Baseball: Devers $331MM 11 year extension.
Basketball-NBA: Mitchell and Giannis with career high. KD MRI. Nuggets rim trouble.
Basketball-NCAA: Lots of losses in the Top 25 would be putting it mildly. Texas fires HC Beard. Texas A&M uniform snafu.
Football – NCAA: Final 4 bowl games. National Championship tonight!
Football- NFL: Regular season finale had 8 close games and some weird ones. Hamlin hospitalized brings the nation together. Texans and Cardinals fire HC.
Golf: Sentry ToC late drama
Olympic Sports: Shiffrin ties Vonn’s record. Fisk first HBCU Gym team.
Baseball:
- The Red Sox signed 3B Rafael Devers to an 11-year extension for $331MM. He is the only one of the big 4 heavy hitters left on the Boston team. This is the 6th largest deal by dollars in MLB history, surpassing Harper. The other 5 in front of Devers’ deal all have won MVP awards.
Basketball – NBA:
- Donovan Mitchell scored 71 points on Monday against the Bulls. Even with that performance, the Cavaliers went to OT with the Bulls but did get the win 145-134. This is Mitchell’s career high and the 8th highest point total by 1 player in league history. It was also the most points since 2006 when Kobe scored 81 against the Raptors. Mitchell was traded to the Cavaliers last year from the Jazz that he had played for since 2017.
- Mitchell wasn’t the only player to have a career high this week. Bucks star Giannis scored 55 points against the Wizards to set his new career high on Tuesday. The Bucks won by 10.
- KD is getting a MRI on his right knee after the Nets vs Heat game. The Nets still won 102-101 but not great going forward for the team who is sitting 1 win behind the Celtics for the lead in the Eastern Conference.
- The Nuggets are having some rim trouble, as in 2xs this week the rim has been bent and during a game. The first game was (last) Sunday’s game against Boston, which the Nuggets won after a delay of only 10 minutes. The second was Friday’s match up with the Cavaliers which stopped play with 11 minutes left in the game for a 35 minute delay. The Nuggets were winning before the stop and ultimately finished the job.
Basketball-NCAA:
- NCAAM Losses in Top 25 this week: We started off the week hot with #1 Purdue losing to Rutgers on Monday in a close game. Kansas St beat #6 Texas on Tuesday and then #19 Baylor on Saturday in OT. That is the Wildcats’ 3rd straight Top 25 win (#24 WV last week). #11 UVA falls to Pitt by 3. Newly ranked #21 New Mexico lost to a 6-8 Fresno St team by 4 and then to UNLV on Saturday. Wednesday was a bad day for the Top 25. Providence killed #4 UConn by 12 points and are currently undefeated in the Big East. #12 Miami fell to Georgia Tech for the Yellow Jackets first win in the ACC. #20 Mizzou got beat but at least to #13 Arkansas 68-74. NC St opened a can of whoop ass on #16 Duke beating the Blue Devils by 24 (most of that work was done in the 1H). #19 Baylor had a killer 1H scoring 49 points on #17 TCU but then the Horned Frogs flipped the script in the 2H, scoring 49 points to beat Baylor by 1. The other team playing in the football championship got a win as well unranked Georgia beat #22 Auburn 76-64. All of that was Wednesday. #1 Purdue bounced back from their loss on Monday to beat #24 Ohio St on Thursday in a close one. #15 Indiana had a bad week falling to Iowa and then Northwestern just days apart. Washington St took control over #5 Arizona early and never gave the lead back. That is their first road win over a top 5 team in 122 years. #13 Arkansas got destroyed by #22 Auburn 72-59. #14 Wisconsin fell to Illinois by 10 points. #25 Iowa St beat #17 TCU in a close one on Saturday. #24 Ohio St followed up their loss to #1 Purdue with a loss to unranked Maryland to finish off their week.
- #6 Texas finally fires their HC Chris Beard after the arrest for domestic family violence. This should not be a surprise and Beard has been suspended for a while. Rodney Terry will continue to act as HC for the rest of the season (as he has been doing since the suspension). As a reminder, Beard was arrested after he allegedly choked his fiancé from behind and hit her during an argument. The matter is still under review. His fiancé has since said that he did not choke her so this is going to get messy.
