Christian Zavisca

Go Crusaders

Attended the Valparaiso University men's basketball game last night ... and they lost, to Wright State. However, a good time was had by all. Popcorn, conversation, and ran into a couple of old friends. A fine Thursday eve.

A tale of two coaches

Lane Kiffin.

Joe Paterno.

Fantasy football update: You win some, you lose a few more

In my decades-old, full-roster league, I'm languishing in seventh place out of eight. In this league, we keep score by head-to-head results as well as cumulative totals, and I somehow managed to win the "weeks" crown with a 12-5 record, thanks to a combination of lousy weeks by my opponents and a few big-scoring weeks by my squad. Jay Cutler did a nice job of torpedoing my overall season with his multi-interception outings.

In my other league, I placed third out of 10 teams. Chris Johnson and Tom Brady kept me in it, but the rest of my roster wasn't much to brag about.

Catching up with Notre Dame's Harrison Smith

Last week I filed a story for my former employer, the Knoxville News Sentinel, on Knoxville's Harrison Smith, a football player for the University of Notre Dame. He's a junior starting on the defensive side of the ball for the Fighting Irish.

The parallels are many. Smith, the subject of a recruiting battle between Notre Dame and the University of Tennessee, picked ND and moved three years ago to South Bend, Ind., my hometown. I lived in Knoxville for nearly five years, and in mid-September moved to Valparaiso, Ind., an hour east of South Bend. And I'm freelancing for notredame.scout.com covering football, so it was a natural to write a story for the News Sentinel on Harrison, who was a good sport.

I agree with him 100 percent on one subject.

Smith does admit that he's struggled a bit to adjust to one aspect of life in the Midwest: the much colder weather.

So in his third year in South Bend, 100-some miles east of Chicago, has he gotten used to the bone-chilling winters?

"No," he replied. "That was one thing I kind of worried about when I was getting recruited, and then I thought, 'It's not a big deal.' But actually, it's kind of worse than I thought.

"And it lasts until summer pretty much. You're in April and it's snowing."

USC 34, Notre Dame 27: The latest Game of the Century

I covered one of the bigger games in recent Notre Dame football history on Saturday in South Bend.

If you're a fan or not, you probably already know the story.

The atmosphere befitted a big-game setting. Traffic was heavier than usual. The neighborhood where I normally park on game days across the street from campus on the Angela side was completely overrun by folks with the same idea. The week before for the Washington game, I had my choice of spots.

There were celebrity sightings (Will Ferrell and Spike Lee, the South Bend Tribune reported), and press-box spots reserved for Lou Holtz, Ara Parseghian and Gerry Faust.

It didn't go Notre Dame's way, but it was a great game that came down to the final play. As a disinterested observer, that's what you hope for.

Stuff you learn as a freelance sports reporter

I moved back to northern Indiana recently after spending several years down South. Now, I went to school here in Valparaiso, at Valparaiso University, and I grew up an hour east in South Bend, but I hadn't spent much time in the region in quite a while. So freelancing for the Post-Tribune and scout.com (covering Notre Dame) has been fun, and educational. I've learned:

1. Some local geography I would not otherwise have gotten to know. I had no idea that I lived so close to Portage and Wheeler high schools.

2. That you need to remember which organization you work for. I've been telling people that I work for the Knoxville News Sentinel for the past four-plus years. These days when I introduce myself, "News Sentinel" is still on the tip of my tongue. I haven't actually blurted it out yet, but I'm sure I will.

3. That I don't yet know the little tricks that can help a sportswriter make deadline. I parked in what I thought was a good spot at Portage High School for the Portage-Chesterton football game last week, but I still got stuck in some horrendous postgame parking-lot traffic. I know next time to park way, way out, near the only exit that's not blocked off after the event.

