5-at-10: Weekend winners, losers, tons of NCAA tournament reflection, Rushmore of female singers


              South Carolina head coach Frank Martin cuts down the net after beating Florida 77-70 in the East Regional championship game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 26, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
South Carolina head coach Frank Martin cuts down the net after beating Florida 77-70 in the East Regional championship game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 26, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Weekend winners

* Frank Martin. Everything Martin touches right now is golden. His team is in the Final Four for the first time in South Carolina history. He had a glorious response for the SI for Kids reporter after the Elite Eight win. He has let all of us behind the current and we simply can't get enough.

* Dustin Johnson. "I didn't give him any holes excpet for 10," Johnson told NBC's Steve Sands of his match with Rahm. "It was tough out there. The greens got fast. Jon played really well. I didn't give him anything. I'm playing pretty well. Today was a really tough day. I'm proud of the way I played and stayed in there." That's what Johnson told NBC's Steve Sands after winning the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship. Playing pretty well, Dustin? You have won the last three events you have entered sir and played 112 match-play holes last week in Austin, Texas, and trailed in exactly none of them. That's amazing.

* Joe Thomas. You have to like the measure of the man that is Joe Thomas. Dude is one five NFL players ever to make 10 straight Pro Bowls. He plays every snap, even telling a back-up late in the 2015 season who was sent in late in another Browns loss to get back to the sideline. And he obviously is wise beyond his years. Read this Tweet from Saturday: My thoughts re: @Kaepernick7? Teams don't currently view him as a starting QB, and NFL teams accept ZERO distractions from their backup QBs. Any questions?

* Morgan William. The small Mississippi State point guard dropped 41 on Baylor - the most ever by an SEC player in an NCAA tournament game - to get the Bulldogs to the Final Four. She went 13-of-22 from the floor - 6-of-8 from 3 - and made nine of her 10 free throws and had seven assists with no turnovers. Here's a well-done story on William dedicating her record-setting performance to her step dad, former Samford football player Donnie Rory, who died close to three years ago. He was 44.

* Let's go off the board with the last one, and pay special tribute to the Crying Jordan softball team, which has as its uniform logo - you guessed it - the Crying Jordan meme. We gave no idea if this bunch can play a lick, but they should get to start every game with a 4-0 lead for creativity. Well-played indeed sir.

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Weekend losers

* The Washington Redskins. Yes, we could normally put the Redskins here for a variety of reasons. Today, we offer their simple tone deafness. In last week's NFL proposed rule changes Washington pitched the idea to do away with the 'Color Rush' uniforms because they are, and we quote, "way too garish." So, yes, the team that in many people's eyes are a walking embodiment of a derogatory term for an entire race of people is upset by the color scheme of Thursday night unis, and they want answers. Egad.

* Your Atlanta Braves. Three more losses this weekend puts the Braves at 7-21. How'd they ever win seven? It's a miracle. Yes, yes, it's spring training. But wow, that's losing at a hard to define level of consistency.

* The Republican Party. What was that? Man, the GOP dropped the B-A-L-L. regardless of which side of the healthcare discussion you are on, that was the proverbial, "Messing up a one-car funeral" on how that was handled by the party that controls the White House and Congress. Oy.

* Oakland. There are few professional sports teams that have a connection with their fans the way the Raiders did with the folks in Oakland and the famous Black Hole. It's all but a done deal that the team will head to Sin City, meaning the Las Vegas Raiders will be the new reality.

* All of us who were expecting to be done with LaVar Ball. UCLA was bounced, and LaVar's boy Lonzo was out-played pretty badly by Kentucky freshman De'Aaron Fox. (Ball 10 points, eight assists; Fox 13-of-20 from the field for 39 points.) Papa Ball told CBSsports.com: "No one is going to take De'Aaron Fox over him because of one game. It's about your body of work, and people know what he can do." True in theory, but it's not like Fox is chopped liver. And now, if you thought the bouncing Ball show was going to be a headache only for NBA fans, LaVar reminded us that his middle son LiAngelo is coming to UCLA next season and the hype will continue: He's (LiAngelo) chasing Lonzo and has the same mindset. He's a different type of player. He's 6-foot-6, 240 pounds, and is a scorer. He might average 20 next year, maybe even close to 30 a game. He's been a scorer all his life. He's led Chino Hills in scoring all four years. UCLA is losing all their scorers -- Lonzo, TJ [Leaf] and [Isaac] Hamilton. Nobody who's coming in is a better scorer than Gelo."

* The 5-at-10's Final Four picks for the tie-breaker. All four of our selections were done before the weekend. On that note, congrats to Kyle O. and Carl T. who advanced to the double-secret probation tie-breaker with exactly one correct Final Four pick. Go Zags, right fellows. We'll have details for the tie-breaker tomorrow.

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Madness indeed

That was a crazy four days.

We are reminded this time every year of the best about college hoops, even though the previous three months have been forever changed. That's OK, too, because these three weeks are always better than we remember, right?

The runs of the mid-majors always seem better. This year, there were a lot of high-powered familiar names dancing longer collectively than most years.
It's a dizzying draw, this open flame of gambling, upsets, unknown outcomes and emotional tension that draws us like the fluttering moth sports fans. We are drawn to it, whether our team is involved or not, giving it a special place that is the opposite in value of the relative indifference that Saturdays in January or Big Monday's in February are given.

These stories are special, even when they are wrapped by a Final Four that includes a short-list member of best program ever, a team that has not been to the Final Four since winning the first Final Four, and two all-time newcomers.

There were a ton of great winners and painful losers this weekend, enough to fill the above spaces multiple times over.