- Your week could be worse, you could be the Texas A&M employee that left the team’s uniforms at the hotel. That delayed their game vs Florida and gave the Aggies a technical to start the game.
Football-NCAA:
- Monday Bowl Games (final week 4):
- Mississippi St wins their bowl game honoring Mike Leach. They scored a FG with 4 seconds left and that looked to be the final score of the game. However, the Illini tried to pull a lateral play and ended up tossing the ball into the hands of a Bulldog who ran it back for a pick 6. Miss St wins 19-10.
- LSU slaughtered Purdue 63-7 in this Citrus Bowl. Purdue was down many players, HC and basically their team.
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- The Cotton Bowl gave us one of the best bowl games of the post season. To no one’s surprise, USC went up 28-14 at half but then the Green Wave stared to make a comeback. With the clock at 4:30 in the game, USC was up 45-30. Tulane got the ball with decent field position, starting at the 37 yard line and took 2 plays and 23 seconds to score a TD. Its now 45-37. Tulane kicks the ball back to USC. RB Mario Williams then fields the kick on the 1 and goes nowhere. 2 plays later, Tulane gets a safety. Its 45-39 and they get the ball back with 3:20 to go. It takes 2 sacks, 2 4th downs and perfect passes from a QB who was 4-15 before this drive to get down the field but they manage to score the TD with 9 seconds left to go ahead by 1. And USC couldn’t manage the laterals or the passes and lose the game with their Heisman trophy winner. This made Tulane have the best turnaround for a team in 1 season from 2 wins to 12 wins.
- Bowl season (besides the national championship) ended with the Rose Bowl between #8 Utah and #11 Penn St. Utah played in this game last year, losing to Ohio St and they re-live that this year also falling to Penn St 35-21. But Utah fans have something in consolation, Cam Rising is returning for his senior year.
- National Championship is tonight between the defending champs #1 Georgia and #4 TCU. It has been since 1938 since TCU won a national championship and I barely count the nattys before WWII. Georgia would be the first team in CFP history to go back-to-back.
Football – NFL:
- Week 18 and final regular season week: 8 close games this week.
- The Chiefs put the beat down on the Raiders winning 31-13 mostly scoring in the 2Q with 17 points alone. This win clinches the first round bye and AFC top seed.
- Texans win over the Colts for their 3rd win of the season by 1 point. This win also is enough to give the Bears the 1st draft pick (as they also lost to the Vikings). Only the Texans can screw up getting the #1 draft pick.
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- The Bills beat the Patriots to eliminate them from the playoffs. It was a hard week for the Buffalo team and it was no more apparent then when QB Josh Allen talked about the kickoff return. It has been 3 years and 3 months since that had been done in an NFL game. #3 was Hamlin’s number.
- The Dolphins beat the Jets with a 50-yard FG in the final 20 seconds of the game. The kicker was previously 1 for 5 in FGs over 50 yards. This season before that FG. The Dolphins then earned the final spot in the AFC wild card game with a win and with the Patriots loss to the Bills (whose game ended minutes after miami’s). This is the Dolphins first playoff berth since 2016.
- Panthers and Saints game was a low scoring boring game with the Carolina team winning 10-7.
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- The Buccaneers lost to the Falcons 30-17 but that wasn’t the noteworthy things about this game. Tom Brady broke his own NFL single-season completion record with 490 (previously it was 485). The NFC South was the most even division in the league with TB only getting 1 win over the other 3 teams in the division (which are all at 7-10).
- The Broncos upset the 10-6 Chargers with Russell Wilson throwing 3 TDs, winning by 3.
- The Eagles got Jalen Hurts back and beat the Giants by 6.
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- JJ Watt played his last game yesterday in the Cardinals 13-38 loss to the 49ers. He ends his career with 114.5 sacks.
- Rams vs Seahawks goes into OT after a comeback by the Rams. The Seahawks then win by a FG in OT.
- The Cowboys put up a shameful performance against the Commanders losing 26-6. Granted the Cowboys were already in the playoffs but they didn’t pull their starters for this game.
