There are probably a decent number of coaches who are undefeated in their Maui Invitational careers. Teams rarely go to Maui more often than twice a decade, and coaches rarely last a decade in one spot, even if they’re good enough to win a Maui Invitational. Case in point: Shaka Smart won the 2020 Maui Invitational while the head coach at Texas. Five months later, he was gone, off to coach a marquee national basketball program, taking flight and leaving the little old Longhorns to lose to UConn and lose at Madison Square Garden, two things Shaka Smart is *not* known for doing (in 2019 or since February). Shaka Smart is undefeated in his Maui Invitational career. The tournament in which he coached happened in Asheville, but it was still the Maui Invitational. There were even surfboards there!
There are probably a decent number of coaches who are undefeated in their Maui Invitational careers. We lead with this because Shaka Smart’s Marquette Golden Eagles are trailing against UCLA while we sit down to write this, and we really thought we’d get this written before Marquette and UCLA tipped off, and we don’t have another top topic to top Shaka Smart’s undefeated Maui record. It’s not that special, right? Unless Marquette does win this game. That would be convenient (and would make me happy—if you’re new here, we really like Shaka Smart). In that case, it’s very special. If they lose, it’s about being 4–1 career in the Maui Invitational (Marquette would play Chaminade next). If they win, it’s about Shaka Smart having a chance to become the first man in the history of the world to win two Maui Invitationals without ever setting foot on the island of Maui.
Louisville vs. Indiana: Dare to Dream
We’ve been dreaming dreams lately in the NIT community, emboldened by our victories in minor skirmishes (they haven’t expanded the NCAA T*urnament yet) and casting our eyes on the big prize (getting an N-I-T chant started at Hinkle Fieldhouse in the moments leading up to the championship game in March). Among those dreams? Louisville playing Indiana in the NIT Final Four. In Indianapolis. Can you imagine? That crowd would be redder than if Bobby Knight’s face had a child with Bobby Knight’s sweater and that child grew up to coach a game at Lambeau Field in the late days of January. Would also be a big crowd. I know those fanbases. The Indiana old heads would love it. Louisvillains wouldn’t be able to stay away.
Vogelbach & Tellez
There’s a famous photo of Daniel Vogelbach standing on first base as a baserunner while Rowdy Tellez stands behind first base as the first baseman. Here’s the link (credit to the Absolute Units subreddit). I believe it won a Pulitzer. Sometimes, when I am sad, it helps to look at this picture. They look so silly and big. They look like Backyard Baseball characters. Or like baseball players in a movie. Or like Babe Ruth had a child with Bob Knight’s sweater and that child grew up to set the soda-drinking world record. They are not merely large. They are taut. (The first baseman’s mitt and the Milwaukee City Connect uniforms add so much to the photo. I wonder who took that photo. I wonder if it was Steve McCurry.)
Anyway, Vogelbach and Tellez were each non-tendered on Friday, meaning they both got cut. At the same time. On the same day. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Hmm. Maybe we could work that into my idea. I don’t know that teams want two boppers who can’t bop lefties in the same platoon, but I doubt Hollywood would care. Sure. Let’s say that’s the ending. Let’s say the buddy road trip movie featuring the two of them crossing the country in a Volkswagen Beetle (predictably, hijinks ensue) ends with them getting signed by the same team. That would be so fun. Forget the pitch clock. If Rob Manfred wants kids to get into baseball, he’ll get Daniel Vogelbach and Rowdy Tellez to bat 3rd and 4th in the same lineup. Think of the face of a 6-year-old boy if he looked at the plate and saw the biggest man he’d ever seen batting, and then looked in the on-deck circle and saw an even larger man swinging sixteen bats around and using a seventeenth as a toothpick. Now imagine his reaction when you tell him that second guy’s name is Rowdy. That kid would be hooked for life. Half of the 1998 home run race’s appeal was that Mark McGwire looked like a cartoon character.
Did James Reimer Duck?
