EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – When bat last in the order, you have to be creative with what you talk about. Most major events have discussed to death, so you usually get previews and stuff that happened on Thursday or Friday. Occasionally, I scan the papers and use social media but I got lucky this week. I had the NCAA tournament and a few things that no one talked about. So it’s time to do a little plug -n- play into the regular format and we are ready to go. The formula is the Song of the Week – followed by Sports Stuff. In today’s mix: Loyola-Chicago, Purdue, Ichiro-Phelps And Worst Reffing Ever.
Song of the Week: I saw a tweet for the MOBO Awards this week. The MOBOs are Britian’s Grammy’s… I think. Anyway, the challenge was to name an album of any genre, released any year, that was perfect (perfect as not one bad track, no skipped tracks). I thought about it and there are a couple of albums I could name. I didn’t want to sound like too much of a #1 fan but for me The Fugees “The Score” and the subsequent solo albums by Lauren Hill and Wyclef Jean were all perfect. It is only right that I make the 1st single from The Score the song of the week. So this week’s Song of the Week is Fu-Gee-La by The Fugees.
Loyola-Chicago: As a graduate of a Catholic University in Vincentian order, rooting for a school of the Jesuit order makes me sick! However, there aren’t many bad things you can say about this Loyola-Chicago team. I mean, are they on a mission from God? Probably not, although I did want to tie in the Blues Brothers. Loyola have won 3 games by 4 points, which is insane. They are the Cardiac Kids of this tournament. You and I know that kind of luck is bound to run out but they are half way to the title, so what do we know? Maybe it is the lovely Nun that has been the teams #1 that is giving them the extra juice. Either, I would love for them to win today and make the final four just for shear insanity’s sake.
Purdue: Purdue is still in the tournament with a chance to win but those hopes are in trouble. Their blue-chip center, Isaac Haas, went down with an elbow injury and the current elbow guards that are available are illegal by NCAA law. Enter Eric Nauman. Nauman, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, and a team of his graduate students in his Human Injury Research and Regenerative Technologies Lab, worked 30 hours straight after getting a call from Purdue Sports Medicine with an assignment: Come up with a brace that would protect Haas’ elbow and still pass muster of NCAA rules. They actually have managed to come up with something that just might work and you have to admit it is nice to see the nerds and jocks working together on something. There is a video of their challenge in building a cast for Haas.
Ichiro-Phelps: I remember Jose Vizcaino and Jeff Kent being traded to the Cleveland Indians Native Americans together and then from the Indians to the San Francisco Giants. That was odd but Ichiro Suzuki and Dave Phelps have endured over three franchises and seven consecutive seasons together. Usually one gets traded and then a few months later the other shows up. They don’t interact a lot because one is a fielder and the other a reliever, but it must be nice to have a face you know as the pair went from Seattle to New York to Miami and back to Seattle.
Worst Reffing Ever: So, I know that you guys are rugby people but Belgium just beat Spain in a match that would have secured Rugby World Cup auto-qualification for Spain if they won. Romania now got the spot and the ref was from Romania and did the worst reffing job possible. Here is a video with an explanation of the bad job he did.
Leave your thoughts below and come back tomorrow for another gem of a column by Cheesy Bruin. You can also find us on Twitter – @JunoirBlaber, @MeetTheMatts & @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram – @MeetTheMatts – and Facebook – Meet The Matts.
