I Think...

In honor of JAT's first post of the month, I'm going to do my impression of Sports Illustrated's Peter King, and post my version of "Ten Things I Think I Think..."

I Think:
1) That Monday night's overtime Championship game saved what was, until that point, a very mediocre Tournament.

2) John Calipari would be a great used-car salesman. ("No, no, don't worry about the squeaky breaks, I promise, they'll work when you really need them. For real, this thing's a beauty.")

3) It would be awesome if the Rangers continued this lose-win-lose-win-lose streak. Everyone knows they aren't making the playoffs, so it would be fantastic if they finish the year at 81-81 by alternating wins and losses all season. Of course, now that I've jinxed them, they'll go on a ten game losing streak and be mathematically eliminated by my birthday. (Bonus points for anyone who knows when that is.)

4) This years NFL Draft should be fantastic. There really isn't anyone who's guaranteed to go anywhere, so it oughta be pretty entertaining to see how it all shakes out.

5) The Cowboys should trade for both Pacman and Ocho Cinco. Why not?

6) Slip-and-slide Bingo, or whatever you want to call it, is the wave of the future. I demand that it be included in the Summer Olympics by 2024. Or at least shown on ESPN 7 Tuesday nights at 10:30.

7) That if Kayla and I end up going to Tech for grad school next year, it's gonna very weird rooting for the Raiders. I like them just fine, and with the exception of when they play UT, I'll do my darndest to cheer for them, but still, gosh.

8) That DJ Augustin may actually stay in school. If I were him, I'd be declaring for sure. However, he isn't in the situation where he has to provide for his family, and he seems to be a pretty good student, and if he does come back, the Horns would be on the short list of Tourney favorites. If I were to bet, I'd say he's gone, but you never know...

9) The NBA Champion will come from the East. I want the Spurs to win, and I'm aware that approximately 9 of the 12 best teams in the League reside in the West, but after the way they're going to beat up on each other in the playoffs, I don't know if they'll have enough to beat the winner of the Detroit/Boston winner. (Let's face it, if the Pistons and Celtics don't face each other in the East Finals, everyone will be shocked.)

10) If the Seattle/OKC Sonics get the number one pick in the draft, they should select DRose from Memphis. Think about that young nucleus-KD, Jeff Green, and Rose--yikes. In a few years, they could be yet another team in the very very deep West.

That's all I've got, stay tuned for more mindless predictions and thoughts that don't really mean anything. This is Twig, signing off.

Mammoth Fan Watching

Tonight was quite an historic night, as I completed the Mammoth Reliant Stadium quad-fecta. You might be wondering what the Mammoth Reliant Stadium quad-fecta is, and well, dear reader, I'll tell you. The MRSQF, as it will from here on be known as, is the feat I comleted this very evening. This feat is something that I seriously doubt anyone in the history of Creation has ever atempted, much less accomplished. The MRSQF is the fact that I've been to Mammoth Reliant 4 times, each time for different sporting events. This past December, former roomate Garrett Oakley and I went to the Texans/Broncos game, giving me my first taste of Mammoth Reliant. In February, the Jig and I went to the USA/Mexico soccer 'friendly' at the Mammoth, which was quite possibly the most intense three hours of my life. Just two weeks ago, the in-laws-and I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which was quite enjoyable, especially with our frontish row seats. I mean really, we almost got bull slobber on us during the bullriding contest. And finally, tonight, the wife and I made the three-minute train ride to Mammoth Reliant in hopes of scalping tickets for the South Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament which, as you know, pitted the Texas Longhorns and the Stanford Cardinal in the first game, and the Memphis Tigers and Michigan State Spartans in the nightcap. I had almost our entire grocery money for the month in my pocket, and to our luck, the first people we ran into had two extra tickets for the evening. Also to my good fortune, the tickets were in a decent location, and the couple was offering them for face value, which is always nice when scalping tickets (side note: at work today, I looked at buying tickets online, and tickets in the exact spot we ended up getting were $30 more than we got ours) So, feeling good about saving a little green, we went to our seats. They were in the corner of the court, on the front row of the second deck.
As you all know by now, the game went almost as well as any UT fan could have hoped for, with the Horns leading basically the whole game, and playing well on both ends of the court. After the first game, we stuck around to watch Memphis and Michigan State, to see what UT's Sunday opponent looks like. Well, as you also probably know by now, Memphis looks goooood. We ended up leaving at halfime with the Tigers leading by 30. The end of the first half looked a lot like a slam-dunk contest for the Tigers, and if Texas isn't able to keep them off the boards and running without abandon, Sunday could be ugly. However, if Texas can get physical with Memphis and control the tempo, I feel alright about their odds.
Also, as we were leaving the apartment earlier this evening, I was so excited to complete the MRSQF that I forgot to bring the camera to provide visual proof that we were there. Near the end of the Texas game, I built up enough courage to ask the lady next to us (A Memphis fan, the wife of the dude that sold us our tickets. His parents were going to go but couldn't make it, much to our benifit) if she would take a pic of Kayla and I and email it to us when they get home. It was a bit of an odd request, but she was happy-I think-to do it, and so hopefully in a few days I'll be able to post the picture here to show that this is in fact a true story, and not a bunch of gibberish. Well faithful readers, that'll be it for me tonight, I'm pooped from completing the five month, mentally and physically grueling MRSQF, and need some sleep. Over and out.

-Twig