Thinking out loud…while wondering if perfecting my charcuterie board skills qualifies as a good New Years’ resolution.
New Years’ resolutions are overrated. Especially when most people fail to follow up on them after a week or two. Or a day.
That being said, one resolution for 2023 – gonna laugh more. Life is way too short.
The Friars’ five-day, NBA-style road trip began with a bang at Butler Thursday night. First half defense was the best seen yet this season from Ed Cooley’s group, who have now won six straight and have gone unbeaten in December for a second straight year.
Three points of note: Devin Carter could join Bryce Hopkins in the stars’ spotlight, provided he learns what a bad shot is – and when not to take it; Ed Croswell’s improvement over the past season-plus comes through the practice stylings of LaDontae Henton; Butler is better than last year, but their offensive highlight might have been when Blue the Bulldog got behind the wheel of his remote-control car.
And at the risk of jinxing it – UConn looms next Wednesday at The AMP in an old-fashioned, hate-filled slobber-knocker between two rivals. Unbeaten rivals. Should be fun.
Creighton-DePaul on Christmas Day (with the NFL as a lead-in) drew a record audience of nearly three million viewers – the most ever for a college basketball game on Fox. That’s solid PR for the Big East, and those schools’ programs.
Providence had an opportunity to go play at Creighton in that one – but politely turned the network down, according to sources.
Don’t look now, but the Blue Jays are getting things figured out, now that Ryan Kalkbrenner is back from his bout with mono. He wasn’t Defensive Player of the Year in the league for nuthin’ a year ago. He simply makes things easier for his teammates.
Which is the next step for Bryce Hopkins to take in his evolution as one of the premier players in the conference – or the country. This week was his first Big East Player of the Week honor, and more should be forthcoming. He can score at the rim, he can get to the line, he can rebound with the best of ‘em.
Can Hopkins continue to make others better around him? Those ‘others’ more than held their own at Butler.
Not for nuthin’, but for Providence to return anywhere close to the level of last years’ success, it sez here Ed Croswell needs to keep bullying others in the paint.
Big East update: Justin Moore is back on the practice floor for Villanova, after rupturing his Achilles tendon during last season’s tournament play. He may still be a few weeks away from actual game time, but his return could be a huge boost to the Wildcats’ fortunes for THIS postseason.
Covid battle completed – and ultimately won (hopefully) – URI opens A-10 play Saturday at Duquesne for their first game in nearly two weeks. And while the Rams won twice over the Dukes last season, this isn’t that same Duquesne team, either.
The Dukes are 10-4 after opening league play with a loss at Dayton. Home openers are tough for the road team and expect nothing less in this case.
After beating a good Towson team last week, Bryant will play its first game in nine days on New Years’ Eve against Binghamton in Smithfield. It will be the Bulldogs’ America East debut.
Brown’s second Big 10 matchup came Thursday at 9-2 Northwestern, off to their best start in six seasons. And the Bears nearly pulled off a big one, with 14 lead changes before falling to the Wildcats 63-58.
An update on the ladies’ side, for my buddy Edward in East Providence: Rhody lost on a buzzer-beater at Princeton to fall to 8-3 as they now open A-10 play this weekend; PC (9-6) is still searching for its’ first Big East win after dropping a 78-69 road game at DePaul; Brown lost at Florida Gulf Coast this week to drop to 7-5 on the year; Bryant made its’ America East debut Thursday against Maine…
Providence’s nationally-ranked hockey Friars (#12) return from the holiday and semester break with two games in the Ledyard Classic in Hanover, NH this weekend – Yale and either Merrimack or Dartmouth await.
The Providence Bruins played at sold out Hershey Wednesday night, with the top two goalies in the AHL: Brandon Bussi for the PBruins, Hunter Shepard for the Bears. Both were undrafted. Shepard won the duel, 1-0, Bussi stopped 21 shots.
Linus Ullmark – 20-1-1, 1.94 goals against average. .936 save percentage. Straight fire. And a large obstacle in the way of the younger guys.
The NHL is considering adding two games to the regular season schedule, bringing that number to 84. Why? To add more potential regional rivalry matchups, with teams complaining about having an unequal number of division rivalry games…and to reduce travel costs.
But adding games to reduce costs? How would that work, exactly?
Love the idea of Bobby Orr dropping the first puck for the Winter Classic at Fenway this weekend. Having Jason Veritek there as a “catcher” it is pretty clever. Zdeno Chara, Johnny Bucyk? Perfect.
