Pat Chambers Should Remain Penn State’s Head Coach Despite his Mistake with Rasir Bolton

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

I’ve tried to stay out of the cancel culture wars because there’s enough craziness on the internet already, but today Pat Chambers came under fire for comments he made to former Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton in 2019, and I had no choice but to jump into the fray.

This is my basketball coach we’re talking about. The guy I agonized over for the past decade as he recruited athletes who couldn’t shoot and “shooters” who also couldn’t shoot. The guy whose lineup choices made me feel like I was watching a blogger play a college basketball video game instead of an actual college basketball game. But more importantly, this was the guy who led Penn State to what would have been an NCAA Tournament berth if not for COVID-19 in 2020. I didn’t think Chambers would ever do that, but he proved me wrong in a big way.

Even with Lamar Stevens graduated, there was a lot of momentum heading into the 2020-21 campaign. Chambers has a chance to prove that last season wasn’t a flash in the pan. Or he will, if he doesn’t get fired for making problematic comments to Bolton.

https://twitter.com/rasir_9/status/1280141282623598594?s=20

Bolton left Penn State following the 2018-19 season and found a new home at Iowa State. We didn’t hear anything about a noose comment until now. The timing is curious considering how cancel culture has run rampant since the tragic death of George Floyd. Is Bolton coming forward with this because he feels more comfortable talking about due to recent events? Is he thinking that the consequences should be more severe for Chambers give what happened with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace? Or does Bolton just have an axe to grind and is taking advantage of the current climate?

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Posted in Big Ten Basketball, Penn State Basketball | 1 Comment

Who Will Be Gus Duggerton’s Next Top Assistant?

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

The college football world was shook on Friday night when Muj Fricke abruptly stepped down as Gus Duggerton’s offensive coordinator at the University of Toledo. Fricke had been with Duggerton since his time at Tennessee and was responsible for designing the running game that the globetrotting head coach rode to two straight national championships.

Duggerton’s future is now up in the air. Not only will he probably be at a new school next season — he’s previously stated that his return at Toledo was strictly a one-year affair — but now he’ll be without his top assistant coach. Before Fricke took control of the offense, Duggerton’s teams were plagued by interceptions that spelled their doom in the biggest games. Fricke’s rushing attack eliminated a lot of those mistakes and led to consecutive titles. Duggerton has hinted on social media that Fricke’s departure could mean a return to a pass-focused attack.

“Air Duggs” might make for a more entertaining brand of football, but will it lead to continued success? That depends on who Duggerton chooses as his next offensive coordinator. Let’s break down the top candidates.

Billy Football

Duggerton’s former intern worked under Fricke as the passing game coordinator at Tennessee and Toledo. He’s the top candidate to take over the open OC job since his preference for aggressively throwing the ball down the field matches Duggerton’s newfound philosophy. Under Billy Football, we can expect lots of Shark Wheel and The Interception Play. For that to work out, it will be important for Duggerton to land at a program that has great pass-catching tailbacks and wide receivers who are great at breaking up interceptions.

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It’s July and We Still Don’t Know Much About Nintendo’s Holiday Plans

Posted on July 3, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

Nintendo recently held its annual shareholders meeting, and one of the questions asked of representative director and president Shuntaro Furukawa was about the lack of future titles with release dates attached. Usually at this time of year we’re coming right out of E3 and Nintendo has just announced its software release schedule for the rest of the year. However, due to COVID-19 there has been no E3 and no major announcements from Nintendo regarding its holiday plans. Here’s what Furukawa said as a response.

In the annual shareholders meetings, we have routinely shown a video of E3, which was usually held just before the meeting. But this year, none of the large industry events are being held because of COVID-19, not just E3, and Nintendo also has no plans for any such events. We intend to use other methods flexibly in order to deliver the latest information on our products, so please stay tuned. We have continuously released information, including the announcement of a new fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch and the announcement by The Pokémon Company of new Pokémon-related titles.We think the Nintendo Direct format is very effective for us to directly and clearly convey information about games to consumers.

It’s true that we did just get information drops from The Pokemon Company and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai. Pokemon delivered trailers for a Pokemon Snap sequel as well as Pokemon Unite while Sakurai unveiled the newest Smash Bros. fighter, Min Min. All that news was welcome — even if I’m skeptical of Pokemon’s plans — but we didn’t get the kind of “megaton” announcement we’re used to hearing at E3. Maybe that will come later this month, but until then all we have to look forward to in 2020 is Paper Mario: The Origami King (later this month), Bravely Default II (sometime in 2020) and The second round of Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC (this autumn).

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The First Animal Crossing Summer Update is Live and I Don’t Know Why Anyone is Playing Anything Else Right Now

Posted on July 2, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

Nintendo has been pretty good about updating its big titles since joining the 21st century and offering downloadable content. The Animal Crossing series for this since Nintendo can add fun activities and visitors as the seasons change. This summer, the company is promising two free updates, the first of which just dropped on Friday night in North America.

Holy cow. You can now swim into the ocean and collect non-fish organisms like anemones and whatever else lives on the ocean floor. Previously island exploration stopped when you got to the shoreline, but the ocean looks like a whole new world. Plus, there is a new friend and a new furniture collection to obsess over.

His name is Pascal and he is just cute as a button. Just like all otters, it seems Pascal is fascinated with scallops, clams, and the like. I bet he’ll have some sweet merchandise to trade if you get him the goods.

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Paper Mario: The Origami King Could be A Return to Greatness for a Beloved Franchise

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

It’s July! That means that Paper Mario: The Origami King — the sixth entry in the Paper Mario series — releases later this month. I’ve wanted to break down the extended trailer for a while, and now seems like as good a time as ever.

