I tells ya, TB, we can’t take this anymore. We let you get away with the ball-in-the-air-for-two-days gimmick once already (above). It was lame then. To recycle it four years later is beyond lame. 
You nearly redeem yourself with the interesting panel 2 “inside the rim” perspective. But just about every basketball rim I’ve ever seen is orange or red, not powder blue. I was also disappointed by the lack of a sound effect when the ball hits that powder blue rim, like, I dunno, “doink“?
Today’s strip is just packed! More of TB’s trademark bald exposition (either that or Holly is so sports-illiterate that she can’t even read a scoreboard). Les looks like he’s about to hurl; must be that flu bug. What the hell is doing Keisha sitting next to the coaches on the bench? Summer’s game face is replaced by a mask of bewilderment as she is handed the ball by Newark, NJ’s Mayor Cory Booker. I think that’s a basketball, although in the POV shot in panel 2, she’s holding it like a flatbread.
How’s this for dumb luck? There’s twelve seconds left, but Cedars has the ball (thanks, Cayla Exposition!) when Summer, dehydrated, disoriented and deliriously lurching around the court, stumbles into the Cedars player, accidentally knocking the ball loose! The Cedars girl (wearing Jordan’s number, interesting) responds to the perceived steal with some Three Stooges-like mayhem, drawing a foul and of course setting Freckles up for her Big Moment.
Scary-looking Background Character
o’ the Day
Epicus Doomus
March 4, 2012 at 12:15 am
I was kind of hoping against hope that [Sunday] we’d get the ENTIRE title game in one quick, relatively painless day. How foolish of me.
Epicus, you know “endings have to be earned”! And we all know that after all the buildup, the big game will take at least a full week to play out. Ergo: although TB established yesterday that Summer was feeling the effects of “this flu thing”, why not ratchet up the “suspense” a little more with today’s wacky hijinks?
Summer, sweating profusely, takes the court in the championship game, her destiny to fulfill. Blurry 3-D vision notwithstanding, does she not see Keisha, wide open and with nobody between her and the goal? I’m thinking a bounce-pass to her would yield a quick two points. Instead: “She’s twenty-five feet out and she’s taking the shot!” Clang! Guess “this flu thing” hasn’t affected her ballhogging skills.
Son of Stuck Funky 