By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The Weekend is not really his first name. It’s actually Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. He’s a Canadian singer song writer and record producer who is known for his ability as well as his sonic versatility.
Yes, pop culture is alive and well with him. His rise started at the age of 19 in 2009. In 2011, he founded his own record label. That’s a credit to his determination and knowhow.
So how do you put yourself in the middle of the cruel pop music world? Well, you do it with a big hit single that becomes your signature piece. More on that in a moment.
The Weekend’s stature reached that next level when he was the headliner in the Super Bowl LV halftime show in 2021 that featured Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City.
So his piece “Blinded Lights’’ rocked the charts from the end of 2019 through the early stages of 2021. It went to the top of the Canadian Hot 100 giving him five No. 1s at the time. It also went to No. 1 in the USA for four weeks. The song was named Billboard’s top Hot 100 song for 2020.
Honestly, the RJB can attest that it has a little 80s feel to it. When it heard the opening, it almost felt like one of the scenes in “The Breakfast Club” when the gang was running in the hallways at the school trying not to get caught.
The RJB is back.
*****
Well, what a surprise. I bet you didn’t see this coming. Brought of out hibernation, What was he Thinking has returned.
I have to tell you that I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with the Sunday night/Monday morning entry. While Single Digit Flashback was fine, I just didn’t think it had the substance that I thought it did.
Starting this coming Sunday, WWHT will return to its normal timeslot. I just wanted to get this back up as a little bonus.
What I plan on doing with this is kind of mixing some of the elements from SDF into this. I don’t plan on this being a single topic discussion. I plan for it to be several. But I’m also not going to pigeon-hole myself either. Should there be a matter that’s of great importance that I choose to make my focus, then so be it. That’s what it is going to be like today.
And because several of you were a little bit hmmm about the other sports not getting their voice like they had, you’ll recall that I ended the piece with a look at the other Baylor sports. They will return this coming Sunday. Hope that’s something everybody can look forward to.
Let’s get started.
>On the shameless plug on the Rivals All-Access Pass – hey, a man’s gotta eat – I would really encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s your chance to visit every site across our network in a passive-aggressive way.
Sometimes, it is an interesting perspective to find out what others think of Baylor. We can all talk among ourselves and think Baylor is this or that. I’m sure when you do visit those sites, you’re going to come across somebody or some bring out the default sexual assault scandal. Just keep in mind that envious people will always go there because they like to bring others down to their level. Grin and move on.
>Since we’re in the stretch run of the college basketball season, you find out what kind of coach is running your program when a lot of things are going against it.
Really since the 2019-20 season when Tristan Clark went down to a knee injury, Scott Drew has become somewhat of a chameleon as a coach. Resourcefulness is a great arrow in the quiver.
He’s created jump shooting teams. He was recognized as one of the masters of making the 1-3-1 zone one of the most difficult to solve in the game. Drew kept this thing together during the national championship season in 20-21 when the Bears didn’t play for a month.
For this 21-22 season, it’s been nonstop with starting and stopping with lineups since pretty much Jan. 8 when Jeremy Sochan went down with a sprained ankle. That was followed days later by James Akinjo’s tailbone injury against Texas Tech. The list is highlighted by LJ Cryer’s foot and Adam Flagler’s knee. It’s topped off by losing Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua for the season with torn knee ligaments.
Given these issues, Drew can’t pivot to one personality or another. What he has done is let them be themselves on offense and on defense. Create gameplans for the opponent and what the roster could look like.
Since the 15-0 start, Baylor is 8-5. The Bears have won their last two with arguably the most impressive Monday at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, OK.
Look at TCU on Saturday. The Bears basically play with six with no Flagler and Cryer. The goal is to attack the basket as much as possible and don’t rely on the 3-point shot. Against Oklahoma State, it was a plan that you typically see with Flagler returning and then going off matching a career-high 29. Slowly but surely, the 1-3-1 is making its return to save legs and fouls for a bench that’s suddenly thin.
This team is not going to finish healthy. Drew made the point in Monday’s postgame presser that at this time of year, every team in the game is hurting. But if you’re injured that’s another story.