4. GPS can be a lifesaver. MapQuest, I love ya, but in this instance, not so much. Driving from Valpo to Notre Dame-at-Purdue football last weekend, I was led by the driving-direction site to a dead end (unless I followed the directions wrong, which is entirely possible). And then I remembered that my handy-dandy new iPhone has GPS, I turned it on, and the phone showed that I was only about a mile and two left turns away from Ross-Ade Stadium. Plus, I stumbled upon a free (nights and weekends) parking garage. Still stunned by that on a football gameday.

5. Sometimes, on a weeknight, when you're covering a local sporting event, all kinds of crazy national news breaks.

2016 hysteria here in Chicagoland

The 2016 Summer Olympics vote is almost upon us, and Chicago media hysteria is everywhere. I'm watching with interest, like everyone else. I asked Bill James via his (subscription, but only $3 a month!) Web site what he thought, and (I don't think he'd mind too much if I paraphrase) he replied that if he was a Chicagoan, he'd probably be supportive, pointing to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago as a similarly high-profile event that worked out well for the city.

I don't know whether it will be good or bad for the city, but I will admit that I am enthusiastic about the idea that I might get to go see the Olympic marathons at a site not even an hour from home.

Recent freelance work

notredame.scout.com: Game story on 24-21 win at Purdue.

notredame.scout.com: ND-Purdue followup (subscription).

Post-Tribune high school football: Chesterton 34, Portage 31.

Back on the sports beat

I worked in the newspaper business for about 15 years. I began my illustrious print journalism career as sports editor at The Torch, Valparaiso University's student newspaper, before getting into the news side.

So it's been fun to come back around and freelance on the sports side, for this Notre Dame site and, starting Friday, for the Post-Tribune.

On Saturday I covered Notre Dame's 33-30 home win over Michigan State. I took a couple of iPhone photos on the sideline that weren't half-bad.

Fantasy Football 2.0

It was a rough debut for the S.B. Studebakers, my Hamilton Field league team, as we got walloped 696-423 by The Steiners.

My first-round running backs, Michael Turner and Steven Jackson, failed to show up, and quarterback Jay Cutler threw four picks. Plus, opposing QB Drew Brees threw six touchdowns. Not a great Sunday.

To explain: This league dates back to my high school days (i.e. 1991). Unlike most fantasy football leagues, we draft individual defensive players, who score points for tackles, sacks, interceptions, touchdowns, and other accomplishments. Under our scoring system, 500 points is a good team week.

We've advanced from the days when The Commish tallied the points out of Monday's USA Today to a Web application that does most of the heavy lifting, and we draft via chat room instead of from O'Malley's basement. But the same camaraderie, trash talking and good fun remains.

Many more weeks like this, though, and the league isn't going to be much fun for yours truly. I've won my other league two years running, but in this league, I've been in the wilderness for a few seasons.

My roster:

Cutler, Jay CHI QB
Hasselbeck, Matt SEA QB
Quinn, Brady CLE QB
Jackson, Steven STL RB
Johnson, Larry KCC RB
Jones, Felix DAL RB
Lynch, Marshawn BUF RB
Moreno, Knowshon DEN RB
Turner, Michael ATL RB
Bennett, Earl CHI WR
Bowe, Dwayne KCC WR
Cotchery, Jerricho NYJ WR
Crabtree, Michael SFO WR
Nicks, Hakeem NYG WR
Wayne, Reggie IND WR
Davis, Vernon SFO TE
Gates, Antonio SDC TE
Mare, Olindo SEA PK
Henderson, John JAC DT
Ratliff, Jay DAL DT
Allen, Jared MIN DE
Ayers, Robert DEN DE
Kerney, Patrick SEA DE
Long, Chris STL DE
Laurinaitis, James STL LB
Merriman, Shawne SDC LB
Tatupu, Lofa SEA LB
Urlacher, Brian CHI LB
Willis, Patrick SFO LB
Bailey, Champ DEN CB
Bodden, Leigh NEP CB
Cromartie, Antonio SDC CB
Rodgers-Cromartie, Dominique ARI CB
Bethea, Antoine IND S
Landry, LaRon WAS S
Rhodes, Kerry NYJ S
Chargers, San Diego SDC ST