Love Tim Wakefield, but he’s there why? Where’s Pedro?
So less…Nate Eovaldi signs with Texas for what could have been a reasonable contract number for the Red Sox. And then Corey Kluber signs a one-year deal with a team option for the Red Sox 24 hours later.
If that’s the Kluber from oh, seven or eight years ago, it’s cartwheel time at Fenway. But it isn’t.
Still, if Kluber can give 30+ starts (he had 31 a year ago), that’s a step up from what Eovaldi has shown with his durability. Hate losing Nate, but ok Chaim, that’s one.
A “blue light” special from Kmart, if there ever was one. Now, do it again. Six or seven more times, please.
It’ll take that, at least, to get the bad taste from disrespecting Xander Bogaerts out of my mouth.
There’s a closer in the pen, a (slight) boost to the rotation, a potential lead-off hitter (who has never faced MLB pitching), less power but possibly fewer strikeouts. What about defense?
Oh, and a payroll that is lower. There’s that, too.
Stop me if I’m off here, but wasn’t this the gameplan for Red Sox teams in the 80’s and 90’s – experienced guys (ok, older players) trying to squeeze another good season out of their careers with largely unproven prospects?
How’d that turn out?
What kind of week do you think the CEO of Southwest Airlines had this week?
Joe Burrow was the AFC Offensive Player of the Week last week, throwing for a season-nigh 375 yards passing in a win against the Patriots’ defense. But he also threw a pick-six and if it weren’t for New England’s own gaffes for a second straight week…he also would have been a loser.
Sure, Tua Tagovailoa plays for Miami. But it’s hard to hate on the guy, considering his health misfortune this season. The concussion suffered in last week’s loss to Green Bay may be…could be…career-ending.
Should be, if he knows what’s good for him. But that’s his decision to make. Or has anyone not taken notice of the rise in diagnosed CTE cases among football players?
Young people – young athletes, especially – still fall victim to the false veneer of invincibility. Those older, and wiser, nod their heads in agreement.
If you really believe Mac Jones is a “dirty player,” I’d love to sell you some property from the Florida swamplands.
What Mac Jones is…is a QB with talent, perseverance, and little knowledgeable guidance these days. He could also use a lesson or two on how to tackle…even if he’s not supposed to do that.
Tweet of the Week I, from @PatsPulpit, and culled from @SBNationNFL: “Making the playoffs might actually be detrimental to the long term health of the Patriots franchise, because then they’ll convince themselves that Matt Patricia is actually good as an OC.”
Qualifies as a ‘wow,’ don’cha think?
And as bad as it may have been for him a week or so ago, Jakobi Meyers did stand and face the music after his historical (hysterical?) mistake against the Raiders. He’s been stand-up with the media throughout the entire season.
As such, the media covering the Patriots this week voted Meyers as this years’ recipient of the “Ron Hobson Good Guy Award” from the New England chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association for “respectfully fulfilling his media obligations with class and professionalism.”
Meyers follows a solid line of players, and equally good interviews: Matthew Slater, Devin McCourty, James White, Stephon Gilmore, Cam Newton, Matthew Judon.
Incredible to think that after the amazing gaffes of the past couple of weeks…that THESE Patriots control their own postseason destiny. Beat Miami, win at Buffalo – they’re in the p-p-playoffs.
Said in my best, disbelieving Jim Mora tone and tenor. You kiddin’ me?
But that’s the NFL these days. All for show, pocket the dough.
A New Years’ Prediction: Major changes for the Patriots within the coaching staff and/or front office. Rookestradamus concurs. Status quo will not be an option…even if lightning should strike and allow THIS team to reach the postseason.
The lack of discipline, the number of penalties, the frequency of mistakes – all tied to fundamental flaws in teaching and coaching.
And of course, in the players’ execution of that coaching as well. Which reminds me of a great football coaching quote from the past.
When former Tampa Bay coach John McKay was asked about his teams’ execution, his answer was “I’m all in favor of it.”
Not for nuthin’, but if BB actually wants to catch Don Shula for the all-time coaching wins record, he’d best do it before his window of opportunity closes…and the door to retirement opens for him.
But there’s also this - Tweet of the Week II, from @bostonsportsinf: “With Jarrett Stidham now going to start on Sunday, he is the 7th QB to start a game THIS YEAR whose career started with Belichick: Jarrett Stidham, Bailey Zappe, Brian Hoyer, Mac Jones, Tom Brady, Jacoby Brissett, Jimmy Garoppolo. Doubt that’s ever happened.”