Akinjo is hurting. Sochan is hurting. Flagler is a mix. Cryer is injured but trying to come back. (I still think we’re getting closer to a point where the staff has to decide to either stay on this path with him or shut him down. Foot injuries and basketball players are oil and water.)
All this and the Bears are within striking distance of the Big 12 lead with Kansas.
>Speaking of Kansas coming to town Saturday, ESPN’s College GameDay will be on hand with all of the hype and hoopla that surrounds it. It was there for this game two years ago.
Obviously, the Bears would like to gain a measure of revenge since they were blown out nearly three weeks ago in the Allen Fieldhouse. They and Texas Tech trail by 1½ games after Kansas handled Kansas State Tuesday.
And we’ve seen how important an intense crowd at the Ferrell Center can be. It absolutely was the difference in the win over Texas. It absolutely was the difference in the win over TCU.
It will be as important as ever when the Jayhawks arrive. A loss and the Bears have to start thinking about how they can find a way to get the two seed in the conference tournament. That’s where being swept by the Red Raiders really impacts things.
>With really no more Baylor offseason football issues to address – Dave Aranda contract extension finalized, staff hires made and schedule adjusted to fit FCS Albany – all that’s important is to make sure everybody is staying on course with their offseason workouts before Spring Football returns in March.
The two skill offensive players that I want to see take that next step are running back Taye McWilliams and wide receiver Hal Presley.
For me, I think McWilliams has the size (6-1, 211) to play the position and be the primary ballcarrier that Abram Smith was. In his brief appearances over the last couple of seasons, he’s given me more of the hmmm element than anyone else. Yes, he ran for 102 yards against awful Texas Southern. However, I just like his upside.
With Presley, the opportunity is wide open as four of the top five pass catchers from 2021 are gone. He caught one pass for 15 yards. That was against West Virginia. Presley is 6-3, 197 and has big-play potential because he can be a matchup problem.
Maybe he’s not the speed burner. But he’s a pretty physical player. That’s something Baylor really needs from its receivers in 2022. Creating separation was a serious problem.
Hope you enjoyed the lid lifter for WWHT’s return. Let’s make it a great rest of the week!
Publisher
The Weekend is not really his first name. It’s actually Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. He’s a Canadian singer song writer and record producer who is known for his ability as well as his sonic versatility.
Yes, pop culture is alive and well with him. His rise started at the age of 19 in 2009. In 2011, he founded his own record label. That’s a credit to his determination and knowhow.
So how do you put yourself in the middle of the cruel pop music world? Well, you do it with a big hit single that becomes your signature piece. More on that in a moment.
The Weekend’s stature reached that next level when he was the headliner in the Super Bowl LV halftime show in 2021 that featured Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City.
So his piece “Blinded Lights’’ rocked the charts from the end of 2019 through the early stages of 2021. It went to the top of the Canadian Hot 100 giving him five No. 1s at the time. It also went to No. 1 in the USA for four weeks. The song was named Billboard’s top Hot 100 song for 2020.
Honestly, the RJB can attest that it has a little 80s feel to it. When it heard the opening, it almost felt like one of the scenes in “The Breakfast Club” when the gang was running in the hallways at the school trying not to get caught.
The RJB is back.
*****
Well, what a surprise. I bet you didn’t see this coming. Brought of out hibernation, What was he Thinking has returned.
I have to tell you that I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with the Sunday night/Monday morning entry. While Single Digit Flashback was fine, I just didn’t think it had the substance that I thought it did.
Starting this coming Sunday, WWHT will return to its normal timeslot. I just wanted to get this back up as a little bonus.
What I plan on doing with this is kind of mixing some of the elements from SDF into this. I don’t plan on this being a single topic discussion. I plan for it to be several. But I’m also not going to pigeon-hole myself either. Should there be a matter that’s of great importance that I choose to make my focus, then so be it. That’s what it is going to be like today.
And because several of you were a little bit hmmm about the other sports not getting their voice like they had, you’ll recall that I ended the piece with a look at the other Baylor sports. They will return this coming Sunday. Hope that’s something everybody can look forward to.
Let’s get started.
>On the shameless plug on the Rivals All-Access Pass – hey, a man’s gotta eat – I would really encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s your chance to visit every site across our network in a passive-aggressive way.
