Weekend winners
UTC hoops. The women handled their BID-ness, winning the SoCon title Sunday afternoon and punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament. Since back-to-back SoCon losses in mid-January, Jim Foster’s Mocs have won 11 consecutive games, capped with a 65-57 win over Mercer on Sunday. Not to be outdone, Matt McCall’s men Mocs have dispatched two upset-minded foes and will face long-time nemesis ETSU tonight at 9 in the SoCon title game. Been a nice run in Asheville for the Blue and Gold.
This guy. Yep, he used the over-the-head, soccer-style, two-handed toss to drain a half-court shot at a Memphis Grizzlies game. His prize was a new Audi A3. Money.
And this guy who saved the kid to his left from getting blasted in the face with a bat at the Braves-Pirates spring training game this weekend. Of note here is a) this is another example of how the extra netting around the field will be quite useful, and b) if the kid was not face-down into a smart phone playing Candy Crush or who knows what, he may have been able to react to the oncoming bat. There’s a real chance that will be the best play made by someone wearing a Braves hat all season.
Adam Scott. Scott has had more than his fair share of bad breaks and mental breakdowns during his up-and-down PGA career. Sunday had some of each. He had two double bogeys in the first six holes before rallying with a birdie barrage. Still, he needed a fortunate break on his approach on 18 – it looked to be water-bound but stayed up – before calmly draining a 6-footer for a one-shot win over Bubba Watson. A few stats that impress: Scott won $1.6 million Sunday; Scott has won in back-to-back weekends for the first time in his PGA career; of active players under 40, Scott’s 13 wins are the most.
Cash Keene. If you are asking who, well, the Signal Mountain third-grader had 31 of his team’s 33 in a 33-29 win in the finals of the SMY basketball tournament. (He played for Alabama, which beat an Auburn team that overachieved despite being poorly coached, in a contested mini-Iron Bowl of youth hoops.)
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Miesha Tate, right, chokes Holly Holm during their UFC 196 women’s bantamweight mixed martial arts match Saturday, March 5, 2016, in Las Vegas. Tate won by submission. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison) Weekend losers
UFC. Normally huge upsets add to the drama of sports. Heck, it’s what help make the March Madness mad. But for the UFC as a whole, the losses of Conor McGregor and Holly Holm is a monstrous kick to the check book. McGregor is the sport’s top draw and if Holm had won it would have set up a HUGE rematch with Ronda Rousey. Instead, they each lost and the sport’s biggest star and biggest draw lost a ton of luster.
The person who bet $3,500 on the Warriors to win straight up Sunday against the Lakers. The Warriors inexplicably lost. As for the payoff, if the Warriors had prevailed, the person who bet $3,500 would have won $50. Yes, you read that correctly.
Fringe NFL running backs. Whether you are Tre Mason (War Eagle) or Joseph Randle it’s tough to hang on to an NFL job in general. It’s even tougher when your team sees your name in the police blotter.
Marco Rubio. Man, a month ago we thought he was going to be the guy. Seriously. Now he likely needs to step down to salvage any part of his political career. Whomever was responsible for Rubio sliding into the muck and trying to outTrump Trump gave him the worst political advice since someone told Nixon to deny everything.
(Mini-Rushmore of bad political advice: The person who told George H.W. Bush to use the phrase “read my lips – no new taxes” and Nixon’s assistant and Clinton’s personal intern hirer and the person who told Honest Abe that it was a swell night to go see a show.) How bad has the GOP primary become? It allowed Bernie Sanders the chance at Sunday’s debate to do his best Larry David impression this weekend when he said, “We are, if elected president, going to invest a lot of money into mental health, and when you watch these Republican debates, you know why.”
NCAA basketball. This is supposed to be the glory month for college hoops. March. The Madness. Brackets and buzzer beaters. Cinderella and blue bloods like UK and KU and UNC and Duke. Now, the case of Ben Simmons continues to swirl. Simmons was stripped from the Wooden Award list because his grades are not good enough. Say what? His grades are good enough to play, as LSU tries to salvage an NCAA bid with several future NBA players, but not good enough to get personal honors. Man, the college basketball system is so broken there are IRS agents looking at this mess and shaking their heads.
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FILE – In this Feb. 4, 2007, file photo, Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Colts’ 29-17 win over the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. He was named game MVP after completing 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File) Peyton Manning
Peyton Manning will make it official later today. He will retire after 18 seasons in the NFL and more passing records than anyone could have dreamed.
Before we move forward, here’s TFP ace columnist Mark Wiedmer’s take on the matter, and as always Weed hits it out of the park.
As for us, it’s hard not to be grateful for what Manning shared with us.
