Tuesday Grab Bag: 'Final Four' and 'Colorado' in the same sentence

I come to you today from Newark, NJ, of all places, stuck in the relatively benign airport hell of a three hour layover on the East Coast. How and why I came to be here is neither important or interesting.  Suffice it to be said that I can't wait to board the next flight, and get back to beautiful, colorful Colorado.

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As a quick aside, there were some unscrupulous bloggers around the intertubes tossing around the notion that the University of Colorado would be well-served by a return to the Big XII.  See, the old conference of UT lackeys is looking to re-expand, and there are a few lost souls out there who are naive enough to think that CU was anything but thankful to be rid of that albatross of a league back in 2011.  Let me assure you all out there in BuffNation, these articles were written by people with no understanding of the factors in play, and no contacts within the Athletic Department.  Colorado is well and clear of that debacle, and never going back.

Further, for the record, I still think CSU's hopes of earning a bid to that league are as laughable as the notion that CU might want back in.  Unless the BigXII has to dip into their third-tier of choices, which I doubt, the Rams will still be on the outside of the Power Five looking in once this dust-up settles.

But, enough of that nonsense. Today in the bag, I'm talking about Team Colorado and The Basketball Tournament, some hoops scheduling notes for the CU Men's team, and My Sox at the end of their road.

Click below for the bag...

Tuesday Grab Bag: A new hope on the recruiting trail?

Before I get to the bag today, I want to take a minute to remember the true Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali.  If you've been living under a rock, and hadn't heard, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world passed away last week, at the age of 74.  I won't spend too much time here, as others much more capable then myself have written on the subject, but there isn't a single athlete of past generations that I resent having missed more than Ali.  Beyond simply being a boxer, he commanded the ring and the narrative more than should've been capable, owning the public spectacle at a time that you still got your news from papers.  To have been alive, watching as he held the sporting world in the palm of his hand, must have been awe-inspiring and transformational.

Even today, watching film of his fights is fascinating.  No one takes punches like he could, no one that size has ever been as fast, no one more ferocious when he had a man stunned; this isn't just smoke, he was, legitimately, the GOAT.  As a boxing fan, I pain seeing what others got to absorb in real time.  As a historian, I marvel at the impact he had outside of the ring.  We will never see another athlete like him, a defining American caricature now lost to the ages.  RIP.

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Today in the bag, I'm talking one last gasp on the 2016 recruiting trail for Coach Boyle and crew, the NBA Finals (such as they are), some #SoxThoughts (as promised).

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Monday Grab Bag: Worst week of the year

Welcome to the worst sports week of the year.  That's right, for the next 3 nights there is absolutely nothing worth watching in the sports world.  With baseball on it's All-Star Break hiatus, unless you like watching batting practice and exhibition baseball, the next best thing to watch will be Women's World Cup soccer on Wednesday night.

This week is so devoid of interesting things that ESPN holds its pointless masturbatory "awards" show to pass the time.  They're even showing it live this year; whoopdie-shit. The only saving grace may be a resolution to the NFL labor dispute, but even that would only be a prelude to interesting things that will only happen later this summer.  So, to sum up, I'm quite bored, and if my softball game gets rained out tonight, I'll really be up boring creek without a paddle.

As such, there is no grab bag today.  There honestly isn't anything worth talking about, so I won't even pretend.  I will, however, have my next post in my Summer Basketball Preview Series up later this week.

Happy Monday

Monday Grab Bag: Best Buffs Draft in 14 years

The biggest news today is obviously the end of Osama bin Laden's 10 year run from justice.  That it took nearly a full decade to silence the mass murder is not the point: we eventually got him, and he can no longer plot against our collective safety.  As in all times, I turn to the words of Trey Parker and Matt Stone: America, Fuck Yeah!

In a jolting shift of gears to get back on topic, in the bag today I'll wrap up the best NFL draft for CU in years, touch on the stateside reappearance of a CU basketball great, and mention an item from the NBA playoffs.  Oh, and my White Sox are worse than ever.

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Monday Grab Bag: Declarations all around

NFL draft week is one that always seems exciting right up until the point you actually start living through it.  I hope everyone enjoys the soothing tones of Todd McShay and Mel Kiper, Jr., because they're all you're going to hear from on ESPN the next few days. 

In anticipation of 6 days of overwrought declarations, some based in fact and some not, I've dedicated this grab bag to declarative exclamations. 

Click below for today's bag...