Tag Archives: Illinois

Barspotting: Laying up to the Backspin Sports Bar & Grill

Another week of barspotting and I’m going for the trifecta.  It’s been 2 great weeks of college football watching and I need one more joint to make me believe that Austin is serious about sports bars.  The last two weeks were easy because it was close to downtown.  Now it’s time to throw Austin for a loop and go for that ‘remote neighborhood family bar’ joint.  Well, I’ve found down south in the Backspin Sports Bar & Grill.  Saturday I’ll find out if the remote locations of Austin bring the game like the places closer to the heart of the city do.
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Pick It And Stick It 2011 Week 04: Sticking Together

Whew!  Another close one for the Big 12.  I swear, the Big 12 is the greatest thing since MTV’s The Real World.  If you want to talk about the best conferences, then the one with the best drama factor definitely is the Big 12.  Yeah, they are staying together but we really don’t know for how long.  So while they hold hands again and tell everybody that things are cool, let’s focus on some actual football.  This week’s Pick It an Stick It kind of reflects the noise off the field.  Like the Big 12, most of the great games are stuck together around 2:30 Saturday.  That’s fine for me and my barspotting trip, but how will it fare for the picks? Continue reading Pick It And Stick It 2011 Week 04: Sticking Together

Third Base Stole Home For Me

Saturday was a downtown taste of college football watching as well as the first time I needed to watch Kansas State at a bar outside of the Midwest.  Austin City Limits Music Festival was last weekend as well so it was the first time for me to attend Sunday.  My dogs are still barking from the rocking time.  My whole time dodging ACL traffic Saturday and watching some real college football was far from barked.  I was expecting a marginal time and Third Base exceeded my expectations by a country mile.  It was a grand slam time and then some.

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Pick It and Stick It: Sticking With The Crowd

It’s the hustle and bustle of college football.  At the beginning of the year, everyone is tied 0-0.  Slowly and weekly, the winners bubble up and the losers peter out.  We’re getting into week 3 and it’s still crowded.  We haven’t yet hit the real bubbling point.  Apparently it’s Road Test Weekend so we’ll more than likely get the cauldron cooking real quick.  Speaking of being crowded, I’m planning and surfing the flesh at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Granted I have Sunday tickets so it won’t be too bad, but Saturday’s at Third Base Sports Bar.  Let’s hope people don’t bubble up vomit and I don’t peter out.

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Mascot Monday: Chief Illiniwek

Mascot Monday is back and we are still counting down mascots we’ve yet to cover that are in Phil Steele’s Top 50 preseason poll for 2011.  We’re in the middle of media days for the college football and the pro guys finally set down their swords and are getting ready for another season as well.  This week I will skip over that hype and go straight to #39 and Illinois’ Chief Illiniwek.  I believe that this is the first time I will cover a mascot that is actually no longer spreading cheer on the sidelines.  Lot’s of controversy behind this one folks, let’s find out what happened

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Bowl Pick It and Stick It: The Bowl Nine Yards

Here we are in the middle of bowl season.  I got some good gear for Xmas and I hope you got some too.  The bowl action was light in the last week, but we are now ramping up into the  meat of the schedule.  Most of the Big 12 schools will be playing this week and  there will be ample action in between.  Meanwhile, I Bowl Pick It and Stick It standings are out are some peeps jumping out of the gate quick.  Let’s look at that first:

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GameDay: Take Me Out To The Real Ball Game

Once a niche thing, now it seems it’s all back in fashion.  What am I talking about?  I’m talking about football games being played in baseball stadiums, of course!  Today we have a game at Wrigley Field and we also have a Bowl game with New Era fronting the money for two teams to play in Yankees Stadium.  For years I have longed to see a real sport played in these stadiums and now it lo0ks as though it finally will happen.  But is it a good thing?

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Barspotting: JJ’s Other Place Part II

Okay, I’m giving JJ’s Other Place one more shot.  They didn’t have power for our game last week, even though they were open that evening.  So I’m going back to give them a college try for this Saturday.  The morning games all suck, but once the afternoon hits we get some Top 25 clashes.  Let’s hope that they will have a enough juice for the week for use to enjoy at least one of those.  The backup plan, for the first time ever, is Lew’s Grill and Bar.  What can I say, it’s my new favorite place. Continue reading Barspotting: JJ’s Other Place Part II

Lazy Saturday for Lew’s

Another actual barspot and I’m keeping up on the known favorites with Lew’s Grill and Bar.  I’ve been here a couple of times and have begun to become a regular here.  They’ve upgraded the televisions and also the food.  The day of football was long and fun, so I was glad I got the sweet spot for watching in the bar.  Regarding the action on field, we saw some tight games and some surprising blowouts.  It was a lazy day, but it sure was a weird one too.

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Crib Sheet: Nice With Pumpkin Spice

Halloween is Sunday and we are cooking up various items around the place with pumpkin in them.  The roasted pumpkin seeds with cinamon and nutmeg were awesome but so where the pumpkin muffins.  Grab your favorite pumpkin related food and check out this week’s Crib Sheet:

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Pick It Standings Week 05: Feeling Beefy

Conference play opened up over the weekend and we are getting into the beef of the schedule.  Sure, the potatoes of the non conference fed us well, but we wanted meat and now we are getting it.  Speaking of getting it, some of our pickers got it hard both on the weekly pick set and the creeping up of bad picks from weeks gone.  Some teams as well missed the chicken piece mark and had to eat the gravy sandwich.  It somewhat gets complicated from here on out so grab your meat and hold on.

