Quote from: MarquetteMike1977 on January 15, 2026, 11:42:11 PMSaint Thomas runs its record to 15-4 with a NET much better than Marquette's with a 91-80 road win. Nolan Minessale scored 27 Points. Nick Janowski scored 32 Points.

*St. vs. Saint

Their D1 WA exp ranks them #306 in the nation. How can this be?

#11 eFG% in the country

Also, Austin HERRO with 10 assists and 7 steals in the game. #GoTommies

Quote from: TallTitan34 on January 15, 2026, 10:12:33 PMI'm amused the Brewers fans here are upset at the deal and not the Cubs fans who lost their player.

This isn't about the Brewers. This is about every 97-win team who can only muster 4 total runs in the Championship Series due to a poor system of revenue sharing.

PaintTouches makes the NY Post:

https://nypost.com/2026/01/15/sports/awful-plays-stand-out-after-depauls-point-shaving-allegations-revealed/

Quote from: MU82 on Today at 12:28:20 AMMy son, a big Cubbie fan, said: "I am getting so sick of this sh!t."

That's life in the big leagues, kid.

I mean, speaking as a Cubs fan, I'm not thrilled about losing Tucker, but they just signed a big name All Star/Gold Glove third baseman for $175MM last week.  They signed another All Star/Gold Glove player in Swanson a few offseasons ago.  They aren't Little Sisters of the Poor who can't afford any top free agents.

If not the Dodgers, the Mets were gonna overpay for Tucker.  He was gone anyways.

Listen, what the Dodgers are doing is absurd.  I saw that they are actually paying $120MM a year for Tucker (The $60MM plus luxury taxes on it).  That's larger than some team payrolls.  They have more than $800MM in contracts in excess of the total contracts of the Padres, who are second, and have a bunch of inflated contracts of their own.  Any disappointment I have is divorced from any Cubs fanship cause I assumed he'd likely be going to Queens anyways.

What I think is more insane is, while he is a very good player, Tucker (4x AS, 1 GG, 2 SS) is making DOUBLE the annual salary of Mookie Betts (8x AS, 1 MVP, 6 GG, and 7 SS) and only $10MM (14%) less than Ohtani who is the best player of the last 25 years and who has a realistic chance of chasing down Bonds' 7 MVPs.

Quote from: JWags85 on January 15, 2026, 02:27:08 PM10/10, no notes.  Well played.

That was gonna be my next question.  I know WF is one of our expat members, and he's talked about numerous other previous trips to Russia, so its not like he's new to visiting the country.  But definitely interested in that piece.
I mentioned in the travel thread previously, I had a friend from college/coworker at the time who went to Russia in 2014.  Went with a few friends, one of who was Lithuanian or Latvian (don't recall which) who was very familiar with Russia and sort of set up their itinerary.  My friend was well traveled, studied abroad in Europe for a year and traveled extensively when doing so, and she came back saying her trip to Russia was amongst her favorite places she'd visited, by far.  History and scenery absolutely blew her away.

 Glowing reviews to the extent that a trip I had tentatively planned with a buddy to Japan in the next 18 months got shifted to planning on Russia instead.  We got about 50% planned and had a few dates we were debating...and then Russia got a lot less appealing to visit

Not to worry, just fly in/out of Domodedovo because most of the drone strikes are in the north arounds Sheremetyevo. 

Quote from: onepost on January 15, 2026, 02:38:53 PMShaka's senior and junior classes have gotten hammered, rightfully so.

Shaka's sophomore class I may be a bigger fan of than most.  Royce has grown this season and changed his offensive game with way more aggressive takes to the rim.  Have to think his 3-point shot will come back around to what it was last season.  And Damarius shows just enough glimpses to hold out hope he could really shine at MU.

But hopefully Shaka's freshman class (by FAR his best class on paper) reinforces that he needs to focus overwhelmingly on heralded recruits.  Seems obvious but to this point it obviously hasn't been.  Nigel and Adrien were both top 70-ish recruits IIRC, Ian hovered around 100, Michael was a top 50-ish junior recruit that moved up a class...and the three who have played have already shown to be legit talents even as frosh.  Makes sense!

Alex and Sheek have that same pedigree so hopefully that trend continues with them as well.  And I'm encouraged by how many high-level recruits we're linked with for 2027 in Davis, Cleveland, Kohnen, Davis, Pemberton, etc.

Of course take the occasional flier (usually on big men it appears), but the days of banking entire classes on unheralded guys is hopefully behind us.  And I love that Chase and Ben have stuck around and had nice college careers, but with Shaka's preference of high school recruits it just needs to be more consistently decorated.

Ha, don't go look up where Tre Norman was ranked.

edit: nevermind, his ranking was somewhat all over the board.  Had only looked at 247 which had him in the 90s as a top 100 player.

Quote from: Newsdreams on January 15, 2026, 01:59:12 PMMissing more BE schools

Those are just teams impacted, not teams that did the deed.  Depaul's point shaving impacted the other Big East schools... at least it was the bottom feeders.

Quote from: Shaka Shart on January 15, 2026, 05:25:49 PMAnd on the flip side opposing fans rightfully made fun of the aura that Eberflus curated, of quiet incompetence.

No matter what you do, your average passionate packers fan will find reason to dislike/mock the bears coach.

just like despite me thinking he's a top 10(?) football mind in this league, I think Matt Lafleur's 5 haircuts and beard trims a week suggests he's a peacocking high maintenance weenie.

But I do respect him for his offensive prowess.

Strange.  I think he is extremely overrated, routinely blows leads, has poor clock management skills, and hires his friends too often and then never fires them even when they're really bad too.

His offensive prowess helped score how many points in the 2nd half of last Saturday's game?

Packer fan btw.

Shaka made The Athletics 40 most admired leaders in sports.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6945825/2026/01/15/top-leaders-in-sports-2025-most-admired/?campaign=16492623&source=athletic_targeted_email&userId=20869862

39. Shaka Smart, Marquette men's basketball coach
Credentials: Smart has guided programs like VCU and Marquette to national relevance through a coaching philosophy, especially at Marquette, that centers on building strong relationships and fostering player growth.

What our voters said:
Bruce Bowen, former NBA player: "What I admire is Shaka's persistence in never being satisfied with where he is until it's better. It's not easy to connect with kids whose ideas of what the game is today may not shape up to be the same as the head coach, but Shaka continues to find a way to connect and enhance along the way."

Quote from: MarquetteMike1977 on January 15, 2026, 11:42:11 PMSaint Thomas runs its record to 15-4 with a NET much better than Marquette's with a 91-80 road win. Nolan Minessale scored 27 Points. Nick Janowski scored 32 Points.

They are definitely on their way to the Big East.