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Thursday sips, ft. Camp Kenosha happenings, Northwestern being nerds

There's an awesome story in SI featuring the Cats and Brandon Williams/Godwin Igwebuike-related videos. It's a wonderful world we live in.

By Rodger Sherman

LET'S TAKE A STROLL AROUND THE NORTHWESTERN INTERWEBS EVERYBODY

There's too much stuff

Please make less stuff happen Northwestern internets

It's happening too fast

and I can't even include all of it, but heeeeeeeeere we go: NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-: Awesome story from Stewart Mandel -- the one we noted yesterday would be on the cover of SI -- about the rise of the nerd in college football. It's a very well done take on a trite idea people have noted over the past few years, how Vandy and Stanford and yes, NU, are able to succeed, how they deal with getting athletes accepted, and more. Fitz talks on the admissions process, Kain talks how Colorado degrees ain't worth nothin, but Brandon Vitabile has the money quote:

"There's nothing wrong with being a nerd," said Northwestern center Brandon Vitabile, a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. "It's something I'm proud of."

This dude's proud of you too, Brandon.

"When you do well in classes of 300 people and you're high on the bell curve, it's rewarding to know you're competing with people who have more time and probably look down on you," joked Vitabile. "Most college students don't wake up until 9 or 10. By then we've been up for three or four hours -- and then we've got to start our day."

You think he's joking, but, story time: I don't normally tell stories about my interactions with athletes, because we all had them and they're generally no more than "me and XXXXX athlete were drunk in the same place at the same time and I said this to him and he thought it was funny," but relevant: when I was covering NU for Wildcat Report fall of my senior year, I had a discussion section with Brandon Vitabile. History of the American Civil War. I know tons about the Civil War -- honestly, I do! -- but the discussion section was brutal. It was at 11 a.m. on a Friday, which for me might as well have been 7:30 a.m., and it was on the third floor of the library.

My idea of a successful discussion section was showing up within the first five minutes of class, BS-ing at least one insightful comment, and not getting called out for looking at my phone under the table. Meanwhile, Brandon Vitabile -- who I recognized from interviewing about three weeks into the year -- was ON TOP OF HIS NONSENSE. So I experienced this thing about Northwestern's first-team all-Big Ten center being smart first-handed, and it terrifies me.

Here he is, checking himself out in the magazine:

Your daily awesome training camp stuff MORE VIDEOS!!! This one is of Brandon Williams -- #BWILL4RAYGUY -- and even better, it features him dealing with JEFF BUDZIEN YES WE CRAVE ALL THE BUDZIEN CONTENT WE CAN GET

Observations, in chronological order: a) LONG-SNAPPER BUTT! b) Listening to a song whose chorus goes "I don't pop molly" just days after listening to Trinidad James c) remembering once again that I would never, ever successfully be able to catch and place the hold on a field goal in a game setting d) SOMEONE ELSE IS MISSING d) Somebody yelling "WE DO THIS SHIT EVERY DAY" d) everybody's complete sarcasm about the meaningfulness of the supposed pressure-packed field goal Buddy Z makes at the end.

Also: "The Hunt," profiling Northwestern's freshmen in camp. It's more fun than the typical training camp stuff we've gotten used to over the years, as we hear each player try to pronounce Godwin Igwebuike's last name and discuss learning the fight song.

Observations: A bunch of the drills Northwestern does look super-fun, like the one where the defensive backs jump up and the other defensive backs hold them and run, or the one where you're doing spinnies, or the one where Eric Joraskie is just lightheartedly walking around and hitting big bouncy columns. I think there are football reasons for these. And how come they never did them when I was at practice? Secondly, Matt Alviti needs to chill on his option pitches. Dude's chucking it like 400 miles an hour. Thirdly, No. 36, who is freshman walkon cornerback Dami Arowolaju, gets WRECKED early in the video. Poor Dami.

And last but not least, we have THE RUNNING OF THE COACHES:

Quentin Davie comes in third, somehow, behind somebody named "Corey." Did you know that it's perfectly legal to make videos that do not use "Blurred Lines" in some way? Regardless, incredibly entertaining stuff.

