Short ones again today:
College Basketball: Kind of Happening
Lot of cancelations, lot of games still being played. Quick hitters before we get to our lone segment for today:
- I didn’t prophesy on how Texas’s Big 12 season will go, but had I, the prophesy would have gone like this.
- Boise State won last night’s Game of the NITe. Congratulations to our Idahoan friends.
- Notre Dame needed an exciting comeback and Prentiss Hubb heroics to beat Pitt on the road, which really describes the prototypical NIT-bound team well.
- Utah State just lost a terrible game at Air Force, and I mean terrible in that 1) it was an awful loss (one of Air Force’s best wins coming in was against Army) and 2) neither team cracked 50. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Really hurts Utah State’s NIT chances, but what a way to go.
Now, segmentation (this is not what that word means, I don’t think):
Game of the NITe: Wake Forest @ Louisville
Is Louisville’s the saddest athletic department in America right now? I’m going to guess that it is. Their president just left. Their AD just left. They’ve lost to DePaul and Western Kentucky in the last three weeks. They’re paying Chris Mack to coach their basketball team. Just a bad situation all around.
Meanwhile, Wake Forest is on the ascent. Might be the happiest athletic department in America right now. They’re on the verge of making a college football NIT claim. They’re 11-1 on the basketball court. They’re tied for first in the ACC. People aren’t making fun of Steve Forbes for that mask throw in his hype video anymore. That’s only because they’ve forgotten, but still—Steve Forbes isn’t being actively laughed at, and that’s huge for the Demon Deacs.
Congratulations, ACC. You’ve notched yourself the first of many Games of the NITe this conference season.
P.J. Fleck: Cool Again
We’ve gone back and forth on whether or not P.J. Fleck is cool, but having a 380-lb. man run in your first touchdown, immediately going for two, and then holding West Virginia to six points in the most depressing of all bowl games? That’s called making the most of your situation. So much respect right now. Enough that I’m ignoring the fact the AP recap evidently starts, “While watching ‘Breaking Bad’ for the first time last year, a particular scene caught P.J. Fleck’s attention.” You can’t take this away from me by way of dumb anecdote, Associated Press. Not this.
The Sens Are Done for 2021
Hey, that rhymes! Get a little sing-song with it, dear reader. Dance, but with your voice.
The Senators’ game Friday has officially been called off, making Saturday’s tilt with the Leafs the next scheduled contest for Brady Tkachuk and his band of lovable young stars and AHL-quality roster-fillers. What a year for Ottawa. They were bad. They were good. They were bad again. They got sick. They became decent. Range, or something of that sort.
Kyle Busch Gets Dirty
Kyle Busch is driving at the Tulsa Shootout, a micro sprint car racing event on the same track where the Chili Bowl Nationals will be held in a few weeks. Races continue through this weekend, but more than the event itself, wanted to give a little love to NASCAR as a sport for how its drivers often pop up in these more grassroots events. Fun part of the stock car and stock car-associated world that’s a lot grittier than what you get on the open-wheel side.
Eggnog, Microwaves
As promised, observations on drinking a lot of eggnog, plus a dive into how microwaves work. General culinary content for the people.
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Viewing schedule tonight, all times Texas Time:
4:00 PM: Arkansas @ Mississippi State – SEC Network
Get to know these guys with me (yes, we already know them, but get to know them better). They’re probably bubble-bound.
6:00 PM: Seton Hall @ Providence – FS1
Providence is doing that thing mediocre teams do where they start the season well but really they just happened to win two or three surprising games, and they’re still mediocre but now they have high expectations, and if they lose a few in a row people will say they’re sliding even though it’s mostly just a reversion to the mean. We live for this stuff. Also, Ed Cooley seems cool. We’re intrigued by the Friars.
7:00 PM: Wake Forest @ Louisville – ACC Network
Game of the NITe (assuming I’ll have to miss the second half of Seton Hall/Providence, but maybe there just won’t be any dead balls and we’ll be fine).
~9:00 PM: Tennessee @ Alabama – ESPN2
Second half only on this one. We’re holding out hope for NITe Oats. You know you want it, man. You know you want to play with us.
~10:00 PM: Oregon @ Oklahoma (Alamo Bowl) – ESPN
Fourth quarter of an Oregon/Oklahoma football game? I was raised in the 2000’s. I can’t say no.
