Monday, March 29, 2021

Elite Eight Gheorghasbord

A little bit of throwback G:TB, a soupçon of word association, and some observations and ephemera from a sports-watching weekend.

And so in order:

Back in the day, we used to celebrate the Washington Post's Peeps Diorama contest by using Peeps as a extended riff throughout the NCAA Men's basketball tournament. The contest petered out in 2017, and one could argue we petered out long before that. Until the last two years. Comeback Blog of the Year! Peeps are still an acquired taste - another G:TB similarity - and Pepsi hopes enough folks have an affinity for saccharine sweet fluff and various chemical combinations to take a flier on their newest product. 



Kristin Salaky from delish did us all a favor and tried the concoction. Her verdict

"While I am all for a wacky food combo, this is one I probably won't be sipping on every day simply because it's SO SO sweet. But like downing the entire ear of a bunny cake on Easter, it's fun to have a few seasonal foods when they come around, even if they are a little much for your palate. At the very least you'll have plenty of bragging rights."

Marls is our designated eater of weird shit, but I don't feel right about asking him to take this one for the team. We'll take Ms. Salaky's word for it.

Speaking of the olden times, Whitney and I spent a lot of time in the 90s and early 21st century at They Might Be Giants shows. He texted me a few days ago asking for my 10 most-favorite TMBG tunes. I was able to narrow it down to 22, with Doctor Worm taking the top spot. So when I started thinking about a theme song for an Elite Eight post, this naturally popped into my head.


There's a lot not to love about a pandemic-flavored tournament, but the weekend Sweet Sixteen is on the short list of COVID-forced changes that the NCAA should think about adopting. Time zones are a possible issue, but it's cool to be able to watch all eight games in their entirety. And having hoops on Monday and Tuesday won't suck, either.

Got to watch most of both USMNT games during this international break. Even as we still haven't had the full World Cup qualifying side together, there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about the Yanks. 18 year-olds Gio Reyna and Yunus Musah teamed up with Christian Pulisic to have a major impact on yesterday's 2-1 win over Northern Ireland. The victory was Team America's first road win over a European opponent since 2015, and the first U.S. win in the British Isles since, well, ever. 

When Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie join the midfield, the U.S. will boast starters that play at Chelsea (Pulisic), Dortmund (Reyna), Juventus (McKennie), RB Leipzig (Adams), Barcelona (Sergino Dest), Manchester City (Zach Steffen), and Valencia (Musah). We've got some firepower.

I've had a chance to watch five or six Gonzaga games this year, including yesterday's inexorable wearing down of Creighton. They may not win it all, but there's an argument to be made that Mark Few's team is the best "mid-major" in history. And they're a blast to watch, all flow and movement on offense, and capable of locking down on defense when it matters. They're number one in KenPom's adjusted offense ratings, and seventh in adjusted defense. (Interestingly, Houston is the only team left that's also in the top 10 in both. Michigan's close.) People like Mark Few, but he's not a self-promoter, so I think he's underrated even now. Pulling for the Zags to close it out.

17 comments:

Marls said...

I hate peeps so I’m probably the wrong person to test this particular quaff.

Seems dumb that you would schedule international friendlies the same day as the semifinals of olympic qualifying, but then again I’m not a true soccerhead. Is this as dumb as it seems?

We all know how Bill Murray feels about the soccerheads: https://youtu.be/rCHGzxSBn-c

rob said...

it’s pretty dumb. you could’ve had pulisic, reyna, reynolds, richards, josh sargent, among others playing in the qualifiers instead of meaningless friendlies.

Marls said...

Appears that the Suez Canal took its fiber this morning.

Danimal said...

if you are doing some entertaining in the coming weeks, and are looking to have some good stuff on the menu - meat, fish, etc....who ya using?

Danimal said...

by "who" i mean, food delivery

rob said...

one bit of clarification, marls. it's not so much dumb on the part of the u.s. as it is dumb/greedy on the part of fifa. they don't require professional clubs to release players for olympic qualifying, even during international windows, so the u23 team that tried to qualify was all u.s.-based. the reason? fifa makes no money from the olympics and cash rules everything around fifa.

rootsminer said...

My wife went last week to get some ballet shoes and undergarments for our 15 year old. The shop said there was a shortage of those things and blamed the Suez Canal debacle. Color me suspicious that ballet shoe inventory is so quickly impacted by such an event.

rob said...

the shoe bone’s connected to the canal bone, rootsy

rootsminer said...

I don't even want to know what's connected to the dance belt bone.

rob said...

baylor/uconn is a much more interesting game than oregon state/houston at this point

Marls said...

The officiating in the Baylor game was turrrrrrrrrible.

Mark said...

Baylor-UConn was a terrific game with an inexcusable no call that likely decided it. Was still enjoyable to watch with my daughter.

rob said...

in sorta fairness, the refs let both teams go at each other with impunity. it was an awesomely physical game. but yeah, that was clearly a foul. carrington got hit in the face.

Juan Carlos said...

Danimal - I bought an uncooked country ham from Father's. No idea if they are a good source but saw some good reviews.

Whitney said...

CAA Football has announced that this Saturday's football game between William & Mary and Elon in Elon, N.C. has been postponed due to CoVID-19 related protocols within the Elon program.

Same shit. Different sport/season.

zman said...

Allen Brothers is my go-to when I gift meat by mail.

rootsminer said...

The Allen Brothers are my go to when I want some great kazoo playing with guitar and ukulele, with an unfortunate side of racism.