And if that weren’t enough, the brains that brought you the outstanding three-color collection have upped their game and expanded their product line to include… collegiate licensed Snuggies!
If you haven’t seen them in their full glory, take a gander:
Picture Source: Blanket Wars (Even better, this picture is from a blog post entitled “OU Will Choke Versus Texas.”)
Though I’m not (yet) a member of the cult of the Snuggie, I understand why people would buy them. Who doesn’t like being warm? And being able to eat whilst wearing a blanket? Or the ability to change channels without exposing bare arms to the draft of a room?
I also understand why people would want collegiate Snuggies in particular. Every sports fan relishes the opportunity to show off a little team spirit. I mean, if I got a Snuggie, you’d be darn sure I’d get a college team one. (Looks like I’d have to get Texas though, because the makers of Snuggie don’t offer a UVA one. Good research on that one, I must admit. They know their audience, and UVA alums likely wouldn’t bother with a Snuggie: it would clash with their ties or pearls.)
Well, instead of continuing to mock Snuggie, I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and offer a design suggestion: K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid.) Good design should be minimalist, simple and straightforward. Not cluttered.
How should Snuggie go about this? Pretend to make team sweatshirts, just with tons more fabric. Like this:
Or this:
Yes, UVA can have its own Snuggie after all!
Texas should prominently display the Longhorn logo on burnt orange. Carolina the interlocking NC on its signature Carolina blue hue. Virginia Tech would use the interconnected VT. Florida: the Gator. The Jayhawk for Kansas. You get the picture. Make it simple. Make the primary team color the star, not the blinding repetition of several logos.
How would you redesign the collegiate Snuggie? Would you make them like replica jerseys with the ability to personalize a name and number on the back? Add a belt in a contrasting color? Build in a foam finger at the end of one sleeve? Share your ideas in the comments section!
After weeks of deliberation, Duke basketball alum Greg Paulus will unveil his plans for his college football future at a press conference today at 10 a.m. EST. He’s announced that he will definitely be playing football, but where? Nebraska or Syracuse?
But with a 3-9 record a year ago, Syracuse can probably use all the help they can get. And though Nebraska finished 9-4 last season, it has an inexperienced quarterback staff. Both could certainly benefit from having a high school All-American’s arm on their team.
If ESPN’s predictions are right, it looks like Paulus’ll be headed back home to the blustery cold northeast to continue his athletics career. At least the home games would be indoors, which would be a welcome reprieve from the multiple-feet-tall snowdrifts he’d undoubtedly trudge through to get to class. But hey, he still has 6 ½ hours to change his mind.
UPDATE:It’s confirmed. Paulus is heading home to play for the Orange.
Though the basketballers in Carolina blue won the 2009 NCAA crown, it appears their royal blue foes are getting all the off-season attention.
A few weeks ago, the big news was that Stephen Curry’s little brother, Seth, was transferring from Liberty to Duke. The younger Curry averaged 20.3 points per game for the Flames, pacing freshman throughout the country.
But somehow creating more intrigue, graduating Duke point guard Greg Paulus is examining his future, in football. After starting in his first three years for the Blue Devils, the senior saw more action as a role player this season. The Blue Devils, a No. 2 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, fell in the Sweet 16 to eventual Final Four contender, No. 3 Villanova.
Prior to his Duke career, Paulus was heavily recruited to play both college basketball and football. As the four-year starting quarterback for Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, N.Y., Paulus led his team to a 42-3 record and a state title. He also passed for 11,763 yards and 152 touchdowns — no small feat for any athlete, let alone one that can start for 3.5 years for Duke’s not-too-shabby hoops squad.
After all the initial excitement, Paulus is no longer in the headlines, but still appears to be shopping around for a college football opportunity. Where has he expressed interest in playing lately? Nebraska and his hometown Syracuse.
So how will Paulus suit up in the coming months? In maize and blue? As a Cornhusker? Will he bask again in hometown glory, this time in orange? Or will he continue his basketball career overseas? And perhaps more importantly, when will we know?
In the past two days there’s been much fuss in the logo design world about two professional sports teams: the NFL’s Detroit Lions and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.
