"One-and-Done" in College Hoops and Bar Prep
College basketball tips off today, and that includes the University of Dayton's men's team hosting Canisius University at 7 p.m. in the Epicenter of College Basketball, UD Arena . Source: https://daytonflyers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster The start of college basketball season also means the annual conversation about " one-and-done " stars is back. Think Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Zion Williamson—players who spent a single
Tommy Sangchompuphen
17 minutes ago6 min read
Indiana Over Golden State: A Playbook for Ending a Study Skid
I went to my first Indiana Pacers game of the season last night. After five straight losses to open the season, the Pacers, who came up just short of winning the NBA Finals last season, finally got a win —and not a soft one. It came against the 4-and-2 Golden State Warriors in a game where the Pacers were a heavy 12-point underdog. All signs before tipoff pointed to a sixth straight loss: the injuries, the record, the matchup, the momentum, the odds. And then, for one night,
Tommy Sangchompuphen
22 hours ago4 min read
NextGen’s “Ultimate Readiness Test”: Proof or PR?
The National Conference of Bar Examiners' news release yesterday frames the Jan. 8-10, 2026 “Beta Test” of the upcoming NextGen Uniform Bar Exam as the ultimate readiness test—a capstone proving that the July 2026 exam is good to go. For clarity, a beta test, according to Merriam-Webster , is “a field test of the beta version of a product (such as software) especially by testers outside the company developing it that is conducted prior to commercial release.” Software daevel
Tommy Sangchompuphen
2 days ago3 min read
“Six–Seven!” for Bar Takers: Why Some States Use 6, Others 7, and Why It Doesn't Matter
If you’ve heard Generation Alpha chanting “six–seven,” which Dictionary.com recently named its 2025 Word of the Year , then congratulations: You’re now holding the perfect icebreaker for explaining bar‑exam scoring to anyone. On the written portion of the Uniform Bar Exam (the six Multistate Essay Exam essays and the two Multistate Performance Test questions), jurisdictions don’t all use the same raw scale. Although a majority of UBE jurisdictions grade your answers on six
Tommy Sangchompuphen
2 days ago2 min read
When the Smash Is Gone: Lat Strains, Leaderboards, and Bar Exam Reality
Right now, I’m ranked first in my pickleball league. But a lat strain on Monday has me benched. With the matches I’ll miss due to injury, my ranking will slide—likely enough that this season effectively ends. It’s a sharp reminder: rankings are history, but readiness is now. A ranking is a snapshot of past results. It compresses a run of performances into a neat number or place on a list. That can be motivating and validating, but it’s backward‑looking. A leaderboard reflects
Tommy Sangchompuphen
5 days ago2 min read