#and honestly in the context of how much the other floor tickets....these were a STEAL

[theseancekid]

just bought floor tickets to mcr. somebody hold me i feel like i’m gonna throw up.

[caseybanning]

Loose Ends

(Light spoilers for Ambition: Nemesis 140-160 but not in great detail)

"--Obviously I wasn't daft enough to take up his word," Casey balked before taking a sip from their wineglass. Their voice is just loud enough to compete with the dinner crowd around them. "Regardless, I still had to reply with something, so I had agreed to his wretched little deal. My instincts were right about him though and knew he couldn't follow through, so I had to track him down." They paused, staring down at their dinner plate. "If I could go back to my younger self and tell them to get as much as they can in writing, signed, a lot of things probably would've been so different."

"Mhm," Mary mused. She'd been keen to let Casey continue prattling on through this whole evening, curiously barely saying much in return and instead kept quiet with supper and drink. There was a lull in the conversation, and Casey glanced nervously to their aunt. Mary has occupied herself with spreading a pat of butter on a mushroom roll, still faintly steaming from the basket.

"The holiday in Port Carnelian was nice, by the way," Casey says. "... I guess holiday isn't too accurate though, since we're on the subject of business. It was partly a business trip but the rest of my time there was in leisure once I got what I needed taken care of there. Roland enjoyed it as well."

"And how is he getting on these days? Roland." Mary picks up her fork, a cube of potato speared onto it's tines.

"Splendidly." Casey says. "We are thinking of taking another holiday soon when we're able. I have to stick around here a bit longer yet and make sure that Tallulah is in tip-top shape for the season. There's already a growing list of potential renters that want to take her out." A thoughtful pause. A woman's tinkling laugh cuts through the conversations around them from the other side of the restaurant. "Do you ever stop to think why we refer to ships as "she"? For all the hangups my parents still have about trying to see and understand me as I am, I'm sure they don't give it much thought to refer to a boat by a peculiar pronoun instead of just 'it'." They remark.

From the corner of the restaurant, a gentle piano melody begins and they both pause to listen. "Bach, I think," Casey muses after listening to the first few bars.

"They'll come around, or they won't." Mary says bleakly, swiping her napkin against the corner of her mouth. Casey gives her a considerate look and sighs.

"I can hope for sooner." They reply. "All in time, I suppose. Whenever that may be."

The candles on the table flicker and they both watch, enjoying the pause in the conversation before Casey starts up again. "Oh, did you hear about that new musical down at Mahogany Hall? Roland and I were going to obtain tickets for next week. Susannah may be coming with us, and we can bring you along." Their knife and form glint in the candlelight as they start cutting into a piece of meat.

Mary grimaces and looks up, her chin jutted out almost defiantly as she stares them down. "What are you doing?" She asks, a sharpness to her question.

Casey's movements pause. "What do you mean?" They ask, their voice light.

"You do this when something is wrong," She says, talking over Casey's quiet words of protest ("I do not.") "--where you just start filling the silence with whatever comes to mind. What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Casey insists. "...Well, there is something that I wanted to ask you later, maybe after we've enjoyed most of our meal... but it's not necessary right now."

"Something to ask me?" Mary asks, unconvinced. Her arms are crossed across her chest, brows high up on her face. "I mean, why wait?"

Casey folds up their napkin and sets it aside. "It's business," They reply in a steady voice. "Boring, dreadful, will later involve some paperwork that I know the both of us will hate..." They glance up to meet her expression, which has cooled from quiet anger to open confusion, so they continue. "I wanted to sell the townhouse."

Mary's teeth clench together behind her closed lips, the tips of her fingers digging even more into her arms as she tries to keep herself still. Casey doesn't seem to notice. "If you were interested in buying it," They explain further. "I don't want to sell it to just anyone, or leave you to contend with some other landlord that would bind you to a more gruesome contract. I want to sell it to you."

The candles simmer. A screeching scrape of a knife is heard from the next table over.  Casey's hands lace together on the table as they lean closer, but Mary hardly seems to even breathe. "You've practically lived there longer even than I," They explain. "You've maintained it well, it's in a good location for your activities... you could re-sell it, rent it, live here in perpetuity, whatever you'd desire. I don't need revenue from it." They shrug. "I've been thinking about it for quite a while, actually--"

"Casey," Mary finally replies, her voice low, and each word out of her mouth keeps a deliberate, targeted rhythm: "What are you doing."

