Weekend winners
Jake Olson. Dude took the field in the USC spring game Saturday, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Yes, lots of young football players did that this weekend. How many of them are blind, like Olson?
UGA football. Kirby Smart asked for a sell-out and Johnny Bulldogs Fans everywhere showed up in mass. With more than 93,000, Georgia set an SEC spring game record (well at least until next year when Saban decides he wants it back. Also of note, THE Ohio State drew more than 100,000 Saturday.) To make matters even better for the Georgia backers among us, freshman hotshot quarterback Jacob Eason was impressive by all accounts, including the knowledgeable eyes of Press Row cohost David Paschall, who was in attendance. (Here’s betting spring games come up a time or three on Press Row today from 3-6 p.m. on ESPN 105.1 The Zone today.)
Alabama defense. We caution against putting too much of anything on spring games. (More on that below.) That said, rewatching the majority of the Alabama defense on Saturday was amazing. Man, want to know what makes an unsettle quarterback situation way easier? Having a defense that will allow on average 11 points next year. That bunch was fast and ferocious.
NBA. The playoffs have started, and the intensity was noticeably elevated. In fact, the Pistons-Cavs game Sunday was highly entertaining. (And man, watching Playoff LeBron vs. Regular-Season LeBron is drastically different. It is for almost all-stars – other than the Warriors, who went pretty close to full tilt since Christmas – but LeBron on Sunday looked seven years younger.) The NBA also got TV numbers back, with the ESPN game ratings up 9 percent from last year and the Sunday ABC ratings up 10 percent from last year.