Stu’s Notes: Carla Tejas Is Back

Some of you may remember the name Carla Tejas, and some of you might even remember where you remember that name from. For those who don’t: That’s ok. We got you. Here’s our blog post about Coach Carla from October.

ALLEGEDLY to everything herein. Don’t worry, Brett Favre. We won’t talk about you.

Late last week, Carla Tejas was reinstated as the head women’s soccer coach at UT-Permian Basin, the school saying that of the litany of allegations leveled against their four-month-suspended head coach, the only one that was true was that she had snuck back into a game after being ejected.

This is a little silly. As local Odessa news outlet YourBasin points out, Tejas was found guilty by UTPB’s conference of using an ineligible player (the Uruguayan midfielder), and Tejas was rather evidently guilty of DWI in September, with a BAC twice the legal limit, according to arrest documents. If UTPB only found Tejas guilty of pulling the Bobby Valentine, the natural question is what in the hell was UTPB investigating?

Thankfully, Tejas being back in the saddle means we will surely get another scandal soon. Godspeed to the players.

Shaka Smart Needed a Dorky School

Man, we are pumped for Shaka Smart. This is great. National Coach of the Year, potentially. There’s no way this goes terribly in a few weeks and I pace my neighborhood after staying up for an 11 PM game in Sacramento in a tournament I would otherwise not have to care about.

I’ve been thinking about Shaka Smart a lot lately, and about Marquette, and I’ll admit: I have mixed emotions. Growing up a few hours from Milwaukee, the impression I always had of Marquette was that its fans were kind of losers. The kind of people who would say they were rivals with all sorts of schools who didn’t really care about their existence. Tom Crean was, to my middle school self, a villain, which made the whole thing worse. Then, a coach who was nice to me one time and mean to me zero times and was unfairly disliked by the stupidest Texas fans (not just the racist ones, I’m talking the really stupid ones too, like most of the non-beat local media) took the reins?

Thankfully, love transcends a lot of prejudice, and I now have to say it: Marquette is perfect for Shaka Smart. The schools and its fans treat him really well, the school seems to appreciate his family more than Texas did, the broader environment doesn’t tell players they need to be superstars so it’s easier to build a team that buys in to itself. Do I love Marquette? I wouldn’t go that far. But they’re rising in my internal Big East Vibes poll.

What’s Nate Oats’s Line?

Ok, so blocking the road and bringing a gun to a murder isn’t an offense in Nate Oats’s eyes. That’s just kids being kids. What, though, is the line? Is kidnapping ok? Is making a bomb threat ok? Is following through on a bomb threat ok?

Basically, my question is this: What if Nate Oats is just really down with sin?

What’s Texas Tech’s (Cut) Line?

Texas Tech won yet again last night, and many had them favored in Norman, but it was still huge for their chances of missing the NIT, a tournament they were recently projected to miss in a very different way (RIP to OU, by the way, if they don’t win all their next three they’re going to need to at least make the Big 12 semis to have an NIT shot). I don’t know what to make of the situation. Tech might currently be the NIT favorite, but they’re getting really close to being favored to not make it at all. I guess this helps the UNC situation. Tech could push them down. Not a lot of pressure on them from the rest of the bubble.

A Villanova Comeback?

Villanova won in the Cintas Center, which means two things:

The first is that Xavier could conceivably recreate last year’s collapse and join us again. It would take a lot—I’d figure they’d have to lose their next four and not see Zach Freemantle return—but it’s conceivably on the table.

The second is that Villanova might not be dead yet?

The Wildcats sit at 14–14 overall. From here, they host Creighton, visit Seton Hall, and host UConn before opening the Big East Tournament as most likely the 6 or 7-seed. That means they’ll have a winnable first game in New York, but they still can’t walk into MSG at 15–16 and expect to finish at or above .500. That would require not only winning the winnable one but then beating Providence or Creighton on a neutral court. Much preferred would be to sweep their home games or split ‘em and take one at Seton Hall. Bottom line? Villanova has looked dead for weeks and is suddenly alive, further bolstering the claims that this could be the best NIT ever.

Mahomes & Cousins

There’s evidently a new Netflix docu-series coming out following Patrick Mahomes and Kirk Cousins through the 2022 season, to which we say…

Why not do Patrick Mahomes and his cousins?

That would be much more interesting. Not that Kirk Cousins isn’t a wacky man who deserves plenty of screentime, but I want to see what the Mahomes gene pool does out in the non-football world.

Frankie Muniz and Risk

A thought I forgot to write down when we were covering Frankie Muniz’s NASCAR launch this past weekend: This dude has demonstrated an unconventional reaction to having kids. From a piece by Jeff Gluck:

When Muniz looked at his baby boy, he wondered what his son would think of Frankie’s life.

Wouldn’t all the stories would be about his past, he wondered? Who was Frankie Muniz now? Mauz should get to see his father striving for current goals and a renewed dream rather than hearing solely about things that happened a lifetime ago.

Don’t most new parents start protecting their lives more earnestly? I’m not hating on Frankie Muniz, but getting in a race car because you had a kid is unusual, right? More people get out of race cars once they have kids?

