Weekend winners (non Scottie version)
The OKC Thunder and the NBA. Led by former Hamilton Heights superduperstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who almost assuredly will finish top three in the MVP voting, the Thunder became the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA playoff history. The grind that is the NBA regular season is finally over and the play-in rounds of the postseason start Tuesday. SGA averaged better than 30 points per this season on a staggering 53.3 FG%.
The WNBA. Caitlin Clark enters the league tonight when the Indiana Fever will almost certainly take her No. 1 overall, but the influx of talent joining Clark has a very 1984 NBA draft when Olajuwan went 1, MJ went 3, Barkley went 4, Alvin Roberston went 7 and John Stockton went 16.
Boban Marjanovic. The wonderfully charismatic Rockets center missed two free throws on purpose so all the fans at the Clippers game would get a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. Good on you, Boban.
UT baseball. The Diamond Vols continued to swing hot bats and swept LSU over the weekend in a meeting of the SEC powers. UT is a staggering 30-6 this season. Here's more from Paschall.
Peter W., who blistered the Mastering the Masterpiece that is the Masters (Masters degree optional) challenge. Like most of the entries, he had eventual champ Scottie Scheffler, but paired him with Morikawa, Fleetwood and Schauffle for a tidy score of 15. Mike B (Scheffler, Schauffle, Zalitoris and Cam Young) finished with 27 points to take second. If someone did better than 15, and I overlooked it, please email me ASAP. Thanks for playing, friends.
Weekend losers
Tiger's weekend was forgettable. Of the players to make the cut, Eldrick finished DFL, which is better than missing the cut I suppose, but he finished a shot back of Vijay Singh who won this thing in like a million years ago. Will we ever see Tiger win again?
Americans. Stupid tax day landed on a Monday. "Someone's got a case of the Mondays." Man, I get it, we gotta fund a lot of our services, but man gubermint do take a bite, you know?
The modern era of spring football games. I get it. The last thing anyone wants is for Johnny QB1 to get hurt in April. But man, these things are now a carnival. Would it have shocked anyone if Lane Kiffin was sitting in a dunk tank with Ole Miss QBs throwing spirals trying to drop in the water?
Caitlin Clark haters. It started during the Final Four and leading into the most anticipated draft in WNBA history, it only continues. Why are all these current and former players bagging on Clark? Is it really just jealousy?
Beam me up
So I wrote on social media that was the most boring Masters Sunday I can recall.
Someone fairly asked in return, why was it any different than what Tiger Woods used to do when he was turning Augusta National into his personal playground.
Fair point. And quite possibly the greatest compliment any golfer could ever get is drawing meaningful Tiger comps.
That's where we are with Scottie Scheffler these days. He entered this Masters as an overwhelming favorite and he completely delivered on every expectation.
Heck, the only way he was not winning his second green sports coat in the last three springs was if Mrs. Scheffler had gone into labor.
(Side question: You are leading the Masters at the turn on Sunday when the phone rings and the Mrs. is about to pop a tot. Do you pack up and go or do you say, "Uh, hon, can we slow roll this thing for a couple more hours?" Discuss.)
Scheffler looks every bit the part of the dominant player of his era right now.
His ball-striking is exquisite. His putter has gotten better. And quite possibly the biggest Tiger-level comparison to me is that we are now to the point of being someone what surprised when he doesn't hit the fairway or land an approach on the putting surface.
Check these numbers: Scottie -- and yeah, it's time to just shorten that puppy to Scott, right? -- has nine PGA wins, with two Masters and two Players Championships among that group.
Want to guess the team picture of the guys in golf history with two or more Masters and two or more Players? That would be Jack, Tiger and now Scheffler.
Moreover, at 27, Scheffler is now the fourth youngest player to have multiple Masters. The three younger are more one-name forever stars Jack, Tiger and Seve.
More Tiger-like comparisons:
In 2023, Scheffler had the best strokes gained tee-to-green of any player since Tiger in 2006 and he had the lowest bogey % of any player on Tour since some dude named Tiger in 2002.
And, like Tiger at the height of his powers, it's very difficult to see anyone derailing the SS Scheffler any time soon, because as Scottie turned my favorite tournament into a Sunday afternoon napfest, he did it by only hitting 64% of greens in regulation, which according to The Athletic, was his second-worst round with his irons over the past 12 months.
Yes, he lapped the Masters field with what was a B-minus-level showing from their strongest part of his game.
Yikes.
The king is dead. Long live the king.
This and that
-- This was arguably the coolest story I saw on tax day as the Rangers and D-backs made sure the clubhouse staff got full World Series shares after last year's October championship series.
-- Just because there's clearly not enough happening in sports right now, please remember that the spring transfer portal for college athletes opens this week, too.
-- You know the rules. Here's Paschall's recap of the UT spring game over the weekend.
-- Braves took two of three from the Marlins, and went over their team total twice. Speaking of our weekend plays, we miscalculated our first Masters prop on Friday. We will juggle the scores accordingly later today. Thanks to J-Mac for catching my oversight. We hit Scottie as the winner (like everyone else on the planet, I suppose) and got Xander in the top 10. Missed Harris English finishing top-20 by a single shot and Russell Henely too. So it goes.
Today's questions
So, weekend winners and losers. Go.
As for multiple choice Monday, let's do this one:
Which golfer in his prime are you picking?
-- Current Scottie.
-- Old school Jack.
-- Early 2000s Tiger.
-- Other and specify.
As for today, I think we have done a Rushmore of tax before, no?
The Titanic hit the iceberg on this day, which then led Rose to kill Jack. (Spoiler alert.)
Jackie Robinson debuted for the Dodgers on this day in 1947 in arguably the most important American sports game ever.
Leonardo da Vinci would have been 572 today.
Rushmore of "Leo/Leonardo" and be creative.