"Trying to sell you a house." Casey replies just as strongly.

"Like hell that's what you're doing," She hisses back. "You think that's what's happening here? That I'm going to just sit here and accept that for what it is? I've known you since you were about five minutes old," Casey shifts in their seat and looks down. "I've seen you at every lowest moment in your life and tried to keep you from the brink each and every time, I know something is wrong, so what trouble are you in?!" She shouts. The conversations around their table freeze, briefly. "Just because you've given this careful thought doesn't mean that you're trying to, what, lie up loose ends? Are you dying?"

"No." Casey's voice is quiet. They're not able to look her in the face now.

"Good," She continues. "Dying young is overrated."

"And I'm not planning on it--" Casey starts to explain, watching their aunt exhale out of the corner of their eye. "--but in the event that, maybe--" Mary's jaw drops, indignant, but Casey presses on. "--in the event that something truly dire were to happen, the townhouse is in your name in my will anyway."

The piano melody changes--Vivaldi, providing a baroque upbeat background to the death glare Mary is giving Casey at that exact moment. She huffs angrily and adjusts her glasses. "It's useless to try to stop you, whatever you're actually planning that would spur this decision." She says. "I just need you to understand, it's--you--disappeared for a month." Her voice is raw. "Or years ago when you went off to the Iron Republic, or--hell, when you left Vincent and we already thought the worst!" Casey opens their mouth to speak but Mary cuts them off again. "Why do you keep doing this?!" She demands. "Why do you keep... why are you so driven--why does it seem like you are so determined to run headfirst into the things that are likely to kill you someday?"

A sever whisks by with a tray and pauses for the smallest moment at their table, her mouth open in a question. One look at their expressions and she gives a considerate nod. "I'll come back later," She nods again, quickly moving on to the next table. Casey closes their eyes, the tips of their fingers fiddling idly along the edge of their flatware. Mary glances at their hands and could see picked-at cuticles, red and sore. Their brows are tensed, and the candlelight only exaggerates the small lines that have begun to crease at the corners of their eyes these last couple years. Casey looks at her, the cheery mask finally fallen away into something softer. Vulnerable.

"I can't tell you here," They finally reply. "Not with..." Their voice trails off and they gesture outward to the restaurant. "...I promise, I'll tell you everything that I can, just not here. Not right now."

--

Hours later, the wall clock in Mary's parlour chimes in the silence. Neither of them seem to want to look at each other, with Mary's arms crossed and her gaze stuck on something outside the window. Casey leans forward in their seat with a sigh, rubbing their hand over their weary face.

"Does anyone else know about this?" Mary finally asks. "The... with the Masters?"

"Roland." Casey replies numbly. "Anyone else who had worked with them to accomplish it. Whoever is left, anyway. You, now."

Mary turns her body more toward them but can't look up just yet, instead now fixing her eyes to a spot on the floor. "I was able to find help at the University for something previously thought impossible," Casey continues. "You know how I couldn't recall anything from the month I was gone?... There was someone I found that was able to conduct an experiment to aid in giving some of those memories back. Normally with irrigo they're gone forever, but not in this case. It's not enough though, I need more context for them." A beat. "That's truly why Roland I went to Port Carnelian."

"What comes after?" Mary asks.

The clock ticks. Casey brushes their hand back through their hair and sighs. "Honestly... I don't know." They admit to her, their voice quiet. "I don't know how much farther this goes from here. There are two obvious ways that this ends, but it's the getting there that needs planning. Right now I'm occupied with tidying up things in case, well..."

"You die." Mary says. "Or worse, if you're caught. That's what you've been saying. How about a third: you just stop here?" Mary splays her hands out. "Do what you need to in order to understand your memories, but you can just stop here. James' death was an incredible tragedy, Casey. But there is no reason for you to risk running after him." She says.

"They ruin lives." Casey says, venom in their words. "Steal cities, watch them be destroyed over and over, constantly rebuild on top of the rubble like it's nothing, try to carry on as if it's normal, and step on our backs if it would get them as if it can get them a bit higher on the Chain. At this point, it is no longer just about James."

"Why do you need to do this, though?" Mary asks. "Why is it you? Why not someone else? If this... conspiracy with the Masters goes farther, you're not going to be able to succeed alone."

