Segregated Studies?

As a dedicated sports fan, I was glued to the TV for the opening weekend of March Madness. Nothing fuels that feeling of inadequacy for Joe Fan who thinks that maybe he can still play basketball more than witnessing these tattooed young Adonises race up and down the court accomplishing incredibly athletic feats that I can only dream about. On the other hand, at least my shorts fit!

Two items struck my sense of the absurd:

In one of the games, a TV screen caption listed the class, hometown, and academic major of the players when they went to the free throw line. A common major for players at one school was "Integrated Studies". Now this is undeniably superior to "Segregated Studies" which was a common major before Brown v. Board of Education and no doubt goes hand-in-hand with "Differential Studies" for students who want the complete Calculus experience. To their credit, these Integrated Studies majors at least made a decision. Far and away, the most popular major was "Undeclared".

The radio broadcast of the Syracuse - Gonzaga game mentioned the unlikely derivation of 'Cuse guard "Scoop" Jardine's nickname. One would assume that the moniker resulted from Jardine's skill at driving "scoop" lay-ups. In fact, it dates back to his infancy when his grandmother noted that his head resembled an ice cream scoop. "Bring on that half-gallon of Tutti Fruiti, Grandma. We'll use the baby's head to fill our bowls."

One tends to grow a little crazy after 20 plus hours of basketball over four days.