But we wanted all of the other tournament tidbits beyond Frank Martin's rise to America's favorite new face to be included here.

The numbers are up. Way up. Turner and CBS are reporting that the 2017 tournament coverage through Friday's games ranked as the most watched since 1993 in the view of Nielsen. Each game averaged - averaged, mind you - 9.8 million viewers in the Sweet 16 round, an increase of 11 percent from 2016. Friday night's Sweet 16 games - it included UCLA-Kentucky - averaged 12 million viewers to make it the third-most watched Regional Semifinal Friday since 1993.

As for the big news from the weekend, well, we believe there are several amazing shorelines. Let's review, in reverse order:

5. The heavy weight of expectations for Kansas and Kentucky. Man, when you are in a place that nothing short of getting to the title game means a disappointing season, well, you know two things: You are winning at a mind-blowing clip and you are rooting for either Alabama football or Kansas and Kentucky basketball. Because even Duke's loss this year felt some what benign by comparison, you know.

4. Zags finally zig at the right time. You could certainly make an argument for Mark Few winning the weekend since, if he and Gonzaga had lost, he was going to hear quite a bit about being the all-time NCAA tournament wins leader among coaches who had never made the Final Four. Now that distinction goes back to former Temple coach John Chaney, who has 23 career NCAA tournament win with no trip to the Final Four.

3. Oregon paddles beyond doomsday predictions after losing center Chris Boucher. With a backcourt that is shooting lights out in every way.

2. South Carolina makes the most of its March march. How great has it been for Martin and the Gamecocks? Not sure you can put a value on this or even put it into words. Side note: Loved this stat, via the @LeBatardShow Twitter handle: Only 106,192 of the 18.8 million brackets (.56%) had South Carolina in the Final Four. And Papi LeBatard was one of them.

1. UNC magic moment landed in the heart of Big Blue Nation. What a finish to the UNC-Kentucky game. Wow. Neither team flinched. Each team made monster play after monster play. It was great theater, and the only downside is that one team who was worthy of a Final Four was going to lose.
That said, my bracket is complete and total rubbish. Stupid Arizona. And let's try to remember this come next year when we are bracket-izing. These teams are, for the most part, who we believe them to be from the beginning of the season on, barring injury. Look at this story on NCAA.com about the preseason poll and check out the teams that made the Sweet 16 and where they were ranked in the preseason. Only South Carolina and Baylor were not mentioned in the preseason AP poll.

Wisconsin (preseason No. 9), Florida (received votes), Baylor (not ranked), South Carolina (not ranked), Gonzaga (No. 14), West Virginia (No. 21), Xavier (No. 7), Arizona (No. 10), Kansas (No. 3), Purdue (No. 15), Oregon (No. 5), Michigan (received votes), UNC (No. 6), Butler (received votes), UCLA (No. 16), and Kentucky (No. 2).

Only two top 10 preseason teams - Duke, which had a ton of issues all year, and Villanova - did not make the sweet 16.
One more thing: If you are wondering why Tom Crean was fired a year after winning the Big Ten, well, the Hooisers were preseason No. 11 and did not dance.

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This and that

* Congrats on both directions, with Downtown Patrick Brown taking his skills to 247sports.com to continue his UT excellence, and to TFP rising star David Cobb for taking over the UT beat at the end of the week, For those interest in such matters, Dancin' David Cobb's Twitter handle is @DavidWCobb. Both those cats are good at this job, so it's a win-win for each.

* In case you are wondering, and most of you probably are, CBSsports.com has a Friday Five that ranks things in the college football world. Last Friday, it was the hottest coaching seats entering 2017. Here's their list (from least to most hot) 5. Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M 4. Rich Rodriguez, Arizona; 3. Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech; 2. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame; 1. The Champion of LIfe himself, Butch Jones, Tennessee. Yes, we are surprised that a) Gus Malzahn's name did not crack the top five and b) Butch is numero uno. Discuss.

* Speaking of not-so-meaningful championships and distinctions, the powers that be in Knoxville are gung-ho about having Al Roker from The Today Show in town this week in an effort to break a Guiness Book of World Records mark. UT bigwigs are hoping 4,000 folks will show and be part of a ginormous Power T. Yep, from Champions of Life to Champions of Letters. Somewhere Gen. Neyland just punched an angel.

* One more golf tidbit: Hideto Tanihara topped Jordan Spieth in pool play at the WGC and advance to the semifinals to get into the Masters. Hideto was stoked about it during an interview with NBC on Saturday, which featured his interpreter. Watch the interviews with the international players who need an interpreter, and the golfer's answer will be like 800 words and the interpreter will say," I am very happy to be in the Masters."

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Today's questions

Winners, and losers. Yes please.

What's the best tournament moment so far?

Would you draft De'Aaron Fox over Lonzo Ball?

As for March 27 in history, on this day in 1513, Ponce de Leoon and his expedition see Florida for the first time. Allegedly they spied a gaggle of college kids funneling beers in jorts and tank tops. At least, that's how I read the translation.

On this day in 1931, Hall of Fame manager John McGraw said night baseball will never catch on. Wonder if he had any relatives in the meetings to come up with New Coke?

We talked about title expectations for Kansas and Kentucky, well, blue-blood fans, remember that on this day in 1951, UK beat KU for the NCAA men's hoops title.

Also of note, Adolph Rupp retied on this day in 1972, and it's the day Kentucky beat Duke 94-88 for the 1978 NCAA crown.

As for a Rushmore, Mariah Carey is 46 today. Rushmore of best female voices of the last 30 years.

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