10 Awesome Things That Happened This Weekend (4/4-4/6)

10. Another Sprint Cup Race Ruined By Weather
            The rainout on Sunday made Texas the third weekend of the year impacted by rain, which is a damn shame, because the racing is as good as it’s been in well over a decade. At least Joey Logano put on a good show Monday to secure his first win of the season.

9. Rockies Outfielder Charlie Blackmon Goes Bonkers

            Going 6-6 with four doubles and a dinger, Blackmon probably helped 0.0824% of fantasy teams across the country with his massive stat line on Friday.

8. Chris Johnson Released By Tennessee Titans

            To the uninformed NFL fan, it’s hard to believe that CJ2K is on the scrap heat just five years after setting the record for most total yards from scrimmage.

7. Connecticut and Notre Dame Will Play For Women’s Title Again
            At some point, don’t other colleges have to catch up to these two in recruiting? The women’s pool does appear to be getting a little deeper, but the sport can really take off when there are finally some squads capable of taking down the top two programs. Connecticut is probably going to win by 15 points or more Tuesday night.

6. Derek Jeter Now Eighth On All-Time Hit List
            Jeter passed TECMO Super Baseball great Paul Molitor with two singles on Sunday. If he’s healthy for the majority of the season, there’s a chance he finishes his career sixth on the all-time hit list.

5. 18-Year Old Chase Elliott Wins First Career Nationwide Series Race

            The son of 1988 Winston Cup Champion Bill Elliott, Chase took command for good with a power move off turn four on Kevin Harvick. Between him and Kyle Larson, the future of NASCAR finally looks bright.

4. Timberwolves Knock Off Heat in Double Overtime
            In what will go down as a disappointing 2013-14 campaign, it was good to see the Timberwolves finally win a close game on the road.
          
3. Boston Bruins Clinch Top Seed in Eastern Conference
            Seeding isn’t as big a deal in the NHL as it is in other sports, but of all the teams in the East, Boston appears to be the best built for a deep playoff run.
         
2. UConn Keeps Slaying Giants, Knocks Off Florida in Final 4
            It looks more and more like the Huskies were undervalued after spending their first season playing in a conference devastated by the break-up of the Big East.

1. Aaron Harrison Delivers Another Dagger, Puts Kentucky Into Championship Game

            How many more backbreaking 3s does this guy need to make before we can get a defender to put a hand in his face? Allowing him to get a shot off while protecting a 2-point lead was a fatal error by Wisconsin.

10 Awesome Things That Happened This Weekend (3/28-3/30)

10. Eagles Release DeSean Jackson
            Whether the rumors of DeSean Jackson’s alleged gang involvement are true, kudos to the Eagles for putting character over performance. Jackson was coming off a career year during his first season playing for Chip Kelly, and stands to be a valuable addition for whichever team picks him up.

9. Philadelphia 76ers Win an NBA Basketball Game

            This is only notable because they lost their previous 26 contests.

8. Angels Lock up Mike Trout
            Call me crazy, but the contracts given to Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera over the past few days feel like they should’ve been reversed.

7. Kentucky Peaks at the Perfect Time, Takes Down Louisville in Sweet 16
            We thought this would be Kentucky’s only appearance in this weekend review, but like the majority of our March Madness predictions, we were wrong.

6. Rick Grimes Bites A Dude’s Jugular on “The Walking Dead”

            Big news, Rick isn’t a pansy anymore!

5. Connecticut Stifles Spartans in Second Half, Advances to Final 4

            I thought Michigan State fell apart after the halftime recess, which is very strange for a team coached by Tom Izzo. At least we can feel happy for Connecticut now that Jim Calhoun is no longer their Head Coach.

4. Dayton’s Run Ends, Gators Reach Final 4

            Florida got to play one of the softer a slates a #1 seed has had to face in a long time, and in terms of seeding it stays easy when they face #7 Connecticut. The Huskies were the last team to beat the Gators all the way back in December.
         
3. The Outlaw Returns to Victory Lane
            For those not in the know, The Outlaw is Kurt Busch, who after two seasons racing for under-funded teams, showed he is still championship caliber with a pass of Jimmie Johnson with 10 laps to go.
         
2. Clutch 3 Puts Kentucky Into Final 4
            The Harrison twins have been a dynamic force the entire tournament, and an Aaron Harrison bomb with two seconds left doomed Michigan. They have more raw talent than any of the other Final 4 participants.

1. Wisconsin Takes Down #1 Seed Arizona in Overtime

            Wisconsin is normally known for an offense that sort of runs like a clogged toilet, but thanks to some talented big men, this isn’t your grandfather’s Badgers. They are in there first Final Four in 14 years, and they are my pick to win the whole thing, which probably means you should wager a shit load of money on Kentucky next Saturday.

