THP #57: Into The Underground

November 16, 2025
Emerson vs Connecticut College
Men’s Basketball

Season seven. Back in the saddle, baybay! Play the music!

…

I’m tired, man. 

All I wanna do is watch some ball, but it’s so hard to do it. To keep up with D3 I need a FLO subscription. Last week Disney (market cap of $193 billion) and Google ($3.36 trillion) finished trying to wet willy each other and came to a carriage agreement to get the Disney channels back on YouTube TV.

Hoo. Ray. ESPN is back.

But that’s nothing to say of the services I need, like Willow and ESPN+ and Peacock, if I want to keep up on all the sports I enjoy.

I’m just so goddamn tired. 

I was the pirate king throughout high school. Back in 2006, 2007 I was the guy that could find any game to watch even if basic cable didn’t carry it. I remember dropping in to my regular site, channelsurfing.eu back then and seeing big FBI and INTERPOL logos and note about how the site had been shut down. Teenage me thought the feds were going to knock on my door any day. 

I’m back to pirating, unapologetic about it, and recommend others do it as well if they’re looking for a game to watch that has been embargoed for whatever reason. I remember when sports streaming really got going with force around 2012 or so and how wonderful it was because options were plentiful and affordable, and I was thrilled to be pirating less.

Because pirating needs prep. You need an excellent adblocker and a good privacy extension to backend that. Many good VPN services have tools built in that can handle that. Pick one you’re comfortable with. Protect your machine.

But it’s easier to just pay for a good service because pirating isn’t about price: it’s about ease of access. YouTubeTV is excellent. It is laid out brilliantly, the user interface and experience are flawless, and the unlimited DVR is worth it on its own. I never once thought of cancelling my subscription. I like it, and I know channels will come back online eventually when there’s another pissing contest in the future.

And if they don’t? I only got so much time in the day, and I’ll fill it with the other options I have at my disposal. Outside of my addiction to D3 basketball, if you put up barriers between me and watching your games, I’m going to just keep on walking until I find an open door without a lock.

Me at 16 would be apoplectic at the idea of missing the bulk of two college football weekends and the start of D1 college basketball. Me at 34 will just put on an episode of Taskmaster instead or a NESCAC game.

I love hockey. NESN got tough with YouTube TV years ago and left, and so went any interest I had in keeping up with the Bruins. But the PWHL streams every game in America on regular YouTube. I think I only missed two Boston Fleet games all last season. It’s easy, I can chromecast it to my TV, and have it on while I play with my daughter. 

MLS and now Formula 1 (as of next season) are fully paywalled behind the gates of Apple TV. I’ve been following F1 since the chaos of 2007 and 2008. I was a season ticket holder for the New England Revolution for six years. But you put up barriers to these leagues, and I immediately turn the page. If that means I miss the Qatar Grand Prix or the Revs v Austin FC match, then so be it. 

Fans owe teams and leagues nothing. The team or league is a service. By forcing you to spend more it just treads on “tradition” and your idea of “but my dad/mom/sibling and I bonded over watching the Steelers/Red Wings/Trailblazers”. If a team is terrible you don’t owe them your money or your eyeballs. Why do Jets fans exist?

It’s all a con run by ghouls who have an asset to extract value from. Your attention is a resource, and all the lever pullers know it and manipulate accordingly. The only way to force their hand is to not play the game. So what’s your price? 

Bella’s price is two biscuits and a walk. She’s an easy one to please.

The Good Eats

The Dorchester Brewing Company is located on Mass Ave, about a mile inland from Carson Beach and the Waterfront. It’s a big spot, especially by the standards of its location.

With numerous beers made in house, it’s the place to go for the beer drinker.

However, I don’t drink the liquid bread. But I do eat cornbread, and M&M Barbecue, within the brewery, served that and a whole lot more.

Leona behind the counter was an absolute peach and set my buddy Mike and I up each with a BBQ chicken platter & cornbread. I had cole slaw and fries for my sides, and Mike went with collards & candied yams.

A complete, transcendent feast.

One of the most reductive, navel-gazing takes in food is that barbecue comes from somewhere in 2025. Historically, absolutely, food types have roots in different communities and grew out of them. And today, good barbecue is everywhere and not just Texas/KC/Memphis/Nashville/wherever the hell else. If you invest in high-quality ingredients, put in the time, and care about what you put out it will be good.

