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Wednesday Sips, ft. preseason football talk!!!! J.A. Happ, John Shurna and Juice Thompson and more

A lot of Northwestern sports stuff in here, including a new head of basketball operations, John and Juice in France, and lots of collected talk about next year's football team, which should be good.

By Rodger Sherman
Christian Petersen

We got a lot of links up in here, people!

BIG THANGS POPPIN: Remember how I said something like "YO SON I'M SUPER PUMPED ABOUT NORTHWESTERN FOOTBALL YO YO YO YO YO?" Well, other people are too. Andy Staples has the Cats at No. 22 in his preseason rankings. B1G blog has NU at No. 3 post-spring. Jerry Palm is less hype, putting NU in the BDubs Bowl, but that's the same as the Gator Bowl last year. Vegas thinks we have 5-1 chances of winning our division, which isn't too good - its fourth, tied with IOWA - but they basically think its a crapshoot.

And look! Venric Mark is a "Big Ten Player to Watch!" Everybody's gotta stop saying nice things about Venric Mark, because I can't keep up anymore.

Seriously, get well soon: Really scary stuff from Tampa Bay, where former Cat J.A. Happ - one of two active Northwestern players in the MLB - took a line drive off the head. The Blue Jays pitcher is in stable condition at a Tampa Bay hospital.

Sippin on John and Juice: The Daily caught up with John Shurna and Juice Thompson, talking about their postgrad experiences in the NBA and France. Awesome piece that you should read.

Operator: Northwestern has a new director of basketball operations! Wait, who was Northwestern's old director of basketball operations?

Anyway, it's Chris Lauten. He was a manager at Duke - ahhhhh, Chris Collins! - and now is going to do the big boy version of what managers do, arranging stuff like schedules for the team. Lauten worked in the D-League, so I like him already.

COME ON DOWWWWN! I can't stop watching: 8177841431_df9b01b548_o_medium

You know what the Big Ten West is, young and reckless: Real nice breakdown of the new B1G divisions over at the .com. Personally, I'm, uh, um, pretty okay with the West as it relates to Northwestern's chances of winning the Big Ten.

#LetsBroWildfrats:This is what NU alum Craig Sager - he of the fancy suits - looks like after a few too many, in a Milwaukee hotel hosting what has to be a formal. Needless to say, Craig Sager is one of my favorite NU alumni.

Illolni: Chad does mean things to Tim Beckman, but in fairness, he deserved most of them.

This story about Dareian Watkins: Crazy.


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