Fargo not only went berserk yesterday on one of the cushions we have on this little couch outside we never use…she also put the cushion back when she was finished.
Good girl.
UC-RIVERSIDE, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
UC-Riverside, Joe Kelly’s alma mater and the possessor of an up-and-coming men’s basketball program under Mike Magpayo, stole the headlines last night with its stunning last-second shot against ASU. ASU, for those wondering, has a fairly solid NIT shot. UC-Riverside might as well. They should be in the mix in the Big West, which has been known to have an automatic bid in play many a time.
Oklahoma State Fans are Threatening the NCAA
Ok, yeah, threats are bad. Don’t threaten people. That’s a bad thing to do.
But also, NCAA, stop being so full of shit and maybe people won’t be so mad at you. You go in and you mess up kids’ lives, blocking them from chasing their dreams with seemingly highly arbitrary punishments doled out under these cloaks of secrecy, hardly ever punishing the actual transgressors (because you take half a decade to finish an investigation), and then you think escalating the war of words is the right move? You idiotic assholes. No wonder everyone likes the NIT more than your favorite tournament.
Here’s the full story. The NCAA might be telling some truths, but it’s hard to give them any benefit of the doubt given how they go about these things, so we have no idea.
Tonight’s Big Games
SMU visits Oregon on one of the Pac-12 Networks. Virginia Tech goes up to Navy like a zookeeper approaching a tiger that just roared really loud at a different zookeeper. San Diego State visits BYU and I’m not sure it’s on TV. There are other ones, I’m sure, but we don’t really know which ones they are yet. We do know that the one in Los Angeles, the one they’re going to tell you is important, the one people are trying to turn into a big deal…not a big game. Meaningless. Virtually no NIT shot for either team. If it’s on a TV at a restaurant or a bar you should ask them to change the channel. Obscene, frankly. Just obscene.
Other Basketball This Weekend
Shaka Smart’s Marquette hosts New Hampshire tonight on FS2. Texas visits Gonzaga tomorrow. Strong chance Shaka takes a 2-1 lead over the Horns in the win column. I’m excited for Florida State/Florida on Sunday. Florida fans are always reliably ready to get pandemoniously excited about the NIT. At least, I assume that’s what they’re feeling as they react to ugly losses.
There’s Football This Weekend
Believe it or not, they’re playing football again, on a weekend in the fall. Texas A&M and Mississippi are right there in the College Football NIT race, with the Citrus Bowl and the Gator Bowl—two of the candidates for the sport’s NIT—holding a sideline open apiece for SEC also-rans. Michigan/Penn State might be the ugliest game between decent teams since Penn State played Wisconsin. Oklahoma/Baylor might be the ugliest game for people who like defense since Oklahoma played Kansas. Ohio State seems like it’s about to go Godzilla on Purdue’s Little Engine That Could. Wake Forest plays NC State at the kids table, and there’s a chance it has Citrus or Sun Bowl implications, but I think they may have outshot the Sun.
There’s Formula 1 This Weekend
The gang goes to Brazil. I know little else.
Notre Dame’s Milk Pipeline Grows
I wish this was more literal. More of our nation’s top research universities should be investing in milk pipelines. Still, not bad news: This guy on Notre Dame’s football team who likes to be called “Milk” just signed an endorsement deal with American Dairy Association Indiana (ADAI)’s Winners Drink Milk campaign. Gonna look pretty silly if Notre Dame loses to Virginia, but maybe it’d be a lesson. Losers also drink milk, guys. Milk is for all of us.
Buckethat tip to our friend Pat, father of a son who reportedly loves buses.
The Sens Situation
The Senators lost again last night, getting shutout for their first time since February of 2020 (The Sens are good at scoring, guys). Thankfully, we got Brady Tkachuk getting himself into a renaissance-painting situation, Jimmy Stu doing dirty things to Anže Kopitar, and a great debut from Lassi Thomson, the Finnish 21-year-old the Senators drafted 19th overall in 2019. Maybe he’ll save the defense. The Sens host the Penguins tomorrow night and the Flames on Sunday.
Does Burnley Know Eminem Is White?
Burnley’s Bailey Peacock-Farrell is leading Northern Ireland to a first-half lead right now against Lithuania, playing for pride after World Cup qualifying mathematical elimination. There’s more Burnley-relevant World Cup qualifying action this weekend—Maxwel Cornet and the Ivory Coast play a big one against Mozambique tomorrow, Connor Roberts/Wayne Hennessey and Wales play a big one against Belarus tomorrow, I don’t think I’m forgetting any but I might be forgetting some—but the big question surrounding the Clarets is whether they know Eminem is white. We dug into that earlier today.
Blooper Reel
Blooper, the Atlanta Braves’ mascot, is a hoot and a holler, and I would like to party with him for a weekend. Inspired by this, we went through a whole slew of MLB mascots and decided which would and wouldn’t be invited to our bender.
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Viewing schedule this weekend is mostly the Sens and college basketball, with breaks to hope for an absolute mess in the college football playoff landscape. Go Shaka. Go Zags (sorry, Texas, but I can’t have you rise this high this early). Hopefully something hilarious happens in the Kansas/Texas football game.
See you on the streets.
OH ALSO THE SENS SIGNED A DUDE NAMED CHAS REDDEKOPP TO THEIR AHL AFFILIATE sorry I don’t know anything more.
