Good morning, everyone! We made it through the week, and there’s only a few hours between us and the weekend. Time to start planning your gameday festivities for tomorrow night.
While you do that, I’ll get things going in The Rundown.
In Mountaineers news...
GO YANKEES: If y’all want to be guaranteed to see West Virginia take on Baylor tomorrow night, you should probably be cheering for the New York Yankees tonight in game 6 of the American League Championship Series. Saturday’s game is currently scheduled to be broadcast on Fox Sports 2, because Game 7 is set to be broadcast at the same time on FS1. If the Yankees beat the Astros tonight, that will free up that slot on FS1 and West Virginia/Baylor will be moved over there from FS2.
As much as I hate the Yankees, and love seeing gifs of the Houston Astros mascot, I have to back New York tonight for the sake of the greater good.
I’m sorry, buddy, but we have to do it.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME PART II: Stop me if you’ve heard this one; West Virginia picked up a commitment, and immediately lost another for the second day in a row. Within minutes of Blaine Scott announcing his plan to join the Mountaineers in the 2018 class, tight end TJ Ivy took to Twitter to announce that he is reopening his recruitment. I’m told this was a move on West Virginia’s part, and not as much of a “mutual agreement” as Ralph Davis’ decommitment. The Chicago area prospect committed to West Virginia back in June.
Follow gods plan ... pic.twitter.com/TifhqGVqjR
— TJ IVY² (@tjivy30) October 19, 2017
TOP TEN (Charleston Gazette-Mail): USA Today announced their preseason basketball poll yesterday and the Mountaineers are sitting at No. 10, much to the surprise of head coach Bob Huggins.
“We were? That kind of shocks me. With the losses we had and Esa not playing the first half of the year, that shocks me. I don’t know what else to say.” - Bob Huggins
Not a bad place to start the season, in my opinion. West Virginia kicks off the basketball season three weeks from today when they take on Texas A&M at Ramstein Air Force Base in Ramstein, Germany.
Around the League and Beyond...
BOLD STRATEGY, COTTON (SB Nation): Last night, Houston Cougars head coach Major Applewhite pulled off the most successful display of “icing the kicker” I’ve ever seen. Applewhite used all three timeouts in the last second of the first half to get inside Memphis’ kicker’s head.
WELCOME TO THE NBA, LONZO (The Ringer): Lonzo Ball made his NBA debut last night, and was completely shut down by LA Clippers guard Patrick Beverly. Beverly was very vocal about Ball after the game, as well. I’m extremely here for anyone that exposes Ball.
The Lakers play the Phoenix Suns tonight. The Suns lost their season opener by 48 points, but I’ll be cheering them on tonight in the “EXPOSE HIM! World Tour”
Procrastination Corner...
Outside of the major blockbusters (Justice League, Black Panther, Star Wars, etc) there’s some pretty decent looking movies coming out in the next couple months. Let’s take a look at what’s on the horizon.
First up, we’ve got 12 Strong, which is the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan following 9/11. It stars Chris Hemsworth and hits theaters in January. It has a very Black Hawk Down feel to it, so I’m pretty excited to watch it.
Next up is Blockers, starring WWE superstar John Cena and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. This one will fall into the raunchy comedy category like most of Rogen and Goldberg’s other projects (Neighbors, Pineapple Express, The Night Before), so it should be fun.
This last one here is a new TV series that’s set to debut on Hulu, but I had to include it. I’m a big Stephen King guy, so I’m really excited for Castle Rock.
And that’s it!
Have another link you’d like to share? Feel free to do so in the comments or as a FanPost.