Well, here's hoping you enjoyed Easter.
It's Monday; time to check the scoreboard for winners and losers from the weekend.
From the "Talks too much" studio, it's time for the ball to be tipped.
Weekend winners
Kentucky's Andrew Harrison, center, fights for a rebound with Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes, left, and Sam Dekker, right, during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game Saturday, April 4, 2015, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) * Wisconsin. Duo of Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker looked the part of NBAers - and Dekker was drawing very nice reviews and even some Detlef Schrempf comparisons. Bo Ryan's system and connection with his players was evident and impressive. Plus, the Badgers' secret weapon - they are aces from the foul line - hopefully can serve as a tutorial for future programs. Amazing, and tip of the visor to Jomo who has been saying all year the Badgers would bag Kentucky.
* Golf. The Masters is here. Tiger is playing. At least for a week, all of the troubles and issues are put on the back burner because of the best annual event in individual sports. Amen, and pass the pimento cheese. (Yes, we're having the contest. More on that below.)
* Baseball fans, especially in San Diego. As Tim Kurkjian said, the Padres went from being irrelevant to being a factor in the NL in a matter of months - and being the beneficiary of the Braves' "Let's start stinking BIG-TIME" firesale. Side note: How bad must Melvin Upton Jr.'s reputation be in the eyes of scouts if the Braves had to package the best closer in baseball to get rid of Upton's contract. Stinky Upton indeed.
* Sports fans. April is a sneaky awesome sports month, and the next six weeks is pretty stellar. Check out the calendar. Final Four gives way to Opening Day, which gives way to the Masters which gives way to the NBA playoffs which gives to the NFL draft which gives way to Mayweather-Pacquio which gives way to the Kentucky Derby. Nice.
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Weekend losers
* Kentucky (and those who wanted to see history). Man, that was a fun game to watch and it stunk that someone had to lose, especially for safety-searching folks in the greater-Kentucky area. But the better team on the floor on Saturday won. Wisconsin played better and out Kentucky-ied Kentucky down the stretch. Tip of the visor to those guys. Now, let's go Duke.
Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel delivers a pitch against the Washington Nationals in this Sept. 10, 2014, file photo.* Men needs to pee at Wrigley. From Kris Bryant to the not-ready-for-prime-time Wrigley improvements to this, it's not exactly been a dream spring for the Cubs fans and front office types.
* Braves fans. OK, if you believed in wearing pro team jerseys - and that's well within your rights - and after last year your Braves collection included their best overall player (Craig Kimbrel), their best position player (Justin Upton), their best homegrown prospect who was arguably the best defensive outfielder in baseball (Jason Heyward), their opening day starting pitcher for 2014 (Erwin Santana), their best feel-good story and raw power hitter because chicks dig the long ball (Evan Gattis), exactly zero of those jerseys would be an option this year. Now add in the fact that Melvin Upton Jr. and Dan Uggla have serious potential to battle it out for comeback player of the year - yes that'd be the longest of long shots but still - and meet the 2015 Atlanta Braves, the No. 2 preseason pick to win the Southern League behind the Chattanooga Lookouts
* Rolling Stone. The Columbia Journal Review nuked the magazine editors and the writer of the controversial story about an alleged rape at UVa. Here's more, and man there is no way to calculate the damage and the depths of mistakes this egregious - or calculated - by those involved.
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Masters contest
Ah, Augusta.
Quite possibly our favorite sporting event of the year.
FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2015, file photo, Tiger Woods tees off on the 17th hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. Tiger Woods has made up his mind _ he will play the Masters. After two trips to Augusta National this week, Woods announced his return to competition on his website Friday, April 3, 2015. He wrote: "I'm playing the Masters. It's obviously very important to me, and I want to be there."(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File) Here's an interesting look at the players ranked in order from CBSsports.com (Tiger is like No. 67).
And as we always do, here's the announcement for our fifth annual Masters contest.
We are definitely will have the fifth annual Masterfully Mastering the Masters Contest. The rules are simple: Pick five golfers in the Augusta field and the top four count. Where they finish in the standings is the number of points each player earns and the lowest total wins. For example, if you have Jason Day (who we have as the favorite) and he wins that's worth one point.
Our entry is Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker.
Whatcha' got?
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This and that
Wayne Golden- Enjoyed TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer's stroll down Mocs memory lane here.
- UConn will face Notre Dame for the women's title Tuesday. UConn pushed in Vegas' view with an 81-58 semifinal win over fellow-No. 1 seed Maryland on Sunday.Parity, we don't need no stinking parity. We are unable to find an official spread for the title game, but if we gave you Notre Dame plus-18 would you take it?
- LeBron messed around and posted a triple double on Sunday as the Cavs all-but clinched the division and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
- Who you got tonight? Duke or Wisconsin?
- Side note: Adam Wainwright may be the single worst trade in the history of the Braves organization, and that's saying something. Let's remember that Wainwright was sent to St. Louis as part of the one-year rental of J.D. Drew. Wainwright shut down the Cubs last night and is 120-66 with a career ERA right at 3 in his career with the Cardinals.
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Today's question
As we do every Monday, kick around who won and lost the weekend.
Also, enter the contest - it don't cost nothing' after all.
Finally, which will be higher Braves win total (Vegas set the over/under line at 73) this season or Tiger's worst round this week at Augusta?