It didn’t occur to me when it happened Sunday night. But when it was noted that Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team won the program’s second national title 17 years to the day after the first championship, it reminded me of one of my more memorable experiences in journalism.

I was working at The Associated Press in April 2001, and I was sent to West Lafayette to get color for our story as the national championship game pitted the Irish against Purdue. My wife tagged along, we hung out at a bar with one of her friends, watched the game. Purdue lost, we went to get some real food, waited to make sure nothing happened.

Well, things happened. Some Purdue fans decided to riot because why not, so we headed back to campus to get some details and talk with campus police.

As we drove back onto campus, we saw smoke up ahead. We already knew there had been some couch burning, so I figured no big deal to drive through it.

It wasn’t smoke.

So … my one and only time experiencing the joys of tear gas came while I was covering the aftermath of a women’s basketball game.

Don’t let anybody tell you women’s basketball can’t be exciting. It might even take your breath away.

Cool links

Speaking of basketball, there’s a cool challenge in this week’s Riddler Classic at fivethirtyeight.com: try to determine how many transitive national champions there are in men’s college basketball this year after Villanova won the actual title.

And also sport-related: I had the opportunity to interview a member of Team USA’s sled hockey team that won the gold medal at last month’s Paralympic Games.

There’s an interesting piece here on whether journalism is a form of activism. I’ve got some thoughts on that, which I’ll share once I figure out what they are. #procrastinator

I was disappointed to find out that I really don’t know what a haiku is, apparently.

Something else for me to follow up on: this Indy Star series on organ donation.

The Pacers are starting to get more attention outside of Indiana.

And I need to print this off and post it somewhere prominent to remind myself to DO THE THING.

Until next week…

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