The Drake Still Loved, Pope Plays, Parmeter Story Not As Good Feely As Before

There were some interesting developments in a few stories I recently posted on, so let's update.

First, I continue to Loooooveee The Drake as the Bulldogs won the Valley battle of the unbeatens Saturday, topping Illinois State 79-73 at home. The Drake has first place all to themselves now. They won this one without Valley leading score Josh Young again, and were led by Adam Emmenecker, he of the buzzer-beater against Bradley and mid-major poster boy story (former walk-on, white, named Emmenecker). The real test for The Drake comes tomorrow night though, as they travel to Creighton, a team I found to be mighty impressive when it won at Northern Iowa on ESPN last week.

Second, in a sign that the hoops gods are certainly looking down upon this humble, albeit shallow, sports blog, the day I posted the first Drake item (linked above), they actually played The Drake episode of Seinfeld on FOX that night. The Drake, team of destiny.

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My boy Herb Pope finally played Saturday after being involved in all sorts of craziness. Haven't seen highlights because, you know, he plays for New Mexico State, but he had five points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes, getting off nine shots in the process. In a sign of just how versatile the 6-8 forward's floor game is, he also had four assists and six turnovers [REDACTED]. My obsession with Pope is well-documented and I suppose it has more to do with his flaws than his game, but in all seriousness, it's good to see this kid actually get on the court. There have been many players before him who have been through shit half as bad and screwed up half as much and let it completely derail their careers. Let's hope basketball will phase all the other crap out for Pope. And this weekend, hoops fan will get their first, and maybe only, look at Pope as the Aggies play Utah State Saturday, 6 p.m. on ESPN2. It will also be a battle of the top two teams in the WAC right now, for those of you more interested in that hotly-contested race.

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And finally, a weird update to Gary Parrish's outstanding story on Eastern Arizona head coach Tim Parmeter, which I posted on last week. Parmeter was coaching through an awful tragedy where his ex-wife committed a murder-suicide with his infant child. Well, he's not coaching anymore and it has nothing to do with grief. Parrish posted an update this morning, writing that Parmeter had been fired after being accused of having a relationship with a student at the junior college and that she might not have been of consenting age when the relationship began. There's an investigation into the case and everyone, including Parmeter, did that thing where they say they want to comment, even though they don't, but they can't because of legal issues. Not sure what to make of this and it's obviously all accusations right now, but if you've read Parrish's original story, this is certainly tough to see.