The Paper Mario series started off hot with epic entries on the N64 and GameCube, but the more recent entries have messed with the traditional RPG formula a little too much and haven’t given fans the same enjoyment. I last experienced the series with the Wii’s Super Paper Mario. That game had some truly great writing, but it was also more of a platformer with RPG elements than a true RPG.

From watching the extended trailer, it looks like The Origami King is a return to form for Paper Mario. There seem to be huge worlds to explore, fun sidekicks to experiment with, and some wacky dialog to keep things interesting. The most intriguing part for me is the ring-based battle system. Players have a limited amount of time to rotate and shift the battlefield around before attacking, and doing so will allow Mario to more efficiently punish his enemies. It’s certainly a creative twist, but I won’t know how well it works until I get my hands on it.

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Pokemon Unite is not what Pokemon Fans were Expecting

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

The Pokemon Company announced last week that not only was a Pokemon Snap sequel coming to Nintendo Switch, but that even more Pokemon news was on the way. On Wednesday we got to hear what that was all about. It turns out that The Pokemon Company is working with Tencent — a giant Chinese conglomerate that owns Riot Games — on a new Pokemon game called Pokemon Unite.

https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1275779892404256768?s=20

It’s League of Legends, but with Pokemon! As someone who has never played LoL, I’m nonplussed. This is another example of Pokemon trying to do something that doesn’t feel like Pokemon. Sure, the game lets you catch and evolve popular monsters, but really Pokemon Unite is about taking an already-existing popular game formula and slapping the Pokemon brand on it.

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Dave Portnoy Emerges as a Surprise Mets Minority Ownership Candidate

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

Is this real life right now? I find myself asking myself that almost every day in 2020. Monday tested my grasp of reality once again as Dave Portnoy was mentioned in Mets ownership rumors as the Wilpons continue their effort to unload the cumbersome franchise.

Both Alex Rodriguez and Mike Repole are reportedly involved in the bid, and both have ties to Barstool. Rodriguez teamed up with Big Cat on a podcast and Repole was a featured panelist on Big Brain, a Barstool web series based on Shark Tank. With Portnoy trading stocks every day and bragging about how much money he’s making, it’s only natural for him to be in rumors as a minority stakeholder, but the really fun part is that Portnoy started the rumors himself.

The combination of Rodriguez, his wife Jennifer Lopez, and Portnoy as a possible ownership group has some Mets fans giddy with excitement. The group would bring not only a passion for baseball, but oodles of money and business savvy. What more could a Mets fan want?

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I Just Don’t Get Shiny Hunting

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

I’ve been playing Pokemon for more than 20 years and obviously there’s a lot I like about the iconic video game franchise. The battling, the exploring, the wacky NPCs, and of course the awesome variety of Pokemon that have been discovered over the years; all of that’s good stuff. The one thing that’s perplexed me is the demand on streaming platforms for shiny Pokemon hunting.

For those who are new to the game, shiny Pokemon are extremely rare creatures who are differently colored than the rest of their species. For example, the Charizard we’re used to seeing is orange, but the shiny version is charcoal and happens to be extremely cool looking. Other shiny Pokemon have more subtle differences compared to their “normal” counterparts, but all of the shines are hard to come by.

In order to find one you have to go through a lot of random encounters in the wild (often more than 1,000) or hatch a ton of eggs, which is easier for Pokemon that aren’t common in the wild. It’s very time consuming, very monotonous, and for some reason has a huge following on Twitch.

https://twitter.com/Sierradawnx3/status/1274517001059344385?s=20

The fun part is when the shiny Pokemon finally appears and the streamer loses their mind, but that often comes after hours of just running in circles on screen and talking with the chat. For engaging personalities, it can work because the streamer doesn’t have to worry about concentrating on gameplay and can put 90 percent of their attention on the chat. Of course, it’s also possible to engage with chat while doing something more exciting in the video game.

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A New Gigantamax Pokemon Has Been Discovered

Posted on June 20, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

That’s right. During the Pokemon Players Cup stream today we caught a glimpse of the Gigantamax form of Melmetal and it is looking pretty swole. Thanks to Serebii.net webmaster Joe Merrick for using his Pokemon Snap skills to capture our new steel deity in all its glory.

Damn. I would not want to be on the business end of Double Iron Bash coming from that monstrosity. I might have to finally dig into Pokemon Go and evolve Meltan just so I can one day have my own steel juggernaut with gorilla arms. Although just having a Melmetal is different from having one with Gigantamax capabilities, so maybe we’ll eventually be able to catch one in a raid? I hope so, because I wasn’t a huge Pokemon Go fan even when it was safe to go outside.

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Pokemon Makes Big Announcement: More Pokemon News Next Week!

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Aaron Yorke

I’m probably going to be a Pokemon fan for my entire life, but there are times when The Pokemon Company can be frustrating. Today was one of those days, as we expected big news, but all we got as an announcement that the big news will be coming next week, as well as a couple of smaller titles and a Pokemon Snap remake that it seems everyone is hyped for except me.

Maybe it’s because I remember playing the original Pokemon Snap when it came out. It was fun for a little while, but the on-rails gameplay didn’t leave room for exploration and the experience lacked depth. I’m sure the new experience on Nintendo Switch will offer more than the old N64 game did, but from the trailer it looks like the player will be on rails again while throwing apples and other items at photogenic Pokemon. I might end up buying New Pokemon Snap in the future because I’m such a big fan of the franchise, but I can’t say I’m over the moon with this announcement. Plus, there’s no release date yet.

The Pokemon Company also revealed a puzzle game called Pokemon Cafe Mix and a mobile app called Pokemon Smile whose goal is to motivate children to brush their teeth. I’m interested to see how many adults download Pokemon Smile just for themselves. I’m sure it will be booming on Twitch today, as the game is available right away.

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