AEW IMAGES
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!
If you're looking at a calendar you can't tell but this is actually a really important week in wrestling, we are now living in a post All Elite Wrestling world. They had their event this Sunday and all indications are that it went amazing. The biggest criticism people seem to have so far is that most of the "big names" are former WWE superstars including the big surprise reveal of the event that John Moxley, formerly Dean Ambrose, has come to AEW. That's a fair point but there was plenty of small time made big talent as well such as friend of Nerd Thug Radio Kylie Rae and others. So with All Elite Wrestling landing such a big flag then the expectation is that WWE would come out swinging this week on Raw and Smackdown, right? They have their controversial return to Saudi Arabia coming up and they should be looking for some opportunity to regain ground and try and stop some losses somewhere.
Raw essentially did the opposite though, while it was Memorial Day and they ran a gorgeous video package in honor of those who served and gave all for our freedoms, they didn't get into an actual real match until about an hour and half in and honestly it never picked up from there. There was a Becky Lynch appearance but it was in a tag match, there was a fatal four way but it was hurt by the absence of one of WWE's biggest current stars AJ Styles who is now out with injury, another unfortunate side effect of the new double usage for the top portion of the WWE roster. The Brock Lesnar bit where he didn't know he had an entire year to cash in his money in the bank contract was odd, it doesn't make any sense, hasn't he been on the roster for roughly a decade? He never knew about the Money in the Bank contract before? That doesn't even make sense.
Smackdown didn't get much better, with Kevin Owens cutting a weird promo before he fights Kofi Kingston again that he hopes Dolph Ziggler beats Kofi Kingston so that Dolph then gives Kevin a title shot. What? Why wouldn't Kevin just beat Kofi on Smackdown for the title? Then Shane McMahon does some more anti Roman Reigns stuff, I guess tabling the Miz rivalry for a week. Also another injury, Finn Balor, adding up to WWE needing to start bringing up more guys and giving screen time to more people. The 24/7 title is still a joke and I worry it will never not be, which sort of makes me wonder what's the point?
So with the Saudi Arabia event coming up and several key guys saying they aren't going to be there and with injuries piling up from over usage and AEW putting on an amazing event and announcing a TNT television deal for later this year, this isn't the kind of foot I expected WWE to put forward.
Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Astros take series as Peña homers and Alvarez delivers clutch double
Mar 29, 2025, 10:03 pm
Houston spent time this week practicing an inbound play that coach Kelvin Sampson thought his team might need against Purdue.
Milos Uzan, the third option, ran it to perfection.
He tossed the ball to Joseph Tugler, who threw a bounce pass right back to Uzan, and the 6-foot-4 guard soared to the rim for an uncontested layup with 0.9 seconds left, giving the top-seeded Cougars a 62-60 victory — and a matchup with second-seeded Tennessee in Sunday's Elite Eight.
“Great execution at a time we needed that,” said Sampson, who is a win away from making his third Final Four and his second with Houston in five years. “You never know when you’re going to need it.”
The Cougars (33-4) made only one other basket over the final eight minutes, wasted a 10-point lead and then missed two more shots in the final 5 seconds. A replay review with 2.2 seconds left confirmed Houston would keep the ball when it rolled out of bounds after the second miss.
Uzan took over from there.
“I was trying to hit (L.J. Cryer) and then JoJo just made a great read,” Uzan said. “He was able to draw two (defenders) and he just made a great play to hit me back.”
Houston advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time in five years after falling in the Sweet 16 as a top seed in the previous two editions of March Madness. It will take the nation's longest winning streak, 16 games, into Sunday’s Midwest Region final.
The Cougars joined the other three No. 1 seeds in this year's Elite Eight and did it at Lucas Oil Stadium, where their 2021 tourney run ended with a loss in the Final Four to eventual national champion Baylor.
They haven't lost since Feb. 1.
Uzan scored 22 points and Emanuel Sharp had 17 as Houston survived an off night from leading scorer Cryer, who finished with five points on 2-of-13 shooting.
Houston still had to sweat out a half-court heave at the buzzer, but Braden Smith's shot was well off the mark.
Fletcher Loyer scored 16 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 14 and Smith, the Big Ten player of the year, added seven points and 15 assists for fourth-seeded Purdue (24-12). Smith assisted on all 11 second-half baskets for last year’s national runner-up, which played in front of a friendly crowd about an hour’s drive from its campus in West Lafayette.
“I thought we fought really hard and we dug down defensively to get those stops to come back,” Smith said. “We did everything we could and we just had a little miscommunication at the end and they converted. Props to them.”
Houston appeared on the verge of disaster when Kaufman-Renn scored on a dunk and then blocked Cryer’s shot with 1:17 to go, leading to Camden Heide’s 3 that tied the score at 60 with 35 seconds left.
Sampson called timeout to set up the final play, but Uzan missed a turnaround jumper and Tugler’s tip-in rolled off the rim and out of bounds. The Cougars got one more chance after the replay review.
Sharp's scoring flurry early in the second half finally gave Houston some separation after a back-and-forth first half. His 3-pointer at the 16:14 mark made it 40-32. After Purdue trimmed the deficit to four, Uzan made two 3s to give Houston a 10-point lead in a tough, physical game that set up a rare dramatic finish in this year's tourney.
“Smith was guarding the inbounder, so he had to take JoJo,” Sampson said. “That means there was no one there to take Milos. That's why you work on that stuff day after day.”
Takeaways
Purdue: Coach Matt Painter's Boilermakers stumbled into March Madness with six losses in their final nine games but proved themselves a worthy competitor by fighting their way into the Sweet 16 and nearly taking down a No. 1 seed.
Houston: The Cougars lead the nation in 3-point percentage and scoring defense, an enviable combination.
Scary fall
Houston guard Mylik Wilson gave the Cougars a brief scare with 13:23 left in the game. He leapt high into the air to grab a rebound and drew a foul on Kaufman-Renn.
As the play continued, Wilson was undercut and his body twisted around before he landed on his head. Wilson stayed down momentarily, rubbing his head, but eventually got up and remained in the game.