Irish Rugby | Wanna Be A Baller | Local Ice Pond Talk | Your Favorite Player’s Favorite Player
I’ll be honest… this song and writeup had me in a Time Machine about playing basketball. I have a whole 45-minute + read that I could’ve included but I’m Back Pocketing it for now. I figure nobody would have time to read all of it now so there is a quick excerpt at the end…
Irish Rugby
Ireland vs. Wales | Sat. Feb. 25 at 9:15 AM ET
@YouTheReader in the City area, I’m sure the match will be at a plethora of pubs but I know for sure it’ll be at P. McDaid’s Irish Pub (837 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019). They have a great pint of Guinness too!
Ireland and Italy first started playing each other on New Year’s Eve in 1988. This will be the 35th match between the two nations. Ireland has come out on top on 30 occasions, Italy has won 4 matches, and thankfully they’ve never kissed each other’s sister. The last Italian victory came during the Six Nations of ‘13 when they won 22-15 in Rome. The latest score in the Six Nations of ‘22 was 57-6 Ireland.
For the Irish, Garry Ringrose is set to make his 50th appearance for Ireland. The Centre from Dublin has scored 13 international tries to date, the latest coming against France in the GIF above. Craig Casey and Ross Byrne will be making their first Six Nations starts. Casey is from Limerick and plays scrum-half, Byrne is from the Irish capital and plays fly-half. Johnny Sexton will be out with a leg for this match so James Ryan will captain the team, the 7th time he’ll wear the captain’s armband. Head coach Andy Farrell is not overlooking the Italians. “We’ve full respect for Italy. Italy are obviously chasing that win at home and it’s a big scalp, so we know the emotion that they’ve always had, but the skill that they’ve put in with that now makes them a serious threat to us. We’re aware of that, and our preparation says so. There’s a realization of what we’re up against this week and it’ll be a tough one.” (Source: The Irish Post)
In terms of somebody to score an Irish try, well, James Lowe is the rather obvious answer. He already has the best odds on the Irish team to lead the whole tournament in tries so let’s live a little go with Ronan Kelleher. Kelleher plays hooker and actually tied the record for most tries in a match by an Irish player in a test match with 4 against the United States in their 71-10 victory in ‘21. I’d say the man from Dublin has a decent shot at breaking one of his runs for a score (like the ones in the GIF above) in Rome.
Half-ass Opposition Research
Ayyy, I’m not here to insult anybody a little bit. Just here to stir the pot, maybe ruffle some feathers, and get the Italians off their game Saturday. According to my Half-ass Opposition Research, “‘The broadest definition of pizza is a yeasted flatbread with ingredients baked into it. That had its origins with the Greeks. There’s archaeological evidence of bread ovens and pictorial and visual evidence of what appears to be flatbreads with spots on them. The ancient Greeks’ bread, called plakuntos, became a meal in and of itself’ Because Naples was founded as a Greek port city, the pizza that developed there may be part of the lineage of Greek flatbreads, but pizza had a history preceding its rise to popularity in Italy” (Source: First We Feast). Not for nothing though, I’d prefer an Italian pizza over a Greek slice 7 days a week. Also, this same article says it’s okay to willingly eat pizza with a knife and fork so what the hell do they know?
Wanna Be A Baller
If the season ended today, both the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks would be in the NBA playoffs. Since Week to Week Notes last checked the standings, the Miami Heat have fallen to the 7th spot. The Knicks have gained some ground on the Brooklyn Nets, going from 3.5 games behind Brooklyn on 2/10 to now just 2 today.
Brooklyn’s Jacque Vaughn
This past Tuesday, Nets head coach, Jacque Vaughn signed a multiyear extension with the team. It can be taken as a reward for him for keeping the team in playoff position heading into the final stretch of a season that's included the trades of All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. This is Vaughn’s 2nd stint as a Head Coach for the Nets, he briefly held the title in ‘20 for 10 games. Jacque Vaughn could be the Nets coach for decades, I’d still think of him as a New Jersey Net. He was a combo guard and backup PG to Jason Kidd during the ‘05 and ‘06 Nets seasons. A very solid player, he was a pesky defender who would wear down opponents by picking up the opposition’s PG full court.
