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Hello, dear Gentlepeople and Scholars!
We have rounded the Ides of March, and now that our Caesar has fallen it’s time for some madness. Rather than the Caligulan variety, we’ll go for the more sporting kind - college basketball. It’s the NCAA Tournament!
By my count there are three players on the current roster who have won NCAA championships. Can you guess them?
Sure you can.
Is this the kind of trivia everyone knows except me?
I worrry.
(this space intentionally left blank)
Hopefully you’re using your phone to read this
otherwise all this word salad
is for
naught.
Oh
well.
OK, Here they are:
TWO TIME CHAMP Joakim Noah, University of Florida 2006 & 2007
Lance Thomas, Duke 2010
... and...
Isaiah Hicks, University of North Carolina 2017 (less than a year ago!).
In addition, Jarrett Jack took his Yellow Jackets to the championship game in 2004.
(Recent Knick Dukie Marshall Plumlee was of course also a national champion, as was a gentleman you may remember named Carmelo Anthony.)
Damyean Dotson’s alma mater all set for the first round:
Kyle O’Quinn comes thru with an amazing-on-so-many-levels Daily News cover:
(memory, all alone in the moonlight, I can smile at the old days)
Enes Kanter never actually played for the University of Kentucky. But he tried to!
Ron Baker’s Wichita State Shockers made a memorable run to the Final Four in 2013, and he has a robot vacuum named Ralph who is a big fan:
(bonus: OAKAAK Cleanthony Early was on the same team.)
And speaking of teammates, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke are both Wolverines.
And like Michigan people everywhere, they talk about it:
The Madness begins today Former @umichbball teammates @T_HardJR and @TreyBurke reflect on the experience that was. pic.twitter.com/ZKi35aA5tB
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 15, 2018
We all know who @T_HardJR and @TreyBurke are rooting for in the tourney 〽️, but who do they see as the dark horses? pic.twitter.com/OBIQyvrPAu
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 15, 2018
ALSO, by the way, another fine Knicks Pisces. Happy Birthday, Timmy!
More Knicks family March birthdays (AKA the best time to have birthdays):
Happy Birthday, @TheRealLJ2!
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 14, 2018
RT to wish LJ a great day! pic.twitter.com/K02m5Zxua8
To wrap it up, here are some lovely collages from back in the day:
#MarchMadness #TBT (Part I) pic.twitter.com/MpZQEdfAvT
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 15, 2018
#MarchMadness #TBT (Part II) pic.twitter.com/C6kkmq4Z6v
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 15, 2018
***Kristaps Porzingis Rehab/Recovery Section***
Ooh! Español!
(Of note: Stealth Toby, and I do not believe that KP’s living room floats above a spectral basketball court, but could be wrong.)
Kristaps is already out and about, in less than a week going from heading out for juice without his leg brace:
To flat-out doing promo sponsor duties with nary a brace nor crutch in sight:
Look who stopped by the Zing Bars stand at the @nassaucandy trade show earlier! The one and only @kporzee pic.twitter.com/BRE9D9uhmY
— Zing Bars (@zingbars) March 14, 2018
Then on the 3/14 game against the Sixers, KP honored Pi day by making his first appearance back at the Garden. According to SLAM,
Kristaps Porzingis is walking without a limp.
— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) March 15, 2018
"I’m going to come back better and stronger.” https://t.co/y6YWtXArzh pic.twitter.com/8kDo7wB8W2
I wasn’t there, but here’s a video — looks pretty limpless to me:
Welcome home @kporzee! Happy to have you back in the house pic.twitter.com/N5Ncx4PkQG
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) March 14, 2018
Keep it up but don’t rush it, oh mighty lizard unicorn.
Can’t get enough of these Porzingis Recovery/Rehab Updates? You are so in luck!
(@esusts is Egils Šusts, KP’s filmmaker/photographer who works on his YouTube channel. You didn’t know Kristaps had a YouTube channel? Now you do.)
***Canine Corner***
Compliments of Egils, some Toby goodness. Hi Toby!
More Toby.
Toby being menaced by various items. He is not about this life. He is about the benjamins and the S Class. Do not bother Toby with your bananas or your bears or your vegetable drinks please.
Respect Toby.
On the mystery dog front, we have another Damyean Dotson shot of the unnamed what-looks-like-maybe-some-kind-of-husky puppy:
AND (new dog alert!) I would like to introduce you to Sophie. Who is Sophie? Well might you ask. “Sophie” first popped up in Kyle O’Quinn’s IG feed as something of a mystery, with Mubarak Malik, the team’s Director of Performance, but no dog:
A little look-see at Bar’s Instagram gives us a glimpse of Sophie (omg so cute) and shows that she & Kyle have a special friendship:
Look at the love in action! And maybe a new pup for Mr. O’Quinn?
Do it, Kyle! Savage!