Weekend winners
Keith Mitchell. OK, yes his Sunday flourish was derailed with a late bogey, but he still marched into the top-10 for the second consecutive week on the PGA Tour. Sure, Mitchell’s had a profitable 10 days – he’s made more than $1.5 million in the last two weekends – and he would have loved to go back-to-back, but let’s face, he was not going to post a number better than what Francesco Molinari finished with. So, if almost $300K and qualifying for your first British Open – which Mitchell did with his tied-for-sixth finish at Bay Hill – is you consolation prize, then you win the weekend.
UNC. Regardless of who was or was not on th floor, the Tar Heels were clearly better than Duke on Saturday evening. Clearly Zion is a dude, and his absence in round 1 with the rival Heels was a ready-made excuse because they went into that game believing they had the best player on the floor. Saturday, though, Duke knew they would be Zion-less and the adjustments – and depth – simply were not there. We’ll ask it: As a game-coach is Coach K overrated? Dude has built a machine of a program and we’re not saying he’s not an all-timer because of what Duke has become, but when it comes to an in-game play-caller and maker of adjustments, he looks overmatched an awful lot.
Bradley Central Bearettes. Sure, a lot of the conversation around these parts is about sports. And most of that chatter is about sports at a level that 95-plus percent of us will never know. High-level college to the elite players that earn millions doing what they love. And that’s cool. And it’s fine, because it is something we are interested in, at least in part. But the Bradley Central Bearettes may have done something even more universally cool. They completed the dream that almost all of us have, at least at some level of athletic competition. Forget the over-the-rainbow dreams of scholarships or shoe deals. So many of us dreamed of winning a state title, be it in Little League or in high school. That’s a memory that no one can ever take, and a slew of us would be willing to trade a great deal for. Congrats ladies. Here’s the gamer on the title-clincher, which included Hannah Lombard’s game-winning 3 from Hat Trick Patrick MacCoon. Here’s more on BC super soph Jamaryn Blair from TFP preps ace Hat Trick Patrick MacCoon. (Why Hat Trick Patrick you may ask? Well, come football season – and Spring Fling for sure, dude will average close to three stories a day. Deal? Deal.)
TCU. A road win at Texas moved the Horned Frogs into the current bracket. Also on this line of thinking, Temple’s win Saturday helped its cause greatly. Do you have NCAA tournament questions? Well, Press Row will have NCAA tournament answers today as Joe Lunardi – aka Joey Brackets, aka the Father of Bracketology, aka All-around good dude – is scheduled to join us. Got a question? Leave it in the comments, and maybe we’ll get to it.
Gardner-Webb. Yes the Webbers (or the Grills or Spiders or whatever) advanced to their first NCAA tournament, which is cool. (Shhhhhhhh, there’s a contest on the horizon.) Side question: Best all-time Gardner-Webb hoopster? Don’t look it up. Answer below.
Fans in the LSU student section wave banners and signs supporting suspended coach Will Wade during the school’s men’s basketball game against Vanderbilt on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La.Weekend losers
Will Wade. This was a no-brainer, and everyone knew this was coming late last week. But Wade was still a first-segment story on Sunday’s SportsCenter as he was suspended for the SEC-regular-season-cliching season finale. No es bueno. Here’s TFP ace sports columnist and all-around college basketball savant Mark Wiedmer on looking back at Wade’s time here in Chattanooga.
My AAF picks. Well, we knew it was coming at some point, but we did not know it was coming in an avalanche. All four overs hit in the AAF – Oh My, buckets of points leads to holey-buckets of leaking cash – bucking a month-long trend. Each game was played well into the 40s and that bagel-and-4 on the totals pushed us to a less than impressive 3-5 week. That drops us to a very mediocre 15-13-1. I blame Butch Jones. And Zion Williamson’s hurt knee.
Viewing windows for AAF and NASCAR. It’s contrite to hammer NASCAR. The sport is teetering on hopeless. (Quick: Name the winner of Sunday’s race? We’ll wait.) We also did not watch a single snap of the AAF for the first time all season (and that’s before a month of weekends coming that will have conference title games, NCAA first round, NCAA second round, NCAA Final Four, Augusta). We’ll yield the floor to the excellent Senator from Ooltewah and 5-at-10 regular Bicycle Bob, who describes the NASCAR situation as follows: “I’m a lifelong auto racing fan. As a young boy, my dad and I took in the local short-track races. I’m from here, but at age 5, my dad took a job up north and we moved to Illinois for a few years. Rockford Speedway (paved 1/4 mile oval) was where we spent every exciting summer Saturday evening, and near Indiana, of course I was following the Indy 500 from an early age. Later, my wife and I were regulars at Bristol during the heyday of late 80’s and early 90’s, and more recently, occasional spectators there as recently as 2013. But the state of NASCAR has gotten this bad: yesterday, we watched a couple of basketball games and then my better half asked if we should watch the race. We decided not to, and she ended up finding a rerun of an old Miss Marple mystery on public TV. I was reading but sort of following it and I have to tell you, it was more interesting than the race would have been.” Ouch.
