This week marked the beginning of practice for the college basketball season, and thus the start what should be the return of this area to the top of the college basketball mountain.
Most people have picked IU as the preseason number 1 and the favorite to win the NCAA title. The few that didn't pick IU went with UL as the favorite and the Cards are generally picked to at least duplicate their run last year to the Final Four. Throw in UK, who is the defending National Champions, and who are generally picked no lower than 5th in the preseason polls and you can label the Kentuckiana area as the center of the college basketball world.
IU has probably the best player in the country going into the season with Cody Zoeller. He is complimented by a balanced cast that makes IU a threat on offence from every where on the court.
UL has senior point guard Peyton Siva and Sophomore stud forward Shane Behanan anchoring their quest to return to college basketball's final weekend. And one of, in not the, deepest benches in the country.
UK returns sophomore forward and shooter Kyle Wiltjer off last year's National Championship squad to go along with the country's number one recruiting class that is filled with high profile NBA prospects.
Not since the late '70's, early '80's have the area teams been so highly regarded. At that point, all three teams were perennial Final Four teams and all came away with at least one championship during that time.
Now thanks to John Calipari's unprecedented recruiting and winning of the National Championship last year, IU's emergence last season as an elite team, and UL's remarkable run to the Final Four all three are considered "elite" teams this. And for all the craziness that college basketball brings out in the locals, this year we can rightfully be called "The Center Of The College Basketball World"!
Now to the on to the Wrap Up:
-The biggest news of the week was the announcement of the return of the out door ice rink for the holiday season. It will open on "Black Friday" and run 7 days a week through the holidays. It will remain open during January, but as of this point, only on the weekends.
I will bash the mayor whenever he does something that I think is bad or wrong. Well I'm a big enough person to give him kudos when they're deserved as well. And on this I say: "Kudos mayor."
This was a huge success last year and bringing it back was a no brainer. It would have only been a completely petty move not to bring it back and the mayor was above that on this issue. While, local attendance may drop this year from the "newness" being gone, hopefully attendance from outside the city will increase as people hear about it for the second year in a row and decide to see what the deal is. This is something that is unique and adds a holiday feeling to the city and hopefully can be an asset to local businesses.
Far too often do we read on the message boards something like "I don't use it, why should I pay for it?" Well, as someone who will not be using it (come on people, I can barely walk straight with shoes on, let alone skate) I say this my tax money well spent and I am happy to see it make its return.
-The New & Tribune has a nice piece on the Pilot House project that you can read here. It basically states that the project is in limbo with many questions that no one seems to be looking for the answers on. It also seems to me from reading it that many at city hall are just fine with the project being on hold right now.
This is a unique little circumstance here. One of Mikey's group of supporters are the people that think that Jeff should exist in a bubble and only focus on itself. A "Mayberry" kind of existence if you will. This would be right up their alley. However, there has just been one problem after another trying to get this project off the ground. Most of which seem to have nothing to do with the mayor's administration.
The thing is that most of the problems are all small problems (although, as stated above, there are a LOT of them), and those could dealt with and the project could move forward if the administration would put their figurative head down and plow forward.
Instead, its seems that they are hoping that this project just fades from people's memory. That way they don't have to get their hands dirty, but also don't have to be the ones that put the ax to the project. Mikey likes to straddle the fence as much as possible.
-This week Jeffersonville joined the Water Patrol game. On Friday, they launched their new patrol boat that they will use to help monitor and protect the Ohio river and the people on it with. They received a federal grant for the purchase of the boat and also to cover the cost of the training to operate the boat and the procedures to use.
I'm not sure this was needed, but in the event of an emergency, any chance we have to increase response time I'm all for.
- Beginning Monday, Mulberry Street between Chestnut and Market streets in downtown Jeffersonville will be closed until the November the 5th. This is so more work can be done on the landing ramp from the pedestrian bridge.
-Finally, I don't know if anyone noticed, but New Albany took over the management of their sewers operations. It is expected to save them quite a bit of money. And that only makes sense. Cut out the middle man and that's one less person you have to pay.
I only bring this up because former mayor Tom Galligan took some heat when he did the same thing. Turns out he was just a head of the curve.
We will now all wait for Debbie Harbeson to write her column on the evils of government running a sewer.
-That's it folks. I'll be back later in the week or as news warrants. Until then feel free to comment below and like the Facebook page!
No comments:
Post a Comment