"In my research it became understood that there are other families that have been impacted by this conspiracy," Casey explains, crossing their arms. They drag the toe of their shoe along the woodgrain in the floor. "As for why no one else has made an attempt like this... I'm not sure about that either. We know that the Revolutionaries, if they can ever come up with a coherent plan, want to do something in the name of the greater good but by any means necessary. Trying to keep as many people out means less overall damage to innocents."

Mary is quiet for a long while, just looking at Casey from her chair.

"I don't want to bury you," She finally says. "I don't want to send whatever is left of you to the Tomb Colonies. I don't want to live the rest of my life wondering where you've gone if you're captured and made to disappear. Sell me the house when you come back alive. That's my counter-offer: that you must come back alive. And then we can celebrate."

"It's a deal," Casey says quietly.

[rp-grannies]

[Sentence Starters] The Boss Baby : Back In Business

Feel free to add context, change pronouns, names, jobs, and anything else you need to change to make these work for you! Have fun! ^-^

EPISODE 1

❝ For criminy's sake, (Name). Those beans are not gonna kill you. ❞

❝ Come on, beat it like it owes you money! ❞

❝ (Name), I like the problem solving and lack of morals, but the kid's right. ❞

❝ It's like negotiating with North Korea! ❞

❝ But when you took away (Name)'s pain, all you did was unleash a greater evil. ❞

❝ I will go out in a storm of blood and fire! ❞

❝ So, uh, do I owe you now? This is making me uncomfortable. ❞

EPISODE 2

❝ I am the ghost that haunts your dreams. ❞

❝ Asking for help is a weakness. ❞

❝ See you later unless you die. I'll send cheap flowers. Buh-buh-byes. ❞

❝ This meeting is making me uncomfortable. ❞

❝ Claws, bloodshet, anarchy and terror! The end of all things! ❞

❝ Vengeance! ❞

❝ You should act for yourself more often. ❞

EPISODE 3

❝ Stop boring me to death! ❞

❝ What's the play here, (Name)? Torture? You don't have the stones. ❞

❝ You're an inspiration. Amen. Throw the confetti. ❞

❝ I respect you too much to tell you a lie that I can't come up with anyway. ❞

❝ Do NOT make me come over there. ❞

❝ In business, my word is gold-plated and triple-A rated. My word as a family man, I'll admit, kind of garbage. But I will work on that. ❞

❝ Come and get 'em, you filthy animal. ❞

EPISODE 4

❝ Unusual problems call for unusual solutions and you are nothing if not that. ❞

❝ Why are we always fighting? ❞

❝ I can't be expected to remember the names of people I don't care about. ❞

❝ Enclosed spaces make me emotional and violent. ❞

❝ Uh... Please stop crying. It's weird and creepy. ❞

❝ I would love to hear your ideas, but I reserve the right to fall asleep. ❞

❝ You have one minute to surrender your creepy little vent self before security drags you out. ❞

EPISODE 5

❝ Competition is what made this country great, (Name). ❞

❝ Why does your brother look like Halloween just threw up on his face? ❞

❝ I never repeat myself. ❞

❝ Put me in a ball pit and I will crawl out right over (Name)'s stupid face! ❞

❝ How am I supposed to win something that's totally pointless? ❞

❝ Mirror, mirror, on the floor, show that kid the door. ❞

❝ Honestly (Name), I've never seen you display so much heart. Or any. ❞

EPISODE 6

❝ Silence, villager! I know what I like! ❞

❝ No! Dont help me. I got this. ❞

❝ Sick days are for the weak and unionized. ❞

❝ I'll join you as soon as I can... offshore my personal assets. ❞

❝ Snatch and grab. We move stealthy and silent, like the cold hand of death. ❞

❝ The law can't touch me! Yeah! ❞

❝ Aw, you look stressed... Sway with me! ❞

EPISODE 7

❝ It's me, I don't have much time. ❞

❝ You're too young to die. ❞

❝ If she weren't the enemy, I'd shake her hand and take her to lunch to learn her secrets. ❞

❝ You better figure out your loyalties, because I am ending this, with or without you. ❞

