What to do now?

Jive36

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Preface: They made the right/best decision based on the information available. Nothing I write below changes that.

This ended too abruptly and has thrown my entire life off kilter. We are only in the first 36 hours of life with no sports and already I am feeling the emptiness. Let me be clear, I am not one of the hundreds/thousands that make a living/support a family on the back of the entertainment/sports industry. I'm not one of the players that had their one shinning moment ripped away in the span of 24 hours. I'm not even a person that had made plans to go to any of these events and had to make the go no go decision or deal with canceling/getting refunds for those trips.

I am a guy like many others whose life has been centered around the sports calendar. The daily routine of checking box scores, setting fantasy lineups, scrolling twitter/message boards, looking up the Vegas line and maybe getting some action down, (I live in PA where this has become as easy as buying something from Amazon). All those activities have been ripped away and there isn't anything to fill the void. The only thing I can compare this to is the death of a loved one. That might be over dramatic because sports will return whether it be in one month or eight months (ugh), whereas death is final. However, my relationship with sports is one of the longest, most intimate relationships in my life. In particular my relationship basketball.

My earliest memories are being in a high school gym, climbing on the bleachers while my dad tried to coach practice and keep me 3-4 year old me from rolling balls onto the court mid scrimmage or game. Every March there were brackets to be pored over, at the dinner table, in the car, while watching games, and not just the college tournament but the PIAA tournament. My dad, his friends and all the kids would be loaded in to cars and travel all over the western half of the state to watch high school teams from the area. On every one of those trips March Madness was the topic du jour. We would spend hours debating who had the best team, best player or easiest path once the bracket were announced. It was a great joy when I moved back to the area 6 years ago to be able to join them again on those trips.

In the span of 36 hours all of that has been put on hold. That group of guys, myself, and many others are left wondering what now? Now that there are no scores to check, no games to watch, and not just in the US but around the globe. What can we do to fill the void?

My answer: sports is a shared experience keep in touch with those you share sports with. Find something else you can do together, one of my dad's friends lost his mom in February. We are getting together Thursday and Friday next week and instead of spending the day on the couch watching 32 games we are going to help him clean out his mom's house and do some minor repairs. I hope people find a way to fill the void by bringing some good into the world. If you are nervous about COVID-19 and serious about social distancing, take the money you would have "invested" into brackets or gambling and donate it to an organization that means something to you. I'm not saying we wont miss the last second buzzer beaters or a Cinderella run but maybe we can make a positive impact with all the unused energy normally spent keeping up with our favorite teams or story lines. Fill the void by trying to make the world a better place.
 
I am watching old vids of the Kosko, Massap High School bball games to get my sports fix. Also thinking what Cadillac's response would have been to this global pandemic. "Gotsta habs CC and boxa Kool" as well as partaking in some dink trim were Cadillac's time honored cures to all ills. I have no reason to think the Caronavirus pandemic would merit any different response.

Pissah!

Aloha!
 
‘fide:

In this difficult time, could you remind us of the trails and tribulations of Pissah Pete and Nails Nailor?
 
I'll be live streaming the A10 tournament as it was supposed to happen at 9:30 tonight from NBA 2k. Also going to try and pull the George Mason, Rhody and SLU tourney games from last year off my DVR this weekend.

Jive, you did a great job saying what Unfurled and I talked about on the emergency pod we put out this morning. It's something that binds us all together and no one should make us feel lesser for being so passionate about this.
 
‘fide:

In this difficult time, could you remind us of the trails and tribulations of Pissah Pete and Nails Nailor?

