Are you ready…for actually-pretty-good college basketball, great soccer but it looks ugly, and yeah-ok-it’s-bad hockey?
No?
Ok, let’s talk milk.
Chocolate Milk: Weight Loss King
Here’s a tip for those of you who like treats but want to responsibly drop a few pounds: Fewer calories in a big glass of chocolate milk than a bowl of ice cream or a baked good. The #SoupStreak continues, everybody, and we’re 22 pounds away from accomplishing the mission.
Burnley
Now, we’ll go chronologically-ish.
Burnley’s got a big one tomorrow morning, guys. It’s not too big. We shouldn’t put that much pressure on the lads. They’ve got a lot of time left, it’s a road match against a good squad, the expectation is that Burnley loses.
But man would it be great to win.
Burnley’s down at Crystal Palace in London tomorrow. Kick’s at 10:00 AM EST, broadcast is on Peacock Premium. A win would almost assuredly put the Clarets into 17th place or better. A draw would not, but it could get them one point away. A loss also, of course, would not, but let’s not dwell on that.
Palace is having a fine year. Middle of the table, low risk of relegation, beat Man City back in October on the road. Burnley played them to a weird, 3-3 draw in this season’s first meeting. They’re beatable, but again, they’re the favorite.
It’s unclear if Maxwel Cornet’s going to available. Mixed messaging on that from the press. Still, Burnley should have four guys in there capable of scoring goals, between Wout Weghorst, Jay Rodriguez, Ben Mee’s soul, and The Surging Josh Brownhill™. It’s a Brownhill moment, and we’re all living in it.
Around the bottom of the table, Norwich lost to Southampton today, Watford’s at Man U tomorrow, Newcastle and Brentford play at Brentford, Leeds hosts Tottenham, and Everton hosts Man City. There’s a question about whether it’s better to hope on Brentford or Newcastle to lose, since Brentford’s four points up on Burnley and Newcastle’s two points up but Burnley has two more games in hand on Brentford and Newcastle just brought in all that talent in January. I think the mathematic answer might be to pull for a draw. Keep the options that much more open. If that happens, Leeds and Everton lose, and Burnley pulls off the upset, the lads will be all the way up in 15th at the end of the day. Up the Clarets, haters.
Sens, Sens, Sens
The Senators return tomorrow from their unprecedented three-day layoff, hosting the Canadiens at 7:00 PM EST on ESPN+. They’re favored, which is always a bad sign.
A theory about this is that good teams win games they should. It’s just a theory, mind you, but if the Senators do win this game (a game they should win), we may be able to call them a good team. Especially if they win it with some force. Like, if Thomas Chabot shoots a puck through the abdomen of whoever plays goalie for the Canadiens. Carey Price? Is it Carey Price? Hmm, Googled it. He’s hurt. This might explain why the Canadiens are suddenly so bad. Can we get someone out to look at why the Canadiens are so bad? Please report back. If you see something, say something.
NASCAlifoRnia
Little did you know that NASCAR is a contraction.
Alright, so I lied about the chronological thing. We talk about Burnley and the Senators and NASCAR first here because we like you guys. We know you want to read about the NIT, but we like you, so we write about the things we enjoy that we think you might also enjoy and give you the chance to read about them first. Little tip of the trade. Also, sorry, I got distracted. No idea where I was going with that sentence.
NASCAR’s in California this weekend. Cup race is Sunday afternoon, green flag at 3:47 PM EST on FOX. It’s not quite a superspeedway—only two miles, so shorter than Daytona and Talladega, and “D-shaped” (keep it in your pants, folks), making it fairly similar to Michigan. Just a little less banked. It’s not a 1.5-miler, either, which basically, I think, means the racing is expected to be better than the worst but not as good as the best. That said, part of the goal with the new car is to make racing more competitive at average tracks, so…we’ll see.
As far as who’s going to win goes, this is not a track where you get wildcard winners, and it’s not a track one guy particularly dominates. They didn’t run here last year, so a bit hard to pick someone out, but Kyle Busch will probably be a betting favorite since he finished top-three each of the last three races here, and now that I check the odds…yeah, he’s up there behind Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Also, this race is evidently called the Wise Power 400. Unclear whether that’s an energy company or a hermit supremacist movement.
Oh Yeah, IndyCar!
IndyCar’s in St. Petersburg this weekend, kicking off their season before taking two weeks off. IndyCar’s appetite for leisure is the best.
It’s a street course, but not really an urban one. Just kind of pretty, if I remember right. Colton Herta won here last year, and Josef Newgarden won the two years before that. Feels like the question for the sport is whether Newgarden and Scott Dixon will climb back up to the top or if it’s a new Álex Palou/Colton Herta/Pato O’Ward world.
Race starts sometime at or after 12:00 PM EST Sunday, broadcast on NBC.
F1 Did Some Testing
Might as well go all the way around the horn. F1 was testing this week in Barcelona. I don’t know how much or how little we learned or what it means, but I’m gonna guess it’s really important for the teams and doesn’t make a huge difference in our lives as casual fans.
NIT or NOT? Oregon
Alright, let’s get on it. Oregon got themselves back in “Ooh could they make the NCA* *********t?” discussions by beating UCLA last night, because all anyone ever thinks about with Oregon is their last game. They’re an NIT team, guys. They’re ours. And we aren’t letting them go without a fight.
