The Big Apple, folks, I tell ya.
It was quite a vibe at the NIT Final Four this evening, with Xavier and St. Bonaventure fans packing the place and Texas A&M and Washington State also contributing a respectable number of attendees. In the end, as the good bard might say, X gave it to us, with Xavier and Texas A&M crafting an NIT Championship that just might hold the record for being the most valuable basketball game ever in Scrabble (little-known fact—ampersands are worth a hundred points if you play by the original rules).
A few quick thoughts on the games:
- How many people in the Xavier administration are regretting hiring Sean Miller instead of just promoting Jonas Hayes? There’s got to be at least a handful, right? On the legal team if nowhere else?
- It might be good that St. Bonaventure’s road show has finally come to an end. The latest developments there were getting more dangerous by the minute.
- “Buzz Williams” wouldn’t be a great scrabble word because 1) there’s a space in it and 2) you’d have to use a blank for the second ‘z.’
- (open mic – insert your thought here, everybody gets one, we’ll clap for all but nothing inappropriate before 8:30 PM)
As far as our pool goes, well, we’ve got leaders. You can check the standings here, but the short version is that of the six brackets in front, three have Texas A&M winning and three have Xavier winning, making our prize-winning contestant scenarios rather straightforward. We’ll confirm there aren’t any errors on our scoreboard before Thursday’s championship, but it appears to be between ArkyAg and pete for the title, and what more could we want, really? ArkyAg, most likely an Aggie in Arkansas, versus pete, who could be just about anyone, really, but is probably someone named pete.
On the celebrity side, our own Joe Stunardi has taken the lead. Joe picked Oklahoma to win it, but it doesn’t appear a single celeb chose Xavier (talk about disrespect), so our guy’s got a shot. Joe, if your head is getting big, I know exactly how much money you lost on those BYU and Washington State futures, and it was a lot. We could’ve spent that on baked goods, man. Or website help (probably baked goods).
We’ll try to be in touch with confirmation about the championship scenarios before Thursday’s game, so as to make clear the stakes for everyone involved. In the meantime, sweet dreams, NIT fans. *tucks you in but not in a weird way*
