Texas and Baylor will face off in the inaugural Sprouts Farmers Market espnW Invitational on December 14 at Dickies Arena.
Photo courtesy of University of Texas Women's Basketball
Dickies Arena in Fort Worth will have the honor of hosting the first-ever edition of the Sprouts Farmers Market espnW Invitational, featuring a game between Texas and Baylor on Sunday, December 14.
The new event, owned and operated by ESPN Events, will be a matchup between two perennial women's basketball powerhouses, both of which are predicted to be ranked in the top 10 when the season starts.
The Texas Longhorns are coming off a season in which they they clinched their first SEC regular season title, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and made the Final Four before bowing out in the semifinals.
The Baylor Bears had another great year, finishing with a 28-8 record, which was good for second place in the Big 12 and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. They lost in the second round to Ole Miss.
"Since launching in 2010, espnW has been building towards events like this,” said Susie Piotrkowski, Vice President, ESPN Women’s Sports Programming & espnW, in a statement. “The espnW Invitational is a presentation of the game's top athletes competing at the highest level - delivering Women’s Sports fans more of what they crave."
Tickets for the espnW Invitational will go on sale on a to-be-determined date in the fall. Fans can secure first access to the best seats now by registering for the pre-sale at espnevents.com/espnw-invitational.
The reason that most biopics fail is because they try to do too much, telling a “cradle-to-grave” story or one taking place over a long period of time that only scratches the surface of understanding the full measure of a particular person. A better approach is the one taken in the new film Tony, which uses a formative period of time in the life of Anthony Bourdain to identify a larger truth about him.
The film finds Tony (Dominic Sessa), as he liked to be known at the time, in his early college years, trying to BS his way through life. He tells lies to professors, his parents (Dagmara Dominczyk and Rich Sommer), his old classmate Nancy (Emilia Jones), and even himself in an attempt to skate by without actually doing anything.
When one con falls through, he follows Nancy to Provincetown, Massachusetts to try to find her. A series of events result in him getting drunk in a restaurant owned by a chef (Antonio Banderas), who takes him in. Tony starts working as a dishwasher and hanging out with Sal (Leo Woodall), who barely has his own act together. With no other options, he spends his summer on Cape Cod, hoping something will happen to change his lot in life.
Written and directed by Matt Johnson (Blackberry) and co-written by three others, the film gives barely a hint of the man who would go on to become a celebrity chef and acclaimed author. It does indicate that his brashness was always there, but this Tony is aimless and too often rash in his decision-making. His biggest success in the film only comes when he finally recognizes that lying has brought him nothing but misery, and that telling the truth, even if it’s painful, sets him free.
The restaurant at which Tony works, the now-defunct The Flagship, is the heartbeat of the film, containing a motley crew of people who bond over slinging mostly mediocre seafood. Johnson evolves Tony’s relationship with the chef (who’s never given a proper name) into a strong one as Tony spends each night in a hammock on the chef’s porch, only to be woken up each morning with a pot of water thrown in his face.
Tony continues to pursue Nancy for most of the film, and even though their relationship is not fruitful in terms of storytelling, it serves to enforce the mindset of the young man. Nancy only exists as an object of desire for Tony, with just the barest touch of an interior life of her own. While the intent of including a romantic interest for Tony makes sense in a way, it ultimately is the weakest part of the film.
Sessa, who made a bold film debut in 2023’s The Holdovers, has turned into one of the industry’s bright young stars. He embodies the moodiness of Bourdain, stalking around the town with a scowl and lanky walk that tells the audience everything they need to know about the character. Banderas and Woodall (Tuner) bring different types of great energy, and while Jones’ part is not great, she proves that - following CODA - she’s going to be around for a long time, as well.
Fans of Bourdain may lament that Tony doesn’t show anything from the years in which he became famous, but the small and personal film makes a great case that the period it depicts is equally significant to his life. It demonstrates that Tony’s summer on Cape Cod gave him some direction, a reason for being that allowed him to become who he eventually became.
