Saturday, March 8, 2014

Skate or Die

PYB prepares for a Saturday night with no family and no commitments, as we watch the ESPN hype machine overhype tonight's Duke-North Carolina with an hour-long pregame show hyping this clash of titans with just 14 losses between them this season and a nine point spread.

Duke Vitale has said twice in 15 minutes that "Nothing is finer, than Duke and Carolina." (that rhymes, get it?) Tony Romo is in attendance, wearing a Duke shirt, despite playing at Eastern Illinois. We knew he was full of shit. And we are full of guilt for going two weeks without a post. Onward....as we do a Spring Cleaning of our coffers of saved material:

Since it's Spring. Birds are chirping, Tiger Woods is finishing as an also-ran at every PGA tournament, and every Cornhusker football player has completely transformed his body into pure muscle in the two months since the season ended in January. And, in case you wondered, Nebraska started spring practice today and is still fine. AMG offered Exhibit A of NU's fineness, pointing out that at this year's NFL Combine:

Nebraska had 3 invitees. Other schools with the same or more:

Western Kentucky (3)
Utah St. (4)
Utah (5)
Fresno St. (4)
Colorado St. (3)
Boston College (5)
Boise St. (3)
Ball St. (3)

Sounds like the same schools NU competes with for players.

Bloomsburg (never heard of) in the highly regarded Pennsylvania St. conference has 2

We're fine.

p.s. For context Alabama has 12

--Next, Private Bo Pinelli made it known today that Jamal Turner is taking snaps at quarterback. Great. After wasting 75% of Turner's career and turning him into a fragile version of Miles Austin, the NU brain trust thinks it a good idea to move him to quarterback when the team has two other viable options at the position for the first time in at least five years. OK. PYB is just pissed that a guy from the Dallas area is in the Husker program. Don't need guys who aren't in the Big Ten's viewing region. Their Moms can't see them play every week.

--Then, Taylor Martinez lied about  his 40-yard-dash time from this week's NFL Pro Day in Lincoln, confusing a 4.28 time with a 4.6 time -- no biggie. This before he guaranteed he could play receiver at the next level and referencing all his haters. And stuff. T Vag, don't go away mad. T Vag, just go away.

--Finally, a reminder of where it all went wrong. Frank Solich. Not Bill Callahan. The Rat had one too many GHB-A-Ritas and crashed the Nebraska football program into a tree. Danny Woodhead...nah, said The Rat, "We're fine." (Just weed past the 15 paragraphs on Creighton basketball and the link describing anal sex with young boys in Happy Valley.)

--Wichita State improved its record to 33-0 today in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. It's funny that a team could go 34-0 entering the NCAA Tournament and lose in the first round. Or is it the third round by the time the Final 64 start playing? Watered. Down. Basketball.

--Speaking of watered down and college basketball, it was nice to see a few fisticuffs after the UVU-NMSU game, but this was nothing compared to the chair-swinging brawl in 1990 following a North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Central game. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the video -- just this watered down link.

--As always, we'll end on a high note. PYB sends major kudos to Tim Miles and his NU basketball team. Coaching, it turns out, does matter. And so does adjusting mid-game and/or mid-season, being nice to people and marketing a positive persona to the locals. Mind-blowing concepts.

Following an upset win at Michigan State followed by unrealistic expectations by uneducated NU fans and an inevitable loss at Illinois, Miles & Co. bounced back for a grind-it-out home win against Northwestern and a great road win at Indiana on Wednesday. 

All that sets up a huge home game tomorrow against Wisconsin. Win, and the Huskers are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years. No way a team that goes 11-7 in the Rugged Big 14 gets denied a bid. That said, the Badgers are fucking filthy. When you expect them to win, they score 35 points and lose by 25. Root against them, and they'll win by 20. It's just too bad that the game isn't nationally relevant, since they fold every time in that scenario. Just like the Wisconsin football team.

During the NU-IU game, we realized that as much as joining the Big Ten killed Nebraska's football program, it may have resurrected its hopes at being a legitimate basketball entity. Two ships passing in the night.

That's all we have. We'll sign off for now, as we hope that NU fans know how to cheer tomorrow and don't go into their patented coma once the first sign of adversity aries and as we ponder two questions: 

1. How could any man in his right mind, who did not attend Duke, wear Blue Devil gear and pretend to be a Blue Devil fan?

2. What percent of the sports world knows that Roy Williams is an awful coach and when will the UNC administration realize he's the Mack Brown of college basketball?

Enjoy your weekend. PYB


1 comment:

  1. Good to see my Dirk-esque researching make PYB.

    AMG

    ReplyDelete