Thursday Sips, ft. Las Vegas Invitational and Quentin Williams with the Bears

Ugh, remember when there used to be enough news for me to do one of these every day? Man, bummer. But anyway, there sort of was a decent amount of stuff yesterday, so let's talk about it!

Chier and Lumpkin in Las Vegas: It seems Northwestern basketball will play in the Las Vegas Invitational, which last season featured two of four NCAA Tournament teams. It's the highest profile preseason tournament Northwestern has played in recent memory, worlds better than last year's South Padre Invitational, and a step up from the Charleston Classic a few years back as well.

It's weird how many ways the Chris Collins thing has effected Northwestern basketball positively in the first month or so since it was announced. We've heard about the increased recruiting and we've seen the overwhelmingly positive fan reaction, but, man, we're even a more marketable sell for scheduling. How crazy is that?

Missouri will be one of the other four teams, so we really get to rub in that they don't have Drew Crawford and we do.

In other Chris Collins news:

In case you were wondering, @coach_collins did in fact order The Dude @bat17evanston. Who are we kidding, what else would he possibly order

— BAT 17 (@Bat17Evanston) May 1, 2013

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQ: Quentin Williams will join Demetrius Fields at Bears mini-camp:

Good luck to @qwilliams_ at the Bears mini-camp next week! Your leadership and work ethic will be a lasting legacy at NU! GO CATS!

— Pat Fitzgerald (@coachfitz51) May 1, 2013

A Williams-Wootton defensive end rotation would be pretty neat, if unlikely.

#MARK4HEISMAN: Yup, he was on an early preseason list. Also on that list are Utah State's Chuckie Keeton and a slew of other unlikely people, but maybe if we go undefeated or something.

Elsewhere: Black Heart Gold Pants goes SPECIAL REPORT about the specter of horses in football, and it's must-read. As is this about Tim Tebow, but that's besides the point.

Illinois' basketball stadium has a new name:

Neither a state nor a farm nor a center. Discuss. MT @illinoisloyalty: It's no longer The Assembly Hall. It's the State Farm Center.

— Adam Jacobi (@Adam_Jacobi) April 29, 2013

Illinois basketball has one less fan:

This chick is really walkin around the library with an Illinois sweatshirt on, bouta see how much of a "fighting" illini she really is

— Reggie Hearn (@rechinald11) May 2, 2013

Did you guys know I write stuff for the New York Times? I do sometimes, hope you like it: Remember: there's a paywall:

Knicks fans, if you want somebody to blame: My NYT story about how the first round should be Best of Five: offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/for…

— Rodger Sherman (@sippinonpurple) May 2, 2013

I also write a lot of stuff for SBN about college football and sometimes/always forget to shot it to you. It's stuff like this (Marshall's football coaches hitting each other with paddles) and this (the College Football Playoff logo is the Eye of Sauron) but forever and ever.