Grateful for the highlights. Pick a notable passing record, and it’s likely Manning either holds the record or is right there within sight of it.
Grateful for the grace he displayed. And regardless of the recent talk of lawsuits and a 20-year-old allegation, Manning’s lifetime of good deeds can’t be or shouldn’t ignored. He has touched far too many lives, including those of the five military heroes killed here last July. When Tracey Smith, father of murdered serviceman Randall Smith called into Press Row to sing Manning’s praises, well, that’s the kind of home run impact he’s had with thousands of people.
Grateful for the laughs he delivered, be them in Nationwide or TV commercials or SNL. The SNL clips, especially, are fall-down funny.
Grateful for the example he set as professional. This beyond the off-the-field heroics and charitable acts, Manning was a pro’s pro. He never took for granted that he was The Quarterback, a fact that has become more and more rare among superstars in today’s 24/7 sports media tsunami.
Grateful for his greatest asset. There are some athletes that we love and follow with unprecedented passion because they are truly amazing. Think of folks like Tiger and Jordan and Tyson. They were freaks and forces of nature. And this is not to say those superstars didn’t work hard. Of course they did. But no matter how hard they worked, their notable great trait was God-given. For Manning, he prepared at a level we have never known. Yes, he was talented, but there’s a certain every-man quality to the superstar that Manning became. Think if Jeff George prepared and studies and worked on his craft the way Peyton did? That would have been the Tiger Woods of quarterbacks. Manning made himself the most prepared and knowledgable quarterback in the history of the league, and in the process carved himself a spot on the short list of the best ever.
And, finally, grateful for his exit. If Manning wanted to play again, that was certainly his prerogative. And, there surely would have been a team interested in Manning. (Heck, the market is so thin at the bottom, teams are wondering if RGIII and/or Colin Kaepernick still have something left.) But selfishly, we did not want to watch Manning get beat out by Nick Foles or hold a clipboard in Houston or, Goodness forbid, get cut next August in Cleveland.
This is the way, and this is the time, at least from the perspective of this Peyton Manning fan.
It will be interesting to where Manning goes from here. His options will be vast, and most TV insiders believe he will be a highly compensated analyst who will in great demand. (We can see that, and in truth, with his knowledge, preparations and ability to diagnose plays at the line of scrimmage, we think he could be the next generation of commentators in an age when fans are smarter than ever and crave more and more depth. Manning could be equal parts clairvoyant and instantly second-guessing to the point of being amazingly insightful.)
But that’s for the future. And we know Manning will be great at whatever he chooses.
Today, however, should be about thanks.
Thank you, Peyton, for being great, and sharing it with all of us.
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This and that
– This may be the most subtle, yet noticeable change in women’s college sports as there is women’s sports. We all know that all of the women’s college basketball tournament games are broadcast on the ESPN family of networks. But it was announced this weekend that more than 600 college softball games will shown by the ESPN broadcast tree this season. Wow.
– So far three basketball teams have punched tickets to the men’s tournament with Northern Iowa (MVC), UNC Asheville (Big South) and Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun) winning their conference tournaments. Northern Iowa’s win – a56-54 thriller over Evansville – included the first (of hopefully many) noteworthy March buzzer-beaters.
– From the files of winners can be losers and losers can be winners, let’s say hello to Steven Bowditch. The No. 78-ranked golfer in the world shot a PGA all-time worst 37-over this weekend at Doral. He had four scores in the 80s – there was no cut at this tournament – and joked he started the even with four dozen golf balls in his locker and he’s “down to the last one.” Still, while his name is in the record book for the worst four-round tournament score in PGA history, he finished Sunday’s 84 in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes and cashed a $48,000 check. That’s turning losing into winning folks.
– More golf tidbits from the weekend: Here’s Bubba Watson hitting a tee shoton a par-4 within 10 feet of the pin this weekend at Doral. Here’s the back-and-forth between Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee and Sergio Garcia. They played this tournament at Trump’s Doral course, and because Trump elicits some of the oddest supports – John Daly is a big fan (emphasis on BIG and insert laugh track here) – here’s Mike Ditka’s support for Trump and less than encouraging words for Barack Obama.
– Swinging for the fences. Illinois just pushed a six-year, $21-million deal toward Lovie Smith to coach the Illini football program. Bold.
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Today’s question
You know the drill: Weekend winners and losers. Go.
It’s also a fair day to offer your Manning memories.
As for something different, well, today is National Cereal Day. What’s on the Rushmore of cereals? (Yes, add-milk cereals, not any of the other multiple meanings of cereal/serial/etc.)
Go and hope you enjoyed the weekend.