Pre-Championship Game Update: The Curse of The White Lotus

Shall we just call it The Curse of the White Lotus??!!

 

Clearly there were "bigger" things at work impacting Duke's inability to hold onto a 6 point lead with the ball and just 40 seconds to go on Saturday!  Houston turned a block and a quick 3 at the 34 second mark into a 3 point game, managed to give Duke a point on a T - yet still won the game thanks to their 63% FT shooter hitting both FTs to give them the lead AFTER Duke's 68% FT shooter missed a 1 and 1!

And NO - this was NOT A BAD CALL!

I did feel that both games had more than a typical fair share of missed calls.  I mean I have never experienced getting whacked on the forearm when going in for a nasty 2 hand slam - but I would consider that a foul for sure and saw a few of those in the two semi-finals and other fouls that went uncalled.  Generally though - I prefer the consistent let them play officiating that we got on Saturday as opposed to seeing games decided with the best players on the bench in foul trouble!

In any event, we are now on to Houston vs Florida for the title!

And the Hopski is down to two entries battling for the title as well!

This year's Hopski has quite a heavyweight match-up this year in terms of two veteran entrants that I have yet to meet face to face - but really hope to make that happen at some point given their backgrounds and what they have done and are doing in life (plus they probably will buy me a beer!)

In the red Houston corner we have 2-time Hopski Champion Mark Noferi's Tangled Up in Nofe entry.  NOFE is really in some Hopski rare air here as this would be a 2nd championship alongside 2nd place last year - within a 7 Hopski-year (sans covid) period.  Certainly an opportunity to surpass the incredible back to covid to back championship feat of Ryan Fazio (Sorry Drake, You Better Not Go Past Round 1) in 2019 and 2021!

And in the blue corner of the Florida Gators, we have Brett Meyers and To-The Alamo-For a Schwinn & a Hopski WIN!  Brett is the founder (in 2011) of Nourish Now, a nonprofit food bank serving Nourish Now primarily serves Montgomery County, MD, in addition to serving Prince George’s County, MD Baltimore City and Southeast Washington DC.

The NOURISH NOW STORY:

As of this going to press - we have a 3 way tie for the 2025 BEST HOPSKI ENTRY NAME!

IF you have not already voted - drop me a quick email with your favorite entry name!!

Adios - The Commish