Fixing College Basketball

            I was going to type a review of college basketball in general after Monday night’s championship game, but my doctor ordered me to avoid college hoops at all costs after watching Connecticut and Butler look like elementary school kids for 40 minutes. I was an assistant coach for a 5^th/6^th grade boys team last year, and I can say with confidence that our team never missed as many lay-ups in one game as Butler did.

            Both teams are better than what they showed Monday night, but the game was a fitting end to an uneven season in college basketball. One-and-done players have created a lack of familiarity, as well as a lack of chemistry between clubs. The only thing that generates a great all around season is if there is an outstanding freshmen class (the group that included Kevin Durant and Greg Oden in 2007 comes to mind). How can we fix college basketball so it is not only more consistently watchable, but also generating better pro prospects? Here are a few simple ideas.

1. Adopt the same rules and regulations as the NBA – Why is it that the three-point line is shorter in college than the pros? How come teams get a 35-second shot clock in college, but only 24 seconds in the pros? Why are there different rules in regards to hand-checking (the NBA’s restrictions on hand-checks make it much easier for guards like Chris Paul and Deron Williams to operate in the NBA than it was for them in college. Does it make any sense that elite point guards would have a tougher road playing on the amateur level than the pros?). The only difference between college and the NBA should be the length of the games.
2. College coaches need to have their clubs attack the basket – The Elite 8 game between Butler and Florida was a great example of a typical college game plan. Instead of using his superior athletes to drive to the hole, Florida Coach Billy Donavan watched his team settle for five contest three-point jump shots between the final minute of regulation and overtime. There’s way to much dribbling around the three-point line, and not nearly enough driving to the basket.
3. NBA should not allow players to play in the league until two years after they graduate high school – The NFL has a similar rule in place that prohibits players from playing in their league until three years after graduation. If this rule had been in place before this season, we could’ve gotten to watch a second year of John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe on Kentucky. While all three have had varying degrees of success during their rookie seasons, how great would it have been to watch them play for one more year together? Casual fans who normally only watch the NCAA Tournament would’ve immediately recognized them from the previous year. This would also provide the NBA with young prospects that the general public has known for a little while (as opposed to the current NBA draft, where it feels like we’ve watched some of these freshmen play for five minutes). For those that can’t make it in college for two years, they can play in Europe or the NBA-D League.
4. Players drafted outside of the lottery should be allowed to return to school if they have remaining eligibility, regardless if they had signed an agent or not – Under current rules, as soon as a player signs an agent, he is ineligible to play in the NCAA ever again. Adjusting this rule would give players a chance to return to school if where they ended up in the draft was not as high as they anticipated.

          That’s all I got for now. I had to plead with my doctor just to be able to write these four things (for those of you that didn’t have the misfortune of watching the game, you’ll just have to trust me). These rules won’t prevent a game like Butler-Connecticut from ever happening again, but they would at least guaruantee a stronger regular season year after year.  

10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (4/1-4/3)

10. Charlie Sheen Bombs in Detroit

            I’m as big a Charlie fan as there is, but when you start your set by saying the city you are performing in is a great place to talk about crack cocaine, you’re digging a bit of a hole for yourself.

9. Nuggets Defeat Lakers in Los Angeles

            Amazingly, Denver is now 15-4 since making the Carmelo trade after their stunning win on the Lakers’ home-court. Head Coach George Karl is making a late push to be the Coach of the Year.

8. Phillies Score Three in the 9^th, Steal Opening Day Win From Astros

            I didn’t watch this live, but did read several hundred angry Tweets from people who have Brandon Lyon on their fantasy team. Good times.

7. My Fiancée Advances to Championship Game in My Fantasy Basketball League

            What is even scarier about this scenario is she is facing me in the championship round.

6. India Wins Cricket World Cup

            Other than the fact that the game is named after an insect, I know nothing about cricket. Apparently though, this tournament was a huge deal to a billion people in India, so that’s pretty cool.

5. Detroit Pistons Retire Dennis Rodman’s Jersey

            Most of you probably remember Rodman as the ace rebounder for the second Bulls three-peat team, but before then he was a member of the Bad Boy Pistons. I may be in the minority here, but I have not gotten nearly enough Dennis Rodman this past decade. For cheap laughs, check out some classic Dennis Rodman moments listed below this paragraph.

