Weekly Update January 2, 2023 – First post of 2023!

Basketball-NBA: Doncic has a streak going and so do the Nets. Zion career high. Hield scores fastest 3 ever. Antetokounmpo joins elite company.

Basketball-NCAA: Week 8 sees 7 upsets.

Football – NCAA: Bowl games week 3 results (all but today’s bowls). CFP Playoffs were amazing football watching.

Football- NFL: Week 17 only had 6 close games but had some good upsets. Mac Jones fined again. Who is fighting for the wild card spots?

Olympic Sports: Shiffrin 2 away from Vonn’s record. USA 1-2. Mayer retires. Tennis star Navratilova has cancer x2. Ledecky wins AP athlete of year.

Soccer: Pele dies.

Basketball – NBA:

• Luka Doncic is on a roll for the Mavericks. He had a 60-point game against Knicks on Tuesday followed by a 51 point game against the Spurs on Saturday. Those were 2 of his 3 games over 50 points in the past 5 games. His 51 points against the Spurs was needed to win by 1 and keep their 6 game winning streak alive.
• Zion Williamson, Pelicans star, scored a career high 43 points in their game vs the Timberwolves. He scored 33 in 2H alone.

• On Thursday, Pacers player Buddy Hield broke a NBA record for the fastest 3-pointer taking just 3 seconds to sink the shot. The previous record was held by the same team, Reggie Miller at 4 seconds since 2000. The Pacers beat the Cavaliers 135-126.
• The Nets sit at 11 wins in a row, which is encroaching upon the franchise record of 14. They play the Spurs tonight.

• Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 43 points and 20 rebounds in their game over the Timberwolves on Friday. That snapped the 4 game losing streak for the Milwaukee team and makes Giannis join elite company. Only Wilt Chamberlin and Elgin Baylor have had back-to-back games with 40 points, 20 rebounds and 5 assists; Giannis is the first to accomplish the feat since 1966.

Basketball-NCAA:

• NCAAM Week 8: #8 Alabama beat #21 Mississippi St in their first SEC game of the season. #9 Arkansas lost to unranked LSU and might break into the rankings after beating the Razorbacks in a close one. Mizzou is now 12-1 and beat #19 Kentucky who has now lost 4 games. Newly ranked #25 UNC lost to Pitt by 2 despite leading at half. There was a Big East showdown on Saturday between #2 UConn and #22 Xavier. It was a close game at half but the Huskies had a low scoring half getting beat by 10 points. Iowa St put the beatdown on #12 Baylor, beating the 2021 champs by 15. Kansas St and #24 West Virginia went into OT after K St had a killed 2H. They then finished the job in OT beating the newly ranked Mountaineers.

Football-NCAA:

• Bowl Games week 3:
  • Duke wins over UCF in the Military Bowl with a school record number of sacks in a bowl game. Duke wins 30-13.
  • Kansas overcomes a 24-point deficit to go into OT with Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl. But then loses in 3OT in a very anti-climatic play.
  • The Holiday Bowl was back and forth between 2 big college brands – UNC and #15 Oregon. Oregon scored the tying TD with 19 seconds left in the game and only needed the PAT to take the win. Well the kick hit the posts but bounced in and the Ducks take it.
  • Ole Miss lost their 4^th game in a row (Bama, Arkansas and Miss St). This time to Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl. Red Raiders won 42-25.

• • Oklahoma looked better than expected taking on #13 Florida St down to the wire, leading in the 4Q. Then FSU took a 7 point lead but the Sooners scored the tying TD with 3:45 to go in the game. But all the Seminoles needed was a FG which they got with 55 seconds left. FSU wins by 3.
  • #12 Washington beat #20 Texas in the Alamo Bowl, despite the Longhorns having the basically home field advantage.
  • #6 Tennessee handled #7 Clemson with ease, winning the Orangest Orange Bowl 31-14. Both teams were without their starting QBs.
  • Pitt upset #18 UCLA with a late FG in the Sun Bowl.
  • #21 Notre Dame beat newly ranked #19 South Carolina 45-38 in a high scoring Gator Bowl.

