Stream Of Consciousness - UAB

We're back. In terms of the Big Two sports, the buzzer sounded on the end of the Final Four game against UConn 151 days ago. And now, for the next eight months, non-stop games to discuss. From now through Detroit. We made it.

And it always begins with the first SOC. Every Friday night (or, you know, sometimes, Wednesday nights) for the last 17 years I've written a Stream Of Consciousness post. The first one was before the 2009 Missouri game, 17 years ago tonight. This will be my eighteenth season writing SOC's.

The rules, in case you forgot:

1. No editing. Write straight through and then hit publish. No going back to re-read. No going back to edit.
2. For the first SOC, predict not only the game result but the season result.
3. Don't write anything before the sun goes down the night before the game.

For 17 years now I have held to those rules. I've never written an SOC in the daylight. I've never edited an SOC. And I've never missed writing one for a real game*.

*I didn't write an SOC for one Illini "game" in 2020. The Big Ten, after so many Covid cancellations, added a "bonus" game at Penn State in December of 2020. Lovie had already been fired and Rod Smith was the coach. Many Illini players would miss the game due to Covid restrictions. Nobody on either side of the ball cared about the game at all - it felt like a scrimmage. So I didn't really find it worthy of an SOC.

Anyone remember the shortest SOC? That's right, the SOC before the Wisconsin game in 2011. Here was the entire post:

(We lost 28-17. Actually led at halftime. That's the game where Wisconsin scored four times on four drives that started in Illinois territory. And Aaron Henry set up one of the touchdowns with an interception.)

So here we are, starting year 18 of Stream Of Consciousness posts. I'm still drenched in sweat from loading the fire engine with all of the tailgating supplies. We're rolling out of the driveway at 6:45 am. Time to SOC.