This Place Doesn’t Have Grilled Cheese

Trying to be a good boy who doesn’t eat meat on Ash Wednesday, I went to a coffee shop/sandwich place I really thought had a good grilled cheese. No grilled cheese on the menu. And with food poisoning and/or stomach flu a recent scourge in our home, I wasn’t touching the tuna salad. So, I got stuck with a vegan wrap. Not just a veggie wrap. A vegan wrap.

(Thankfully I won’t feel bad about pounding four quesadillas for supper later during the Game of the NITe.)

If This Is Ashley Barnes’s Last Dance…

Ashley Barnes was the perfect Sean Dyche striker: Pure shitbaggery. Which makes his recent flourish under Vincent Kompany even more fun. It’s like when the next big rock band invites Bruce Springsteen on stage, or that kind of vibe. An homage to the roots.

Burnley didn’t win yesterday, but they did tie, and they had enough good opportunities that it felt a little fluky. This team is so good in the context of this league. It’s bizarre.

Twelve points clear of second, sixteen points clear of having to play in the playoff, 23 points clear of missing the playoff. Vibe on, Burnley. Vibe on.

**

The menu this evening:

9:00 PM EST: UNC @ Notre Dame (ESPN)

It’s the Game of the NITe. What more is there to say? Notre Dame playing on Ash Wednesday, UNC trying to grab a bad loss to tuck them just a bit more snugly between our sheets. The season builds to moments like these.

9:00 PM EST: Iowa @ Wisconsin (BTN)

Another one grabbing a lot of eyeballs, Iowa’s trip to Madison puts the Badgers in the awkward spot of playing a better team than themselves but playing them at home. What are they supposed to do with that??

Thankfully, the best minds in our industry are on top of this. Wisconsin needs to lose this if they’re going to help their NIT chances.

7:00 PM EST: Syracuse @ Clemson (ACCN)
9:00 PM EST: Wake Forest @ NC State (ESPN+)

In the earlier time slot, we’ve got Syracuse trying to grab what constitutes a quality win for them these days, beating a Clemson team that wasn’t in our latest NIT Bracketology on the road. Clemson, on the other hand, is holding on for dear life. We will not compare them to Mufasa. Mufasa was way cooler than Clemson.

NC State isn’t gone from us yet, but they’re close. Could use this loss. And Wake could use this win! Funny how often that happens.

10:30 PM EST: New Mexico @ Boise State (FS1)

“Don’t play with fire,” we tell our children. Richard Pitino does not listen. The Lobos go to Boise, hellbent on burning down their NIT house.

7:00 PM EST: Marshall @ James Madison (ESPN+)
7:00 PM EST: Southern Miss @ Old Dominion (ESPN+)
8:30 PM EST: Arkansas State @ Louisiana (ESPN+)

Southern Miss and Louisiana are each players in this NIT race, but the story in the Sun Belt tonight is Marshall going to Harrisonburg. Hopefully that’s where JMU is. I haven’t checked. Working from memory here. Either way, that’s where Marshall’s going, so if it’s not where JMU’s at, we will not have a game. And that would be a bummer, because this is a good one alongside the NIT bubble. Marshall’s close, JMU’s close to being close. Have at it, kids.

7:00 PM EST: Bradley @ Valparaiso (ESPN+)
7:30 PM EST: Indiana State @ Belmont (ESPN+)
8:00 PM EST: Illinois State @ Drake (ESPN+)

SIU’s kind of out of our picture, but Drake and Bradley are still in it, and Indiana State could play a role by getting between those two. (I once heard a former NFL running back, giving an example of double standards, talk about lesbians: “Sometimes you see them, and you say that’s gross. Sometimes, though, maybe I wanna get between those two.”)

Drake and Bradley lead Indiana State by a game.

7:00 PM EST: Samford @ Chattanooga (ESPN+)
7:00 PM EST: Mercer @ Furman (ESPN+)
7:00 PM EST: Western Carolina @ UNC-Greensboro (ESPN+)

Man, all the lower mid-majors are in action tonight. Samford leads Furman and UNCG by a game.

7:00 PM EST: Dayton @ UMass (CBSSN)
9:00 PM EST: St. John’s @ Georgetown (CBSSN)

Good pair on that channel we don’t get. St. John’s is trying to climb back in. Dayton is somewhere vaguely in the mix but they’re hard to track with all the conference championship noise. They need to win. We know that much.

7:00 PM EST: Temple @ Cincinnati (ESPN2)
7:00 PM EST: South Florida @ UCF (ESPNU)
9:00 PM EST: Tulane @ Houston (ESPNU)

Probably should’ve put these higher. We need a little more from Tulane. Cincy could use some more. Temple never really panned out. Maybe there’s time? Oh. And UCF should probably win. Not going to gain much, don’t risk falling out.

7:00 PM EST: Liberty @ Queens (ESPN+)
7:00 PM EST: Kennesaw State @ North Alabama (ESPN+)

With Kennesaw State failing to hold serve, Liberty’s suddenly tied back up with the Owls atop the ASUN. The Owls do hold the tiebreaker, though. Big auto-bid and therefore cut line implications, potentially. (These are the things we think about so you don’t have to.)

9:00 PM EST: Mississippi @ Auburn (SECN)

Finally…this one, I guess. A lot of people want Auburn to be in the NIT picture, but they’re not, and they won’t be unless they lose this one and then do more things of this self-destructive nature.