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The thing about New York is that they treat ice as a valuable commodity. Hell, when we were in the financial district, I had to ask around to make sure it wasn’t being traded alongside gold, silver, and oil.

You order a water in this town and get some lukewarm liquid straight from the tap. Actually ask for ice and you may even get a sideways glance. Order a soda at many places and you’ll get only the can. If you’re lucky, it might even be cold.

But the food in New York….oh, the food. It more than makes up for the city’s miserly attitude towards ice. Everywhere you go, you can find great meals from diverse locations, and even in every price range.

The first night I ate at Zorba’s in Astoria (29-05 23rd Ave), a friendly little Greek restaurant that I always make it a point to visit. The staff is great, the food is quality, and there’s always sports on the TV in the corner.

The waitress informed me that a movie was filming in the neighborhood, starring Uma Thurman and “a guy from Grey’s Anatomy.” A later IMDb search revealed the guy to be Jeffrey Dean Moran (Denny from the show) and the movie to be The Accidental Husband. I just missed the shooting one morning after visiting the Astoria Bagel Shop (28-12 Ditmars), and they returned for another shooting day just after I left town. It’s really quite depressing, because…well…it’s Uma, Jerry! Uma!

Thursday’s lunch was at a Cantonese place on the east side of the city called Phoenix Garden (242 E 40th St). It is Zagat-rated, but as we were too cheap to pay for Zagat’s expertise, we had to hope the rating wasn’t “worse than reheated dog turds.” In the end, it was better than microwaved canine feces, but it was really just….blah. It had a nice atmosphere and an even nicer owner, but the food was average and the tables were practically on top of each other.

Next we randomly hopped on the 7 train to Shea Stadium. And I’ll tell you something — John Rocker is a fucking liar. There were no kids with purple hair, no moms with four kids, and it really didn’t look like Beirut. In fact, we were treated to a nice guerilla-style musical performance from a guitarist who sang like Rufus Wainwright. But then again, we’re a lot nicer than that washed-up hack pitcher.

Shea Stadium isn’t very exciting in the offseason. Although, we did see this truck with a sticker that should make Mets fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The parking lot was host some giant pink tents emblazoned with “CIRCO VAZQUEZ.” It looked the exact opposite of a circus — the place was deserted, no one was having fun, and there were no clowns doing blow in a dilapidated trailer. Since the place seemed to be more of a ruse to steal our kidneys than a place with trapeze artists, we split. But not before snapping this picture.

After that came Madison Square Garden. And we all know what happened with Michigan State. But the Maryland/St. John’s tilt was fun to watch, if only for the clinic that the Terps put on. They’ve got a young, talented pair in their backcourt with Eric Hayes and Greivis Vasquez, Kevin Durant’s teammate at Montrose Christian. They will be tested by the tough ACC schedule, but Maryland is going to be a tournament team in March, and they are going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Madison Square Garden is a good arena because there isn’t a bad seat in the house. But while the court has more lights on it than a small island nation, the rest of the arena is lit like a seance. It made taking pictures difficult, which is unfortunate because St. John’s student section made our weak one look a lot better. They had maybe 20 people — Students? Who actually knows? — even though they were playing in their own city against big-name schools. We had a better student turnout against Lenoir-Rhyne for an exhibition.

I’ll cover part two of the NYC trip tomorrow, and bring you a preview of our overmatched opponents from Texas Southern on Tuesday morning.

So the comment feature is fixed for those of you using Internet Explorer. Of course, for you IE folks the layout and colors still look like a baby vomited up pea soup. And for that I apologize.

If any of my readers happen to be HTML or CSS geniuses and would like to offer some help, please feel free. I might give you a piece of gum I chewed, which will definitely fetch a pretty penny on eBay. Or I could just give you a public thanks in this space.

But in the meantime, for all of you who have e-mailed or IMed to say the comment feature doesn’t work — problem solved. Talk amongst yourselves. I’m all verklempt.

Forgive the tardiness with this breakdown, but the post-New York school catch-up, combined with the holiday family socializing and twenty hours of work in the span of twenty-seven real ones….well, it’s enough to make somebody have a Tom Penders sport-coat-throwing hissy fit. And if this post-game makes little sense — or none at all — I must apologize again, as my blood is probably about 90% tryptophan right now. Mmmmm, mmmm good.

Texas (4-1) had absolutely no problems with Nicholls State (0-6) on Tuesday night, running away with a 91-60 victory. Fortunately for the Horns, Nicholls State was without their two (best) big men, giving them a look reminiscent of last year’s Villanova squad. Of course, the Colonels also have only a fraction of Nova’s talent. Stefan Blaszczynski told me before the game that he had “strained” his foot, while forward James Dixon was just “hurt” according to teammate Eddie Crockett.

With the lack of big men inside for Nicholls State, the Horns absolutely abused their visitors on the glass. Texas finished with a 57-29 rebounding advantage, with Damion James pulling down nine boards. Kevin Durant grabbed twelve en route to another double-double; he also scored 21 points in his 27 minutes of play.

Tuesday’s contest saw more man-to-man defense from the Horns, most noticeably while the bench was being emptied. It was very odd to see Dexter Pittman following his man to the three point line, so those defensive sets stick out in my mind. Pittman played twelve minutes off the bench, scoring eight and logging six rebounds. He looks very good inside — although the talent level of the opponent should be revisited here to temper excitement — but what I think was most important was the fact that he did not pick up a single foul in his increased time.