❝ I will end her! ❞

❝ We never stood a chance. ❞

❝ I know that stings, but in every battle, sacrifices must be made. ❞

EPISODE 8

❝ I have problems! Focus on me! ❞

❝ Don't hate me for being prepared. ❞

❝ It's pitch black in here. ❞

❝ Barely logical and incredibly asinine. ❞

❝ I can't choose! I wanna save everybody! I'm the nice one! ❞

❝ Comedy and danger. Today's been a real roller coaster. ❞

❝ Never judge a book by it's cover. Even if it turns out the book is even creepier and weirder on the inside. Just read a few pages anyway to be sure. ❞

EPISODE 9

❝ I smell... overcooked bratwurst and communal sweating. ❞

❝ Did the breeze just get... funkier? ❞

❝ You can shred more than incriminating documents? Hmm, I'm intrigued. ❞

❝ Oh, wow. We really should've medicated that. ❞

❝ I don't like it when bullies win. ❞

❝ We should hang out some time without mobs. ❞

❝ I'm not betraying my team! ... Not until I'm good and ready. ❞

EPISODE 10

❝ There's no such thing as free, (Name). ❞

❝ Is your brain okay? ❞

❝ You're just afraid because my art is too real. ❞

❝ You probably wanna clear out now. ❞

❝ Top off my coffee, hon. ❞

❝ I will never question your commitment again. ❞

❝ Okay enough socialism, let's go home. ❞

EPISODE 11

❝ I love that jazz sizzlin' in my little lady veins. Whoo-hoo! Yes! ❞

❝ I'm king of your face! ❞

❝ I can't watch you throw away your potential like this. ❞

❝ Lucky for you, stealing a lawn gnome is just a ticketable offense in this town. ❞

❝ I need action! I'm so bored! ❞

❝ I could not be prouder of you, monster I created. ❞

❝ Make no mistake, I'm still selfish. ❞

EPISODE 12

❝ Whoa, I thought we were the good guys. ❞

❝ I'll get you, no matter the cost! ❞

❝ Welcome to the magical world of gray area rationalization. ❞

❝ I'm... touched. But I have to say, I'm uneasy about this side of you. ❞

❝ You've always been my moral compass. ❞

❝ I have never felt so alive! ❞

❝ I'd hate to get on your bad side, BFF! ❞

EPISODE 13

❝ I'm the Chief Executive. I don't do things. I criticize the way others do things. ❞

❝ Whoever gets hurt, 'it's just business'. ❞

❝ I don't need an excuse to stop hugging you. ❞

❝ Everybody loves me, and I love being loved~ ❞

❝ Sweet and helpless one minute... and the next, we turn into fit throwing, ankle biting psychopaths. ❞

❝ Honk. Your nose is my prisoner. ❞

❝ We can be friends when you pay your debt to society. ❞

[junker-town]

Western Illinois’ Final Four run in Year 20, continued

The epic conclusion of Western Illinois’ Cinderella run to the Final Four as a No. 12 seed in College Hoops 2K8.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, I simulate every game in this series (even the ones we watch on Twitch) and only handle the recruiting and coaching strategies.

We pick up with Western Illinois in the Final Four of the 2027 NCAA tournament. Here’s a recap of everything that has happened so far this season:

Western Illinois entered the season seeking redemption after losing to Cal in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. We began the new season rated as a 96 overall with three new starters. We went 3-6 against a difficult non-conference schedule before sweeping the Summit League and again capturing the conference tournament championship. We enter the NCAA tournament at 24-6 overall.

We earned a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament. We defeated No. 5 seed Minnesota, 89-72, in the first round. We beat No. 4 seed Ole Miss, 116-85, in the round of 32 as senior wing Wilky Henry set a program record with 46 points. We defeated No. 1 seed Dayton, 109-82, in the Sweet 16, and then we beat No. 2 seed Indiana in the Elite Eight, 105-69. You can read a full recap of our road to the Final Four here.

We recruited for one scholarship and are poised to land five-star JUCO shooting guard Edwin Wolfe after the season.

Read: Western Illinois, Year 20, 2026-2027

Read: Western Illinois’ NCAA tournament run in Year 20, continued

Here’s a look at our roster heading into the Final Four:

It seems like just yesterday I was a fresh-faced 25-year-old taking over arguably the worst program in college basketball. Now in my 20th season, our Leathernecks are making their fourth Final Four appearance and looking for their third national championship.

