Kam Rooks – KABEER THIRTY

Game Recap: KAM ROOKS (and others) beat Nevada on senior night

I’ve muttered under my breath about Kameron Rooks at times this season. I’ve yelled at my TV for him to be removed from games. I’ve even poked a little good-natured fun at him on the popular website Twitter dot com. Chances are you have done these things, too.

It’s been a pretty rough year for the graduate transfer from Cal. He’s averaging just two points per game, and with the emergence of Jalen McDaniels and Nolan Narain, he has found himself increasingly garnering the dreaded DNP-coach’s decision.

I’ve always felt a little bad about metaphorically dunking on Rooks, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he’s unpaid labor who doesn’t owe us shit. For another … well … it’s not like he doesn’t want to be more productive. Being the guy on a popular basketball team who everybody grumbles about has to kind of suck, right?

Rooks is, to use some absolutely loathsome sports-speak, what he is. He’s a 7-foot-1 Pac-12 recruit who looks like he should be better but just … isn’t. And even though it’s not his fault, it makes us angry! We think basketball is supposed to be easy when you’re that crazy tall, and we dismiss what freakish athleticism you need to be agile and nimble at that size.

All of this made Rooks’ glorious game of redemption tonight so damn satisfying.

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Game Recap: Dutch discovers bench players, Aztecs win

Another day passed without the Yellowstone Caldera exploding in a supervolcanic eruption and altering life on earth. Good thing, because San Diego State beat Wyoming 87-77 in a men’s basketball game tonight. Those Cowboys have enough to worry about!

I was obligated otherwise during this game, however reports indicate Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher read all our tweets and was compelled to finally to give under-appreciated Nolan Narain some real minutes. And hells bells Narain was real good, making 8 of 10 shots for a career-high 18 points in just 18 minutes. Scoring a point per minute is excellent.

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Game Recap: This is the Bad Place

The San Diego State University men’s basketball team lost again, 88-78 at UNLV. It’s an outcome now all too familiar and comfortable. Even in the new bad era of SDSU hoops, this one stands out: The first loss to the Rebs on their ugly-ass home floor since the 2012-13 season, when Chase Tapley and the Tecs wore the good uniforms with SAN DIEGO and STATE above and below the numbers, respectively.

That 2012-13 team was a 7 seed and won an NCAA Tournament game, a baseline standard of success fading into distant memory and totally unimaginable for the 2017-18 Aztecs.

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Jalen McDaniels awesome, Aztecs good enough to outlast Colorado State

Happy New Year! On the second day of this Gregorian calendar year 2018, the San Diego State men’s basketball Aztecs beat the Colorado State Rams 77-68 in Fort Collins, Colorado, town of backward-ass bumpkins, elevation 4,982 feet.

I caught glimpses and overheard fleeting commentary of this one while making a salad, a cocktail, a phone call and sitting for dinner with a friend. 2018 is a Tomorrowland year in roboto font, everything is digitized and dystopic, the future careens unstoppable toward us all. Save yourselves! Become a vegan. Put all your money in cryptocurrencies. Build your bunker now. In the meantime, here’s some things about a basketball game:

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Watson beneficent, Pope inspirational in ‘city championship’ win at USD

Devin Watson and USD grad Michelle Margaux stare in awe at Watson’s stat line.

For God so loved the world that he gave us this, the annual men’s basketball game between San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. And for the 31st time in 49 meetings His glory shined brightest among the wicked. The secular, publicly-educated Aztecs beat the papist USD Toreros 66-57 at the Jenny.

Jenny Craig, patron saint of diet-conscious wine moms, has a nice little crib over there in Linda Vista. The team, staff and students are unfailingly polite, plus they’re all like pre-law or a future bank officer from somewhere you’ll need a loan. It almost takes the fun out of housing them every* year.

Lord knows it ain’t really much fun. With the Aztecs a perennial contender and USD still finding its way in its post- point-shaving scandal years, the “city championship” series is almost all downside for SDSU. If they win it’s expected, if they lose it’s a disaster. San Diego State is now 11-0 in their last 11 series meetings played indoors and we shan’t mention that other time.

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