Justin Mason earned his first collegiate start, and the early lineup of Mason/Durant/James/ Augustin/Abrams came out in the 2-3 zone that Barnes likes to employ when Mason is on the court. I have not mentioned it over the past two weeks, being far too focused on my schoolgirl excitement over Damion James’ immense potential, but Mason is just as scrappy of a player. I love him on the defensive end, he hustles all over the damned place, and he’s not too shabby of a shooter either. Jay knocked down 6-of-10 on the night and finished with fifteen points.

A.J. Abrams once again made himself a huge part of the victory, shooting 7-of-12 from behind the arc and scoring 23 points. He also had a squeaky-clean game on the ballhandling side, with no turnovers and five assists. It’s great to have such a solid team leader who is only a sophomore. And it’s even a little funny to have it be such a tiny guy among the giant youngsters.

I think I came to a realization with Matt Hill during Tuesday night’s game, so I’ll keep my eye on it again next week. There’s no doubt that Hill is a tough player who gets after it. But while I was giving him on the benefit of the doubt on those “near-miss” rebounds, I think I was overlooking the problem. If Hill fought for a board and got a hand (or both) on the ball but ultimately lost it, I was giving him credit for being one of the few who seemed to crash the glass. But after seeing him mishandle a few passes on Tuesday night, I’m starting to think he just doesn’t have soft hands. It definitely explains all the fumbled passes, and it could account for those missed rebounds he gets a paw on, too. We’ll see what happens against Texas Southern next week.

Craig Winder is starting to convince me that he’s made some pretty big strides since last year. I’m hoping that he has his insane athleticism under control, and it’s looking like he might. During the long season, we need some quality minutes from guys other than our core seven players, and I have the most faith in Winder providing them.

Connor Atchley looked a bit better defensively, and even blocked two shots. But — as with Pittman — I think a lot of this had to do with the quality of opponents. Here’s to hoping that beating up on the little guys gives Connor some confidence and the needed quality minutes to improve. And you can chalk up another little victory for Atchley, as he grabbed six boards on the night and kept his foul total down to two.

As I mentioned earlier, Durant logged another double-double on the night. It’s just fun to watch this kid play. He manages to always have some sick blocks — in the Nicholls State game, he stuffed two — and the ridiculous wingspan makes my insides tingle. Kevin did turn the ball over a few times, including yet another gaffe on a crossover attempt. But I figure that when you’re automatically dropping 20 points, even on an off night, I’ll take a turnover or two in exchange.

Harrison Smith saw increased minutes but didn’t make much of an impact on the stat sheet, or my memories. Maybe I was distracted by the dancing cow behind me, or maybe I was snacking on those fine Erwin Center nachos. Either way, I can’t give any notes on the kid. But at least he played a lot more, even though I do kind of remember him being on the floor during most of the garbage minutes.

D.J. Augustin continues to be the little floor general, and was credited with eight assists on Tuesday. He still picks up more fouls than I’d like him to, but as with Durant’s occassional turnovers, I think it just comes with the package. I’m sure that the defensive-minded Barnes will work with D.J. on his foul problems during the season, so we may see improvement. But for now I’m quite happy with his court vision and his hidden scoring threat that we saw break out in New York City.

All told, it was a quality game that allowed us a chance to look at a few more players. And while Nicholls State’s decision to come to Austin was about as ill-conceived as Skittles electing to replace the red ones with strawberry pink ice cream flavor, we appreciate their willingness to walk into the inevitable mudholing.

We get another crappy team this coming Tuesday in Texas Southern. It’ll be your last chance to see the Horns at home until December 16th, so try to get out to the Drum and catch the action. In the meantime, I’ll try to get around to writing about the New York trip at some point this weekend.

I’m wary of predicting another beatdown after the near disaster on Friday night. But even a 13th-place-in-the-Big-East St. John’s team is infinitely better than Nicholls State.

Hailing from Thibodaux, Louisiana, the Colonels of Nicholls State (0-5) make it a school tradition to be everybody else’s bitch. In a 2005-06 season where they went 9-18, the Colonels even found themselves on the losing end of 73-71 score against Lipscomb. Fortunately for Nicholls State, our friends from Texas State were even more futile in the Southland Conference, finishing a full four games behind the Colonels.

Looking at Texas’ weaknesses — rebounding and man-to-man defense — it would seem at first blush that Nicholls State may find some success. But oddly enough, the two senior forwards listed on the roster have yet to play in any of the first five contests. And quite frankly, I don’t care enough about Nicholls State to spend any more time finding out why.

The Colonels do have a beast of a freshman at center in 6-11 Aussie Mitch Boyce. Boyce only averages eighteen minutes a game, but will likely cause problems for Texas on the glass when he’s in the game.

The chunk of their minutes are eaten up by combo guard-forwards, juniors Adonis Gray and Aaron Scott, and sophomore Ryan Bathie. Otherwise, the Colonels seem to have a pretty deep rotation. Of course, with Southland Conference talent, depth may not be a blessing.

Tip is 7 P.M. at the Drum. I have this odd hunch that there will be plenty of seats available, so bring the family and the visiting in-laws out for a beatdown of epic proportions. For those of you in-state who are unable to make it to the Frank Erwin Center, the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest.

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