Our opponent in the Final Four is No. 2 seed Pepperdine. The Wave enter the game at 34-2 on the season. You can find their roster here. We’re rated as a 99 overall, they’re rated as a 94 overall. Here’s how the two teams stack up:

I could feel the heat when we started this tournament run. The program came maddeningly close to breaking through in Year 16, Year 17, and Year 18, which each ended with a loss in the Elite Eight. The first round exit last season only made matters worse. Part of me always felt like this would be the year before the year given that three of our top players are juniors. At least that’s what I was telling myself when we were under-seeded yet again by the committee and given a difficult opening round matchup vs. talented Minnesota team in the 5-12 game.

I was expecting an all-out battle with the Golden Gophers, and we got it — for the first 20 minutes. Second half team has become a rallying cry for our Leathernecks on the Twitch streams, and we pulled away after halftime again. From then on, it’s been nothing but blowouts.

Round of 32 vs. Ole Miss: This was The Wilky Henry Game. Our senior small forward set a program record with 46 points on 10-of-16 shooting from three-point range.

Sweet 16 vs. Dayton: The Flyers were the top-seed in our region, but we turned the game into a beatdown by halftime. Junior point guard Tron Whaley led the way with 21 points even as he sat on the bench the entire second half.

Elite Eight vs. Indiana: Just a 36-point victory to punch our ticket to the Final Four, no biggie.

We were winning by an average of 27.75 points per game on our road to the Final Four. We have never approached anything like this before, not even during our two other national championship seasons. This team was firing on all cylinders, but it didn’t mean a thing without the ring.

This team just has so many weapons. Junior power forward Allan Cunningham — 6’11, 290 pounds — is an absolute monster on the interior and has soft touch out to three-point range on his jump shot. He feels like the best four in program history. Wilky Henry is everything we want out of a wing — big, athletic, always ready to fire from three. Tron Whaley has given us a point guard who can take care of the ball and stretch the floor. Mathew Alloway has a super bright future and has held his own as a freshman starter. Pat Giddens is comically large and is finally starting to play up to his rating.

I am very confident entering the Pepperdine game. I am nervous about the potential national championship game matchup against the winner of Villanova vs. Maryland. As we simulated into Final Four weekend, Tron Whaley goes up one point to 90 overall, and Alloway goes up one point 86 overall. That has to be a good sign.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. As always, I’m not controlling Western Illinois; we’re watching a simulated game played by the computer. I’m not playing any of the games in this series, I only do the recruiting and set the coaching strategies. The game will start when you press play.

FINAL FOUR, LET’S GO!

***

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***

Win, 93-70. We’re going to the national championship game!

No star performance this time around — the whole team balled out. Again, we blew this game open in the second half. The most impressive thing is we didn’t even have a particularly good shooting night, only hitting 26 percent of our shots from behind the arc. It didn’t matter because we dominated the glass and made so many big plays defensively — 20 combined stocks (steals + blocks), many of them leading directly to offense going the other way.

Honestly, I thought our center Pat Giddens was the player of the game. Giddens has been heavily criticized by the fanbase throughout the year despite being a projected lottery pick and the highest rated junior in the NCAA tournament at 94 overall. While Giddens has been knocked for being unpolished as a scorer and a little underwhelming as a rim protector, he put it all together vs. Pepperdine. He made some sweet moves offensively and anchored the defense with six blocks. I know the fan who wrote “The Case for Pat Giddens” on our Subreddit had to be thrilled.

There really isn’t too much else to say about this one. We were clearly the better team at both ends of the floor. Here are some clips from reader Abby, starting with my favorite play of the night: this monster dunk from backup freshman center Kevin Brazzle:

Great ball movement leading to the Wilky Henry three:

Brazzle with the block, Wilky Henry with the powerful two-handed slam. This is when the flood gates really started to open:

One win away from title No. 3.

Our opponent in the national championship game is No. 5 seed Villanova, who defeated Maryland in the other Final Four game.

No. 12 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 5 seed Villanova, national championship game, 2027 NCAA tournament

Villanova was the team we didn’t want to see. The Wildcats have been about as good in our simulation as they’ve been in real life lately, which is to say: really damn good. Nova is the rare team with the size up front to compete with Ham and Giddens. They have dynamic guards too who will be a threat out past the three-point line.

