With the score tied and 2.8 seconds on the clock, Austin Freeman, dressed in Clyde’s unfortunate purple uniform, squared up at the free throw line. Then the 82% free throw shooter did something he rarely does: he missed. Three minutes of overtime later, and top seed Clyde’s was knocked out of the Kenner League playoffs by the eighth seeded Blaguards, 68-67.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, though. Freeman, seemingly determined to make up for his missed free throw, used his powerful frame and deft footwork to drive to the basket on his team’s next two possession, putting up Clyde’s only points in overtime. Future Hoya Julian Vaughn was a formidable inside precense and former Hoya/Celtic Jeff Green, filling in for DaJuan Summers, recreated some of his college highlights, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the coordinate attack of the Blaguards, most of whom apparently play for American University.

In the night’s earlier game, the second-seeded Madness All-Stars, led by UNC point guard Ty Lawson, took down the seventh-seeded Hoop Magic, 111-88. Hoop Magic, led by number-two draft pick and future member of the Miami Heat Michael Beasely and star Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, were only five points down at halftime, but lost control of the game in the second half as they were outscored 59-41. The All-Stars deserve extra credit for this one too; they only had one substitute to Hoop Magic’s four. (Also playing: 6′ 8″ Villanova forward Dante Cunningham, who couldn’t miss a shot, and George Mason guard Isaiah Tate, who used to play with Freeman at DeMatha.)

The quarterfinals continue tonight at 7 p.m. in McDonough, featuring the Tombs with Greg Monroe and Co. and Myers and Alterman with Sapp and Ooooo-mar.

Today, we’re going to try something new: Friday Night, Saturday Morning, where every week Shira Hecht brings you a new song for your weekend. They won’t all be party songs (although this one is)–they could be songs for pregames, songs for hangovers, and songs for Sunday afternoons when you realize you didn’t accomplish anything this weekend.

Estelle ft. Kanye West-American Boy

You’ve likely heard this one already - wafting out of the car next to you when the windows are down, playing out of someone’s boombox at a beach. Breezy and sweet, it’s purportedly about a cross-cultural romance, but it’s really about clothes.

Catchy but not irksome, infectious but still idiosyncratic, it’s one of those perfect summer jams that seem to crystallize the best parts of these long days. It’s for early in your party, before people are drunk and friendly enough to be really pounding the dance floor, but are happy to bob on their toes with a drink in their hands and a grin on their faces.

And what’s not to like about lines like “dressed smart like a London bloke/before he speak his suit bespoke/and you thought he was quote before/look at this pea coat tell me he’s broke,” or “the Pips with they Gladys.” Man, when I first heard this song, I spent like 2 days thinking about how clever that “speak/bespoke” thing is.

Flickr photo from user serhio used under a Creative Commons license

The Post is just having too much fun with this recession.  First they were slyly spotlighting the adverse effect of high gas prices on the social lives of teenagers.  Now they’re gleefully chronicling the hardships of the upper-middle class and college-bound who, apparently, are learning to forsake aesthetics in favor of affordability when it comes to dorm decor.

Surprisingly, the kids in the article all come off as basically reasonable and grounded.  The most cringe-worthy quote is from an adult, Marshal Cohen, an analyst for a consumer behavior research firm, whose poor use of slang makes me question how well he really understands his key demographic:

“I don’t think it’s going to be about pimping up your room,” Cohen said.  “I think it’s about making sure the basic essentials are up to speed.”

The Post does the whole faux-sympathy thing (”the weak economy is cramping our national style”) all the while sniggering about how coddled the younger generation is (”dorm rooms … increasingly resembled urban lofts”), which just makes them seem condescending and disingenuous.

What’s most irritating about this type of article is the underlying assumption that all young people have over-inflated senses entitlement, as if we all believe that buying ridiculously overpriced dorm furnishings with mommy and daddy’s money is some kind of right of passage that we’re being cheated out of. But I think that for most college students, choosing not to buy a $29 trash can, for instance, isn’t some huge sacrifice, it’s just common sense - recession or not.

In the midst of contract negotiations between DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union, a group of area business people have taken matters into their own hands by hiring teachers to lobby their fellow educators in favor of Rhee’s plan. Rhee’s green tier/red tier system, which would allow teachers to forgo tenure in favor of merit-based pay raises, was contentious enough without help from this new lobbying group, Strong Schools DC.It makes sense that DC’s business community would want to push for measures that will raise standardized test scores, presumably because better public schools will have a positive effect on property values. But there’s no guarantee that Rhee’s plan will actually raise scores, and it’s sketchy that teachers are being paid to lobby for Rhee because it calls their feelings about the plan into question.

The worst part, though, is Rhee’s evasive not-quite-denial of involvement with the organization:

Through her spokeswoman, Mafara Hobson, Rhee said she can recall no communications with her staff about Strong Schools or with the organization directly.

I know she’s a busy woman, but not being able to recall something is pretty different from being sure you didn’t do it, and if Rhee is at all involved in paying teachers to push her plan, DCPS is in even worse shape than I thought.

As far as Georgetown’s performance in this year’s reshuffling of the Princeton Review’s rankings goes, there’s some good news and some bad news. On the plus side, our 10th place showing on both the Most Politically Active Students and Best College Towns lists is an improvement over last year, when we were only 18th and 13th on those respective lists.

However, we’re inexplicably out-done by nearby schools. American University students were named the most politically active, with GW kids coming in second. And while Princeton Review shows an admirable appreciation for DC (with 3 of the 20 spots on the Great College Towns list going to schools in the district) their preference for Foggy Bottom (3rd) and Tenleytown (5th) is puzzling. Have they even tried to get around Tenleytown? You need to take five buses just to switch parties.

Of course, it could be worse: our co-religionists over at Catholic took a beating, getting cited for a lackluster library, a dearth of diversity, and cumbersome bureaucracy. Serves them right, for getting the Pope.

For perspective, consider this: Howard’s The Hilltop clinched the number three spot on the Best College Newspapers list, even though it was forced to suspend publication earlier this year due to $48,000 in outstanding printing costs.