Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after hitting the game-winning shot in overtime of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. Golden State won 121-118. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Weekend winners
Steph Curry. OK, where do we start. Saturday night, Curry’s magic rallied the Golden State Warriors to an overtime win at Oklahoma City. He hit 12 of 16 3s in the 121-118 win, including the game-winner from about 35 feet. (That’s hardly a surprise since from 28-50 feet Curry is 35-of-52. That’s 63.7 percent. There are only two qualified players shooting better than that total.) He broke his NBA record for 3s in a season this weekend, and he has 24 games left to add to that total. Dude is Tiger Woods-esque right now.
The NBA. With Curry and the Warriors rolling, the league has its best regular-season show since Jordan was in Chicago. Looking to the postseason, it’s hard to remember the league with this many intriguing story lines. Warriors’ place in history. Final push for the San Antonio core. LeBron. Clippers’ last stand? Final run for Kevin Durant in OKC? Plus, Curry’s magic Saturday night gave the league its highest TV ratings since 2013 for a regular-season game not on Christmas Day.
Chris Rock. OK, hosting the Oscars with all of this farcical #OscarsSoWhite could have been a disaster for almost anyone. (And while Rock torched the Academy in his opening monologue, it was still a good thing for them a black comedian was hosting the show. Imagine the awkwardness if it had been Hugh Jackman for Pete’s sake.) Rock absolutely killed it. Dude was funny and well-balanced between the issue and the hypocrisy, and even made fun of the needless hand-wringing that is the “Red Carpet” protests from actresses wanting to be asked about more than what they are wearing. (Don’t get us started on that one, but the Webster’s definition of a First-World problem is famous people with eight-figure bank accounts being offended about being asked how beautiful they are.)
UTC basketball. The men and women each collected hardware Saturday at the Roundhouse, the men Mocs claiming the SoCon title outright and the women a share of the league crown. Kudos, and with the SoCon tournament on the horizon, this should be one of the couple dozen schools with NCAA tournament representatives in each bracket. (That said, the Mocs winning the league guarantees at worst an NIT bid, which is nothing to sneeze at in Matt McCall’s first year.)
Vandy basketball. The Commodores took a big step toward punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament with an impressive home win over Kentucky on Saturday. How big was that one game? Well, it may very well have saved Kevin Stallings’ job for starters. As TFP ace sports columnist and SEC college basketball poobah Mark Wiedmer tells us here the final week of the SEC could be wild.
Weekend losers
FILE – In this Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015, file photo, Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel speaks with media members after an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, in Seattle. Dallas police are taking their domestic violence case against Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel to a grand jury. Police said Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 they had completed their investigation into a Jan. 30 incident in which the 2012 Heisman Trophy. (AP Photo/Scott Eklund, File) Johnny Football. Yep, he’s got a criminal case developing in Dallas and he’s hitting the town in Miami. It may be time to start asking who won the weekend and who Manziel-ed the weekend.
Hypocrisy of the Oscars. Sub out Sam Smith’s speech about being an openly gay man winning an Oscar (a speech that was based on faculty inaccuracy) with, say, if Tim Tebow had won any award and dedicated the award to being an openly passionate Christian, and what would the response have been? And Leo, congrats on finally winning but that’s the place for you – and your nine-figure net worth – to start preaching on global warming? Whatever. And nevermind the backlash Stacey Dash got. The Oscars show was equal parts self-deprecating and serious, and well done for the most part, but some of it was hard to handle.
Sergio Garcia. Dude may go down as one of the best ball strikers ever, and one of the worst pressure-moment players of all-time. Garcia has just three wins in the last 13 tournaments in which he held the lead going into the final round. Hard to believe, but that 1999 shot at the PGA that he chased up the fairway may be his career highlight, and fittingly it came in a loss.