But that isn’t all I learned from the Tribune about well-known logos. I mentioned a few weeks ago about the arrow within the FedEx logo, but did y’all know about the 31 within the Baskin Robbins logo? I certainly didn’t. The 31 of course refers to Baskin Robbins’ 31 flavors of ice cream.
So how did the Detroit Lions change their logo? Now the team’s lion has sharper, scarier teeth and is accompanied by a flashier, more modern font:
Roar! Quite menacing, don’t ya think? The “new Lions logo ought to solve everything,” a Chicago Sun-Times blog post facetiously said. That’d be quite a feat for the design world, as the abysmal Lions tallied an 0-16 record last season.
In an otherwise unexciting tournament, one storyline has emerged: the Big East has been unstoppable. Five of the Sweet 16 teams were Big East squads: No. 3 Villanova, No. 3 Syracuse, and a trio of No. 1 seeds: Louisville, Pitt and UConn. Now only 12 teams remain (six of the eight games have been played, Kansas-Michigan State and UNC-Gonzaga are playing now). The Big East will have four teams representing the conference in the Elite 8, as only Syracuse was eliminated this round.
In other news seeds 1-3 in every region advanced to the Sweet 16. Yawn. The only two “exciting” seeds, No. 5 Purdue (is that even exciting?) and No. 12 Arizona, were dismissed last night and tonight respectively. If Gonzaga falls to UNC, the Elite Eight will be populated only by 1, 2 and 3 seeds.
Naismith POY finalists announced
Midway through the first half of tonight’s early games, CBS announced the four finalists for men’s college basketball’s Naismith Player of the Year. The candidates? Three forwards and a center: Blake Griffin (Oklahoma), Tyler Hansbrough (UNC), DeJuan Blair (Pitt) and Hasheem Thabeet (UConn). While I don’t debate the talent of these players, there is one very noticable finalist that made me think, why is he in there?
Though undoubtedly a gifted player, I disagree with Tyler Hansbrough place among those considered for this year’s award. Though he picked up just about every player of the year award offered last year, I don’t think that warrants his inclusion among this year’s finalists. In my opinion, he’s not even the best player at North Carolina this year (his teammate Ty Lawson picked up ACC Player of the Year honors). Was Hansbrough the ACC POY runner-up? No, actually Florida State’s Toney Douglas was.
I’m not arguing that Hansbrough isn’t among the 10 top college players in the country. I just don’t think he’s #1, this year.
As a Texas alum it pains me to say this, but I think the Naismith Award should go to Blake Griffin. Averaging 21.9 points and 14.3 rebounds per game, Griffin is a beast under the basket. He doesn’t just get double-doubles, he averages double-doubles. And playing in this year’s tough Big 12, no less.
I’d be OK with Blair or Thabeet winning the award as well, but I think Griffin has been the most consistent all season. Seven-foot-three center Thabeet had an impressive year, but was lackluster in his team’s two losses to Pitt, arguably the most important two games of UConn’s regular season. Blair had a great season as well, but was streaky. He really hit his stride towards the season’s end. Blair dominated his first regular season matchup against Thabeet, but in Pitt’s second win against UConn, Sam Young (Blair’s teammate that averages 18.9 points of his own) was the one who took care of business. Tourney’s ugliest unis unveiled
For those who hadn’t had the opportunity to see much Big 12 action this year, last night’s Missouri-Memphis game was a rude awakening. What was the unwelcome disturbance? Mizzou’s jerseys.
How bad can they be, you ask? Bad enough to harken comparisons to Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard. A “lovely” hue, I tell ya.
Sadly, since Missouri is a No. 3 seed, it’s very likely they’ll be wearing these jerseys the rest of the way. Who’s up next for the Tigers of Columbia? No. 1 UConn. With any luck Mizzou’ll be sent packing after tomorrow night’s next matchup. I’m not necessarily rooting for UConn, I’m just rooting for my eyes to stop burning. Why does that guy on Oklahoma wear long sleeves under his jersey? Isn’t he burning up?
Well I know in my basketball playing days (I played, I never said I played well), I usually was a sweaty, disgusting mess. Maybe I didn’t lose 10 lbs. every time I played like I hear that Shaq and other NBA players do, but let’s just say if I played, my jersey wasn’t dry at the end of the game.
