Weekend winners
UTC. The women won the SoCon and punched their ticket in Shawn Poppie’s first season on the bench. The men welcomed back the league’s most dominant player in Jake Stephens and are in tonight’s SoCon final with a March Madness bid on the line. That’s kicking some Asheville and taking some names right there.
Auburn. While five teams won automatic bids into the dance over the weekend — including my mom’s alma mater, the mighty Kennesaw State Owls — my alma mater all but stamped its dance pass with arguably its best game of the season with Saturday’s win over UT.
Harris English. The former Baylor School star and UGA standout looked like the pre-injury player who earned a Ryder Cup spot two years ago. A 2-under 70 left Harris tied for second with some Irish fellow named Rory and meant $1.78 million at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Kurt Kitayama (and assuredly not former TFP sports ace David Uchiyama) won the tournament by a shot. Side note: Granted, Palmer made close to a billion bucks in his decorated career with endorsements, product lines and golf course construction, but Arnie made a whopping $1.86 million in golf winnings in his career. Wowser.
Whichever network is hosting the Western Conference playoffs. Man, that looming Dallas-Phoenix series is going to be fun. The Suns got the best of the Mavs on Sunday 130-126, but the star power after those teams added Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, respectively, is dang impressive.