Society. Tragic and beautiful story from Rosana Hughes (and photos by Doug Strickland) is a painful and horrific reminder of where we are that people among us killed a guy for an Xbox 1. If you have not read Rosana’s work in today’s TFP, well, get the tissues ready and here you go. I’m not crying, You’re crying.
The uncertain future of college sports. Forget the FBI tangents and Will Wade and the basketball, the biggest news in college sports was a court ruling Friday night from California. The ramifications and ripples are still trying to be deciphered as judge Claudia Wilken’s ruling, which included the thought that schools could not cap reimbursement to athletes that are “related to education.” Know this: Neither side – the players or the schools – was happy with the decision.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown makes a touchdown catch ahead of Atlanta Falcons cornerback Robert Alford (23) and strong safety Damontae Kazee during the second half of Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh. Brown finished with 101 yards on six catches, including two touchdowns.NFL deal
There are a lot of household names being bandied about in the NFL, be them in trades or possible cap-saving moves. That’s business as usual.
What’s not business as usual is the Steelers trading the best wide receiver in the game for two mid-level picks and eating more than $20 million in cap space to do it.
What’s not business as usual – at least not in the NFL – is a player strong-arming a franchise and getting everything he could possibly want and more.
What’s not business as usual is arguably the league’s most traditional stable franchise – at least in the Super Bowl era – looking like a bastion of dysfunction and disarray. (Because the next story line also deals with the Pittsburgh Steelers and a disgruntled superstar who wants desperately to play anywhere but Pittsburgh.)
So where are we after the Steelers sent Antonio Brown to Oakland for a third- and a fifth-round pick? Well, we are left with a list of winners and losers that deserve its own spot in our morning chat.
Winner: Brown. Hey, you can say whatever you like about his antics, his approach, and certainly that blond-dyed mustache, but Brown got out, got the money he wanted and goes to a place where, say what you want, Jon Gruden has made aging wide receivers young again. Ask Tim Brown, Keshawn and Jerry Rice among others. (Hey, did you guys know that Gruen’s wife was a cheerleader.)
Loser: Steelers. A third and a fifth? Wow.
Winner: Derek Carr. Dude now has the best and most reliable receiver on the perimeter, and with Martavious Bryant also there and Jordy Nelson, that’s a slew of options.
Loser: The league. You better believe the rest of the stars of the NFL are watching – and figuring out if they can match Brown’s power play – with great interest. Brown’s NBA-like player-power move delivered monster results. This will not be the last time this happens.
Winner: Oakland in general and Mike Mayock and Gruden in particular. The Raiders landed a monster weapon. Mayock and Gruden turned Amari Cooper and a third- and a fifth- into Antonio Brown and a first-rounder for the same amount of coin. Think about that.
Loser: The Falcons. Yes, if Brown is getting that kind of leverage and reward, what in the world do you think Julio Jones is expecting after the Falcons ‘promised’ to reward him this summer. Get that check book out, Mr. Blank.
This and that
– Our college hoops picks went 2-2, splitting on Friday and Saturday. We meant to add a couple of picks later Saturday night, but the honey-do was long and strong – and bout to get the friction on. (Side question: Other than church, and that is debatable, there is never a bad spot for a Sir Mix A Lot reference, correct? That’s one of the lower amendments to the Constitution, right? There’s the Bill of Rights, then some other stuff, then it’s like the 26th amendment, right? It deals with voting age and universal inclusion of proper rap references. I think that’s right. If not, it should be.) We head to tournament week – a tough week for certain – sitting at 51-33-2. That’s 60.7 percent for the regular season against the spread. We’ll take that friends and never the twain shall meet.
– That Auburn-Tennessee game was fun. It also reminded us how good Bruce Pearl can be in game and that if AU is hitting 3s, well, they can play with the best in the country.
– Gardner-Webb alum John Drew was an Atlanta Hawks fan favorite in the 1970s and a key part of the best trade ever made by the franchise when they dealt a package of players including Drew to Utah for a local draft pick known as Dominique Wilkins.
– For those wondering, Kyle Busch won the NASCAR race in Phoenix. (Yes, I had to look it up.) Also of note, NASCAR qualifying is now better viewing than NASCAR races. Think about that.
– Oh me. That Jose Canseco has fashioned a strange and surreal existence. Now he is accusing A-Rod of cheating on J-Lo and challenged A-Rod to an MMA bout. Canseco also offered to take a polygraph test. There are no words.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Feel free.
On this day, March 11, well, let’s examine.
Anthony Davis is 26 today. Yes, only 26.
We’ll go here in honor of Mr. Canseco’s offer to take the lie-detector test, who is on the Rushmore of celebrities you would pay to watch take a polygraph test? Discuss.