Ben Johnson

My brain will randomly go nooo-ner-nooo-neeee-noooo from time to time.

@UVAWomensHoops I need fired-up-Romi to be my alarm clock alarm

Steal and score by Romi and we've got a UGA timeout🤭 UVA 21 - 16 UGA | 1:05 1Q #GoHoos 🔸⚔️🔹 #GNSL

This morning @scratchyjohnson tweeted an important factoid. Squanto, the Indian who spoke English and helped the pilgrims survive, was sold by John Smith to a Spaniards and the deed exists in the city we're in for Excursion. Rather than rolling our eyes, Alan, Gavin & I went to the state archives in Málaga to see if we can find said recorded deed of 20 Indians sold by John Smith to Juan Bautista Reales. We get to the Archives (see Alan's picture below), and a small genial white lab coat wearing gentleman who speaks no English says this is impossible to find. His new boss, the head archivist, Carmen, comes in and says it certainly exists but may be difficult to find. If you only had the year. We tell her it was 1614. She pulls up a list of the books from 29 notaries whose work they have from 1614. She asks who the notary was. We have no idea. They say they can't go through 29 archives to look for it. Also it's all in old Spanish which nobody speaks and it'll be hard to locate even if they know the Notary. So Alan and Gavin get to work. Gavin finds an article in the internet archive that seems to have a partial picture of the document. Carmen and the other archivist decipher the name after 15 min. They find that name in their cross reference. Carmen goes to the vault to look while the lab coat gentleman asks for my life history, driver's licence number and a lien on my grandchildren. Totally worth it. Carmen comes back to say she found the volume. It is tremendously delicate. Opening it may break some pages. Does it have to be today because if so the answer will be no. We ask her if this is interesting to them. Both very seriously nod their heads. We tell them this is very important to the United States and many of our friends. Carmen tells us she will find it but that it takes time. White linen gloves and patience. We tell her to take her time. She says she will take a picture and email it to me. So here's why all this is important: after Squanto was sold by an Englishman to a Spaniard names Reales, said Spaniard brought Squanto and 19 other "inios" to Málaga. He recorded the deed in the state archives. Then a Franciscan priest ransomed Squanto. Squanto became Catholic. Was baptized and confirmed in Málaga. He then made his way to England where he worked and learned English. He paid his passage back across the ocean and found his Wampanoag tribesmen. Then when the Pilgrims landed they found a Catholic English-speaking native who helped them survive their first winter. It is entirely possible that but for a Franciscan priest who ransomed Squanto, the Pilgrims may not have survived their first winter in New England. That's history. American history. And the record of it is in Málaga. In a book. One of 29 books kept by notaries in Málaga in 1614. That are still searchable. This image, when it comes, belongs in the US National Archive. This is Cultural Debris. x.com/i/status/20349… cc: @alancornett @gwbled @Gonnassaurius_ @wrathofgnon

@vashikoo Don't forget the Nazi advisor.

Stanley Kubrick predicted Pete Hegseth and a bald president back in 1964.

@GopherHole Sometimes the old ways are best.

You know who get this game turned around? BLANKET LADY. She got this crowd on their feet when the #Gophers needed her most!

@SethDavisHoops Just give the coaches a big red timeout button. Stops the clock, blows the horn.

Some thoughts on the epic end of regulation in Kentucky-Santa Clara: 1. Herb Sendek was trying to call time out but the refs didn't see it. This is why I do NOT like the rule allowing coaches to call time out. Do you want refs looking at the bench or the court? That rule went away a few years ago but the coaches wanted it back. Get rid of it! 2. There's still some debate over whether fouling up three is the right strategy, but the evidence is quite clear. Fouling up three with under five seconds to play pretty much doubles your chances of avoiding overtime. No strategy is perfect but it is the right thing to do! 3. That said, it's hard to execute that in a scramble like in this case. Don't always assume the players know how many points they're up in that situation! Lots going on and they're not all totally locked in. Happens more than you think. So the question is what have you practiced for? What's your policy? They need to be properly trained for when the moment comes, whatever you decide. 4. At the end of the day, it was a crazy, halfcourt, banked in shot. Hoop happens! And so Otega Oweh shot himself forever into NCAA Tournament lore. Somewhere Cawood Ledford is smiling!

