What. A. NITe.
We say that a lot around here, but rarely has it been more true than on the first evening of the 2022 NIT Quarterfinals, where even the news that Madison Square Garden is abandoning us (or we’re abandoning MSG, though the former seems more likely) couldn’t dampen the glory of America’s greatest, oldest, most awe-inspiring tournament. The Bonnies pulled it off in Charlottesville at the buzzer. The Musketeers held off a feisty Vanderbilt force, also at the buzzer. We’ll have more on both those games tomorrow, but if you missed it, well, there’s a good chance you’ve been watching the wrong tournament. Tell it to the judge!
Our Bracket Challenge continues, and the standings can be found here. Some highlights:
- Milwaukee Milkmen manager Anthony Barone holds the lead over not only celebrities, but the whole field. He’s two points ahead of the second-place brackets at the moment, and he has plenty of potential remaining. Remember, though: It only takes one wrong turn for even the best independent league baseball coach to find his NIT bracket walking back to the dugout, head hung low. Tomorrow’s another NITe, and who knows what it could hold?
- We’re up to 19 foul-outs by NIT participants and 4 frozen pizzas consumed by me. Looking like a heavy week of frozen pizzas here at The Barking Crow headquarters, and potentially next week as well, provided I don’t get sick of them, which, I mean, I don’t hate America or anything so I don’t know why that would happen.
- Fargo, our dog, is not in last place among celebrity entrants, but she did crash into a parking sign this morning on her walk because she was too busy watching her friend Payton across the street to look where she was walking. So if you’re losing to Fargo (who has 17 points), you’re not only losing to a dog. You’re losing to a dog who could care less about where you can and can’t leave your car.
As we’ve said, two more quarterfinals tomorrow. Then, Madison Square Garden. One more time (until this blog takes over the world and we buy the NIT and we also buy MSG and maybe we buy a little island somewhere like maybe the island of Australia, so we can have kangaroos as pets and say, “Crikey! That’s a lot of bananas!” whenever we see a surprisingly large number of bananas).