- The Lions eliminated Aaron Rodgers and the Packers from playoffs, taking the lead in the 4Q. They went for it on 4th down & 1 on the Packers 15 to seal the game.
- Unless you have living under a rock, MNF did not go as planned. #3 on the Bills S Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after making a tackle. He had to be resuscitated on the field by medics as they lost a pulse and breathing. He was transported to a hospital. He was in critical condition and it looked dire for a couple of days. The whole league was shocked to say the least. The game was postponed and ultimately was canceled later in the week. Turns out Hamlin had cardiac arrest on the field after being hit hard in the ‘right’ spot as the heart relaxes and it can send the heart into arrhythmia. It is extremely rare. Today, Hamlin was discharged from the hospital and is recovering comfortably at home. A true miracle!
- The 3-13-1 Texans have fired their HC Lovie Smith after 1 season. This is now the 2nd HC that the team has done that to, having fired HC David Culley last year in January. Both Smith and Cully were the only black coaches in Texans’ history.
- Also breaking today, Cardinals have fired HC Cliff Kingsbury and the GM is stepping aside. This announcement comes just 10 months after the team signed Kingsbury to a contract extension to 2027. He joined the team in 2019 after being fired from Texas Tech but had a 4-13 season this year to make his overall record 28-37-1. The team was plagued with injuries this year with their QB Kyler Murray out for the last 5 games, their leading WR out for the first 6 games and TE Ertz also out for the last 7. The GM is stepping aside due to health concerns. Keim had been with the Cardinals since 1999 but had been absent with health concerns since mid-December.
Golf:
- The Sentry Tournament of Champions brought us the typical beautiful views but that was the only thing typical about it. Collin Morikawa was leading by 6 going into the final round and had not carded a bogey the whole week. Jon Rahm had something to say about that though, carding a -10 score on Sunday, where he started 7 shots off the lead. Morikawa fell apart and that would be putting it mildly. There was a 7 shot swing between the 2 in 4 holes. Morikawa shot 3 bogeys while Rahm ran 3 birdies and an eagle. Morikawa is the 9th player in PGA history to lose a 6-shot lead in the final round. This is Rahm’s 3rd win in 5 starts.
Olympic Sports:
- Mikalea Shiffrin won 5th straight WC by winning the Slalom in CRO on Wednesday to draw within 1 of Vonn’s record. Then she lost the Giant Slalom race on Saturday in SLO (tied for 6th) before winning the 2nd of those races in SLO on Sunday, officially tying Lindsey Vonn’s World Cup title record of 82. Shiffrin will now chase down the most ever set by SWE Ingemar Stenmark of 86.
- Fisk University is the first HBCU to have a NCAA gymnastics team. The team has been created 14 months earlier and competed in their first event this weekend, facing UNC, Southern Utah and Washington at the Super 16 event in Vegas.
