Posted on March 28, 2022

Weekly Update – March 28, 2022

Weekly Update

Baseball: Pujols one year deal with Cardinals.

Basketball-NBA: Irving is back in Barclays! Clinched playoff berths.

Basketball-NCAAM: Final Four is set! UNC vs Duke rematch and Kansas vs Villanova.

Football: Hill to the Dolphins.

Golf: Scottie Scheffler World #1. Tiger’s back?

Olympic Sports: Figure Skating Worlds

Soccer: USMNT is one game and 6 goals away from making Qatar 2022.

Baseball:

As opening day gets closer, teams are looking to finalize their rosters.
- Albert Pujols signed a one-year contract with the Cardinals for $2.5MM.

The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 were on par for this crazy season.
- Thursday was full of surprises. #1 Gonzaga was upset by #4 Arkansas to shock the world on Thursday. #5 Houston took out another #1 seed in Arizona, winning by 12. #2 was a good ranking though with both Villanova beating #11 Michigan and Duke beating #3 Texas Tech.
- #15 Saint Peter’s became the first #15 seed to ever make the Elite 8 after their win over #3 Purdue. #10 Miami beat #11 Iowa St in what had to be the region that no one had this match up. This is Miami’s first Elite 8 appearance. #8 UNC beat #4 UCLA after losing at half. #1 Kansas snuck by #4 Providence in a close game.
- That brought us to the Elite 8: The upsets stopped here saving some of our brackets. #2 Villanova beat #5 Houston in a low scoring game of 50-44. Hope you took the under on that one. #2 Duke beat #4 Arkansas by 9 and had control the entire game. Lone #1 seed left, Kansas beat #10 Miami after trailing by 6 at half then opened up a can of whoop ass on the U outscoring them 47-15 2^nd #15 Saint Peter’s Cinderella run finally came to an end losing to #8 UNC by 20. Good job Peacocks!

For the first time in tournament history, #8 UNC will play #2 Duke. These well known rivals have never met in the tournament and last time they played was Coach K’s last home game when the Tarheels definitely got the last laugh. You cant write better tv than this! #1 Kansas will play #2 Villanova in the matchup that prob saved a lot of our brackets.

Kyrie Irving made his home debut Sunday night in the Barclays Center after the NYC Mayor Eric Adams rolled back his vaccine mandate for performers and athletes. The Nets lost to the Hornets 119-110. Sunday’s game saw a sold out crowd with the largest number of fans in the building at 18,166. The Nets currently sit in 9^th in the East.
The Suns have clinched the best league record with a 61-14 record right now. The Grizzlies have clinched their playoff berth and the Heat have clinched their division. The last day of the regular season is April 11^th.
- The teams that have already been eliminated: Pacers, Pistons, Magic, Thunder and Rockets

Shaq is everywhere and he does everything. You can now add Oscar winner to his resume. He won the academy award for “Queen of Basketball” the story about Lusia Harris. Steph Curry was also an executive producer. Harris died 2 months before the release of the 22 minute short.

The Dolphins have acquired RB Tyreek Hill from the Chiefs for $120MM for 4-years. They traded for 2022 draft picks in the 1^st round, 2^nd round and 4^th round along with 2023’s 4^th and 6^th round picks. This deal makes Hill the highest paid WR in the league.
Hard Knocks will feature the Lions this upcoming season.
OSU’s HC Mike Gundy will now make $7.5MM/yr after receiving a $1MM/yr raise and another $1MM/yr retention bonus over the next 5 seasons. Gundy has a perpetual 5 year contract at the school.

We have a new World #1. Scottie Scheffler has been on a hot streak these last few weeks. He won the Dell Match Play after doing through a playoff to make it to the Round of 16. He then beat Dustin Johnson and Kevin Kisner, two former Dell champions. After going to school in Austin and being from Dallas, it was fitting that he wins the Dell after being a runner-up last year. Scottie has now won his first 3 career events in a 5-start span.

Figure Skating Worlds:
- USA Men’s Figure Skater Vincent Zhou took home Bronze at Worlds after he was not allowed to compete in Beijing after testing positive for COVID. Zhou was sitting in 6^th after the Short Program but ended up 3^rd after a strong Free Skate. Olympic Bronze medalist from JPN Shoma Uno took home the title with 312.48 points.
- The USA pair of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier have ended the American drought in Pairs worlds in more than 40 years.
- FRA Papadakis and Cizeron broke their own record in rhythm dance leading the two USA teams. They beat their score from Beijing by 2 points.
- JPN Sakamoto took the women’s title by almost 20 points. BEL Henderickx took silver and USA Liu took bronze.
UKR Valentyna Veretska won the Jerusalem marathon after leaving her home country with her 11 year old daughter. Her husband stayed behind. Before this race, Veretska ranked 44^th in the world.
FINA has banned all RUS and BLR swimmers.

USMNT is on the brink of winning a World Cup bid for the first time since 2014. They dominated PAN on Sunday winning 5-1. How on the brink are we talking? The USA would have to lose by 6 goals to CRC on Wednesday to be denied the automatic qualifying spot. This would make them 2^nd in the CONCACAF. If they do lose by 6, the USA would drop to 3^rd and they would have to playoff against the winners of Oceania. The USMNT has a best finish of 3^rd but that was back in 1930 at the first World Cup ever. Of the 21 World Cups played, the USA has only competed in 10 of them.
- Who all has qualified? Qatar (host), GER, DEN, BRA, BEL, FRA, CRO, ESP, SRB, ENG, SUI, NED, ARG, IRI, KOR, KSA, JPN, ECU, URU, CAN
- For full qualifying details

Sat 4/2
- Final Four: 2. Villanova vs 1. Kansas @ 5:09pm on TBS
  - Kansas favored by 4.5 points. O/U 133
- Final Four: 8. UNC vs 2. Duke @ 7:49pm on TBS
  - Duke favored by 4 points. O/U 151

Thurs 3/31
- Valero TX Open – Round 1 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
Fri 4/1
- Valero TX Open – Round 2 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
Sat 4/2
- Valero TX Open – Round 3
  - @ 12pm on Golf Channel
  - @ 2:30pm on NBC
Sun 4/3
- Valero TX Open – Final Round
  - @ 12pm on Golf Channel
  - @ 1pm on NBC

Wed 3/30
- Rangers at Red Wings @ 6:30pm on TNT
- Golden Knights at Kraken @ 9pm on TNT
Sat 4/2
- Penguins at Avalanche @ 2pm on ABC
Sun 4/3
- Islanders at Devils @ 3pm on TNT

Tues 3/29
- FIFA Qualifying – UEFA: POR vs MAC @ 1:45pm on ESPN2
Wed 3/30
- FIFA Qualifying – CONCACAF: CRC vs USA @ 8:05pm on Paramount+
Sat 4/2
- Premier League: Liverpool vs Watford @ 6:30am on USA
- Premier League: Chelsea vs Brentford @ 9am on USA
- Premier League: ManU vs Leicester City @ 11:30am on USA
- NWSL Challenge Cup: San Diego Wave FC vs Angel City FC @ 3pm on CBS
Sun 4/3
- Premier League: West Ham vs Everton @ 8am on USA
- Premier League: Tottenham vs Newcastle @ 10:30am on USA
- MLS: Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy @ 3:30pm on FS1