mexican Grill, Ian & Sylvia, Donovan Mitchell, Troublesome TV
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. I hope you enjoy the picks and pics.
Fave Five 15: Soaked in Santa Barbara. Basketball Book (The Back Roads to March), Tasty Taco (Altamirano’s Mexican Grill), Canadian Cowboy (Ian & Sylvia), Cleveland Cavalier (Donovan Mitchell), and a Troublesome TV.
We had a bit of rain here in Santa Barbara on Monday. I waited all day to see if it would let up enough for me to get in my daily one-hour walk. When the College Football Playoff Championship predictably turned into a rout around 6:30 PST, I decided to head out. At the halfway point of the walk, the rain started up again. Because of how I held my umbrella, my left arm got soaked, but I mostly stayed dry.
Many of our friends have asked if we were affected. We are fortunate to be renting a duplex on high ground and have not experienced any flooding. Other parts of the area did not fare as well. The two scenes below show kayaking and standup paddleboarding down local streets.
Book Best Bet
The Back Roads to March: The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season by John Feinstein
The college basketball season is in full swing, with conference games dominating the schedule. My Michigan State Spartans won a tough road game last night in Madison, Wisconsin, 69-65. I love most sports, and college basketball is my favorite. In April I will attend my 19th Final Four, this time in Houston. It will be the 14th with my son, Roger — one of our most cherished father/son traditions.
Roger gave me this book, and I enjoyed reading it. I have read three previous books by John Feinstein:
A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers
The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball
A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference
This one is similar to the others. It’s an entertaining personal journal of a single season with details about coaches, players, and basketball history. Feinstein loves turning the spotlight on lesser-known programs, players, and coaches, as he did in The Last Amateurs. I recommend this book to all hoop junkies.
From Amazon: John Feinstein returns to his first love—college basketball—with a fascinating and compelling journey through a landscape of unsung, unpublicized and often unknown heroes of Division 1 college hoops.
John Feinstein pulls back the curtain on college basketball's lesser-known Cinderella stories—the smaller programs who no one expects to win, who have no chance of attracting the most coveted high school recruits. To tell this story, Feinstein follows a handful of players, coaches, and schools who dream, not of winning the NCAA tournament, but of making it past their first or second round games. Every once in a while, one of these coaches or players is plucked from obscurity to lead a major team or to play professionally, cementing their status in these fiercely passionate fan bases as a legend. These are the gifted players who aren't handled with kid gloves—they're hardworking, gritty teammates who practice and party with everyone else.
With his trademark humor and invaluable connections, John Feinstein reveals the big-time programs you've never heard of, the bracket busters you didn't expect to cheer for, and the coaches who inspire them to take their teams to the next level.
In this fascinating history, sportswriter Feinstein (A Season on the Brink) takes a look at lesser-known college basketball teams. In order to explore the “real joys of college basketball,” Feinstein eschews the big money and future NBA stars of celebrated universities to focus on the sheer love of the game that characterizes smaller schools, covering the 2018 basketball season from November to the March playoffs… It’s all net for Feinstein’s passionate basketball history. — Publishers Weekly
Rousing… The author is a sympathetic observer, fan, reporter, and scholar all at once, and he delivers reams of information about how the game has evolved… Feinstein writes with warmth and enthusiasm of a beloved sport in a book that will grab any fan. — Kirkus
Restaurant Recommendation
Altamirano’s Mexican Grill 5838 Hollister Ave, Goleta, CA 93117
On Taco Tuesdays, Barb and I try to sample as many of the local taquerias as we can. Last year we spent the winter near Old Town Goleta, home to many authentic Mexican restaurants. Altamirano’s was the first one we tried last year, and it was one of the best. Among the specialties we enjoyed then were:
Taco Altamirano: A grilled pasilla pepper stuffed with cheese and mixed with grilled pork over three homemade corn tortillas
Chicken Mole: House mole sauce made from scratch and served with two chicken pieces and tortillas
Fish Taco: Fresh grilled swordfish on two tortillas topped with tartar sauce, cabbage, and pico de gallo
Last night we carried out from Altamirano’s again. The highlights were:
Taco de Calabacita: marinated pork cooked with zucchini, onions, tomatoes and cheese on top of two handmade corn tortillas
Adobado Torta: Mexican sandwich with beans, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole, and marinated pork
The Taco de Calabacita was delicious. Next time, we will order more. We also had Tacos Adobado and an Asada Burrito.
