A second entry this week?  It must be important!

A little background…I’m a HUGE basketball fan.  I grew up going to Charlotte Hornets games with my dad.  By college, I was a green-wig-wearing fool, cheering, front row and center court, for my Charlotte 49ers.  So much so, in fact, that by the time I graduated I was given a special distinction for having attended more Niner sporting events than any other student on campus.

When I came to graduate school, I carried the same enthusiasm with me and became a die-hard Hokie fan.  Remember that win that they had over #1 ranked Duke in Cassell last year?  Mmmm…

Today I centered my lecture around that particular game.  I was talking about the Matching Law which, boiled down, explains how the proportion of responses that you give to a certain activity should match the proportion of reinforcement you receive from that activity.  As an application of that law, I gave my class stats from the Hokie v. Duke game and asked them to decide if the Hokies attempted a reasonable number of 3-point shots based on how often they actually made the shots or if they, as my dad likes to phrase it, “keep jacking up those stupid threes!”

They were really into it.  It was a good class.

Lo and behold, I came home a few hours later to the following email from a student:

As I’m sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting for me next flight, just thought I would send you a quick email to let you know Seth Greenberg was in the same gate area for my first flight. I went over to talk to him for a little bit and mentioned that I had just watched the last seconds of the Duke game from last year in my psychology class! He thought it was very cool! I didn’t go as far to tell him that the team needs to shoot less three pointers…figured I’d leave that up to him haha.

Applying what she learned *and* talking about my class to the basketball coach?  I’ve died and gone to heaven!