Nova enters the game rated as a 100 overall, one point higher than us. Here’s a full look at the Villanova roster:

This is going to be our toughest test of the tournament. It’s been five games and five blowout victories so far. Something tells me that’s not going to happen again against Villanova.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. We had more than 1,700 people watch at least part of the stream and we hit 500+ concurrent viewers at one point. The game will tip off when you click play, but you should click through and watch it on Twitch’s interface to read all of the comments. Thank you everyone who came out. New fans are very much welcomed and appreciated.

One win away from a national title. LET’S GO!

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***

Win, 97-67! THE WESTERN ILLINOIS LEATHERNECKS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS FOR THE THIRD TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY.

Just pure dominance, man. I can’t believe we just 30-pieced Villanova in the title game. This team just completed a six-game NCAA tournament run where they won by an average of 27.3 points per game.

And we’re the lowest-seeded team to ever win the NCAA tournament, breaking our own record back in Year 8. Not bad for a No. 12 seed.

Our best players carried us in this one. What more can we say about Wilky Henry? The man is a legend. He finished the title game with 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting to complete arguably the most brilliant individual tournament run in program history. Allen Cunningham was every bit as good. He finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists, and was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Ham turned the game with 17 minute left. We were only up five when he unleashed this poster dunk for the and-one.

It was pretty much curtains for Nova from there. We have had some great teams at Western Illinois in my 20 seasons as head coach, but this feels like our most complete group ever. We had size, we had shooting, we had depth. At no point did I ever think we were going to lose. What a team.

Here are a few clips from the title game, starting with this three + stare-down (!) from Silky Wilky:

Ham from NBA range!

Wilbur Ager with the MJ shrug:

Legends, all of them.

Western Illinois became America’s team with an unlikely run to the national championship in Year 8, or 2015. Our second title in Year 13, or 2020, solidified the fact that this program is for real. Now our third title in 2027? Well, that just proves we’re one of the greatest college basketball programs of all-time.

This one’s for you, Neck Nation. There’s only one thing left to do at this point: enjoy this “One Shining Moment”.

Please check out our beat writer Matthew Morrow on what this third title means the fanbase and the legacy of head coach Ricky Charisma. To whoever edited the Wikipedia page for the most national championships by one head coach in college basketball history ... thank you.

The game gives you 40 seasons before it forces you to retire, and I plan on playing it out. I’m coming for you, Coach K.

National champs, baby. Let’s hang the banner!

The scary thing? We could be just as good next year if Giddens and Ham decide to bypass the NBA draft to return for their senior seasons. Let’s go to the offseason — just skip to the end of the title game to watch me play through it on Twitch.

Offseason

Your 2027 national champions: the Western Illinois Leathernecks. 12-seed. Soak it in.

Wilky Henry gets selected in the NBA draft. One of the all-time greats

GIDDENS AND CUNNINGHAM ARE COMING BACK. Oh my. I thought we were for sure losing one of them. Year 21 is about to be lit.

We lose an assistant coach. I love seeing our guys get head coaching jobs. I think we found a pretty good replacement: 72-year-old Leighton Merriex, who has an A+ rating in teaching and a B+ rating in scouting. Welcome to the staff.

We only had one scholarship to recruit for this season, and we’re been chasing the same player all year. He signs on the first day of spring recruiting: five-star JUCO shooting guard Edwin Wolfe out of Federal Way, Washington. We’re excited to add to him to the program. We’ve had a few stellar JUCO players through the years and we’re hoping he can be next.

Now it’s time to set our schedule for Year 21. Here’s what I came up with:

@ Dayton, Maui Invitational, @ LSU, @ Louisville, @ Charlotte, vs. Illinois, @ Kansas, @ Florida.

Year 21 is going to be a ton of fun. In addition to having a team that can repeat as national champs, we also have four scholarships to recruit for. We need to make sure our present is as bright as our future.

Year 21

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 21:

We start the year at No. 18 in preseason polls. How are we not No. 1???? The disrespect never ends.

Unfortunately, Wolfe came in lower than we were hoping: he’s a 70 overall with C+ potential. He’ll redshirt. Either way, we’re totally stacked next year. We’re going to stream the regular season in Year 21 on Friday, Aug. 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch. Please join us.

Western Illinois, Year 21, 2027-2028 regular season stream

Game: Western Illinois Year 21 regular season stream. We’ll watch one regular season game, recruit for four scholarships, and sim to the NCAA tournament.

How to watch: My Twitch channel

Date: Wednesday, August 28

Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET // 7:30 p.m. CT.

I hope to see you there.