What to watch this week
Basketball – NBA:
- Tues 1/10
- Thunder at Heat @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Suns at Warriors @ 9pm on TNT
- Wed 1/11
- Bucks at Hawks @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Suns at Nuggets @ 9pm on ESPN
- Thurs 1/12
- Celtics at Nets @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Mavericks at Lakers @ 9pm on TNT
- Fri 1/13
- Warriors at Spurs @ 6:30pm on ESPN
- Nuggets at Clippers @ 9pm on ESPN
- Sat 1/14
- Bucks at Heat @ 12pm on ABC
Basketball – NCAA:
- Tues 1/10
- Oklahoma St at 11. Kansas St @ 6pm on ESPNU
- Michigan St at 18. Wisconsin @ 6pm on ESPN
- Oklahoma at 2. Kansas @ 8pm on ESPN2
- Vanderbilt at 5. Tennessee @ 8pm on SEC
- UNC at 13. UVA @ 8pm on ESPN
- 21. Auburn at Ole Miss @ 8pm on ESPNU
- Wed 1/11
- 4. Alabama at 15. Arkansas @ 6pm on ESPN2
- 6. UConn at 25. Marquette @ 6pm
- Boston College at 16. Miami @ 6pm on ESPNU
- Pitt at 24. Duke @ 6pm on ACC
- Creighton at 18. Xavier @ 6pm on FS1
- 20. Mizzou at Texas A&M @ 7:30pm on SEC
- 17. TCU at 10. Texas @ 8pm on ESPN2
- Thurs 1/12
- 8. Gonzaga at BYU @ 8:30pm on ESPN
- 9. Arizona at Oregon St @ 10pm on ESPN2
- Utah at 7. UCLA @ 10pm on PAC12
- Fri 1/13
- Nebraska at 3. Purdue @ 6pm on BTN
- Sat 1/14
- Kentucky at 5. Tennessee @ 11am on ESPN
- 16. Miami at NC St @ 11am on ACC
- 18. Wisconsin at Indiana @ 12pm on CBS
- 11. Kansas St at 17. TCU @ 1pm on ESPN2
- 15. Arkansas at Vanderbilt @ 1pm on ESPNU
- 19. Providence at Creighton @ 1pm on FS1
- 20. Mizzou at Florida @ 2:30pm on SEC
- 14. Iowa St at 2. Kansas @ 3pm on ESPN+
- LSU at 4. Alabama @ 3pm on ESPN
- 13. UVA at Florida St @ 3pm on ESPN2
- 24. Duke at Clemson @ 4pm on ACC
- 9. Arizona at Oregon @ 5pm on ESPN
- Texas Tech at 10. Texas @ 7pm on ESPN
- Colorado at 7. UCLA @ 7pm on FOX
- Mississippi St at 21. Auburn @ 7:30pm on SEC
- Portland at 8. Gonzaga @ 9pm on ESPN2
- Sun 1/15
- John’s at 6. UConn @ 11am on FS1
- 25. Marquette at 12. Xavier @ 11am on FOX
Football-NCAAF:
- Mon 1/9
- CFP National Championship: Georgia vs TCU @ 6:30pm on ESPN
Football – NFL:
- Sat 1/14
- NFC Wild Card: Seahawks at 49ers @ 3:30pm on FOX
- AFC Wild Card: Chargers at Jaguars @ 7:15pm on NBC
- Sun 1/15
- Dolphins at Bills @ 12pm on CBS
- Giants at Vikings @ 3:30pm on FOX
- Ravens at Bengals @ 7:15pm on NBC
- Mon 1/16
- Cowboys at Buccaneers @ 7:15pm on ESPN & ABC
Golf:
- Thurs 1/12
- Sony Open – Round 1 @ 6pm on Golf Channel
- Fri 1/13
- Sony Open – Round 2 @ 6pm on Golf Channel
- Sat 1/14
- Sony Open – Round 3
- @ 3pm on NBC
- @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- Sony Open – Round 3
- Sun 1/15
- Sony Open – Final Round
- @ 3pm on NBC
- @ 5pm on Golf Channel
- Sony Open – Final Round
Hockey:
- Tues 1/10
- Devils at Hurricanes @ 6pm on hulu
- Panthers at Avalanche @ hulu
- Wed 1/11
- Predators at Maple Leafs @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Sharks at Kings @ 9pm on TNT
- Thurs 1/12
- Maple Leafs at Red Wings @ 6pm on ESPN
- Fri 1/13
- Devils at Ducks @ 9pm on hulu
Olympic Sports:
- Sat 1/14
- Swimming @ 1:30pm on NBC
Soccer:
- Wed 1/11
- Spanish Supercopa: Real Madrid vs Valencia @ 1pm on ESPN2
- Thurs 1/12
- Spanish Supercopa: Real Betis vs Barcelona @ 1pm on ESPN2
- Fri 1/13
- Premier League: Aston Villa vs LeedsU @ 2pm on USA
- Sat 1/14
- Premier League: ManU vs Manchester City @ 6:30am on USA
- Premier League: Everton vs Southampton @ 9am on USA
- Premier League: Teams TBA @ 11:30am on NBC
- Sun 1/15
- Premier League: Chelsea vs Crystal Palace @ 8am on USA
- Spanish Supercopa Final @ TBD on ABC