Oh, wait, there's more: big dudes eating watermelons:

No word who won there.

These Big Tens love Kenosha: Insight from the BTN crew stopping in. (BTW, can somebody keep track of how many "Love Sosa" jokes I make per day? Here's their video:

But also some observations:

Yuppers.

True? Who knows or cares, I need to run through a wall.

I have a funny feeling we're going to have a lot of "Igwebuike" misspellings, very fast.

Yo Gerry if you don't tweet "BTN Tour 2013 #Northwestern" at the start ofevery tweet you can use full words

swoon

SWOON SWOON SWOON SWOON SWOON

But this is what worries me:

KAIN FOOTBALL IS AN INGRATE AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY SPORTS OR BREATHE WHAT A SPOILED BRAT

I thought it was the ball that didn't do that?

God Save the Three: Alex Marcotullio is with the Great Britain National Basketball team as he tries to hang on for an opportunity to play in the upcoming Eurobasket. It's his first time playing real games with the big team -- he'd played in past with U-20 squads -- and as such, there's hazing... and it did not go well.

Dude, it's okay if you don't know the lyrics, but the song is just "My Country Tis of Thee," but about the queen.

YES NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL RECRUITING DRAMA: Northwestern is recruiting a 2014 point guard named Bryant Macintosh, and everybody says he is good:

So good, in fact, that Hammer and Rails is outchea writing posts accusing NU of cheating. Because Jon Scheyer was involved, and he's on staff at Duke

In the end, we'll see if this even works out for Northwestern, but it has to raise some eyebrows that Collins hasn't even coached his first game for the Wildcats and he's already resorted to bending the rules to try to land a recruit. And it's unlikely McIntosh and his family even knew this was a violation, but if they find out how will they react? Will they be honored Northwestern values him enough to do this to try to get him? Or will they be put off by it?

YESSSS ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED IS FOR NORTHWESTERN TO BE GOOD ENOUGH AT VARIOUS SPORTS TO BE CONSIDERED A CHEATER YESSSSS WE DID IT WE DID IT WE DID IT OJ da Juice Man: Remember erstwhile Northwestern basketball walk-on Omar Jimenez? Remember his burgeoning rap career? Well, he was on Jimmy Fallon and won a battle:

Unbelievably cool, although I'm sure ?uestlove is tired of people rhyming his name on their show. And it's messed up that a guy who already bills himself as "O.J." was a) in the crowd at Jimmy Fallon on a night they had a rap battle and b) GOT A BREAKFAST THEMED TOPIC

Talking about athletes rapping, here is Kain Colter rapping because he realized he had a mic on and doing a horrible job:

It took him three bars to rhyme "cold" with "cold."

NFL awwwwws

Wildcats in London: Sanjay Lumpkin and JerShon Cobb have been blogging from their tour of Europe. It is not spectacular reading material.

London has a lot of similarities to Chicago. Both are extremely busy with tourists and people in general. They both have a public transportation system that is used to pretty much everyone's advantage and life in London seemed almost the same. The people in London are approachable and relatable and there are many familiar stores and places as well.

I'd say the two biggest differences are driving and money. It is shocking to see cars on the other side of the road and the steering wheels in cars on the right side. It took a while to get used to looking "right" first when crossing the street instead of "left". The other main difference is the worth of the dollar. The dollar is worth extremely less than the pound used in the United Kingdom. Everything is more expensive.

I absolutely would recommend others to visit London. It was such a great experience. I got a chance to see things I have only seen in pictures and in the movies. It was great to be around different people and experience the city for my own.

Oh my goodness, Sanjay Lumpkin is the bored high school student from BHGP.

Don't they remember the last time they went bowling? Obvious joke aboutthese Mississippi State players celebrating a trip to the bowling alley.

NORTHWESTERN SPORTS ARE HAPPENING: Sure it's a women's soccer exhibition but WOO GO CATS EAT IT DEPAUL

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