NATIONAL CHAMPS! Go ‘Necks.

[canaryatlaw]

OKAY. so today was pretty awesome. Jess woke me up at 9:45 and I told her to let me go back to bed until ten 😂 so I did and then I got up. got ready for day 2 of NYCC, with our Marvel Rising cosplays so I was suiting up to be squirrel girl lol which was a great success I must say. While I was doing my make up we were looking for tickets to see a show tonight and decided on Waitress, so we procured tickets to that for tonight. I wanted bagels but there wasn’t anywhere too close so we just ubered to the con center. While in our uber I had to blow up the inflatable squirrel tail I got off amazon that was kind of a struggle but I managed. we got there and had to eat still, so we ended up splitting a pretzel, and then going and checking out the good place exhibit which was basically a giant fork you could take pictures with so we did that, and then we went to the people’s choice awards set up because they were giving away donuts if you voted for the best sci-fi show (#WynonnaEarpFTW) so we got donuts of course and ate those. then we went to the show floor and walked around a bit and ended up at this like fandom food truck thing where if you woke up really early to get there and grab a ticket you could get like one of their fandom related food items for free. but of course we had not gotten there very early to get such a ticket, so we were sad. but fear not, they were also having a trivia contest where the winner would get a ticket to the food truck, and the 1-2 pm one was Arrowverse! huzzah!! And of course I’m like oh I’m gonna win this, just watch. And like, I expected it to be like there is one winner thing and such and I’m still gonna win, but as we were signing up we were informed it was like a one on one thing and the winner of each round got a ticket. and as we were doing so the girl was like “oh you guys will probably go together” at which point Jess decided that she instead wanted to go up against this guy behind us in line that we’d been talking shit to (because she didn’t want to go up against me 😂) so we swapped places so they could go against each other. so we waited a while and then at one it started, the first two competitors go up and we’re like alright, let’s see what these questions were like. and guys. they were so fucking easy. they at least got somewhat progressively harder, but the first round questions were like embarrassingly easy (like “what island was Oliver Queen stranded on?”) and like neither of the two of them would actually get any of them right, even when they had the chance to “steal” it from the other person. It was best out of 9, or first person to 5 wins. so the first one ended with like a 3-2 score. and then it was Jess and this guy, and the questions got somewhat harder (like “who killed Patty Spivot’s father?” and “what prison did Oliver Queen say nobody could break him out of?” which I was like ????? who knows that fucking answer it was like the slab?? smh) and they both just failed lol mostly because there were a lot of flash questions and Jess doesn’t really pay attention to flash, but she still managed to win like 3-1. okay, then it’s my turn. so they say my name and I go up to the platform ready to crush it, then they call the name of the person I’m going up against and it’s like, a kid. like a 12 year old. and I’m like....,ohmygod, I’m going to wipe the floor with him and I’m going to feel SO BAD about it but not bad enough to not do it because I like winning 😂 so before we started the guy hosting was like “so on a scale of 1-10, how much do you know about the Arrowverse” and I just decided I was gonna be a cocky bastard and say “11″ and then have it show when I kicked ass lol. okay, first question, who was the leader of the justice society of america? I hesitated for a moment because I couldn’t remember his superhero name, but then I just said ah fuck it and buzzed in and said Rex Tyler, which was of course right. Then there was “What year is Zari from?” to which I of course answered correctly 2042.There was more after that that I don’t exactly remember but I got right, and at this point I'm oh man I feel SO BAD right now lol so then the guy asked what supervillain was Winn’s father and I’m just like, hesitating and looking at the kid and trying to give him a chance to buzz in, but he just wasn’t gonna do it so I buzzed in and said Toyman, which of course was right, and then the last one was what did little Ray name the baby dominator that he found, and I was like welp guess I’m doing this so I buzzed in and said Gumball, effectively winning the round 5-0, and I’m just like oh man I feel so bad right now 😂😂😂 I like apologized to the kid once we got offstage but he didn’t care so that made me feel a little better lol. so I got my free tote bag and ticket for the food truck, then sat and watched for a bit before taking off to my Adam Savage signing, which was a random one I won from the lottery and I was like hey why not, I can always sell it or something, and that was at 2 but they wanted you to line up early, so I went down to the room that was in and got lined up in the room, then at 2 he came out and the line went pretty quickly. If you’re thinking like who tf is Adam Savage I probably would not have recognized his name out of context lol but he’s one of the guys from Mythbusters and I mean that’s pretty cool so why not? I got up to him and I was like