Well, I'll leave Pissah Pete for another time but I'm happy to write about Ted "Nails" Naylon. Nails was one crazy sonofabitch. He'd been on the verge of getting kicked out of SBU a bunch of times including stealing and joyriding in the ancient team bus. I believe that Nails was Class of 1968 but didn't graduate because of finally getting booted. One of the highlights of his illustrious student career was Fall Weekend 1966. I initially got the incidents confused with Fall Weekend 1967 but they occured during Fall Weekend 1966. I'm sorry. I was totally fucked up on booze during both activities. Anyway, this is right before the Reilly Center construction was completed so Fall Weekend 1966 entertainment took place at the shithole also known as the Olean Armory. This was during the time when the legal drinking age in NY was 18 and everybody was drinking it up at the Armory like a motherfucker. My foggy recollection is that Genesse (Red Label), PBR and screwdrivers were being served. So everyone was oiled up real good and starting to get pissed because the opening entertainment was delayed. This is when I believe the very first iteration of the Hawaiian numbah was rolled out. It might well have been Nails who started to yell out "Let's hear the Hawaiian numbah" and it was picked up by others until it became kind of a chant. Anyway, this went on for a couple of minutes until this, uh, minority entertainer....Gary U.S. Bonds....appeared onstage and started his opening numbah. Well, as the show progressed it became apparent that Gary U.S. Bonds wasn't very good. Audience members started shouting out "You fucking suck" and "Let's hear the Hawaiian numbah." To maybe calm things down a bit Gary U.S. Bonds invited a member of the student audience to join him onstage in a numbah. This was the biggest mistake of Gary U.S. Bonds' life because the student was none othe than Nails Naylon. So Gary U.S. Bonds starts in with the numbah and Nails picks up on it really quick. Pretty soon Nails is belting out the numbah, dancing all over and dominating the stage. AND NAILS COMPLETELY UPSTAGES GARY U.S. BONDS!! While this is happening the audience is yelling "Nails...Nails....Nails......" and "Let's hear the Hawaiian numbah" and the audience is going absolutely bullshit crazy and won't let Nails leave the stage. Finally Gary U.S. Bonds goes over to the band and they put down their instruments and Gary U.S Bonds thanks Nails and announces that he and the band are going to take a short break. A couple of bouncers then persuaded Nails to leave the stage. Gary U.S. Bonds and the band come back for two more short numbahs and then they vanish. I had a date for the event....some chic from Mercyhurst who got pissed off and left because I was all drunked up and because she felt that the SBU students were animals. Well fuck her. Anyway, I linked up with my roomate Donny and we got a ride back to Dev where we crashed. Nails enjoyed continued campus fame and notoriety until he finally got booted out of SBU. I have no idea where or how he ended up. Gary U.S. Bonds didn't play WNY again for a long, long time and I guess he is still somehow surviving in the entertainment industry. So that is the story about Nails Naylon, Fall Weekend 1966, Gary U.S. Bonds and the first iteration of the Hawiian numbah. Lest anyone think that this is one big woof here's links to the 1966 BV articles about the whole thing.....



Pissah!

Aloha!
 
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Thanks to all for making this a good forum for some actual normalized Bonnies discussion. First season was a pleasure, for me at least, looking forward to making it happen again next year. Happy to see this stood the test of the first few weeks without fizzling out. Stay safe. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later we can be checking back in here for news on the recruiting trail.
 
So back to 2020 and 2021. I don't really know shit about basketball, but I know the Bonnies will be very good. I have it courtesy of kenpom.com that this past year's edition finished with a power rating of 123 vs. the previous year's team at 121. That negligible change was achieved despite the fact that only 47.4% of the minutes played this past season belonged to returning players. This year's group of young players returns, if we can keep everyone, that represents all but 6.3% of the minutes played. I don't know the statistical averages well enough to state what the typical improvement in efficiency is from frosh to soph or soph to junior, but I know it's significant. I'm just guessing that this group along with the already known additions can finish next year in the top 50 and get that NCAA bid we want so badly.
 
Good post jive. I'm not sure how I feel about all this or how much of an impact it's had on me. I do realize how great a percentage of the TV I watch is sports because I turn it on and just say there is literally nothing on. But I'm not missing it. There must be something wrong with me. I mean I love following the tourney and switching channels to the upset possibility of the hour, but I thought I'd be devastated and I'm not. Maybe Thu/Fri when I should he exhibiting terrible work ethic it will hit me. Tbh, college BB is close to being ruined for me since right about March 2016. Then the double whammy of the new NET. I'm still passionate about SBU but that's really all I care enough about to get worked up over. I'm still not over the 2019 final. But given that this year looked like a big stretch to win, the cancellation just saved a ton of aggravation.

Sorry for the downer view, I'd rather have a compelling response. Maybe missing it for a year will light a new fire when it comes back.
 
Even Overwatch has been affected. My son is devestated.
 
thinking of fucking around and starting a bonnies basketball remote happy hour drunk yelling about the Reilly Center.
I like this idea except it’s missing a key element: belligerently yelling “you’ve never heard of the BONNIES!!!???” to complete strangers.
 
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