Manhattan’s Jalen Brunson
Since being snubbed from making the Eastern Conference All-Star team, Jalen Brunson has gone off on a tear. He’s taken the slight out on his opponents, scoring a league-high 223 points since the All-Star reserves were announced on 2/3 ‘23. He’s averaging 32 points a night on 60 percent shooting, including 50 percent from 3, with an almost a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. (Source: CBS Sports)
Local Ice Pond Talk
Since last Friday, the Islanders have leapfrogged the Capitals and Penguins. All 3 Tri-State local teams would be in the playoffs. In their last 10 games, the Devils & Rangers are 7-2-1, while the Islanders are 6-2-2.
NJ’s Dawson Mercer
Dawson Mercer last night scored 2 goals including the walk-off goal in OT against the LA Kings. Mercer has scored 7 goals in the past games. This was huge when Jack Hughes went down, but now that Hughes is back in the lineup, Mercer’s heater only makes the Devils that much better.
Manhattan’s Patrick Kane?
Patrick Kane heading to the NY Rangers has been swirling for weeks. According to SUNY Cortland alum and Islanders beat reporter, @stefen_rosner, the Rangers are hammering out the framework for a deal involving Kane. We’ll see if it actually happens, a lot of credibility is being laid on the line at Week to Week Notes that now rest on the shoulders of Stefan Rosner. Would be a real shame if he was just making this up. He does pay Twitter for a Verified Check Mark and has 8k followers, so we’ll see.
Out East’s Arnaud Durandeau
Arnaud Durandeau was called up to the NHL after the Islanders were experiencing the injury bug to quite a number of their players. The 24-year-old winger, Arnaud Durandeau, made his debut at the highest stage in hockey and received Rookie Lap earlier this week. The solo rookie warmup lap is something I just learned about so here is a brief summation from SportsNet: “Let’s say you’re a rookie, or maybe a lifelong minor-leaguer, who gets called up for your first taste of NHL action. The team welcomes you, and even lets you lead the gang out onto the ice for warmups, what a treat! Of course, everyone but you will remain in the tunnel while you skate around for a couple of laps by yourself, much to everyone’s delight. This has become quite predictable nowadays and probably isn’t as funny as it once was, but the solo rookie warmup is an entertaining, yet harmless piece of initiation into the big club.”
Shout out to the guys I lived on Quail Street with. This song somehow brings me back to prior to college, but it came out when we lived here. We were probably all down to pennies because we were college kids spending every last dollar on Dollar Beers at WTs. I get that this is a bit of a reach.
I love getting thoughts, criticisms, and ideas for Week to Week Notes. I really take in everybody’s input who takes the time out of their day to read. It means a lot to know even if you’re willing to set aside just a few minutes out of the week to read these Notes, the least I can do if you read me out is to hear you out. It can get a bit disheartening when I hear from people who clearly don’t read spam or click the irrelevant link about what they think I should do, but I don’t really take it to heart anymore because I’ve found joy in the journey of this.
Let’s just say I’ve had my Paddy Hat knocked off before while I was writing Week to Week Notes for @YouTheReader. As to whom this is specifically addressed to, who knows if they read anymore, so there’s no reason for me to be Tom Petty when I’ve already shown “I Won’t Back Down.”
The love life ending part of this seems to be a bit of a reach.
I think about this line a ton whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or not fully confident as a writer. I’ve worked really hard to get here and I might as well embrace the moment rather than backpedal and go back to typing with less confidence.
Ahh finally the reason why I picked this song, this line is also when the beats drop so I always thought it would be a cool 15-second Reel, well before @you_the_reader was a thing.
This line may have two meanings. 1) The obvious is that when Drake is in the studio he only needs one take to rap or sing. 2) Marcellus Wiley, formerly of First Take on ESPN, has mentioned that Drake & Kendrick Lamar had a behind-the-scenes rap feud that would have escalated had a certain interview been released. If you’re interested, here’s the link to Vlad TV. I can’t verify #2, but it could be Drake alluding to the First Take interview that was never seen publicly.
