Purdue is playing North Carolina A&T right now, and hopefully they’ll win, and hopefully AJ Hammons will play, and hopefully Vince records 50 points, 40 rebounds, and 34 assists…but that doesn’t really matter right now. Over 60 victims were killed in Paris tonight, with dozens more being rushed to hospitals as I type. Bombs went off outside the Stade de France north of the city, and inside the Bataclan concert hall and outside a Cambodian restaurant on the east side of Paris.

The President of France, François Hollande, was alongside thousands watching France and Germany play a soccer friendly. My cousin, the closest person I have in this lifetime to a sister, was a mile away from the Bataclan (where an American rock band was playing) enjoying a normal Friday night at her favorite restaurant. (She is fine, and has been talking to us throughout the evening.) The Columbian restaurant, a frequent dinner spot of my cousin, was full of tourists and Parisians alike having a wonderful time celebrating the end of the week.

Just like any normal Friday night.

A group of lunatics decided to attack these innocent civilians for no apparent reason, and that normalcy vanished in the blink of an eye.

Sports, music, good food and great company…we’re privileged enough to enjoy these jovial parts of life, to take our minds away from the atrocities we know exist in the world. I make jokes on this blog about Purdue sports “torturing” me all the time…but, really, I’m thankful something as normal as a basketball game can be happening right now in a place I love.

Hug your loved ones, be kind to everyone around you, and don’t take normalcies like the start of the glorious college basketball season for granted.

Thanks for reading. We’ll try to be back to the normalcy tomorrow.