Down 103-67 to Illinois, Penn's band is chanting: "That's okay, that's okay, you're going to work for us someday."

Oh, Kymora Johnson. What a big shot. Kid is simply elite.

@ayscuek2 Now an F1

OMG! The "unobserved foul" curse has followed us to Iowa!

@CanesCoachL @BullpenMafia @MarchMadnessMBB @CanesHoops Gotta have the coat and tie. What other prop can a coach throw in disgust and not get tossed?

Remember when Coaches wore a Suit & Tie on the sidelines? Now they wear coaching gear. Which do you prefer? #tbt #marchmadness #collegebasketball @BullpenMafia

@WillsWorldMN Booo. No fun, too much chalk.

And now, the moment none of you have waited for-my men’s and women’s tournament brackets.

@keara_bruno Romi could certainly be an X-factor. She's due to light it up again .

We built our dream March Madness team with current #UVA players🕺 We think it’s an elite lineup. Thoughts??

@kellygramlich @jennhildreth Do you prefer the skybox or court side when working a game for broadcast?

The journey to the crows nest in Cameron Indoor for @jennhildreth & myself as we get ready to call the first game of this year’s NCAA Women’s Tournament!

@YolettMcCuin that, still playing halves. Face it, Coach - the boys are neanderthals living in the stone age. WBB is the future!

I can’t believe the men haven’t gone to 1/2 court advancement under the 1 min mark.

For giggles I built a bespoke bracket game for our office pool. The pool is closed (well, I can be bribed to add your entry) but you can have fun with the Whack-A-Bracket mode!!!! brackets.bluepixelcreates.com/whack-a-bracket

@tmvn @DoctorLemma And a much better song with a much better tune

@DoctorLemma Tom Paxton did it first... in 1985. youtube.com/watch?v=mwV8oz…

A musician once cost an airline $180 million because they wouldn’t pay him $1,200 for a broken guitar. In 2008, Canadian musician Dave Carroll was on a connecting flight when a passenger behind him looked out the window and said, “My God, they’re throwing guitars out there.” When Carroll opened his case at his destination, his $3,500 Taylor acoustic, an instrument he’d saved for months to buy, had a hole smashed through it. He called the airline. They bounced him between departments for nine months. He was told to fly to another country to file his complaint in person. He was hung up on, ignored, and eventually told the matter was closed. His final request for $1,200 in flight vouchers to cover repair costs was rejected. So he asked himself: “If Michael Moore was a singer-songwriter, what would he do?” He wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars,” filmed a music video for $150, and uploaded it to the internet. His goal was one million views in a year. It hit 150,000 on the first day. Within a week it was the number one music video in the world. Within four weeks, news outlets reported the airline’s share price had dropped 10%, wiping roughly $180 million in value. The airline called him. They offered the $1,200 they’d originally refused, plus $1,200 in cash. The owner of Taylor Guitars personally rang and told him to come to the factory and pick out two guitars as a gift. Carroll became an international speaker on customer service. The airline used his video for internal training. He still flies with them. A United employee once walked up to him at an airport, looked around to make sure no colleagues were watching, shielded himself with his jacket, and quietly reached out to shake his hand.

@tmvn @DoctorLemma The OG

@ATRightMovies Three Kings rips off a lot of Kelly's Heros

@YolettMcCuin The Gopher fan in me...

I just looked up the weather in Minneapolis

@Mikeysurf It would be cool to have a Thanksgiving tournament at JPJ that features UVA and teams connected to the Debbie Ryan tree.

Geno Auriemma was a UVA assistant coach to Debbie Ryan on the bench for the Wahoos during that 1st NCAA appearance. A year later, John Casteen, then president at UConn, suggested to his AD to take a look at a young UVA assistant coaching at his alma mater for the school’s new women’s basketball coach. The rest as they say is history…