We Can Make It If We Try

The first Bandwagon of 2017 is in the books. New year, same show, but something seemed to be missing . . . it was co-host Lisa Bralts. She was unable to record due to a lingering cold and lots of germs, so Brian and John made it work.

This dynamic duo kicked things off by discussing their January sports blues, then dove into the main focus of the episode: international student athletes in the U.S. It’s a growing trend for women and men’s college basketball, though it’s been happening in other sports for decades.

To get a first-hand account, they spoke with Illinois women’s basketball player Petra Holesinska, who is a freshman from the Czech Republic, and was recently named Big Ten Freshman of the Week , Petra was recruited by Illinois coach Matt Bollant while he was visiting Europe to scout her teammate, Jaelyne Kirkpatrick. Petra discussed the transition to the U.S. college experience and playing basketball in the States.

RIVALRY!

It was Lisa’s week for the rivalry segment, but Brian and John scrambled at the last minute and came up with a pretty good one – the classic Tennessee – UConn rivalry of the late 90s and early aughts. It featured two of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time: Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma.

STATUS UPDATE!

John discussed the disastrous launch of the LA Chargers' new logo, which was mocked excellently by the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Twitter account.

Brian brought up the recent buzz around the retraction of scholarships by University of Connecticut’s football coach Randy Edsall. It’s not an uncommon practice, so they wondered why this particular occurrence got so much attention. John also got to define... "Creaning". Ew.

We'll be back with a brand new ep at the very beginning of February, with luck. Until then, follow us @bndwgnpdcst on Twitter to get the latest, tell us how much you love us, etc. Thanks for playing, y'all.