Not to brag, but I watched a little Sens hockey over the weekend. Watched them win the shootout against the Wild. Watched most of the third period, too. Am I a hockey expert? I wouldn’t call myself that. But I will say that when I saw the highlight of Tim Stützle’s game-winner on Thursday (this is now the second time we’ve talked about that game-winner—The Barking Crow is a Sens blog again), I was confused about why the goalie ducked. I thought to myself, “Did that man duck?” and then I thought to myself, “Well, if he ducked, people would be all over that,” and so I thought to myself, “I bet that’s just something that happens when you stick all four of your limbs out in an attempt to maximize your surface area because a cheery German boy is swinging his hockey stick at a puck mere feet in front of you and it’s about to fly at your net at seven hundred miles per hour.”
Now, people are all over it. Whether or not James Reimer (that’s the goalie, the goalie is James Reimer) ducked is all over The Internet. Some are saying Reimer, like Christian Yelich declining to dive for Mike Tauchman’s game-tying double on July 5th, made a business decision. Me? I wouldn’t call myself a hockey expert. But I think we’ve all been sleeping on how much watching Miracle forty times as a kid, living in Minnesota for two years, and watching a cumulative eighteen hockey games over the entirety of my life prepared me to blog about America’s iciest sport.
The Sens are hot.
Anton Forsberg balled out against the Wild.
Anton Forsberg pucked out against the Wild?
Anton Forsberg pucks.
Good for F1
F1 accidentally made a good racetrack, and Saturday night’s F1 race earned some of the most positive reviews of any race this season. People enjoyed watching the race. It was exciting. Me? I watched the first few minutes (to find out who won), then went to bed. But it sounds like I missed out. Would be great if the Vegas Grand Prix became an annual exciting event. We don’t hate F1 here. We hate when people pretend things are things they aren’t.
I Checked the In-Season Tournament Standings
Confession: I checked the In-Season Tournament standings. The Bulls came back from a (self-inflicted, it’s always self-inflicted) 22–1 deficit on Saturday and I checked the In-Season Tournament standings. I was excited. I thought it meant the Bulls were 1–1. I don’t know why I thought this—I knew they’d lost their first two games, and the very court the game was played on told me this wasn’t an In-Season Tournament game—but I thought the Bulls were 1–1. They are not. They’re 0–2.
I do think it’s unfairly confusing to have an In-Season Tournament game as part of a back-to-back without making the other half also an In-Season Tournament game. Especially during college football season. And during Feast Week. That was a recipe for me not knowing what was going on. I suppose it worked. I did check the In-Season Tournament standings, after all.
Two more In-Season Tournament thoughts:
First, the name. I hate the name. I’ve written it eight times now and it makes my skin crawl. It is the worst name for anything ever. I would name my child “Ask Me My Opinion on the Israel-Palestine Conflict” before I named my child “In-Season Tournament.” I’ve written it nine times now. I’m feeling a little nausea (not kidding, this thing’s in my head).
Adam Silver should have either named this tournament after himself, named it after one of those Twitter accounts that obsesses over boring NBA stuff, or named it the Thibodeau Cup, honoring the man whose passion for the regular season could have, if emulated by his fellow NBA coaches, saved us from anyone ever thinking this thing needed to exist.
Second, the Dame. Damian Lillard made a good point when he said that the $500,000 prize per player for winning this thing is a lot of money, especially for Two-Way players. Which makes me ask: If your team wins the In-Season Tournament but you’re in the G-League when it happens, do they still have to pay you that half a mill? Does it matter if you do a bad job?
An MLS Blockbuster
There was major Austin FC news today: Austin FC is reportedly trading Nick Lima to the New England Revolution. I guess Nick Lima is a soccer player who used to play for Austin FC but will soon play for the New England Revolution. The deal is historic—Lima has been with Austin FC since the club’s founding, in 2021—and the deal is also significant competitively—it may take Austin from being the 381st-best club soccer team, globally, to 382nd. It depends what they do with the cash considerations.
