Weekend winners
Kentucky hoops. Monster win for the Big Blue Nation on Saturday as Cal's Cats completed a season sweep of the Tennessee Vols. And Saturday's win over No. 10 Tennessee -- which was coming off its biggest win of the season Wednesday over top-ranked Alabama -- all but punched UK's dance card in less than three weeks. (Side question: How nuts is it that selection Sunday is 20 days from this morning?)
Jon Rahm. Dude is in full-blown crush mode. He has five wins in his last nine starts. And the scary thing about his win this weekend at the Genesis was he prevailed over a world-class field with at best his B-minus game on Sunday.
The Dunk Contest. Sweet buckets Mac McClurg, you do your thing. In truth, I did not watch a moment of said Dunk Contest, but the fact that folks were talking positively about the Dunk Contest is a monster step forward. Man, think back to circa 1986 and some true NBA superstars -- MJ, the Doctor, 'Nique, et al. -- were in the Dunk Contest. If Mac McClurg walked into your office tomorrow morning, would you recognize him?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. If you are asking, "Who is that? Is that one of the kids on Greeson's youth team this season?" well, that makes sense. And it makes NASCAR cry. The man who until Sunday was likely best known in racing terms as being married to Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500. Seriously.
All of us. The weather turned. Most of you smart and gainfully employed folks got today off. Heck, with no NFL for the first time since Labor Day, you may have even had the chance to spend a little time with the significant other and those kids, I forget their names.
Weekend losers
All of us. When does real football start back? Seriously. How long until the draft?
Auburn hoops. Gross. And man KD Johnson can shoot into any game and out of any game like few other college basketball players I can recall. The Tigers have four games left -- at home against Ole Miss, at Kentucky, at home against UT and at Alabama -- and anything short of 2-2 in that stretch means Auburn likely will be a 1 seed in the NIT.
Load management. OK, load management sucks. Heck, LeBron came out this weekend at the All-Star Game against it. (Side note: If we are are talking about losers of the weekend, wow, that All-Star Game last night was DEEEE-readful. In every regard. I'd rather watch the last five Grammys than an NBA All-Star Game.) Anywell, Adam Silver came to the defense of load management (and his players and his product) over the weekend. Silver said it has proven to help the wear-and-tear on players. He's right of course, but load management needs a little structure -- for fans and for gamblers, if we're going to discuss it openly. No star should be allowed to manage his load (load management sounds way better than managing your load, right?) in the one road trip to the opposite conference sites. For example, LeBron should not be allowed to sit when the Lakers come to Atlanta because who knows which family has sold a kidney to get seats so little Jimmy can watch his favorite player in person. Then poof, "LeBron: DNP, tired toes."
Don Lemon. If you know, you are nodding. If you don't know, you're likely better off.
XFL. I tried. Truly. And that was with a slew of bets on the action. I know some folks will find ways to rationalize its existence -- and man, could you tell that ESPN and the XFL are partners this weekend? -- but it was a tough watch.
Sexism in sports
So one of the best sports stories of the weekend was Tiger Woods returning to the Tour, making the cut and showing us flashes of Tiger being Tiger on Saturday.
It was fun, especially in the first two rounds.
So much fun that a lot of us did not notice Tiger's juvenile joke in the first round when he handed Justin Thomas a tampon after out-driving JT.
At first, I thought, "Wow, Tiger is a middle schooler, and in truth that's neither smart nor funny."
But then Christine Brennan of USA Today wrote about the gesture and its insulting premise. At first glance to her column, I shrugged because Christine Brennan has made a career about being outraged over almost anything.
But in a moment of clarity, I asked my wife if she found Tiger's tampon gag offensive.
She said she thought it was stupid. And then after a lengthy moment of thought she said it absolutely was offensive. And she is right, especially from the point of view from female athletes.
(Side note: While we are here, ESPN commentator Randy Scott left a women's college basketball highlight over the weekend to go to a men's college basketball clip and said something along the lines of, "back to actual basketball." I think Randy Scott is aces and we all have had slips of the tongue -- which I firmly believe this was -- but it's not a real good look either.)
The gender jokes in golf are not only common, they are rather ubiquitous. "Does your husband play?" "Nice putt, Alice." You name it. That's not excusing it nor saying it's cool; that's just a statement about the dialogue between players who assuredly thought Tiger's gesture was no big deal.
But here's the thing: Every Tiger gesture is a big deal. That's part of the process of being added to the GOAT discussion. That's part of the process of making hundreds of millions playing a game the rest of us pay to play and making hundreds of millions more to use equipment the rest of us pay handsomely for.
Never mind the fact that he did not tell JT to play from the ladies' tees or even hand him a pink ball, but he handed him a tampon.
Tiger apologized -- as he should have, since the women I have talked to were less than pleased by the prank -- and we'll move along.
But for someone who has forever been in the spotlight -- and for a long, long, long time has had some issues with respect toward women -- Tiger's gift to Justin Thomas was not talking trash.
It was just trashy.
This and that
-- Speaking of golf, Keith Mitchell continued to cash checks -- for himself and for any of us who continue to bet on him to finish in the top 10 -- on Tour. Keith made $820,000 for his fifth-place finish.
-- Of the other Baylor School alums, Harris English tied with Scottie Scheffler for 12th and made $445,000. Luke List made $134,000 for tying for 29th.Stephan Jaeger tied for 40th and made $79,000. Good work if you can get it, right?
-- Rest easy Richard Belzer. You were funny.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers.
Go.
As for multiple choice Monday, let's go here:
Which event did you watch the most of this weekend?
-- PGA
-- NASCAR
-- XFL
-- NBA All-Star festivities.
Discuss.
As for today, Feb. 20, let's review.
Hey, it's President's Day.
Let's do a Rushmore of days that should be a holiday that aren't.
Go, and have a great day.