Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Welcome to a Saturday morning mixed bag of thoughts.
There are two reasons I’m bouncing around like this:
I drank three little espresso cups of the hard stuff (intensity level 11), and I am chasing a tight deadline before calling the Warsaw-Northridge varsity football game.
If the Warsaw-Concord draw has fans wondering… think about how much the team has adjusted since that week 5 regular season loss. The Tigers had some missed opportunities and avoided deflation versus NorthWood the previous week. They stayed focused and blew up the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.
I had a humbling experience behind the mic against NorthWood.
The first was calling a touchdown, then realizing in the film although one was radioed up to us from the officiating crew, no signal was made. My wife and spotter, Shawna, reminded me to ignore everything I see and hear, and only look for the two arms in the air.
She also said, “Did I tell you they signaled touchdown? Listen to your spotter.”
Four area teams finished the season with at least five regular season wins. This compels me to research the last time this happened. I bet we have to look all the way back to the decade of the 2000s for this feat. I’ll tell you next week.
October will be full this coming week. We are approaching the NBA openers, the NFL is near mid-season, and the MLB league championships and World Series are upon us. Oh, yeah, it’s also college and pro hockey season… and some area teams will likely have volleyball teams gearing up for regionals one week from this morning.
Take your pick viewing and streaming. Anyone complaining about nothing to watch needs their head examined.
Mine will be a house divided if The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the Indiana Hoosiers run their regular season tables. Shawna completed both of her graduate programs at regional IU branches, and she’s embraced the other IU sports. I have a feeling she’ll be backing the Crimson and Cream on December 6th.
A showdown with teams hailing from Columbus, Ohio and Bloomington meeting at Lucas Oil Stadium will be mind-blowing.
I hope Coach Cignetti stays with the program and is not lured by his native state to coach the Nittany Lions of Penn State. That lingered in the back of my head while I listened to his distinct Pennsylvania accent during recorded press conferences after hearing that PSU sacked its coach.
Connor McCann is – in the betting world – a “sharp.”
Yep, I said it.
McCann’s 17-13 record (56.7%) in Can Connor Cover? picks put him at the level most sharps – bettors and oddsmakers who are among the elite – perform. Our T-U Sports section editor rolled into his current record with 12-9 (57.1%) and 15-10 (60%) records in the prior weeks.
You’ll see the allure of betting “experts” claiming 80% accuracy but the real sharps tend to land between 55% and 60%, and the 80% might be their success in even-up straight bets on winners and losers.
Will Connor revive memories of odds-maker Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder around the area?
Will we say we knew Connor “the Irish Italian” McCann while he made his bones in the Lake City?
Connor has made some bold picks that ended up working well for him.
The Warsaw sectional draw and bracket landing each mean the Tigers will not host another home football game unless they win sectionals. They’ll – because they are in an odd numbered sectional and not have hosted any sectional games – host a regional final.
Go get ‘em Tigers. I wanna’ call one more game. Last season made me greedy for more post season action this season. In fact, a Tiger road to state will be the polar opposite of last year’s three home games and one away game. It will take three road wins (two sectional wins, one semistate win) to make it to Lucas Oil Stadium.
Good luck, in fact, to ALL area teams who must go 1-0 each week hereafter in order to earn the privilege of another Monday in practice gear.