• • Maryland won the Mayo Bowl over #23 NC St and its their first win over a CFP ranked team since the CFP started.
  • Last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, Bryce Young and several other big names actually played for the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl and it showed. The Tide beat Kansas St 45-20, despite a slow start.

• It was finally time! The Playoff was here. First time 2 Big 10 teams and 2 non-conference champions were in playoff. TCU and Michigan have never played each other. GA and Ohio St have played once (Herbie was QB). GA basically had a home game – played two games in the stadium this stadium and outscored opponents 99-33.
  • We started with the #3 TCU vs #2 Michigan Fiesta Bowl. It did not disappoint. The Horned Frogs heard all the doubt in the month leading up to the game and took it personally. They came out hot, leading 21-6 at half (and that’s with the 59 yard FG Michigan scored with 0 time left in the 1H). But Michigan didn’t make it to this game by accident, they fought back, trying to pull off the biggest comeback in CFP history. They nearly did it too, coming to within 3 points but TCU always answered. The first Big 12 team makes it to the National Championship with TCU beating Michigan 51-45.

• • Before this year, only 3 playoff games had been decided by single digits. Naturally that means, this one should be a blow out. The Peach Bowl was #1 Georgia vs #4 Ohio St. #1 Georgia was favored by 5 points over #4 Ohio St. Spoilers – they did not cover. Ohio St got rolling coming to a 21-7 lead in the 2Q. That 2Q was crazy as we had a combined 38 points scored in 2Q alone. We went to halftime 28-24 Ohio St. 3Q was all Buckeyes too tacking on 10 more points. Georgia isn’t the defending champ for nothing though, they fought their way back in but still trailed 41-35 with just under 6m to go in the game. Stenson Bennett, who had looked mediocre all game, lead the Dawgs to an amazing 72-yard TD drive with 1:49 to go. Dawgs up by 1. So all Ohio St needed to do was get into FG range – which their kicker is one of the best in the country. They got to a 50 yard FG attempt before their kicker Ruggles missed it to lose the game and national championship berth by 1 point.

Football – NFL:

• Week 17: Only 6 close games this week. The Cowboys had smooth sailing to their win in TNF over the Titans. That combined with the Eagles loss to the Saints (still with their backup QB but ugh that one hurts), makes the Dallas team just 1 win behind the Eagles now in the NFC East. The Jaguars end 9 game losing streak by killing the Texans 31-3. The Falcons beat the Cardinals (game of the birds) by 1 kicking a game-winning FG. The Lions destroyed the Bears 41-10. The Chiefs beat the Broncos in a close one despite the Broncos struggles lately, only winning by 3. RB Jerick McKinnon made history in this game making it 5 consecutive games with 5 receiving TDs. The Patriots beat the Dolphins by 2 with a Pick 6. The Giants scored 24 points in the 2Q alone and beat the Colts by more than that amount. The Buccaneers bounced back nicely with 3 Brady to Evan TDs, beating the Panthers by 6. That win clinches the division (NFC South) for the Bucs. Controversial Browns QB DeShaun Watson is playing well adding a win over the Commanders to his resume. The 49ers escape with an OT win against the Raiders who threw an interception in OT to set up a winning FG. The Seahawks held the Jets to just 2 FGs to easily win their game. The biggest upset of the weekend was the Packers beating the Vikings 41-17. The Chargers take the battle for LA by 3 TDs. SNF saw a close game between the Steelers who upset the Ravens by 3.

• Patriots QB Mac Jones was fined $23k for unnecessary roughness in last week’s game alone. In the game against the Bengals, 1^st being when he fell to the ground to block a CB’s way to a possible fumble recovery and the 2^nd was also on a fumble lost by RM Rhamondre Stevenson. These are Jones’ 3^rd fine for the season.
• Apparently the Panthers’ field was too hard for the NFLPA in their game vs the Lions on Christmas Eve. It was the coldest home game in franchise history. But the field conditions normalized by half.