And M&M is about as good as it gets.

Important Cultural Activities

On the walls throughout the brewery are pieces from an art museum. A very special art museum:

And some of the pieces are ridiculous in the best possible way. Soccer but blowfish? We got that?

What about George Washington & Jackie Kennedy making sexy eyes at each other? Got that here. And all of the pieces have sardonic caption descriptions on the wall.

Byzantine Cats? President Obama and Unicorn? Smiling Serpent with a Tomato? Yeah, they’re all here in framed glory.

The art is all throughout the building. Up the stairwell, on any blank wall space available. The brewery and barbecue and museum are all one as much as they are three.

And the more we looked Mike brought up a good point: Sure, the end result may look silly but the artists genuinely made the works with passion. And you can’t say that any of these artists aren’t technically talented. Sure, some are better than others, but all the pieces were made with a talent and vision even if the what resulted brings laughter to folks today.

I’ve been chewing on that the last few days: what does it mean to make something good? I certainly had reactions and feelings to many of these pieces. Is that good? To have moved someone emotionally in some way? It is a technical precision? Is it the scale of something? What makes something good?

I don’t know the answer in totality. I know for me, something good is something made with skill by someone passionate in showing off that skill. And by that logic, most of the art in the museum is actually pretty good. the museum is taking the piss out of the situation. There is no sense of fingerpointing and chuckling but rather celebrating and reveling in the myriad ways people create. I loved it. I will be back.

The Gymnasium

Emerson College is right in the heart of Boston. I mean, we walked across Boston Common to get to the building. It’s as Boston as Boston could be.

Now about that gym. It’s uh….it don’t look like the other ones.

That is Piano Row, the home of Emerson basketball. Now, being in a building like this brings obvious challenges to how to wedge a competition arena inside. Fear not, but Hank Smith Court at Plofker Gym is small but mighty.

It even has a skybox view.

Now though, how do you get there? About the title of this blog…

113 steps. ONE. HUNDRED. THIRTEEN. STEPS.

Lower Level 3. We were watching basketball yards under downtown Boston.

College basketball. Always finds a way.

The Game

It was the season opener for Connecticut College while the host Lions were looking to pick up back-to-back wins, and it looks good early for the home team.

That’s Jacob Armant hitting the three. A key piece for the Lions the last few years, he’s a leader for them on the floor.

Emerson jumped out fast to a 14-7 lead but the Camels stayed cool and didn’t let the lead balloon.

That was Jacob LaFrance. We’ll get back to him.

Oh hey, there goes Armant again.

He would finish with 18 points and five rebounds.

The game was hot and heavy throughout the first half as the lead changed nine times. But with his team down two in the final minutes of the second half it was LaFrance, playing his first game for the Camels after transferring in from Eckerd College, who went supernova.

He hit one more three before halftime from near the logo to cap that run and turn a two-point deficit into an eight-point lead going into the break.

The Lions showed no quit and wouldn’t let the Camels roll away with it in the second half.

Until the Camels eventually did disappear over the horizon and ballooned the lead to 22 with 5:31 left.

That was Dylan Watson with three of his 18 points.

And this is Watson with three more.

CC was in near flawless rhythm moving the ball and no matter the look Emerson threw at the Camels, Connecticut had an answer.

Oh look, another three. And look at that smart pass from LaFrance to set it up.

Emerson did get it back to within seven in the final minute thanks to some poor foul shooting and late buckets, but the dominance by Connecticut College for the middle portion of the game was more than enough to get the win over the line.

Connecticut College 82, Emerson 72. Final
Player of the Game – Jacob LaFrance (CC) – 25 pts, 8 rebounds, 4 assists
Time of game – 1:53:00

What a lovely day it is to get back to college basketball. The Camels are sure to be a fun watch and a tough out in the NESCAC this year as everyone chases the reigning national champion Trinity Bantams.

And in, what should be, a chaotic NEWMAC race, the Lions have the experience and players to be a thorn in everyone’s side and sneak out with a conference title come March.

Mike, I know you’re gonna read this. I love you. You are a cherished friend. Your family is beautiful, and I can’t wait for our kids to get together and I’m sure get up to mischief one day soon.

Tell your friends you love them. Every day.

And here’s one for the road…