Your Favorite Player’s Favorite Player
Alright, I promise I don’t have that big of an ego that I think everybody loves the generic no-name writer of Week to Week Notes, but in fairness, at the moment, I’m Week to Week Notes’ only writer so you don’t really have too many other options. I’m also not really a player. The only time I ever dated multiple women on Hoboken Hinge at once I high key low key hated it - weighed too much on my conscious. Enough about me, this section will be a seasonal thing, let’s do a feature on my favorite player I grew up watching and why I still love sports today…
Vince Carter
Future NBA Hall of Famer
Vincent Lamar Carter Jr. or also known as Vinsanity was born on January 26, 1977, in Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S. Vince is the son of Michelle and Vincent Carter Sr. #15, as he would wear all throughout his College & NBA career, attended Mainland High School in Daytona Beach. He played football at Mainland until he broke his wrist as a freshman QB. Instead, he started to focus on another side-hustle sport to his basketball career… volleyball. Carter gave up football, ignoring pleas to return when the varsity job opened his junior year. "He was getting taller and taller, so I said, 'Boy, linebackers would love to aim for those knees sticking out like that,' " Carter-Scott says of her then-gangly son. By then, Vince was involved in another fall sport, anyway: volleyball. With just one season under his belt, he nailed Volusia County Player of the Year honors in 1993, averaging 24 kills a game as a junior. (Source: ESPN) He wasn’t just a great athlete either. He was actually offered a scholarship for the saxophone to attend Bethune–Cookman University.
Basketball, however, was of course Vince Carter’s bread&butter. He was the only seventh grader to ever play on Campbell Junior High School’s varsity basketball team as a starter. (Source: VinceCarter15.com) He led Mainland High School to its first state title in 56 years and was a McDonald’s All-American in 1995. He won the McDonald’s All-American Slam Dunk Contest. He had 77 scholarship offers from schools all over the country but he ultimately decided to attend Chapel Hill as a Tar Heal at the University of North Carolina.
At UNC, Vince Carter was a part of then-head coach Bill Guthridge’s "Six Starters" system whereby the team's top 6 players, VC, Antawn Jamison, Ed Cota, Shammond Williams, Ademola Okulaja and Makthar Ndiaye rotated positions in the starting five. During his time at UNC, Carter’s teams won 2 consecutive ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament titles and reach 2 consecutive Final Four appearances. Carter was on a team full of talent and he was the most talented. He never led his college teams in scoring as he took a backseat to Antawn Jamison and Shammond Williams, both of which would have NBA careers, Jamison was a bit more noteworthy, but nothing like Vince Carter’s. He was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in 1998 as the 5th pick in the NBA Draft but was immediately traded to the Raptors for his college teammate, Antawan Jamison, who oddly enough was taken 4th in that same draft.
In ‘00, Vince Carter became a household name when he won the Slam Dunk Contest, the one that Drake references in Weston Road Flows. There has never been a better Slam Dunk Contest since Vince Carter’s in ‘00. He basically ruined the content because nobody ever could bring to the table just how innovative and absurd his dunks were compared to the field at the time. VC led the Raptors, a struggling expansion franchise at the time, to their first-ever playoff appearance in ‘00 as well. In his 2nd year in the NBA, he put 25.7 points per game, nearly doubling his junior year at UNC where he averaged 15.6.
After saving the Raptors franchise in Toronto, it was time for Carter to try and win an NBA title. The NJ Nets in the early ‘00s were becoming a powerhouse in the NBA. Led by Jason Kidd, they had gone to back-to-back NBA finals in ‘02 & ‘03. They lost to two NBA dynasties in the Shaq&Kobe Lakers and Tim Duncan’s Spurs. In ‘04, they lost a heartbreaker in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the eventual champions that year the Detroit Pistons. By ‘05, the team had to be blown up. They said goodbye to Kenyon “K-Mart” Martin as well as Kerry Kittles. Vince Carter was traded to the Nets on December 17, ‘04. I still remember watching that breaking news unfold because I was watching the YES Network and the Yankees at the time had a deal with Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson in the works.
The Vince Carter - Jason Kidd - Richard Jefferson Nets never would go on to win a title for NJ. Carter was only a Net for 5 seasons of his 22 years in the NBA. He had a massive impact on anybody my age who was a Nets fan because he would provide some awesome highlights to watch nearly every night. Below are some, Vince Carter was just a human highlight reel. He was made for GIFs.
I obviously never could do any of the things “VC for 3” could do in my wildest dreams on a 10 ft hoop. That said, when you’re in the 5th grade and you have an imagination & a mini hoop hung up on the back of your bedroom door…
@YouTheReader Don’t worry, this will be the last Your Favorite Player’s Favorite Player of ‘23. We’ll pick back up on this section this time next year in ‘24 where I’ll run through my #2s growing up.
YouTube Rabbithole
Vince Carter 2000 Slam Dunk Contest
I’ll be honest… this song and writeup had me in a Time Machine about playing basketball. I have a whole half-hour + read that I could’ve included on this but I’m Back Pocketing it for now. I figure nobody would have time to read all of it now so here’s a quick excerpt…