So, we’ve got that going for us this season.
Rhamondre Stevenson is an easy blame target for the past two weeks as well, since his actions (or lack thereof) set off the chain of events that have led us to today. But did anyone else think that maybe he was simply trying TOO hard to make something happen?
Especially since, you know, nothing else was likely to happen.
TB12 is #1 in the NFL again. This time, in all-time career NFL earnings with $303 million made over 22 seasons. That figure might be as much as $60 million higher if he hadn’t taken, you know, those hometown discounts over the years (wink, wink).
Love the shade from Front Office Sports this week: Denver’s Russell Wilson has thrown 12 touchdown passes this season…the same number of bathrooms in his $25 million Colorado mansion.
My buddy “Big E” sez his New Years’ resolution is to spend at least one night ending each and every sip of his cocktail with an enthusiastic “ahhhh, baby!”
I hate college football players “opting out” of bowl games. Sorry, and I get the whole ‘protecting their professional opportunities” thing.
But since when do these opportunities become a given, for anyone? Don’t you earn them? And what about teammates who have worked as hard as they have? if you quit on your college team before the pros can come calling, doesn’t that still make you a quitter?
Just sayin’.
It’s a 75-year tradition made popular on TV in the 1980’s. The NBA has dominated conversation – and sports – on Christmas Day. More than 41 million fans in 200 countries and in 50 languages watched the five games played last year.
But that was then. This year, the NFL stepped on the NBA’s toes with a tripleheader, no less. The NFL first held Christmas games in 1971, and they were not well received. But the NFL essentially took over the entire Christmas weekend this year, playing games Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
In case you’ve forgotten, 49 of the top 50 of the most-watched telecasts over the past five years have been NFL games. This year – the NFL Christmas triple-header averaged 22.9 million viewers. The NBA five-game schedule?
Averaged 4.27 million, which is actually a bump up from last year. But the NFL wins again. And always will.
Why the fuss over Robert Williams starting or not starting? As long as the Two Jays are playing like they have been, and getting along, why muss up a good thing? And the Herald’s Steve Hewitt pointed out this week they have more 30-point games together than did MJ and Scottie?
Don’t. Rock. The. Boat.
Hey, hope you’re not addicted to TikTok, or you’ve already made your money from it or whatever. The Chinese government certainly hopes otherwise, of course. But the State of Kansas has become the first state to ban the use of the social media app on the devices of state workers.
Mobile sports betting eclipsed $80 billion in 2022. $80 BILLION. If Massachusetts can ever get off the floor and figure out how to join that party…but, we told you this would take a while. Everyone wants a piece of that action.
Five states started mobile sports betting in 2022. One of those, New York, led the way with $13 billion in wagering.
Guess no one wants to host the Olympic games any longer unless they’ve never previously hosted. While Salt Lake City is queuing up for a possible run at the 2030 Winter Games (they hosted in
’02), and LA already has them in ’28, the latest Summer Games possibilities include India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Qatar.
Um, no thanks.
Time passages: Red Sox poet laureate Dick Flavin passed away this week, having just turned 86. Flavin won seven Emmys for his TV commentaries, served as a public address announcer for the Sox and is a member of the MA Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
And the global face of futbol/soccer, Pele, passed away at age 82. His jersey number “10” was worn by so many greats, it came to mean the top player on any team – perhaps in any sport – donned “10.” He was that iconic, and recognizable. If anyone did, Pele understood the power of sports in bringing people together.
He’s the only player to win three World Cups (for Brazil). And Pele scored his first two WC goals the year before I was born. He was a star in the movie “Victory,” too. Bigger than Stallone.
Premier League soccer teams lost a combined $1.2 billion in 2020-21. Could be why Fenway Sports Group is eager to ditch (or sell) Liverpool. But reportedly, there haven’t been any “compelling offers” for the team.
Which could also explain a reluctance by FSG to spend on other properties it owns. Couldn’t it?
Interested in having your questions on local Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? It’s your chance to “think out loud,” so send your questions, comments, and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Would appreciate the follow on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and join in on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...
Don’t forget to tune into Providence’s 103.7 FM, every Saturday from 7:00-9:00 am for Cordischi and Coit! Call in at 401-737-1287 or text at 37937.