•  Standings:
  • Chargers clinched a AFC wild card spot. The Giants clinched a NFC wild card spot. The Bucs have taken the NFC South and are the only team from that division to make playoffs.
    • Eliminated: add the Raiders, Commanders, Panthers, Saints to the eliminated teams.
    • AFC: Patriots, Dolphins, Steelers and Titans are all still competing for the 2 remaining wild card spots. The loser of the Bengals/Ravens and the Chargers are guaranteed 2 of the spots.
    • NFC: Seahawks, Lions and Packers are fighting for the 2 remaining wild card spots. The loser of Cowboys/Eagles division race and the Giants are guaranteed 2 of the spots.

Olympic Sports:

• Mikalea Shiffrin won the Giant Slalom and the slalom this past week to make her just 2 away from Vonn’s record of World Cup titles, sitting at 80. This slalom win also makes Shiffrin at 50 World Cup wins in a single discipline. She is the first skier, man or woman to achieve that feat. Shiffrin won the slalom over American teammate Paula Moltzan for the first US 1-2 in a World Cup slalom race since 1971. Shiffrin is competing in 2 slalom races this week so we could have a tie on next week’s Weekly Update.
• AUT skier Matthias Mayer has announced his retirement. He won 3 golds – the downhill in 2014 Sochi Olympics, the Super-G in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Olympics. He had been on the World Cup circuit since 2009, competing 219xs and winning 11.

• 18x Grand Slam champion, Martina Navratilova, has been diagnosed with 2 different types of cancer – throat and breast cancer. She is 66 years old and will start treatment this month. She has 59 GS titles overall (women’s doubles, mixed and singles).
• USA Katie Ledecky won AP female athlete of the year edging out T&F star Sydney McLaughlin.

Soccer:

• BRA soccer star, Pele died on Dec 29^th. I reported last week that his family had been summoned to say their goodbyes so this isn’t a huge surprise but still a big loss for the soccer world. He is considered the GOAT for the sport. Pele scored 1,279 goals in 1,363 games stands as the World record. In his career with BRA which started at age 16, he won back-to-back World Cups in 1958 and 1962 and another in 1970. He is the only player to be on 3 world cup champion teams. He scored 2 goals in the world cup at age 17, another record to his name. He was voted Athlete of the Century by the IOC in 1999. After his retirement in 1977, he was an ambassador for the beautiful game.

What to watch this week

Basketball – NBA:

• Wed 1/4
  • Bucks at Raptors @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Heat at Lakers @ 9pm on ESPN
• Thurs 1/5
  • Celtics at Mavericks @ 6:30pm on TNT
  • Clippers at Nuggets @ 9pm on TNT
• Fri 1/6
  • Nets at Pelicans @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Heat at Suns @ 9pm on ESPN

Basketball – NCAA:

• Mon 1/2
  • Rutgers at 1. Purdue @ 6pm on BTN
  • 24. West Virginia at Oklahoma St @ 6pm on ESPNU
• Tues 1/3
  • Mississippi St at 8. Tennessee @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • 3. Kansas at Texas Tech @ 8pm on ESPN2
  • Kansas St at 6. Texas @ 8pm on LGHN
  • Ole Miss at 7. Alabama @ 8pm on SEC
  • 11. UVA at Pitt @ 8pm on ACC
  • Minnesota at 14. Wisconsin @ 8pm on BTN
• Wed 1/4
  • 22. Auburn at Georgia @ 5:30pm on SEC
  • 16. Duke at NC St @ 6pm on ACC
  • 25. Iowa St at Oklahoma @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • 4. UConn at Providence @ 7:30pm on FS1
  • 20. Mizzou at 13. Arkansas @ 7:30pm on SEC
  • 17. TCU at 19. Baylor @ 8pm on ESPN2
  • Wake Forest at 25. UNC @ 8pm on ACC
• Thurs 1/5
  • 1. Purdue at 24. Ohio St @ 6pm on FS1
  • SMU at 2. Houston @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • 15. Indiana at Iowa @ 8pm on FS1
  • USC at 10. UCLA @ 8:30pm on ESPN
  • Washington at 5. Arizona @ 10pm on FS1
  • 9. Gonzaga at San Francisco @ 10pm on ESPN2
• Sat 1/7
  • Creighton at 4. UConn @ 11am on FOX
  • 6. Texas at Oklahoma St @ 11am on ESPNU
  • Kentucky at 7. Alabama @ 12pm on ESPN
  • 16. Duke at Boston College @ 12pm on ACC
  • 14. Wisconsin at Illinois @ 12:30pm on ESPN2
  • 25. Iowa St at 17. TCU @ 1pm on ESPNU
  • 8. Tennessee at South Carolina @ 2:30pm on SEC
  • 18. Xavier at Villanova @ 3:30pm on FS1
  • Washington St at 5. Arizona @ 4pm on Pac12
  • Syracuse at 11. UVA @ 4pm on ACC
  • 13. Arkansas at 22. Auburn @ 7:30pm on SEC
• Sun 1/8
  • Northwestern at 15. Indiana @ 11am on FS1
  • 24. Ohio St at Maryland @ 12pm on ESPN
  • 2. Houston at Cincinnati @ 2pm on ESPN
  • 1. Purdue at Penn St @ 5pm on BTN

