You know what day it is.
NITitle Time
The NIT Championship is tonight at 7:00 PM EDT on ESPN. Texas A&M vs. Xavier. Madison Square Garden.
We collected most of our thoughts in our NIT Championship preview, but to add one here: We haven’t had an NIT Championship Game with a single-digit scoring margin since 2015, when Stanford and Miami went to overtime. The last five NIT’s, the champion has won decisively. Does that change tonight? I’m not sure it does. It’s oddly easy to see this as a mismatch in either direction—Texas A&M being too feisty or Xavier being completely unperturbed by Texas A&M’s feist. I know that’s probably wrong, but that’s the ethos going in. Regardless, it will be the best NITe of our year, and a thrilling end to the conclusion of the college basketball season.
WNIT Updates
Sorry, end of the *men’s college basketball season. The women play on, with WNIT semifinals tonight in Brookings and Murfreesboro, where South Dakota State will host UCLA and Middle Tennessee State will host Seton Hall, respectively. How unexpected do you think a trip to Brookings is for a woman who commits to playing basketball at UCLA? That couldn’t have been on the proverbial bingo card, right?
Games at 7:30 PM EDT (Seton Hall/MTSU) and 8:00 PM EDT (UCLA/South Dakota State) on ESPN3. Championship on Saturday at 3:00 PM EDT on CBSSN, but I’m not sure where. Sorry for the lack of attention on the WNIT this season. That’s something we’re trying to do better next year.
Brian Cashman, You Silly Man
If “bitch” wasn’t a misogynistic word, I’d have titled this, “Brian Cashman, you dumb bitch,” but “bitch” is a misogynistic word.
The Yankees, if you hadn’t noticed, have failed to win the American League pennant since 2009. No World Series appearances in the last twelve years. Yesterday, in an interview with The Athletic, Brian Cashman blamed that drought on the Astros’ cheating scandal.
?????
I mean, yes, the Astros cheated, but to blame twelve seasons of not making the World Series on one year of trash-can banging, the same year the commissioner sent you, you Brian Cashman, a letter referencing your own team’s stealing of signs which a judge has ordered unsealed…that’s a stretch. You could say, “Look, we’ve had good teams, we’ve been close, twelve years is not that long.” You could say, “Look, we haven’t gotten it done, that’s on us.” But to pin it all on one postseason series? That’s lame. Especially because of how random the MLB postseason is. That’s a stretch, there, sir. Good effort, though. At least you turned a softball question into you getting made fun of by silly little bloggers like me.
Stripping Out: F1 Is Going to Las Vegas
Formula 1 is adding a third grand prix in the United States in 2023, with plans for a street race in Las Vegas in November of that year now confirmed. Great stuff for all parties.
