- Then
15 players want to bolt your below-average, mid-major women’s college
basketball program in an 18-month span, that might be a problem. Loyola
University in Chicago has to figure out what the hell is going on with its
women’s hoops team following news that 10 of the team's 12 returning players
have transferred or put in requests to be released from their scholarships, a
mass defection coming one year after five players transferred following the
2014-15 season. The root of the problem seems to be head coach Sheryl Swoopes,
against whom the school is investigating complaints about player treatment.
Several team members cited Swoopes' treatment of individual players as their
reason for leaving and at least one player met with athletic director Steve Watson
and voiced concerns about Swoopes' demeanor. "Any time there are
allegations of student-athlete mistreatment, it is more than concerning,"
deputy athletic director Jermaine Truax said in a statement. "The welfare
of our student-athletes is paramount. Thus, the Loyola University Chicago
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has asked for an independent and
comprehensive university investigation into the women's basketball program.”
It’s quite a downtown for Swoopes, who was recently elected to the Naismith
Basketball Hall of Fame and is a four-time WNBA champion and three-time Olympic
gold medalist. Then again, she’s a hall of famer because of what she did as a
player and clearly not because of her 31-62 overall record in her three seasons
at the helm for Loyola. When 83.3 percent of your roster transfers after a
season, your coaching career isn't even really fit to clean the restrooms at
the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame……..
- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! If four straight nights of protests is planned in the
Macedonian capital don’t send a strong message …. then clearly, it’s time for a
fifth night. The fourth consecutive evening of uprisings after President Gjorge
Ivanov granted pardons halting criminal proceedings against a former prime
minister and dozens of other politicians in a wiretapping scandal was a mighty
damn inspiring sight as thousand of angry people filled Skopje, demanding Ivanov's resignation. The raw stats from this
four-pack of riots has been modest so far, with thousands of people demonstrating
in the past few days, but just five police officers and two others have been
injured in clashes with police, with 13 people arrested. Those numbers should
be much bigger given our proximity to June 5 early general elections, called to
resolve a months-long political crisis triggered by wiretapping and corruption
scandals. What’s impressive about this weekend’s riots is that they happened
even though parliament speaker Trajko Veljanoski on Friday formally signed the
decision setting the election date. The rioters got some fueld when Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, chairman in office of the OSCE, sided with
them by saying the presidential pardon "damages the rule of law and legal
peace." If a high-ranking government official has your back when you’re
rising up against The Man, then it’s safe to say that your leaders are behaving
in a way that begs to have you storm the gates with torches and pitchforks and
carry his or her head away on a pike……..
- Emma
Stone, you have company. Stone famously became the most glaring face of
Hollywood’s whitewashing of its movies when she was cast as an Asian woman in “Aloha,”
but another über-pretty leading lady has joined that club and it’s none other
than Scarlett Johansson. Johansson is receiving heat after being cast in the live-action
remake of “Ghost In The Shell,” which was
created by Masamune Shirow in 1989 as a manga, or Japanese comic book, before
being made into a cult Japanese anime movie six years later. Because the story
is set midway through the 21st century and follows the exploits of a fictional
counter-cyberterrorist organization called Public Security Section 9 and its
leader Major Motoko Kusanagi, many ripped Johansson’s casting, including “Marvel’s
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.” actress
Ming-Na Wen, who took to Twitter to voice her displeasure. Wen lamented what
she dubbed a "whitewashing" of the iconic Japanese role, buoyed by reports
that Paramount Pictures commissioned visual tests that would potentially make
Johansson appear more Asian in post-production. That’s about as offensive as it
gets, although Paramount has denied the rumors. Essentially, the studio is
saying that casting an insanely hot actress is more important than making sure
that hot actress is Asian, which is a slap in the face for those who view
Kusanagi as an iconic JAPANESE ROLE. In all fairness, Johansson as Kusanagi
does look smiliar to the anime original, except for the whole not-Japanese
thing. Rupert Sanders is directing the movie, which is set to hit theaters next
year…….
- McDonald’s
food: It’s one of the few things whose value isn't actually diminished by
weaponizing it in a restaurant drive-thru. Thanks to two Connecticut residents
for proving that point by getting arrested after a dispute in a McDonald's
drive-thru lane turned into a food fight. According to police, Avon resident
Stephen Nardi and Bloomfield resident Jocelyn Harrell showed their natural
intelligence and self-control by getting into an argument at a McDonald's in
Glastonbury, starting the festivities by shouting at one another from their
respective vehicles. When they couldn’t settle matters with their outside
voices at full volume, they decided to kick things up a notch by getting out of
their vehicles and taking the not-really-good food they had just purchased and
turning their fries, nuggets and when they couldn’t take one another down with
Dollar Menu items, they tried to close the deal by going hand-to-hand combat
and assaulting each other. Police didn’t disclose what started the fight, but
officers called to the scene finished it and charged both Nardi and Harrell
with misdemeanor assault and breach of peace. Both combatants were released on
promises to appear in Manchester Superior Court and oh, what a fun time that
will be when a judge and whatever legal eagles these two can find to represent
them get together and try to figure out how to deal with two people whose
collective IQ probably still clocks in well under that of the fat-laden
culinary offerings they used as objects of battle against one another…….
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