Bill Reynolds: Pitino worth a shot for URI?
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH:
● Does URI have the will to make a run at Rick Pitino?
Talk about a national story.
But Pitino certainly knows where URI is, loves Rhode Island, and it just might be worth a shot.
Or at least a conversation.
And, yes, he would come with some baggage. He also would come with incredible passion, his Hall of Fame resumé, and star power. He would instantly make the Rams a part of the national college basketball conversation, and fill the Ryan Center, not to mention take the in-state rivalry with PC to a new dimension.
● Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hitting back-to-back in the lineup changes the Yankees.
● Six words on the supposed breakup between Olivia Culpo and Danny Amendola: I'm sure we will all survive.
● It's been six years since a New York professional team last won a championship, if you're keeping score at home, Bunky.
● What are the odds that we will ever hear the real story of why Malcolm Butler didn't play in the Super Bowl?
● QUIZ OF THE WEEK: Before Eduardo Nunez on Thursday, who was the last Red Sox player to hit an inside-the-park home run on Opening Day? (Answer near the the bottom of the column.)
● LINE OF THE WEEK comes from reader Gary Boden: "We are Rhode Island born and Rhode Island bred, we can't pay as much so Hurley went to UConn instead.''
● LINE OF THE WEEK II comes from reader Steve Bianchi: When we were 11, 12 years old, playing football in the mud at Neutaconkanut Park we knew what a catch was. How come the multi-billion dollar NFL can't figure out what a catch is?''
● LINE OF THE WEEK III comes from URI athletic director Thorr Bjorn on the loss of basketball coach Dan Hurley: "We can't go backwards. We have to keep growing.''
● LINE OF THE WEEK IV comes from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior Cameron Kasky: "The adults know that we're cleaning up their mess.''
● Doesn't it seem as if we've seen the Odell Beckham Jr. act too many times before?
● "One and done'' cheapens college basketball.
● Ray Allen, the ex-Celtic, has a new autobiography out, with Michael Arkush, called "From the Outside: My Journey Through Life and the Game I love.''
● I don't know about you, but I've seen enough photos of J.Lo and A-Rod parading around as if they are some new form of American royalty to last two lifetimes.
● Baseball needs to speed itself up.
● More than one-third of American children now live with an unmarried parent.
● Did you see where old friend and former Friar MarShon Brooks had 21 points the other night for Memphis, where he is on a 10-day contract?
● The word is "Johnny Football'' is trying to make a comeback.
● Then again, aren't most of us?
● LeBron matched Michael Jordan's streak of 866 consecutive games in double figures the other night.
● Kids protesting against guns? Are the '60s back for an encore?
● R.I.P. Jerry Moses, the former Red Sox catcher, at 71.
● The Celtics keep hanging in, in this snake-bit season of theirs, a credit to Brad Stevens.
● "The Class of '69'' is an interesting memoir about a year spent at Sockanosset, the state training school for boys, and it's written by Ronald J. Bernier, who grew up in Riverside.
● The Sox bullpen? There have been better starts to a season than Thursday.
● QUIZ ANSWER: Carl Yastrzemski in 1968.
● If Stormy Daniels wasn't the story of the week I don't know what was.
● Here's betting Gronk comes back next year.
● And isn't it about time for this strange Patriots' offseason to stabilize itself, too.
● And we think the General Assembly is always a beat off?