(That said if they want to crush USC tomorrow and start the process to get the Trojans into the NIT picture, we wouldn’t be opposed.)
Naming a New NIT Favorite
Ugh, ok, fine, it’s Virginia Tech. I don’t begrudge Virginia Tech on this. I just really wanted San Francisco. They’re beyond us now. Godspeed.
Virginia Tech’s a great NIT favorite because they’re 1. better than Michigan State (they’d be favored by KenPom right now, KenPom’s a pretty good Vegas proxy) and 2. right in the thick of our latest NIT Bracketology. They’re the pretty clearcut team to beat right now, even if it’s still an open race.
NIT Friend: Murray State
Our beloved Casey Alexander and his head that is a basketball disguised as a head is likely headed to us after Belmont welcomed Murray State to town last night, dreaming of escaping the NIT’s clutches. and lost to Murray State by 33 points. Kind of close to getting doubled up. One (1) entire massacre. That’s called helping out your buddy.
Nobody Schedule BYU
BYU’s trying to find a nonconference game to help its résumé, and…nobody play along with it. BYU’s in a great spot right now. They need neither help nor hindrance. If Mark Pope calls you, do not pick up.
Game of the NITe of the Weekend
Alright, with all that covered…
First of all, yes, plenty of huge games this weekend in the NIT world. It’s hard to pick just one. But we didn’t become NIT bloggers to make easy choices. We became NIT bloggers because our manager was telling us not to prioritize profits and we thought that was lame and we also had five months to kill before it was convenient to quit our job.
So, with all due respect to Vanderbilt/Mississippi State, and Wichita State/Memphis, and even Fordham/Davidson (because it’s funny)…
The Game of the NITe of the Weekend is Creighton @ Providence.
Providence is a tough one. Not for the NIT. Easy one for the NIT. They’re not making it.
No, Providence is a tough one for Creighton to be playing on the road right now, because beating Providence at home would be a massive résumé boost but beating Providence at home should also be…kind of doable? I mean, they’re only favored by…ok, no line yet. But they’re probably only going to be six or seven-point favorites. And this would be a huge win for Creighton, which would quite possibly erase their NIT chances entirely.
Treacherous stuff.
But they didn’t become an NIT contender to make an easy tournament.
They became an NIT contender because they have one of the worst turnover ratios of any power conference team.
Shaka Smart, Texas
It’s been a while since we checked in on our old friend Shaka Smart and our recent enemy, Texas. Marquette’s still comfortably not an NIT team. They host Butler tomorrow. Texas is also still comfortably not an NIT team. They visit West Virginia. Texas could be an NIT friend with a loss. We do like Chris Beard.
***
Viewing schedule for the weekend:
Friday
- 7:00 PM EST – Saint Louis @ Richmond, ESPN2 (Billikens aren’t safe, Spiders aren’t dead, this feels like a Goosebumps title)
- 9:00 PM EST – Texas State @ Troy, ESPN2 (Texas State’s got a good shot at an NIT auto-bid and I had a lot of friends go there, also I think my therapist went there at least for grad school if not undergrad and now that she knows what the NIT is because I explained it to her in medium detail two sessions ago this may come up in the how’s-everything-going first few minutes where I settle in and figure out how distressed I am)
- 11:00 PM EST – San Jose State @ San Diego State, FS1 (support Tim Miles in all he does, support San Diego State making the NIT because they’re in Bill Walton territory)
Saturday
- 10:00 AM EST – Burnley, Peacock Premium
- 12:00 PM EST – Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma, CBS (Sorry to Tom Crean, but we’re on Oklahoma .500 watch)
- 2:00 PM EST – UNC @ NC State, ESPN (NIT Friend? Picking this because I couldn’t choose between the Big 12 games)
- 4:00 PM EST – Florida State @ Virginia, ESPN2 (Virginia’s safe but not that safe and I don’t know in which direction, so need to get a read on the narrative, even if all teams are allegedly “tournament-worthy” according to college basketball broadcasters not wanting fans to threaten their children’s lives on Twitter)
- 6:00 PM EST – Loyola @ Northern Iowa, ESPNU (Loyola’s got a backdoor shot, Northern Iowa’s got a frontdoor shot)
- 7:00 PM EST – Put the Sens on in the background, ESPN+
- 8:30 PM EST – Game of the NITe of the Weekend, FS1
- 10:30 PM EST – Colorado State @ Utah State, FS1 (the Mountain West never says die)
Sunday
- 12:00 PM EST – Get IndyCar on through the antenna, NBC
- 12:30 PM EST – SMU @ Houston, ESPN (get wrecked, SMU, and we mean that with as much good will as anyone’s ever meant that phrase)
- 2:30 PM EST – Wichita State @ Memphis, ESPN (still waiting for Wichita State to pop their head up into this thing)
- 3:30 PM EST – Flip the antenna to NASCAR, FOX
- 5:00 PM EST – St. John’s @ DePaul, FS1 (sneaky good opportunity for the Red Storm)
- 7:00 PM EST – Nebraska @ Penn State, BTN (it never hurts to dream)
