If you wait long enough to do something, sometimes it no longer needs doing.
No New NIT Favorite
We’d been meaning all week to name a new NIT favorite, with San Francisco vacating the throne with that win in Provo last Thursday night. Then, the Dons lost at home to Portland. Problem solved.
With the loss, San Francisco might even finally be in our next NIT Bracketology. Huge, huge loss. Hilarious loss. Watch them get too sure of themselves and lose again tomorrow night to Pepperdine and have us doing the, “Wait, are they even going to make the NIT?” thing. The gate is narrow!
In other WCC NIT news, Santa Clara is officially on the radar after beating Saint Mary’s last night. These two probably can’t be in the same region, which is bad for the environment because it’ll mean more flights. I don’t care. Eat my butt, environment (just kidding we should help you I just think it’s funny when NIT bracketological shifts mean more CO2 emissions).
The Basketball Classic
The CIT has rebranded as The Basketball Classic. Go ahead. Click that link. You won’t regret it.
Really. Click the link. I’m waiting.
Ok, you clicked it?
Click it!
Alright, what a website, right? The best website on The Internet™. I love it so much.
The Basketball Classic will work with Eracism, that organization trying to erase racism that’s sponsored some other college basketball events. It’s a worthy goal, and their logo in this graphic is pretty good. Much better than the name. The name still feels like “Racism, but online!” and as we’ve said many times now, we have that already.
The Sens Keep Sens’ing
The Sens sens’d the Hurricanes last night, nearly coughing up a four-goal lead but NOT COUGHING IT UP, NOPE, STILL WON THE GAME! *cackling*
Brady Tkachuk had a good night. Sens are up to 6th in the Atlantic Division. Just 19 points back of a playoff spot. Only need to win ten straight and have the Bruins lost ten straight. Lemon squeezy, as they say.
Night off tonight, homestand continues tomorrow. We’re into that stretch of playing a ton of games in a short period of time because of all the Covid around the holidays.
Little Help for Burnley
On the one hand, Norwich drawing with Crystal Palace today makes it that much less certain Burnley will get back ahead of the Canaries. On the other, Crystal Palace is on the fringe of being in reach? I don’t know. A Norwich loss would’ve felt better.
Elsewhere, Brentford lost to Man City, but Leeds drew with Aston Villa, giving Leeds a point we didn’t want them to get, and Southampton beat Tottenham which is all sorts of bad. The bottom line is that Burnley’s probably got to pass either Newcastle or Everton, with the idea being that if they pass one of those guys they’ll pass Watford and Norwich as well. Slightly less than half a season in which to do it, and already ahead of Watford in points per match, as I believe we’ve been mentioning. Big weekend coming up.
Game of the NITe
Don’t get fooled by the Missouri Valley Conference. Missouri State and Drake are not, at present, NIT at-large bid contenders. Missouri State could be, but they aren’t there yet.
No, tonight’s all about Tulane and Memphis, with Memphis recently rising back into the picture and Tulane just a heck of a lot of fun. They’re in New Orleans! Their mascot is a cartoon wave! What’s not to like.
Tip’s at 7:00 PM Texas Time on ESPN+ (not to brag but we subscribe to ESPN+).
Other games of interest tonight include Mississippi State hosting Tennessee, Oklahoma hosting Texas Tech, and Seton Hall hosting Xavier. Winnable games for the home teams, who are all on the bubble. Recipes for excitement.
Minnesota at Nebraska is notably not of interest—don’t let Minnesota fool you—and beyond that…I’m not seeing a lot.
Iditarods and Ends
IndyCar starts in two and a half weeks, so put a pin in that. F1 starts the same weekend as Selection Sunday. NASCAR, of course, has the Daytona 500 a week from Sunday. The Iditarod starts the weekend between IndyCar’s kickoff and F1’s kickoff. Lot of racing going on, whether you’ve got wheels or not.
Fargo’s Anxious
We’d gotten to a spot where Fargo didn’t mind us leaving her in the crate at all at the old place, or at least didn’t bark when we put her in there. Now, at the new apartment, she goes nuts. Heartbreaking. Hopefully she gets used to it soon. She’s a good girl. We’re doing a quick trip out of town tomorrow night so some of our friends are staying with her. Hopefully it doesn’t stress her out too badly. Stress hurts those already-dysfunctional intestines she’s got.
