Maybe it was the Mountain Dew.

Maybe it was the fact that my alarm didn’t go off and I automatically woke up at 3:45 a.m. anyway.

Whatever the reason, I was a bit riled up for today’s edition of the award-winning WGEM SportsCenter program on ESPN 1440.

First up, a debate with host Josh Houchins on the Western Big Six’s merger talks with the Mid-State Six. It gets a little heated at the end.

That served as little more than a warm-up act.

After reading Topp’s Tips — the fine blog curated by my co-worker Blake Toppmeyer — and seeing that Quincy High School didn’t even try to reschedule its rained out game with Quincy Notre Dame, I went off for a few minutes.

Finally, we got things back to order and we did our weekly Wednesday staple — the Mid-Week Grades.

What do you think? Am I right? Or should I just lay off the Mountain Dew before the next show?

Sorry for the lack of posts.

Allergies knocked me out earlier this week, which kept me from my appointed rounds on WGEM SportsCenter on Wednesday. I don’t think I would have made a very good host hacking my way through the two-hour program.

About the only grade that needs to be given this week is a big “F” to the Illini West Four — the four board members who saw fit to oust Zach Keene as the girls basketball coach.

Hopefully, I’ll be back on Friday with a Slap of the Week for you.

Tired of Tebow talk? You won’t find any here. Going to throw a bit of a curveball and talk women’s basketball today. Two things about the NCAA women’s tournament have struck me. Yes, I’ve been watching the NCAA women’s tournament.

1. You’d better watch Griner

I’ll admit the main reason I’m watching the NCAA Tournament is because of Baylor star Brittany Griner. She is a modern-day Wilt Chamberlain for women’s hoops. Griner, a 6-foot-8 center, is a game changer. She had me hooked on Saturday when she threw down a two-handed dunk late in the team’s win over Georgia Tech. She has a wingspan of 7-4 that helps her swat away shots. She has a soft touch, too, when facing the basket. She was a block shy of a triple double in the team’s Elite Eight win Monday night over Tennessee. Now, she didn’t get through the night on Monday without a little controversy when she left the bench in the final minute during a fight, but she was out there as a peacemaker. She won’t be suspended for the team’s national semifinal against Stanford. If you’re not doing anything else on Sunday night, I’d suggest you check Griner out.

2. Sad for Summitt

I haven’t watched a ton of women’s basketball over the years, but I did know that the women’s game pretty much revolved around Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. It was kind of sad just watching her sit on the bench during Monday’s game, leaving the on-floor coaching to one of her assistant coaches. Summitt is dealing with early onset dementia. It’s a condition that is a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not known how much longer that Summitt, who has 1,098 career wins will coach. After seeing her on Monday night, I hope it was her last game. It’s just not right seeing the fiery Summitt relegated to sitting on the bench.

Josh Houchins over at WGEM SportsCenter came up with a great idea to spice up our March Madness talk on the show this week. He got all of us who are show regulars to see if our Moms would come on the air to pick a region in the NCAA Tournament.

For some mothers, like Matt Schuckman’s mom, Kathleen, this was an easy proposition. She actually watched the NCAA Tournament selection show and follows basketball a little bit. After all, she and her husband, Jerry, have been Quincy High School Blue Devils season ticket holders for more than 30 years. She knows basketball.

My mom? If we were breaking down ice skating, gymnastics or American Idol, then she’d be gold.  The NCAA Tournament — or as she called it “The NAACP Tournament,” not so much.

She did a great job though picking teams and made for an entertaining segment. One texter said it was the best segment we’ve ever had on our show.

Listen in here and let me know what you think. And if Purdue makes the Final Four, you know where you heard it first.

The Lady Hawks opened Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament by holding off an upstart Lewis team in the quartefinals at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill.

Here’s a look at Thursday’s stars:

1. Lucy Cramsey

The Liberty product was unconcious from behind the 3-point arc, making seven en route to a career-high 25 points. Cramsey took only 10 3-pointers. She also had seven rebounds, four assists and team-high four steals. She made a big 3-pointer to start a 20-2 run when the Flyers (8-20) pulled to within 63-60.

2. Karlee Gengenbacher

The Quincy Notre Dame product did a little bit of everything to help the Lady Hawks. She filled up the stat sheet with 10 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals. Early on, she seemed to be in the right place at the right time on both ends of the floor, handing out assists and making steals.

3. Ali Schwagmeyer

It’s all local top 3 tonight as the Central graduate did what she does. Her usual night at the office included 21 points, nine reobunds, five assists and two steals. She scored seven points during the Lady Hawks’ game-clinching run. If the Lady Hawks are to win the GLVC Tourney title, they’ll need more of the same out of the now former GLVC Player of the Year.

