Weekend winners
Washington basketball star Kelsey Plum. Dropping 57 - a dozen more than her previous career best, which also ranked as the previous Pac 12 that's big time. To do it at home to become the all-time leading scorer in D-I women's college hoops history is wicked cool.
College hoops power programs. Big wins for Kansas, UNC, 'Nova and UCLA this weekend as each continue tighten their resumes for a No. 1 seed. Add in another big win for Kentucky, and it was a banner day fort he bullies of college hoops. It also helped that Gonzaga - sell, sell - fell at home. Of special note here is the regular-season dominance of Bill Self with the Jayhawks, who have now won 13 consecutive Big 12 titles..
Kurt Busch. After being a runner-up three times, Busch rolled to his first Daytona 500 victory Sunday. He may not be the most likable of drivers, but Busch can flat drive the wheels off a race car.
Rickie Fowler. The kid with a lot of talent and a flair was able to lock down his first PGA Tour win in two years. Yes, we were surprised by the length of that winless streak, too.
Jimmy Kimmel. Dude crushed as host of the Oscars. And his absolute barrage on Matt Damon - the two have a long-standing and good-natured 'feud' - was great. Kimmel was excellent. He ribbed Trump, but did it without it feeling over the top or mean. It was aces, until.
Fred Berger, producer of "La La Land," foreground center, gives his acceptance speech as members of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Brian Cullinan, holding red envelope, and Martha L. Ruiz, in red dress, and a stage manager discuss the best picture announcement error among the cast at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The actual winner of best picture went to "Moonlight." (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Weekend losers
The Oscars. Wow, how about that ending? Not since "The Crying Game" has there been an ending with this kind of twist. Announcing the wrong winner for Best Picture seems almost surreal. And kudos to Jimmy Kimmel, who crushed it as the host, for saying, "I blame Steve Harvey for this."
UTC hoops. Hey, you can't spell "Ultimate Collapse" without UTC, right? The tailspin this bunch is experiencing is staggering. And sad. All of us had lofty expectations for what this bunch could have achieved. Now, with the internal problems that, according to what you choose to listen to, range from protests to immaturity to a lack of experience on the bench to the glaring loss of a couple of key assistants to who knows what, it's hard to see this bunch playing more than two more games.
Baker Mayfield. OK, we were in college, and we got over served a time or three. It happens. Here are the details, but we also think there could be more to this. No matter what happens, we feel pretty sure that Bob Stoops will handle this matter with the strongest of hands. Or not.
Texas state wrestling championship. We spoke about Mack Beggs last week, and how the transgender boy won the region girls wrestling title. Beggs won the state title last weekend. No where in that story, though, is the clear truth that Beggs won while taking testosterone as part of the transition. If we take all the gender discussions out of this - a need since it clouds everything with politics - there is the clear and real advantage of an athlete taking steroids.
Louisville. Yeah, yeah, Louisville could be here a lot. After all they employee the P-Bros. - Petrino and Pitino - and who knows what act of indecency those cats will pull next. Nope, this is a bad look for the school. Here's the back story: Last week Jackson Logsdon hit a lay-up, a free throw, a 3-pointer and a half-court shot at halftime of a U of L women's basketball game. The four-fecta was worth $38,000, something Logsdon said he was going to put toward his student loans. Well, according to the fine print, Logsdon was ruled ineligible because he played basketball "within the last six years" on his high school team. That stinks.
Interesting review
We thought this was interesting, and something we have spent some time discussing around these parts.
Here's a column detailing a lot of the reasons and thoughts behind the sagging TV ratings.
And no, regardless of what the NFL would want us to think, Trump is not to blame. A lot of the reasons are pretty straight forward and make sense.
We are more busy than ever and we have more entertainment options than ever.
But there is more to it than that, and the list is pretty thought-provoking.
It also makes it very clear that baseball and Rob Manfred looking for ways to improve the viewing experience are noble and spot on. Even coming off a year of improved ratings and a record-setting postseason.
In fact, that likely will be something every league - including the all-powerful monolith that is the NFL - will have discussions about sooner rather than later.
This and that
- Bill Paxton died this weekend. He was 61. We will miss you Chet.
- My-King Johnson made news this weekend for a reason beyond being a highly sought-after high school football player with a very unusual name. According to this story Johnson will be the first openly gay scholarship recruit in major college football.
- Welcome back Braves baseball. Ah, the sounds of spring.
- We mentioned the PGA Tour earlier. Also of note, Luke List finished tied for 52nd ($14,924.80) and Harris English was tied for 60th ($14,016) after a couple of really rough final rounds.
Today's question
OK, you know how we roll on Monday.
Weekend winners and losers.
And it's pretty fair to have UTC on each list since the men's team is in a free fall and the women rallied to grab another SoCon title. Seriously, death, taxes and UTC women's basketball claiming conference hardware.
If you need another, well, feel free to answer this question: What role will you most remember Bill Paxton for?
Also, on this day in 2015, Leonard Nimoy died. He was best known as Dr. Spock on Star Trek. Would Spock make the Rushmore of most famous aliens?
Go.