Message from The Bored: Prepare Yourself

Greetings PCTI:

For each of you little minions voicing your displeasure with the BOD, allow me to borrow a line from The Miz: When my hand goes up, your mouth goes shut. Right now, my hand is up.

Sure, Abe brought up some fair suggestions and valid questions when he decided to turn his Q&A session in to his personal soap box. But you really think The Bored hasn't already discussed when we're going to do the roommate draft and when we're going to release a preliminary itinstick? We didn't turn this thing in to the greatest spectacle in middle of the pack pick up basketball by accident. We've considered everything. So each of you should just sit back and eat another Twinkie and let the adults in the room handle the business.

To prove my point, I'm going to bring something to your collective attention that I'm positive none of you idiots have considered:

After we make our long anticipated trip to the Ambrose Asylum, Cincinnati, Ohio, we will have exhausted all our original host city options. That means, faithful reader, that one of you is going to have to step up for once in your life and make a pitch for hosting PCTI 8. Since I expect none of you to come to the table Saturday night prepared, allow me to look in to my crystal ball to make a few projections and with any luck, inspire you to, for once in your life, do something for the betterment of PCTI.


Some cities that could host: a list meant to inspire or frighten

1. Lexington: I'm back in Lexington so we could return to the birthplace of PCTI and the home of PCTI I and II. The guy who ran the gym we played at excused us of stealing shoes out of his office, so I actually have no idea if he would have us back so we could re-create the cramp game and someone could break a bone slipping on the blue tile. Personally, I have very little interest in repeating a host city (especially for a third time and especially this particular host city) but if I need to, I'll step up.

2. Los Angeles: The best way for the growing contingent of West Coast PCTIers to save on travel is to band together and bring PCTI back to the West Coast. Actor has been in LA for a sneaky long time now and probably would be able to put together a successful weekend.

3. Charleston: A city that has been tossed around from year one but that does not get considered as an "original suggestion" because Pitto was the one who originally championed the idea. The advantages are obvious, as PCTI is made for a medium sized city and Charleston is one of the finest options in that regard in the country. The challenges are twofold and significant. First, nobody lives there and someone would have to step up to host and do so from offsite. Second, it's not an easy place to get to and would be a real pain in the ass for the West Coasters.

4. Chattanooga: We're all familiar with Smo's pitch for Chattanooga. Of course Smo won't be around this year and probably has zero interest in hosting, especially in a place where he no longer lives. There's a chance TP lives in Chattanooga and if that's true (I have no idea where he lives) perhaps this emerges as a serious contender. Otherwise, I would assume the ship has sailed on PCTI Chatty.

5. St. Louis: As mentioned, Smo has campaigned to host several times and has deep ties to St. Louis. I also have a history with the city, having gone to college there. Obviously, the central location is attractive. I feel like this could actually be a sneaky good pick, but again, does anyone want to host in a city where they don't live? It would be asking a lot.

6. Dallas/Plano: Probably the best option if we settle on a repeat. The Sabin/Dan The Ratings Man combo guarantees we'll be well taken care of. As a wrinkle, we could expand to other parts of Dallas to liven up the off-court activity. In that regard, it would be a totally different trip than Kittens Disaster year.

7. Nashville: Is it finally time? You can make a compelling argument that it is. Originally we wanted to avoid Nashville in order to build up the weekend as a true "basketball trip" and we feared that some of that would be lost if we went to Nashville, considering so many of us grew up there and many in the league continue to live there. I don't think that is a concern any longer as fewer of us in PCTI call Nashville home and those of us who are living elsewhere have been gone for so long that a trip back would feel like visiting a city as a tourist. The other concern with Nashville was that having it at home would mean we would get inundated with requests from hoopers we know in Nashville who would want to play. Again, I think with time (as this would be PCTI 8) people will understand that this is not something they can simply expect to join. It may be worth it to see how Bruiser handles PCTI coming to His City.