Friday notes time, no you didn’t miss yesterday’s, I was trying to convince a possibly sick puppy to eat her food (she ate it eventually, we called the vet today, everything’s fine it’s just a pain in the ass and we feel bad for her and/or mad at her because it’s possible she’s messing with us) so they didn’t get written. Today’s:
Everyone’s Getting Covid Again
So many canceled games in college basketball, and given I haven’t seen anything yet confirming the plans for the 2022 NIT, it’s worrisome. Hopefully this wave is a lot less deadly thanks to vaccines and the potential lower severity of the omicron variant? Fingers crossed, for reasons other than the NIT but you know what also the NIT. I’m going to care about the NIT in addition to people not dying, and I encourage all of you with a pulse to join me.
The Basketball This Weekend (As Far As We Know)
Saint Mary’s is playing San Diego State in Phoenix tonight, and St. Bonaventure plays Virginia Tech in Charlotte this afternoon, and I just want to know: At what point do people not come to the game? Maybe it’s because I’ve never lived in California, but are SMC and SDSU fans going to show up on the road? Are Virginia Tech fans going to show up in Charlotte? The only one of these four I believe in is Bonnies fans and that’s because other college basketball media members (that’s right, I just counted myself as one of the big boys) speak of them in hushed, fearful tones. Also, I noticed late that Richmond plays NC State in Charlotte after the Bonnies play VT. Do Richmond people care about Richmond basketball? I know NC State people do. I’ve seen videos.
Tomorrow, we’ve got classics. Crossroads Classic in Indiana, where we’ll have close eyes on Notre Dame and Indiana. Jerry Colangelo Classic in Phoenix, which is evidently where the SMC/SDSU thing is coming from but also features 2020 Virtual NIT Champion Texas Tech facing Gonzaga, a good vs. evil Josh Pastner/Andy Enfield showdown, and a universe-shaking San Francisco/Grand Canyon game, among others (if I could remember how daylight savings time works in Arizona, I’d tell you how brutally early Tech/Zags tips and how much that helps Tech, but I can’t remember how daylight savings time works in Arizona). The Gotham Classic, played at Madison Square Garden, features Pitt playing St. John’s and maybe Iona playing somebody (Seton Hall has the Covid), and that Pitt/SJU game certainly does inspire vigilante justice, so it sounds like a good idea to me. The CBS Sports Classic had its field cut in half by a virus (you can guess which one), but UNC plays Kentucky, and we’re still not out on either as a possible NIT team. There’s the Orange Bowl Classic, where USF is playing Florida and UCF’s playing Florida State. There’s the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic, where Howard plays North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central plays Hampton and those aren’t conference games because the MEAC is disintegrating. Beyond the classics, defending national champion Memphis plays Tennessee in Nashville in a game that’s gotten a little feisty at times (if memory serves me correctly), Weber State hosts BYU in a game that also has some feistiness potential, Louisiana Tech and LSU are playing in a suburb of Shreveport (!), West Virginia’s visiting UAB because Bob Huggins evidently felt adventurous and Birmingham is synonymous with adventure, the Clemson/South Carolina game’s going down, Arkansas plays NIT bogeyman Hofstra in a suburb of Little Rock, and there’s something NIT-relevant happening in the Sanford Pentagon (obviously) in the form of Utah State playing Iowa. I’m sure I’m missing something. I didn’t even look at the Big East. It’s a busy Saturday. Half of it will probably get canceled. A quarter of it will probably see opponents change.
Sunday, mercifully, the madness calms, but do I see San Francisco’s playing a back-to-back and taking on Arizona State at home? What a way to potentially take your first loss of the season. No formal classics on Sunday, but the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge (does this actually exist?) has a game in Las Vegas that is Texas vs. Stanford. Maui (Asheville) rematch except those teams didn’t play in Maui (Asheville). Marquette visits Xavier tomorrow, by the way, in other Shaka Smart news.
Bowls
In addition to the basketball, bowl season kicks off ferociously, with the Bahamas Bowl already behind us (congratulations to Rick Stockstill for silencing the doubters), the Tailgreeter Cure Bowl starting in a couple hours, the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl tomorrow morning, and the PUBG Mobile New Mexico Bowl and the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl and the LendingTree Bowl (lame) and the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Presented by Stifel and the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl tomorrow afternoon and evening and night. Personally, I’m most excited for the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Presented by Stifel, because I’m assuming Kimmel’s coaching Oregon State and Ted Cruz is coaching Utah State and they’ll both say something terribly offensive about Mormons and each will be completely excused by their own tribe.
Shit, whoops, my bad, only had the FBS tab open. The Cricket Celebration Bowl is also tomorrow, with Jackson State hosting South Carolina State. Jackson State’s one of bowl season’s biggest favorites and with Deion Sanders coaching and the game on ABC I think Jackson State might get a College Football Playoff invite on vibes alone.
FCS Semifinals
In the non-bowl-playing FCS, James Madison visits North Dakota State tonight and South Dakota State visits Montana State tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, weather looks fine in Bozeman. Fortunately, we have two great games between four of the FCS’s coolest and best programs.
The Sens Lost, But Did They?
The Senators allegedly lost last night, but given it was on the road and against the Lightning and only by one goal…hard to say they actually lost. You know, like maybe they lost, but did they? Did they really?
Back-to-back games this weekend. Flyers on the road tomorrow evening, Bruins at home Sunday in the late afternoon. Those teams are sixth in the Metropolitan (do people call it that or the Metro?) and fifth-but-really-fourth in the Atlantic, respectively (Bruins haven’t played that many games, kind of like the Sens, so we call them a fourth-place team in MY family).
Burnley Might Play Tomorrow
Burnley and Aston Villa seem aligned in terms of communicating about whether or not either is going to request tomorrow’s game canceled (evidently Watford didn’t tell Burnley they were trying to get the Premier League to cancel Wednesday’s game, which is what led to Burnley finding out about it so shortly before kickoff). If they do play, Burnley’s a huge underdog. Either the Villains are good or the market doesn’t like Burnley probably missing Maxwel Cornet. To be fair, I don’t like it either.
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I think that covers everything. I’ll see you Monday. The Sens games are only on ESPN+ and the basketball and football are too chaotic to map out, but Burnley’s at least on NBCSN tomorrow, it appears, and I’m curious if they’ll be on NBC because of the postponements? I forget if NBC does Saturday morning games. Kickoff’s at 9:00 AM EST.