I’ll stop with those gross details now.
Well all tournament I’ve been wondering, why does Oklahoma’s #5 (I’ve since found out his name is Tony Crocker), wear long sleeves under his jersey? As an ex-player I could never envision any circumstance when I’d want to have more clothes on while playing an indoor basketball game.
As you may or may not have heard last week, Duke’s coach Mike Krzyzewski was less than pleased to hear that President Obama wasted valuable time to fill out a bracket. Who was in his Final Four? Not Duke. And even worse, he had Carolina winning it all.
Really Coach K, is that why you’re mad? Because to me it just seems you’re upset that the President didn’t pick your team, and even worse, chose your archnemesis to win it all.
Some argue that Coach K was just joking, but it didn’t seem that way to me. I’m pretty sure his “really the economy is something he should focus on” jab seemed more out of disgust than a light-hearted jab at an old pal.
Well, as it turns out, it was a pretty wise decision on Obama’s part not to pick Duke for his Final Four. He actually had them going out in the Elite Eight round, one round further than they actually did. Villanova blew out Duke last night, 77-54.
The face of a coach that should spend more time getting his team to the Final Four instead of judging political officials who fill out brackets. Zing.
Even though I’ve liked past Maryland jerseys better, I love that their jerseys incorporate Maryland’s flag. (I think South Carolina’s palmetto flag edges Maryland’s design for the country’s best state flag.) I was not, however, a fan of their alternate yellow home jerseys, though I believe they only lost once this season while wearing them.
Left: Maryland flag, Right: past Maryland jersey, with yellow-and-black piping, mimicking the Maryland flag
I think it’s awesome that Adrian Bowie plays for Maryland, considering that Bowie, Md is one of the state’s largest cities.
I also like that Missouri native Tyler Hansbrough chose to play basketball for North Carolina. It’s pretty fitting, considering the state already has a Greensboro (where UNC is playing its first two rounds of NCAA tournament games), Goldsboro, Asheboro, Tarboro, Roxboro, Roseboro, Wadesboro and a Bladenboro. Hansbrough just sounds like another North Carolina town.
By the way, Maryland tore Cal up in the second half. Watch out for those No. 10 Terps! And UNC broke into triple digits with its 101-58 win over Radford.
On a non-ACC note, UConn trampled all over Chattanooga, winning by a whopping 56 points! The Huskies won 103-47 with associate head coach George Blaney at the helm while ailing head coach Jim Calhoun recouperated.
It’s the most wonderful time of the sports year! Are you watching the games? Did you fill out a bracket? Have you bragged about your superior picks to your friends or smack-talked yet? If not what are you doing?
Only three games have been played so far, and no upsets yet. But No. 2 Memphis encountered some difficulty en route to beating No. 15 Cal State-Northridge. Though Memphis won 81-70, but it took until eight or so minutes from the end for Memphis to take the lead in the game for good.
No. 9 Texas A&M beat No. 8 BYU soundly 79-66, repeating the No. 9 Texas A&M over No. 8 BYU win in the first round of the NCAA tournament a year ago.
No. 8 LSU defeated No. 9 Butler in an exciting matchup. Early foul trouble for Butler’s star Matt Howard combined with turnovers made the game look like a potential runaway for the Tigers in the first half. But the Bulldogs came roaring back and the teams exchanged leads throughout the second half. LSU won the battle 75-71.
Now I’m alternating between the No. 5 Purdue – No. 12 Northern Iowa game and the No. 1 vs No. 16 matchup between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Radford Highlanders. The Tar Heels started the game on a tear, scoring their first basket three seconds into the game. Many have talked about how UNC has a virtual home game, but unbeknownst to many, Radford only had to travel 123 miles from southwestern Virginia for the game in Greensboro.
Tyler Hansbrough just shot and made two foul shots, passing Duke’s J.J. Redick as the ACC’s all-time scoring leader. How appropriate that Hansbrough surpassed Redick at the foul line. Hansbrough seems to be a permanent fixture there, and Redick was known for his over 90 percent free throw average throughout his career.