Sometimes, it is an interesting perspective to find out what others think of Baylor. We can all talk among ourselves and think Baylor is this or that. I’m sure when you do visit those sites, you’re going to come across somebody or some bring out the default sexual assault scandal. Just keep in mind that envious people will always go there because they like to bring others down to their level. Grin and move on.
>Since we’re in the stretch run of the college basketball season, you find out what kind of coach is running your program when a lot of things are going against it.
Really since the 2019-20 season when Tristan Clark went down to a knee injury, Scott Drew has become somewhat of a chameleon as a coach. Resourcefulness is a great arrow in the quiver.
He’s created jump shooting teams. He was recognized as one of the masters of making the 1-3-1 zone one of the most difficult to solve in the game. Drew kept this thing together during the national championship season in 20-21 when the Bears didn’t play for a month.
For this 21-22 season, it’s been nonstop with starting and stopping with lineups since pretty much Jan. 8 when Jeremy Sochan went down with a sprained ankle. That was followed days later by James Akinjo’s tailbone injury against Texas Tech. The list is highlighted by LJ Cryer’s foot and Adam Flagler’s knee. It’s topped off by losing Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua for the season with torn knee ligaments.
Given these issues, Drew can’t pivot to one personality or another. What he has done is let them be themselves on offense and on defense. Create gameplans for the opponent and what the roster could look like.
Since the 15-0 start, Baylor is 8-5. The Bears have won their last two with arguably the most impressive Monday at Oklahoma State in Stillwater, OK.
Look at TCU on Saturday. The Bears basically play with six with no Flagler and Cryer. The goal is to attack the basket as much as possible and don’t rely on the 3-point shot. Against Oklahoma State, it was a plan that you typically see with Flagler returning and then going off matching a career-high 29. Slowly but surely, the 1-3-1 is making its return to save legs and fouls for a bench that’s suddenly thin.
This team is not going to finish healthy. Drew made the point in Monday’s postgame presser that at this time of year, every team in the game is hurting. But if you’re injured that’s another story.
Akinjo is hurting. Sochan is hurting. Flagler is a mix. Cryer is injured but trying to come back. (I still think we’re getting closer to a point where the staff has to decide to either stay on this path with him or shut him down. Foot injuries and basketball players are oil and water.)
All this and the Bears are within striking distance of the Big 12 lead with Kansas.
>Speaking of Kansas coming to town Saturday, ESPN’s College GameDay will be on hand with all of the hype and hoopla that surrounds it. It was there for this game two years ago.
Obviously, the Bears would like to gain a measure of revenge since they were blown out nearly three weeks ago in the Allen Fieldhouse. They and Texas Tech trail by 1½ games after Kansas handled Kansas State Tuesday.
And we’ve seen how important an intense crowd at the Ferrell Center can be. It absolutely was the difference in the win over Texas. It absolutely was the difference in the win over TCU.
It will be as important as ever when the Jayhawks arrive. A loss and the Bears have to start thinking about how they can find a way to get the two seed in the conference tournament. That’s where being swept by the Red Raiders really impacts things.
>With really no more Baylor offseason football issues to address – Dave Aranda contract extension finalized, staff hires made and schedule adjusted to fit FCS Albany – all that’s important is to make sure everybody is staying on course with their offseason workouts before Spring Football returns in March.
The two skill offensive players that I want to see take that next step are running back Taye McWilliams and wide receiver Hal Presley.
For me, I think McWilliams has the size (6-1, 211) to play the position and be the primary ballcarrier that Abram Smith was. In his brief appearances over the last couple of seasons, he’s given me more of the hmmm element than anyone else. Yes, he ran for 102 yards against awful Texas Southern. However, I just like his upside.
With Presley, the opportunity is wide open as four of the top five pass catchers from 2021 are gone. He caught one pass for 15 yards. That was against West Virginia. Presley is 6-3, 197 and has big-play potential because he can be a matchup problem.
Maybe he’s not the speed burner. But he’s a pretty physical player. That’s something Baylor really needs from its receivers in 2022. Creating separation was a serious problem.
Hope you enjoyed the lid lifter for WWHT’s return. Let’s make it a great rest of the week!
