For those of you who listened to the podcast episode that dropped earlier this week, you know Blackburn and I were both lacking confidence heading into Wednesday night’s bout in Kingston. Why? It was a do-or-die game for the Rhode Island Rams. We embarrassed them in Dayton a few weeks ago. It was their senior night. Lose, and their bubble pops them on down to the NIT. As the resident pessimist of this here blog, and being accustomed to heartbreak from each and every one of my sports teams for 31 years, I thought this carriage MAY turn back into a pumpkin at some point and break the perfect conference record.
And in my 5 or so seasons as a paid member of the Blackburn Review, I have never been so happy to have been so wrong.
Good GOD what a slaughter. For the first few minutes of the game we traded blows back and forth and I was afraid it would be a 40 minute boat race, but I was an idiot per usual. Sitting at Glascott’s (the Chicago Dayton bar) with 50+ other alums on a Wednesday evening, I went from sitting at the bar to literally hiding behind a bar stool staring at the TV because of how embarrassed I was for our opponents. The Rhode Island “fan base” literally started the game chanting “F*UCK OBI TOPPIN”, to which we responded with a proper beatdown, all the way to the last 90 seconds featuring our walk-on’s. On their senior night. Read that a few more times and let it sink in, this ain’t going to happen again for us folks – at least not anytime soon.
I mean this pretty much sums up the entire game pic.twitter.com/5SaT9Na1Cm
— paco (@AllaireMatt) March 5, 2020
Let’s not forget it was Obi’s 22nd birthday. And being the nice fella that he is, he gifted us with his 100th dunk of the season, in the form of a tomahawk slam to silence those balloon-waving Rams fans. He scored two points less than his age and is now running away as National Player of the Year. It’s just as surreal to be writing these words as it is for y’all to be reading them – I can’t wait to go back through blogs from a year or two ago just to remind myself of where we came from. Baby Bro Toppin stopped one of his dunks by fouling him, the only way you can prevent that freight train from adding to his nightly ESPN highlight reel. While we’re on the topic: credit where due, Obi’s brother is going to be a PROBLEM in the A10 for the duration of his time at Rhode Island.
Jalen chipped in 17 points, Trey donated 14, and by the end of the game we had 10 different Fliers contribute. Shouts to walk-on Christian Wilson who hit a dagger 3 towards the end of the second half. And how about our boy Jordy Chimichanga? Throwing his body all over the place, with energy we haven’t yet seen, adding 7 (!) rebounds and 4 points. That’s the shit we’ll be needing to make a run here in the coming weeks. Between him, Rodney, Ibi, Cleveland Cohill and Jhery, those are our X-Factors for March folks.
The final buzzer rang with a final score of 84-57. Some of the same fans who were chanting at Obi in the first half were trying to get pictures with him on his way out. Our boy got the last laugh. Happy Senior Night indeed, Rhode Island – our best to you in the NIT.
hahahahahaha pic.twitter.com/L5UFNo61Wu
— Flyer Faithful (@Flyer_Faithful) March 5, 2020
Now for the bigger task at hand: ESPN Game Day coming to campus this weekend. Look, you all know at the end of the day the point of our operation here is to have fun and make wildly inappropriate jokes and comments. You read the blogs, you listen to us ramble on the podcast. Which is why I’m going to give a quick piece of advice to any current students here: we expect big things, but for the love of God don’t get popped for being an idiot. Lesson over.
I polled Twitter this week for the best Game Day signs, below are the winners. If you know how to use Twitter, you’ll find some alumni are offering real dollars for certain signs.
WARE RED BE LOWD
RPI IS NO LONGER RELEVANT
VCU PLAYS IN A HIGH SCHOOL GYM
HEY DICKIE V: PLEASE UNBLOCK @DrewbyW
GO FLYERS, GO AMERICA
WHAT’S A BILLIKEN
ARCH BARON CUP
TREY AND MIKESELL GLUED THIS SIGN TOGETHER
GET WELL SOON BUCKY
BLACKBURN REVIEW! BLACKBURN REVIEW!
VCU LOST TO FORDHAM
THIS IS ALL WE HAVE
VENMO ME FOR TIM’S
PARASITE WAS OKAY
STILL NOT DAYTON UNIVERSITY
GARZA PUTS KETCHUP ON HIS HOT DOGS
FIRE SPINA –there’s a $250 bounty for this one
You get the idea. Be smart, have fun, make us proud. And keep the sign ideas coming. See you all on the other side.
Mr. Vines
The man, the myth, the straws, the legend. More than a blogger; less than a God.