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Crib Sheet: So Much To Chew On

There’s just so much to chew on from the first week of college football, we’ll just make the intro real quick.  On to the Crib Sheet:

  • Freshly on its own, BYU signed a deal with ESPN and Notre Dame to be shown exclusively and play, respectively.  They are stepping out fresh in their independence but we don’t think they’ll get as strong as their Irish counterparts.
  • The Big 10 now has divisions, so we’ll see how balanced they are in the next couple of years.  The big news is breaking up Michigan and Ohio State.  Since they will be the ‘yearly rival’, there’s a big chance that they could play each other again in the Big 10 Championship Game.
  • Even though, Derrick Washington was booted from the team, the Missouri Tigers beat up on Illinois last Saturday.  It took some time for them to find their rhythm but once they did, they looked sharp.  Apparently athletic director Mike Alden said that protecting the school was the number one priority when it came between Washington and the allegations.  Way to go 810 AM and Kevin Kietzman, you seem to get everyone to talk.
  • The face behind the mask of the mascot for Penn State, notched an MIP for underage drinking.  Clint Gyory got busted and now he’s suspended from his mascot duties.  It just goes to show that football players aren’t the other ones who have to watch what they do in their free time.
  • In what’s become the major theme to begin the season, another player will miss games for accepting sports agent gifts.  This time it’s Alabama’s Marcell Dareus.  They should suspend him for key games.  Doing this at the beginning of the year means they miss the cakewalk part of the schedule.
  • At the very last second, Jeremiah Masoli’s appeal was approved and he was cleared to play for Ole Miss.  It didn’t help them however, as  Division II school Jacksonville St. ended up beating Ole Miss in 2 overtimes.  I caught the end of the game and no doubt it’s on the top so far for game of the year.
  • Boise State assistant Keith Abu Bhonapha got a DUI.  He should be off the team.
  • North Carolina was one play away from possibly winning the game against LSU last Saturday.  What’s more than amazing is that they did it with a ton of suspended players.  About half of the starters didn’t play due to NCAA investigations.  We’re not sure if it shows how tough the Tar Heels could be or how weak LSU looks.
  • TCU coach Gary Patterson gave credit to ESPN’s Lee Corso for inspiring the Horned Frogs to a come from behind win against Oregon State last Saturday.  Patterson used the right amount of moto-mojo to get his team over the tough Beavers.
  • Looks like Nebraska’s schedule in the Big 10 will start out tough.  There’s no surprise there.  The new boys in town will get beat up for a couple of years to show that current members are strong.
  • After the embarrassing loss to North Dakota State, Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins retired Tuesday.  He was going to retire next year, but the school (and the boosters) decided to cough up the money to get him out of there sooner.  We don’t know who the replacement AD, not interim, will be and now we don’t know who the starting quarterback will be.  Man basketball season can’t come any faster for the Jayhawks.
  • Apparently Reggie Bush may be stripped of his Heisman.  I guess that’s what happens when it’s discovered that you might have been ineligible during your run in college.  He would be the first.  How many other Heisman winners may have been ineligible?  Should we investigate everyone and find out?
  • In MASSIVE conference expansion news, Cal Poly and UC Davis will be joining the Big Sky Conference.  At first we thought it was just a conference of country bars, but with this new development we see the Big Sky in a different light.
  • ESPN kicked off ESPN3D last year during the BCS Championship Game and now they have an updated schedule that started with the Boise State and Virginia Tech game.  So far so good, according to the review.  We’re anxious to get our eyes on it when it becomes mainstream about 20 years from now.
  • Speaking of the Broncos, they jumped to #3 in both polls.  Looks like if they can keep up the blowouts, they will be a contender.  Meanwhile, David Ubben runs down the votes for the Big 12 teams.  It’s pretty much the big 3 in the top 25 (Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma) then about 5 teams about a stone’s throw from the 25 threshold.  If they can keep it up, we may see more Big 12 teams up there.

Johnny’s Tavern Still Has the Power

It’s been almost a year since we’ve been to Johnny’s Tavern and it took the rest of the season for us to decide that it was the best Barspot for last year.  So, as tradition calls, we found ourselves back at Johnny’s Tavern at the Power & Light District to enjoy the first full Saturday of college football.  The bar hasn’t changed much but just enough for us to take notice.  The food specials knocked us out but the games were kind of so so.  Read on as we go over Johnny’s Tavern and recount the action on the field.

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Pick It and Stick It: Running Down A New Season

Okay here’s the first pick it list of the year and it’s a doozy.  If you remember from last year, a number of us had to eat some missed weeks and totally blew our picks.  So, in response to that, anyone can miss can have their lowest 2 scores knocked off.  Worried about competition?  Well, we have added the Top 25 AND the Big 12 into the mix to make sure our confidence points are all over.  Not only do you have to pick against the spread, but now you have to make sure your confidence counts.  With that said, let’s check out the first week of picks.

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Barspotting: Johnny’s On the Spot Again

We are back again going out to the best of what Kansas City sports bars has to offer in terms of college football.  Like the storied tradition of college football, we have a tradition of going back to the best bar of last year to start out this season for KC College Gameday.  We had no way of knowing back at the beginning of last September that Johnny’s in the Power & Light would be the best but here we are planning the first Barspot of the year down there.  With every television fit into every nook and cranny as well as the crazy touch table poker game, Johnny’s hit the spot on all things needed for a great sport viewing experience.  So come back out with us Saturday as we head back out there to enjoy Johnny’s and scoff at that ridiculous KC College Live thingy going on in the outdoor area.

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