Two Percent Nation

Tiki to retire

A mixture of disappointment and incredulity when I read this Times report that Tiki Barber is planning to retire after this season. Disappointment because the Giants will lose their best offensive weapon and Tiki may not get that Super Bowl championship he wanted. My bewilderment stems from the fact that Tiki was my classmate at UVA and to imagine myself or any of my classmates already retiring is crazy. Clearly this is just Tiki's first career. But still, it's weird that when I see him at our 10-year reunion next spring I'll still feel like I'm just getting started in my first career while he's moving on to his second.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=25145

Go Hoos - UVA wins fourth lacrosse title

The game was a lot closer throughout than the final score belies, but UVA ultimately trounced UMass to win a national championship in lacrosse in what was an extremely exciting game.  The team went undefeated for the season and became the first college lacrosse team to ever notch 17 wins in one season.  Though we can't seem to make it to the elite level in big-time college sports like football and basketball, Virginia continues to dominate in smaller sports like lacrosse, soccer, polo, swimming, etc..

It's official: Larry Brown is the new Knicks coach

The courtship was quick but as of today it's finally a reality - Larry Brown is now the head coach of the New York Knicks.  As a longtime fan I'm very excited to have one of the greatest coaches of all-time in New York.  With all of the roster changes Isiah Thomas has made in the offseason this upcoming season promises to be interesting at the least.  Hopefully it will be exciting as well.  We'll just have to wait and see.  With Brown on staff now there may be even more roster moves before long.

Tiki Time

So today I got to meet and chat with the most well-known alum from my UVA graduating class.

My father is Chair of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) National Conference going on in NYC this week and he happened to book NY Giants running back Tiki Barber as one of the main speakers. So I took the opportunity to check out the conference and join my dad for the luncheon so I could hear Tiki's speech.

Before things got started I had the opportunity to meet Tiki and have an informal photo opp.  He was extremely friendly and we chatted for a few minutes about Charlottesville, the 1995 UVA-Florida State game and the Bodo's Bagels that finally opened on the Corner after years of mysterious delays.

Tiki was well-spoken but his remarks were unsurprisingly general. He spoke about different kinds of leadership and contrasted the styles of Jim Fassel and Tom Coughlin. Tiki's connection to financial aid is tenuous, though he started off his remarks by noting that he was grateful for being able to supplement his athletic scholaship with a PELL Grant. However his combination of NY sports star glamour and scholar-athlete credentials actually made him a pretty good fit for the conference. It was great to meet him and I'm proud of him as both a Giants fan and a fellow Wahoo.