Rodman kicks a cameraman in the crotch (you also get to see a very young Kevin Garnett in this clip)

Rodman and Karl Malone trip over each other during Game 4 of NBA Finals

Rodman clobbers Shaq, then is pulled out of scuffle by Jordan and Pippen (watch Pippen laughing when they hit the floor)

Rodman head butts a referee (check out Phil Jackson chuckling at the end of this clip)

Rodman gets into a fight with Alonzo Mourning

Here’s a slide show of Rodman’s many looks (includes his appearances in a wedding dress)

(EDITORS NOTE: I spent about an hour and a half looking at old Rodman clips when looking for links. He couldn’t shoot to save his life, and he may have been insane, but you can’t argue about how much The Worm loved the game)

4. Harvick Passes Dale Jr. to Win at Martinsville

            This race took an eternity to finish (mostly due to Martin Truex making a bold attempt to knock the turn three wall down. Fast forward to around the 1:10 mark of this video to see his crash with Kasey Kahne), but for those who caught the finish it was worth it. While Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning would’ve been the best result for NASCAR, him being in contention to win should be enough to boost fan interest going forward. Don’t be surprised if Junior pulls into victory lane after one of the next three races (Texas, Talladega, Richmond). Those are all tracks he has won at before.

3. Butler Makes 2^nd Straight National Championship Game

            Whether Butler defeats Connecticut tonight or not, the fact that a mid-major made the championship game as a 5^th seed and then an 8^th seed is remarkable.

2. Notre Dame Eliminates Lady Huskies

            With this loss, the citizens of Connecticut are spared of Geno Auriemma’s ego growing even larger than it already was. For greater insight into the Connecticut sports culture, check out a podcast that Bill Simmons did with his friend JackO (click on the podcast called New England Sports, which is currently the second most recent podcast on the page). 

1. Connecticut Survives Against Kentucky

            The Huskies looked like they were going to run away with it, but at least Kentucky made a game of it in the second half.

            Sorry to keep the #1 and #3 posts extra short this week. Look for an extended analysis of the National Championship Game, as well as the state of college basketball, to drop Tuesday or Wednesday.

10 Awesome Things That Happened This Past Weekend (3-14-11)

10. NFL Lockout Begins

            For some reason, the players are demanding 10 years of audited financial data for every team before negotiations can be continued. What this has to do with actual football, I’m not really sure. The bottom line is that there’s plenty of evidence out there (read this piece by ESPN's Lester Munson, because he knows much more about the law and anti-trust suits than I do) that the owners have been planning a lockout ever since the reached a collective bargaining agreement in 2006 that gave the players 60% of all revenue generated by the league. Armed with this knowledge, the players union has gone on the offensive in looking to obtain better health benefits for retired players, and maintain the current revenue set-up. I’ve said all along that both sides would be stupid to risk games in pursuit of money (the NFL did have record TV ratings all season long in 2010), but it seems like they may be that stupid after all.

9. UFC Purchases Strikeforce

            It’s unclear whether or not Strikeforce will remain as it’s own separate entity or be merged into UFC, but this combination should produce intriguing future match-ups.

8. Ohio State Awarded #1 Seed in NCAA Tournament

            You can’t really argue with this, as Ohio State was the most consistent team all season long. They’ll more than likely see a pesky George Mason team in round 2 (or is round three now? I have no idea with this crazy expansion to 68 teams), and then have to face either North Carolina or Connecticut for the right to make the Final 4.

            While I’m here, this is a great opportunity to remind you about the No Credentials At All Tournament Pick ‘Em group on Yahoo. It’s free to join, so sign up now (information on how to join is on the top right corner of this page).

7. Capitals Win 8^th Straight Game in OT Over Blackhawks

            I was fortunate enough to catch the last minute and a half of this game. Washington has offense for days, but will need one of their young goalies to step up and take care of business in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

6. Harrison Barnes Scores 40 to Lead UNC Over Clemson in Overtime

            I’m not going to sit here and guarantee that Barnes will be a superstar in the NBA, but there is no reason that any other player should be taken before him in the NBA draft this summer.

5. Jimmer Drops 52 on New Mexico

            Jimmer Fredette went bonkers, making 22 of 37 shots. It’s a shame their second best player got booted off the team, because this team could’ve made a lot of noise in the tournament. Jimmer will have to drop 30 a game for them to have a shot at making the Elite 8.

4. Duke Hammers North Carolina to Win ACC Tournament

            North Carolina looked like they were out of gas after pulling off two straight comebacks. Both teams will have a chance at making it to the Final Four (Duke as a #1 seed, North Carolina as a #2).

3. Celtics Hold Milwaukee to 56 Points

            Watching the Bucks try to score on Sunday was like watching my 8-month old son try to feed himself.

2. Connecticut Wins Big East Championship Game Over Louisville

            The Big East is comically oversized (seriously, a conference tournament that runs from Tuesday through Saturday is ridiculous), but that doesn’t diminish the Huskies’ accomplishment. Winning five games in five days, with three is of those victories coming against ranked opponents, is arguably as impressive a feat as winning the entire NCAA tournament. We’ll see if they have any legs left against Bucknell. 

1. Fennville High Wins Class “C” Michigan State Title in Boys Basketball

            It won’t be very often that you’ll see a high school sports story on this list, but this one is truly special.