Well, Fargo’s hospitalized. She woke up this morning with a nasty cough, and it turned out she has a fever as well, which led to chest x-rays which led to a pneumonia diagnosis which led to, well, I already told you she’s hospitalized. The vet sounded pretty confident about the treatment plan, but spare a thought for the poor pup. She’s had a rough go of it, and beyond the pneumonia, we still have a lot of questions to get answered about her digestive system, especially since one of the things she coughed up (evidently dogs cough up things from their stomachs and not just their respiratory system?) was an undissolved pill we gave her at least seventeen days ago. So, again, please spare a thought for the poor pup. We’re hoping to get the pneumonia kicked as soon as possible, get her home tomorrow, and get any pills we have to give her dissolved adequately in her malfunctioning stomach. Then, we’re hoping to get the answers.
In the meantime, she’s still a sweetheart. Came running out of the bedroom this morning (I’d gotten up early thanks to a digestive malfunction of my own which was much less serious, possibly because I don’t go to the bathroom in the yard and am therefore oddly held to a lower standard?) with cough puddle on her paw, wagging her butt all over the place to say hi even though, as it turned out, she was feverish to the point of not eating (which is distinct from being nauseous to the point of not eating, which has been a regular occurrence over the last couple months). God bless her. She needs it.
One appetizer, then the main course, then whatever sides you can fit in your pockets:
The Ivory Coast Advances
While I was on the verge of dozing off in a veterinary exam room, my dog off getting x-rays done on her lungs, the Ivory Coast was bouncing back from Sunday’s debacle to clean up against Algeria, scoring twice in the first half on their way to a 3-1 win, a first place finish in Group E, and the elimination of the defending champions. Maxwel Cornet didn’t play, but we assume this just means they’re saving him for the knockout round, which they’ll open playing against Egypt on Wednesday.
For Burnley purposes, this would seem to mean Cornet will still just miss one currently scheduled match—Sunday’s against Arsenal—but I don’t know whether there’s any shot at matches getting rescheduled into the international break. Who knows. I already said not me.
Shaka Smart!
Alright, the big news. Marquette beat Villanova. On the road. I don’t know what exactly this does for Marquette’s projected seed and all that, but it’s a better win than anything Texas has done this year, and when you adjust for expectations/rebuild status/general program heft…man. What a great win for Shaka Smart.
It’s important not to set expectations too high for the Golden Eagles. The fact they’re up in Texas’s stratosphere in bracket projections is a victory in itself. But while the getting’s good, we’re gonna get. And by “get” I mean “celebrate this win.”
Iowa and Rutgers Played the Ugliest Game of Basketball in the History of Mankind
Maybe not technically, but it was sure close. Rutgers won by two on free throws which arose from an odd-to-say-the-least foul call on the Hawkeyes in the closing seconds, and while the foul call was, again, odd-to-say-the-least, can you really blame the refs? It was tied at 46. If they didn’t get someone on the foul line that game could’ve lasted forever.
The Rays Aren’t Doing the Two Families Thing
So the Rays are evidently not going to be allowed to split time between Tampa and Montreal, presumably because that felt too disrespectful to Montreal, but also presumably because come on, if a baseball team was going to have a secret second family, it was going to be the Red Sox. Definitely the shadiest father of the bunch. The Yankees are dickheads always trimming their hedges and calling the HOA on dads who don’t, but the Red Sox are gone half the time on “work” and that half the time consists of them rolling up to their second family in a working-class neighborhood and speaking Polish in that home despite never I mean never I mean not even when awoken startled from a dream do they speak Polish back in the suburb.
Sens Play Tonight
A lot of games have been added to the schedule, and I’m not going to go through them but basically it sounds like the Sens will be playing a lot to catch up on all the postponements, which we all expected anyway. Game tonight in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. Ugh. Penguins are so cool. The Penguins aren’t cool at all, but Penguins, the animal? The coolest.
Anton Forsberg in goal, Matt Murray’s sick but it’s not Covid. Guessing it’s memories of his time with the Penguins and regret, that great nostalgia for what might have been.
Game of the NITe
Sorry, Mountain West, but Memphis is here.
The AAC is worse than you probably remember. Worse enough, I’d wager, that were you to look at its teams and then remember this mass of flesh and bone technically spawned from the Big East, you’d say, “Oh God.” (Or “Oh gosh,” if you’re hesitant about using the Lord’s name like that—I tend to say “Oh goodness” myself.)
Anyway, SMU’s the third-best team in the league and they’re hardly safe from having to consider a CBI invitation, which means while if Memphis wins, they’ll be calling it a statement victory, there’s not much of a statement to be made. Memphis is really grooving in NIT-land at the moment. Hard to get out of there playing an AAC schedule. Game’s on ESPN2 at 6:00 PM Texas Time.
***
The viewing schedule:
4:00 PM CST: Georgetown @ Providence, FS1
Because it’s on.
6:00 PM CST: Game of the NITe, ESPN2
Because it’s the Game of the NITe.
6:00 PM CST but on my phone: Senators @ Penguins, ESPN+ but actually the gamecast
Because I haven’t set up that ESPN+ subscription yet even though we finally put a little money in the blog bank account (it was down under seven dollars, which will be a great number to toss around when the press loves us because we’re rolling in cash because Fargo came back from the vet with all sorts of wisdom on how to market an NIT blog to a weary nation).
8:00 PM CST: Hold up. What in the…
Ok wait a second, is CBS Sports Network not a channel? Is it a service, like ESPN+ or ACC Network X or whatever that ACC Network extra thing is called? Because this would really explain my difficulty finding it.
Anyway, both Boise State/Utah State and Santa Clara/Saint Mary’s are on in this hour, and they’re both on CBSSN somehow. Again, guessing this is a streaming service, but I prefer to think they’re going splitscreen and saving me from making a very difficult decision.
10:00 PM CST: Arizona @ Stanford, ESPNU
We could watch NIT favorite San Francisco go to Spokane, but there’s nothing that could happen there that would make our pining for them any more fruitful. We’re going to have to come up with a new favorite soon, and really soon if they play the Zags close. So instead, we’ll watch Stanford, who’s putzing on through in NIT-land. It’s a good school, folks.
