Lexington Conquered: Day 5

~~LOUISVILLE~~ LEXINGTON, Ky. -- What a day of basketball.

First, The OSU wakes up with about three minutes left and wins a thriller in overtime. Then ATM overcomes Louisville's home crowd and wins a 51-foul affair when Edgar Sosa's last-second shot fails.

Although I'm kind of glad that there were 51 fouls called. On a day when tickets were going for north of $300, I'm sure they were all there to see Curtis Shaw, Gary Maxwell and Terry Wymer.

Most of those who purchased tickets were Louisville fans, who overran the city of Lexington, just 80 miles away or so.

However, if you asked them where they were from, they wouldn't say "Louisville," rather something that sounded a bit like "Luh'l"

It's part of the great tradition that I've noticed in many three-syllable cities. "Toronto" becomes "Trono." Baltimore is "Balmore." And Rochester is just "Roch-ster." But Louisville takes it a step farther by kicking two syllables to the curb.

I asked my brother Ethan, a Penn linguistics major, why this happens, and here's his response.

Weakening and/or loss of unstressed syllables, as in Baltimore, Toronto, and Rochester, especially during casual speech, is a hallmark of many dialects of American English. The phonetic process by which this occurs is known as elision. The pronunciation of Louisville, however, requires a bit more complex of an explanation: The people who live there are retarded.

Well said.

Other than the games, our last day in Lexington was pretty uneventful. But we'll miss it here. miss making mint juleps in our hotel room coffee maker. And Fred will miss the sweet tea. And most of all, we'll miss the man-child, who we finally saw today.

Greg Oden was a man among boys, who can't really play offense. But he does enjoy talking with young people, according to the media guide. Talking with young people? What is this guy, 40? Wait, yes he is.

He must enjoy going into his son, Kevin Durant's, class and speaking with the young people.

Basketball games watched final total: 43

It's been fun. see you back in Philly.