UNC leads 30-18. Purdue leads Northern Iowa 32-20 at halftime. No. 1 UConn and No. 16 Chattanooga just tipped off and the Huskies lead 16-8. UConn’s coach Jim Calhoun has fallen ill and is not coaching the team in today’s matchup. No. 10 Maryland just tipped off against No. 7 Cal as well and the Terrapins lead 22-21.
Back to NCAA Thursday Funday.
Want a peek at my bracket? Check it out here, and feel free to make fun of my picks in the comments section! I’m 3-1 so far (if you count Morehead State winning the play-in game); I picked the Butler upset that fell short.
In case you missed this wonderful, funderful day of college basketball madness-before-the-madness, here’s a Cliff’s Notes version of it all:
SYRACUSE TOPS UCONN IN EPIC 6 OT BATTLE. (There’s your headline.) Cuse’s Jonny Flynn scored 34 points in 67 minutes of the 70 minute basketball game [(2 x 20 min halves) + (5 x 5 min OT periods)]. Eight fouled out (guess that’s what happens when you ask two teams to play 1.75 games in a night). Oh yeah, UConn is also #3 in the country (Syracuse is #20). Awesome, awesome game.
The Big East is a mess. UConn (#3 in country, #3 Big East seed) is out. Pitt, the nation’s #2 and Big East’s #2 seed, lost to archrival WVU by 14. A few days ago DePaul, the conference’s only winless team at 0-18 beat Cincinnati to move on to the second round (and then lost). Villanova topped Marquette by 1 with a buzzer-beating basket today as well.
In the ACC, twelfth-seeded (out of 12) Georgia Tech moves on to the second round after a win over Clemson. All the other outcomes were expected, except for Virginia Tech’s 18-point drumming of Miami.
Big 12 play may be the most dizzying of all so far — seeds 1, 2 and 4 are out. Oklahoma State beat the nation’s #6 team, Oklahoma, by 1 on a controversial foul call, Baylor toppled Kansas and Texas beat Kansas State by 3.
No major upsets of note in the Big Ten or SEC, but sixth-seeded USC took down third-seeded Cal by 4 in the Pac 10.
That’s all folks. I order you to get a box of Thin Mints and chow down and enjoy the next round of conference tourneys tomorrow (errr, later today now).
In my lifetime the big UVA sports accomplishments have been in lacrosse, a sport I first learned about when I saw American Pie, soccer and of late, tennis.
The overwhelming majority of positive things I’ve heard said about UVA basketball have been about Ralph Sampson, the undisputed king of Wahoo basketball, who played from 1979-1983. All I can tell you about him is he was the best player in the country at the time, was a 7’4″ (yeah, you read that right) center and led UVA to its only Final Four in 1983. Oh yeah, then there was the biggest upset in college basketball history, when the #1 Sampson-led Cavaliers lost to a then-unknown school in Hawaii called Chaminade. UVA is all about Ralph Sampson facts and is always mentioning on viewbooks and other “come to our school” literature that he and Katie Couric (two of the most famous alums) lived on The Lawn. Fancy.
UVA’s won the ACC in basketball once — in 1976. They’ve been the the Final Four once — the time with Sampson in ’83.
And geez, up until last night we had even lost to Virginia Tech in our last three outings. All were decided by three or less points or an overtime.
This is the plight of the UVA fan. You watch in fear. How bad are they going to beat us this time?, you think when you enter our football stadium against a ranked opponent. Or How long until they blow it?, when they somehow build an comfortable, seemingly insurmountable lead.
But at last, we broke down that barrier at least. My Hoos beat the Hokies 75-61 at the JPJ last night. (And even crazier, beat #12 Clemson at home over the weekend. But this is our rival. This is Virginia Tech!)
Finally, I can say (and this will surely come back and bite me at some point)…
HOOS WIN, SUCKAS!
At least they did last night. And even more today than most days, I’m proud, proud, proud to be an alum.
“Do you like your mustard spicy?”
Photo credit: 
The face of a coach that should spend more time getting his team to the Final Four instead of judging political officials who fill out brackets. Zing.
Sports Kate 
