Daily Bullets (Christmas 2017)

Merry Christmas to all. I hope these few days are sweet for you, that we get some great holiday hoops and that your parents’ wifi password isn’t too difficult to figure out. Let’s get to an abbreviated version of the Bullets today.

Protesting Evans

The Houston Rockets are protesting their game because Jawun Evans was too good. Kidding. They’re actually protesting because Evans should have fouled out but didn’t, and it led to a Rockets loss.

Evans, on the other hand, had five fouls, meaning that this play should have disqualified him. The rookie point guard had played one of his best games as a pro, totaling 13 points and 5 assists up to that point while guarding Harden for much of the night, and it continued after the officiating error: Evans’ pesky full-court defense forced Harden into two (questionable but non-reviewable) offensive fouls at the 2:20 and 1:31 marks. [Clips Nation]

Spencer’s Struggle

A month to prepare can lead to coordinators trying to do too much, says Glenn Spencer. I know you guys have some fun responses to that queued up right now.

So he’s been fighting that balance in the lead-up to Thursday’s 4:15 p.m. kickoff against Virginia Tech in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

“You can’t get away from your base stuff and what you do good, so you have to fight that,” Spencer said. “During the season, you don’t have a lot of time to look at all the what-ifs. Sometimes that might be bad to look at the what-ifs, because all the sudden, you’re chasing ghosts. [NewsOK]

OSU And NCAA Notes

Ateman calls VT the best secondary they’ve faced … Berry’s Christmas stories are always worth a read … The questions start rolling in about Dez after a terrible Christmas Eve performance … Three Pokes in the first round? I’m dubious … More on Kasey Dunn’s crootin philosophy (they try to fill body types).

Fun pics here.

Soaking up all of Orlando. ? #okstate #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/2pxEE7xFI1

— Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) December 24, 2017

This is fabulous.

'Twas the night before Christmas… pic.twitter.com/WfGtxBdKfb

— Michigan Athletics (@UMichAthletics) December 24, 2017

I laughed at this.

Discussion over dinner last night over the supposedly tradition rich programs at Texas and Texas A&M: both have 7 conference titles each in the last 40 years. Not exactly dominant. In previous 40: UT 18, A&M 6. Major drop off for UT, A&M what they've always been.

— Brian Brinkley (@BrianBrinkleyOK) December 24, 2017

Yassss.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight! pic.twitter.com/aj2wJ7Gd1U

— Dylan Buckingham (@DylanBuckingham) December 25, 2017

Awesome.

Woke up to this. Merry Christmas! pic.twitter.com/eTHZZYV1ZF

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) December 25, 2017

What You Missed On PFB

• Bud Foster says OSU is the best offense VT has faced
• Spencer Sanders, superstar (and Texas AP HS POY)

Other Stuff I’m Reading

• I enjoyed rolling through this — There Will Be Blood at 10
• Stratechery in 2017. If you’re not following, you should be.
• The year local publishers get smarter.