Football-NCAAF:

Bowl	Home	Visitor	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Stadium (State)	Line
ReliaQuest Bowl	22. Mississippi St	Illinois	Mon 1/2	11:00 AM	ESPN2	Raymond James (FL)	+1.5
Goodyear Cotton Bowl	16. Tulane	10. USC	Mon 1/2	12:00 PM	ESPN	AT&T (TX)	-1.5
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl	17. LSU	Purdue	Mon 1/2	12:00 PM	ABC	Camping World (FL)	+11.5
Rose Bowl Game	11. Penn St	8. Utah	Mon 1/2	4:00 PM	ESPN	Rose Bowl (CA)	-3
National Championship – CFP Final	3. TCU	1. Georgia	Mon 1/9	6:30 PM	ESPN	SoFi Stadium (CA)	TBD

Here is where you should go to see the whole bowl game schedule.

Football – NFL:

• Mon 1/2
  • Bills at Bengals @ 7:30pm on ESPN, ABC & ESPN2
• Sat 1/7
  • Chiefs at Raiders @ 3:30pm on ESPN & ABC
  • Titans at Jaguars @ 7:15pm on ESPN & ABC
• Sun 1/8
  • Ravens at Bengals @ TBD on CBS
  • 7 games @ 12pm on CBS/FOX depending on geographical location
    • CBS:
      • Patriots at Bills
      • Texans at Colts
      • Browns at Steelers
    • FOX:
      • Buccaneers at Falcons
      • Vikings at Bears
      • Panthers at Saints
      • Jets at Dolphins
  • 5 games at 3:25pm on CBS/FOX depending on geographical location
    • CBS:
      • Chargers at Broncos
      • Giants at Eagles
    • FOX:
      • Cardinals at 49ers
      • Rams at Seahawks
      • Cowboys at Commanders
  • Lions at Packers @ 7:20pm on NBC

Golf:

• Thurs 1/5
  • Sentry Tournament of Champions – Round 1 @ 5pm on Golf Channel (also on Peacock)
• Fri 1/6
  • Sentry Tournament of Champions – Round 2 @ 5pm on Golf Channel (also on Peacock)
• Sat 1/7
  • Sentry Tournament of Champions – Round 3
    • @ 3pm on NBC
    • @ 5pm on Golf Channel
• Sun 1/8
  • Sentry Tournament of Champions – Final Round
    • @ 3pm on NBC
    • @ 5pm on Golf Channel

Hockey:

• Mon 1/2
  • Penguins at Bruins @ 1pm on TNT – Winter Classic
• Tues 1/3
  • Stars at Kings @ 9pm on ESPN
• Wed 1/4
  • Devils at Red Wings @ 6pm on TNT
  • Lightning at Wild @ 8:30pm on TNT
• Thurs 1/5
  • Capitals at Blue Jackets @ 6pm on ESPN
• Fri 1/6
  • Sharks at Ducks @ 9pm on hulu

Soccer:

• Mon 1/2
  • Premier League: Brentford vs Liverpool @ 11:30am on USA
• Tues 1/3
  • Premier League: Arsenal at Newcastle @ 1:45pm on USA
• Wed 1/4
  • Premier League: Crystal Palace at Tottenham @ 2pm on USA
• Sun 1/8
  • Liga MX: Santos Laguna vs Tigres UANL @ 7pm on FS1