DOBservations

The Lady Hawks took the floor after two upsets. Sixth-seeded Indianapolis upset third-seeded Drury, while seven-seeded Kentucky Wesleyan beat second-seeded Wisconsin-Parkside. Those two will play in the noon semifinal game on Saturday. QU will face Maryville, which was an 80-70 winner over NKU. QU beat Maryville twice this season, including an 89-81 victory at Pepsi Arena in the team’s last meeting. … QU was the only higher seed to win during the quarterfinals. … . The win was the 600th in the history of the QU women’s basketball program.

As you can expect, not everyone is pleased with the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team obliterating the Class 2A state playoff field.

There was a nice little debate had on Friday. It started with a blog post by Rockford Register-Star assistant sports editor Matt Trowbridge. He believes the Lady Raiders didn’t challenge themselves on the way to state. He believes QND should have played up a class this year.

Trowbridge went so far as to ask the Lady Raiders about the path they took to get to state after Friday’s win. That led to a great column by our own Blake Toppmeyer. Take a look at it here.

My two cents:

The Lady Raiders don’t have to apologize for anything they’ve done. Last time I checked this wasn’t Quincy Park District beer league softball where the champs are bumped up to the next level the following season. If the other schools in Class 2A have a problem with the Lady Raiders they need to get better and beat them.

Today is the fourth birthday of DOBservations. On this day four years ago, The Herald-Whig went live with its blogs. My first post on DOBservations happened to be one of the last things I ever wrote about the professional baseball life of Josh Rabe.

By the time I get done blogging about the Quincy University basketball games tonight, I’ll be right at 800 posts for DOBservations. That’s exactly 200 blog posts a year. That may not be as prolific as Steve Eighinger, the Whig’s resident blogger, but I’m pretty happy with what I have going here.

It’s been fun getting to talk about the lighter side of sports here at DOBservations through regular staples like the Mid-Week Grades, Two For Tuesday and the Pest of the Week.

I’ve even been able to go national. Deadspin linked to DOBservations after my retrospective on the “Lorchcast.”

I’m also fond of my New Year’s Eve encounter with Erin Andrews.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to check in on DOBservations. I look forward to serving you all in the future.

Taking a few weeks off for the holidays. We’ll be back in business the week between Christmas and New Year’s. See you then.

Here’s this week’s grade book. As always, we’ll break these down on the award-winning WGEM SportsCenter program around 8:20 a.m. today. If you have grades that you’d like to submit, text them in to us at 217-617-9437.

A — Quincy Notre Dame volleyball team. In my near 15 years with the Herald-Whig, I can only think of one other team that was an unlikely of a state champion as the Lady Raiders team that snatched the Class 2A title over last weekend. The Nauvoo-Colusa boys basketball team in 1998 had a magical run to the Class A title when it had to knock off the top three teams in the state on its way to the title in Peoria. The Lady Raiders only brought in a new coach and lost five starters from last year. They had to play through a ton of injuries during the season before making their magical ride to the title over the weekend. Credit new coach Rich Meyer and his players on overcoming a lot to reach the top.

B — NASCAR. Their “new” Chase to the Championship playoff format has finally paid off. This week, it will be Carl Edwards vs. Tony Stewart for all of the marbles. Edwards holds a three-point lead on Stewart, which means both drivers will be racing hard to get to the front of the pack at Homestead this weekend. Here’s a look at how each can win the title. This race should be enough to at least draw a few eyeballs during the timeouts during Sunday’s football games.

C — UFC. The mixed martial arts group reached the big time with its first appearance on FOX last Saturday night. Unfortunately, the only match in the hour-long special — Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez — lasted all of 64 seconds before Dos Santos knocked out Velasquez. I don’t know that the bout won over many people, but I’m starting to become intrigued with the UFC. It was probably Dustin Jacoby’s involvement that drew me in. I’m not going to take the time to memorize all of the fighters and such, but the next time the UFC is on Fox, I’ll watch.

D — Mike Smith. The Atlanta Falcons’ head coach is being directly blamed for the team’s 26-23 overtime loss to NFC South rival New Orleans last weekend. Smith decided to have the Falcon’s go for a first down on fourth and inches from their own 29-yard line early in the OT period. Michael Turner got stuffed on the ensuing rushing attempt and the Saints wound up driving the short field for a short game-winning field goal. Smith would have looked like a genius had the Falcons made the first down and gone on to win the game. Instead, he’s the goat for the team’s failure to execute. It was a pretty suspect move.

F — NBA. I’m not siding with either the players or owners in this one. How they can’t come together and figure out how to split up their millions upon millions of dollars is beyond my comprehension. I don’t feel bad for the players, my thoughts are with all of the stadium workers and others whose living depends on those games being played. The little guy is going to take the brunt of this action, and that just isn’t right.