Marvelous Musicians
I was sad to hear that Ian Tyson died on December 29, 2022. I love the singing of Ian & Sylvia, especially their distinctive harmonies.
I heard their music growing up, and also covers of Ian's songs by Judy Collins (“Someday Soon”), We Five (“You Were on My Mind”), and Neil Young (“Four Strong Winds”). I saw Ian performing “Four Strong Winds” on TV during the opening ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Their 1967 versions of “Hang on to a Dream” and “Reason to Believe” were among the first Tim Hardin covers ever recorded.
Four Strong Winds (short clip)
Four Strong Winds
You Were on My Mind
Someday Soon with Judy Collins
From Wikipedia: Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975. They recorded a country rock album as Great Speckled Bird, a band formed in 1969 with Buddy Cage on pedal steel guitar, Amos Garrett on guitar and backup vocals, and N.D. Smart on drums. The album is notable for being the first album to be produced by Todd Rundgren. In 1992, Ian & Sylvia were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In 1994, they were both made Members of the Order of Canada.
Ian Dawson Tyson CM AOE (born September 25, 1933 in Victoria, British Columbia; died December 29, 2022 in Longview, Alberta) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2006.
Sylvia Tyson, CM (born September 19, 1940 in Chatham, Ontario) is a musician, performer, singer/songwriter, and broadcaster. Since 1993, she has been a member of the all-female folk group Quartette with Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick.
My Playlist
Sports Star
Since my Detroit Pistons won three championships in 1989, 1990, and 2004, they have fallen on hard times. One reason is that Joe Dumars drafted Darko Miličić in 2003 instead of Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, or Chris Bosh. Since then, the team has repeatedly failed to find great players to draft. Here are eight examples of players they could have picked over the past decade but passed over:
2020 Tyrese (Haliburton or Maxey) instead of Killian Hayes
2019 Grant Williams or Jordan Poole instead of Sekou Doumbouya
2017 Donovan Mitchell instead of Luke Kennard
2016 Caris LeVert or Malcolm Brogdon instead of Henry Ellenson
2015 Devin Booker instead of Stanley Johnson
2014 Nikola Jokic instead of Spencer Dinwiddie
2013 CJ McCollum instead of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
2012 Draymond Green instead of Andre Drummond
One of these, Donovan Mitchell, a three-time NBA All-Star, has been having some huge games recently. Last night he made an emotional return to Utah. He scored Cleveland’s first points — a triple from the left wing. He had a dozen in the opening quarter. He was up to 25 by halftime. He finished with 46 points on 14 of 27 shooting, 7 of 18 from 3-point range, and 11 of 11 from the free-throw line to go with six assists, five rebounds and three steals in 36 spectacular minutes.
Tribute Video
From Wikipedia: Mitchell was drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the 13th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft only to be traded to the Utah Jazz for the 24th pick (Tyler Lydon) and former Piston Trey Lyles. That was a rather lopsided trade.
Mitchell played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals, earning first-team all-conference honors in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 2017. As a rookie with the Utah Jazz, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and won the Slam Dunk Contest in 2018.
On September 1, 2022, Mitchell was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, and Ochai Agbaji, three first round picks, and two pick swaps. He made his regular season debut on October 19, putting up 31 points and nine assists in a 108–105 loss to the Toronto Raptors. On October 28, Mitchell scored 41 points in a 132–123 overtime win over the Boston Celtics. He and teammate Caris LeVert each had 41 points. The last time the Cavaliers had multiple 40-point scorers was Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both had 41.[81] The next game, Mitchell had a career-high 12 assists and scored 38 points in a 121–108 win over the New York Knicks. On December 6, Mitchell scored 43 points on 17-of-27 shooting from the field in a 116–102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
On January 2, 2023, Mitchell scored an NBA season-high, career-high, and Cavaliers-record 71 points, along with eight rebounds and 11 assists, in a 145–134 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls. It was the highest-scoring game for any NBA player since Kobe Bryant's 81-point game in 2006. Mitchell became the seventh player in NBA history to score 70 or more points in a game, and the first to do so with at least 10 assists.
Every single point from Donovan Mitchell’s 71-point game
Picture Pun
Troublesome TV
Discarded this TV because it never worked. When I pushed the button to watch the “Cook” channel, I saw a light and heard a sound, but there was no picture.
Really enjoy reading your newsletter. I enjoy learning about the many topics you write about… also enjoy your voice and word choice in writing… sure I am not the first to tell you that!