Weekend winners
< Aaron Rodgers. Yes, all of the playoff games became one-sided and were far from entertaining in terms of drama. But other than LeVeon Bell, who set a Pittsburgh Steelers rushing record in Sunday's runaway over the Dolphins, no player was more impressive than Rodgers. His top receiver leaves the game with bad ribs. No sweat. He's handing the ball off to some guy wearing 88. No problem. Rodgers was aces in the final three quarters and was simply deadly when rolling out.
< Frisky 4 picks. While the entertainment value in the second halves of the Wildcard playoff games was relatively minuscule, the hunt for entertainment around these parts continues to be quite fruitful. A fifth consecutive 3-1 mark against the spread - our lone loss was the under 44.5 in the Green Bay-New York game that went over in part because Rodgers hit a Hail Mary right before half - moves us to 15-5 since starting NFL picks in early December.
< Russell Westbrook. Dude's avalanche on the stat charts is eye-popping. He routinely records triple-doubles in the equivalent of two quarters. He is averaging a triple-double for the season, and as we approach the halfway point of the NBA season, we're of the mind that it would only be surprising if he didn't average a triple-double. He had more triple-doubles (31) in the calendar year 2016 than any player ever, passing Oscar Robertson's 30 back when he averaged a triple-double for the season in 1960-61. Westrbook logged another one over the weekend, scoring 32, grabbing 17 boards and handing out 11 assists. It was his 10th triple-double of the season with more than 30 points, the most by any player in a season since some dude named Jordan had 10 in 1988-89. (You have to feel pretty good about Russ passing that total since we are heading into Game 39.)
< Kentucky basketball. There have been some historic recruiting classes through the years of college basketball. Of course there was the Fab Five at Michigan back in the day. There was the great collective groups at Florida in the early 2000s and UNC later that decade. And John Calipari has consistently coaxed a river of talent to Lexington since 2009. UK has finished No. 1 in recruiting in all but two of Coach Cal's years with the Cats. They finished second in those two years. Well, this may be the best collection Cal has ever landed. With a five-star commitment this weekend, Cal has pledges from six of the top 45 players in the country and five five-stars. And to make matters even more impressive, Cal’s five five-stars are a point guard, a shooting guard, a small forward, a power forward and a center. The sixth player – Shai Alexander from Hamilton Heights here in Chattanooga – is a combo guard because, well, he’s Cal and everyone else is not.