hey I’m Rachel, nice to meet you, and proceeded to tell him that whenever I have to go out in the rain I think about their episode where they tested if you get less wet walking or running in the rain and since walking won I’m always like “I want to run, but I’ll get less wet if I walked!!” and he laughed and said he gets that one a lot, then asked me if I was having a good con and was just overall really nice, it was a really pleasant interaction so that made me happy. I returned to where Jess was (she stayed in the same spot and watched the rest of the trivia) then we went over to the food truck to redeem our prizes since we both won, and got to choose from a few options. Jess got like a pineapple drink thing that had little bubbles of juice in it that we’re like bubble tea ones they just burst full of juice, so I think she had somewhat mixed feelings on that lol. I got a cookie that came with a little thing of frosting to dip it in that was like the legends of zelda sword thing and it was really good! so we ate our things and then walked over to this booth of like a stuffed animal place that had a giant pool filled with plushie toys, more specifically plushies that were cats inside bananas, and people were getting to go in and like fall on them so we were like of course we have to do this, so that was fun, and then they gave us a $5 discount for one of the plushies (not one of the ones from the pool that everyone’s feet have been all over, because I asked 😂) and they have an offsite exhibit like two blocks away with all sorts of cool free stuff so we may check that out tomorrow. After that we went around the artist’s alley briefly before meeting up with one of Jess’ mutuals by the funko booth, so that was fun. then we headed over to another booth where we met up with our third batwoman podcast host again and spent a while just going around with the show floor with her and looking at things. We ended up heading out around 4:45 to make sure we had enough time to eat and see the show. We were gonna take the same subway we took up to times square yesterday but today the station was closed off, and we were directed to take a free bus shuttle they were having instead, so we did that. I had looked at getting reservations but nothing was really working, so I was just gonna see what was going on places. Sadly it seems John’s Pizzeria has blown up, because the last two times I’ve been there the line’s been out the door and around the corner, which makes me sad because I love that place and they don’t take reservations (and I don’t do lines like that) so I don’t get to go now. We checked Carmine’s too but they were reservations only (I tried to get one there but there weren’t any free) which landed us to our default place of Juniors, which I’ve ended up in so many times because we couldn’t get in anywhere else and were tired of trying lol. there was a bit of a wait, longer than normal because they’re generally super fast, but still not bad. I wanted to be able to actually get dessert and not filled up on food because their desserts are supposed to be very good (they are famous for their cheesecake after all) so I only ate half of my sandwich and then got a strawberry sundae that was very good. by the time we finished it was like 7:20 so we headed over to the theatre, picked up our tickets from the todaytix courier, and got in line to see Waitress! I’ve heard a ton of good things about it over the past few years but just haven’t gotten around to seeing it, so I was excited. Overall I really liked it! I had in my head that the time frame was different than it ended up being (spoilers ahead, obviously), because when it was first opening I watched them do the opening number on a today show or something and at the end they have the little girl run up to her mom, so I thought that she was already born by the time they show starts, but apparently that was not the case. so it was a bit different than expected, but it managed to be heartwarming, hilarious, and gripping all at once, which is honestly quite the accomplishment. the music was beautiful (which was honestly a comparison to last night because as I was leaving all I could think was how I couldn’t remember a single song from King Kong but now I had like 6 songs fighting to play in my head) and the story was very well done. I did like the plot a lot of course, even though there were very hard moments, I thought they did an excellent job of blending it all together (in a pie) to make a lovely show, so they get props for that. We had also made plans to meet my parents and sister for dinner tomorrow night, but then we discovered that some shows were moving their Wednesday night show to Sunday night instead (the generally schedule is matinee and evening on Wednesday, same on Saturday and then just matinee on Sunday) so we could possibly get around to seeing a show tomorrow and Jess has really wanted to see Anastasia since we were here in July and didn’t quite get to do so, so once I got the okay from my parents about meeting up a little earlier I got the Anastasia tickets, so I’m quite excited for that. And yeah, from there we ubered back to where we are staying and basically started getting ready for bed right away because we’re pretty wiped and I’m very wiped just typing this, so I’m gonna take that as a sign that this would be a good place to end it. Goodnight series. Hope you had a banging Saturday.