Texas lawmakers. Yes, Texas has now passed a law allowing people to carry guns into stadiums. Stadiums. Where passion and alcohol and energy and frustration all meet in one emotional rage. Yep, let’s add loaded weapons to the mix. That sounds peachy. We’re all for the right to bare arms, but dear Lord that’s just flat D-U-M-B.
Anyone who didn’t tear up a little watching the story of Max Hooper go into the stands and hug his bed-ridden father who is fighting cancer Saturday during senior day for Oakland University. Side note as you wipe your eyes: Max Hooper has attempted 229 shots this season. All of them 3s. Yes, you read that correctly.
NFL combine
We did not watch any of the NFL combine this weekend. Yes, we’re surprised by that too.
It simply was too nice outside to be inside and for that we refuse to apologize.
Now, not watching does not equate to not paying attention. With that in mind, here are five takeaways from the combine:
* Darron Lee killed it. The former McCallie middle schooler and The Ohio State linebacker, Lee torched the combine this weekend. Dude dropped a 4.47 in the 40 and wowed everyone. Dude moved into a top-15 overall pick discussion. Remember, last year the Panthers spent a first-round pick on Shaq Thompson, who like Lee moved to LB from safety in college and kept his speed with the added size. Thompson’s flexibility – he played the run and was fast enough to line up with slot receivers – was a hug addition to the Carolina defense that was among the best in the league. In a copy-cat league, Lee’s versatility and speed will be valuable commodities.
* Notre Dame receiver Will Fuller posted a 4.32 40 time, the second quickest this year behind Georgia running back Keith Marshall, who clocked a 4.31. Fuller’s time likely will move him into the conversation with LaQuan Treadwell and others for the first wide out picked. Marshall’s time – which tied for 11th fastest at the combine since 2000 when they switched to electronic timing – likely moved him up several rounds. As we mentioned on Press Row late last week, of all the runners before Marshall who posted a 4.31 or faster in the 40, none were drafted lower than the fourth round, and more than half were first-round picks.
* Mississippi State’s Chris Jones and Louisville’s Sheldon Rankins stood out in a very talented collection of defensive tackles. Rankins is drawing favorable comparisons to Aaron Donald, the Rams defensive tackle who is the best player in the NFL that no one talks about. (Seriously, Donald’s advanced stats blow J.J. Watt out of the Watt-er.) As for Jones, well, he was a physical freak and let it all hang out – literally, you can look it up, but there’s a quite revealing 40 run for Jones on the interweb that’s not fir for a family-oriented, interweb based sports column.
* Mississippi defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche may be the most intriguing prospect in the draft. This time last year, if he could have entered the draft, he would have been a top-five pick for sure. After a so-so junior season with the Rebels, Nkemdiche ran into off-the-field trouble during the holidays and was suspended from the bowl game. His interviews with NFL people at the combine produced stories that he admitted to being lazy and inconsistencies about stories about former Ole Miss teammate and top-overall prospect Laremy Tunsil. That said, Nkemdiche aced the workouts at the combine and clocked a 4.87 40 at 294 pounds while placing in the top five or so of all the physical tests among a very deep defensive tackle group.
* Hand size. That’s all.
This and that
– Speaking of golf, major props to former Baylor School golfer Luke List, who added a tie for 10th at the Honda Classic on Sunday to his impressive start to the 2015-16 season. With that check for more than $146,000, List is now 69th on the money list with more than $446K and is 85th in Fed Ex Cup points with 231.
– Lane and Layla Kiffin are getting a divorce. According to a lot of second-hand stories, that’s not a big surprise.
– Former Alabama quarterback Bart Starr was hospitalized during his time with the Tide from a hazing incident. Here’s a link.
– Former Rhea County High School star and UT standout David Douglas diedlast weekend. He was 52.
Today’s question
Feel free to offer winners or losers or Oscar feedback.
Happy Leap Day.
Let’s do two Rushmores of Leaps. (One with the word Leap in it and then a Rushmore of the most famous jumps.)