Sorry for the lack of post last week – I had the rona and the flu… Merry Christmas to me 🙂
Basketball-NBA: Curry is the greatest 3-point shooter of all time. Standings.
Basketball-NCAAM: Lots of postponements or cancellations. Updated policies.
Football-NCAAF: Bowl season is here and getting postponed. BYU only ranked team to lose so far. Texas A&M wins signing day but arguably so does Jackson St.
Football-NFL: Week 16 and standings. OL Lane Johnson scored a TD! Broken records and COVID protocols. #ICYMI Urban Meyer fired.
Golf: #ICYMI Woods and son 2 shots off lead at PNC.
Olympic Sports: Hayden first black diver to win nationals. Hanyu wins JPN nationals. NHL players will not be in Beijing 2022.
Basketball – NBA:
- Steph Curry took the 3-point record last Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks. Former record holder, Ray Allen, was in attendance along with Curry’s dad who got the game ball and a hug after the shot. His total is already up to 2,978 (the record was won at 2,974). Get ready for it to be set to unreachable levels.
- There are so many players on the COVID protocol lists. I won’t bore you with the names on the podcast. 10 players on the Hawks. 3 Bulls players including their coach. Giannis is now back from his covid stint after missing 5 games.
- Standings:
- Western – Warriors then Suns then Jazz
- Spurs are the last team in the playoffs right now with the Trail Blazers first out
- Eastern – Nets then Bulls then Bucks
- Raptors are the last team in the playoffs right now with the Hawks first out looking in
- Western – Warriors then Suns then Jazz
Basketball-NCAAM:
- NCAAM season. In a shortened week #10 Alabama lost again to Steph Curry’s alma mater, Davidson by 1 point. #23 Villanova upset #18 Xavier 71-58 in a ranked showdown in the East. #6 Arizona got beat by #19 Tennessee 77-73.
- COVID updates. 7 games last week were canceled or postponed. This week 43 games are postponed, forfeited or cancelled. Not trending in the right direction. UCLA and USC are still on a COVID pause. The Bruins have not played since Dec 11th and wont play their Jan 1st USC paused since Sunday. The SEC and Big East have updated their policies to be more lenient for teams that have to cancel, postpone and reschedule. If 7 scholarship athletes and a coach are available then they team can play. If a team cant play, the games can be a ‘no contest’ when before it used to be considered a forfeit. The ACC, MAC and Conference USA have similar policies.
Football-NCAAF:
- Bowls are getting canceled left and right. Texas A&M, Boston College and UVA all had multiple players test positive making it hard to get enough players on the field. Luckily a 5-7 Rutgers team stepped in so Wake Forest still has an opponent. Boise St has also withdrawn from the Arizona Bowl leaving Central Michigan to find another opponent. Same with Miami and the Sun bowl leaving Washington St without an opponent so far. The Military and Fenway bowls are also now cancelled. The Hawaii bowl was also cancelled after Hawaii pulled out of the game.
- So far there has only been one ranked team so far to play and lose. #13 BYU lost to UAB 31-28. Louisiana and San Diego St both won. This week is the big bowls so let’s get ready to go bowling!
- After early signing day, Texas A&M leads with the #1 recruiting class. The Aggies signed the #1 prospect, DT Walter Nolen along with #10 TE Jake Johnson (brother of LSU QB who’s in the transfer portal Max Johnson – he is expected to follow). Alabama and Georgia are close behind.
- In a stunning move, #2 overall recruit DB Travis Hunter flipped from Florida St to Jackson St, a HBCU coached by Deion Sanders. This is the first FCS school to sign a 5-star recruit since the ESPN system started in 2006. It was all anyone was talking about on early signing day.
Football-NFL:
- Week 16 recap: 8 games were decided by a TD or less. The Texans got their 4th victory of the season upsetting the Chargers 41-29 after 3 turnovers. The Jets got their 4th win against the 2-win Jaguars. Bengals QB Joe Burrow passed for a team record 525 passing yards against the Ravens winning 41-21. The Lions gave up win #3 after a late interception to the Falcons 20-16. The Rams continue to roll 30-23 over the Vikings. Eagles OL Lane Johnson caught his first TD in the 34-10 win against the Giants (Congrats Lane!). Bucs annihilated the Panthers 32-6. The Bears got a successful 2-point conversion to win by 1 against the Seahawks. The Cowboys routed Washington 56-14.
- The Bucs have won the NFC South division for the first time since 2007.
- Vikings WR Justin Jefferson broke OBJ’s record for the most receiving yards in 2 seasons. He caught 8 passes Sunday to finish with 2,851 yards.
- Bills WR Cole Beasley was fined $100k for multiple COVID protocol violations. He is unvaccinated and therefore has to follow stricter protocols and missed the game yesterday. But even though it was due to COVID reasons, he will still get paid for the game.
- Last week: Jags HC Urban Meyer has been fired. There have been controversies surrounding the renowned coach for weeks. Remember the dancing bar one? He also hired a strength and conditioning coach that was notorious for bullying black players. But the latest was former Jags kicker Josh Lambo saying that Urban actually kicked him during a practice. The Jags are 2-13 but that’s not unusual; the team is 10 of 11 seasons with double-digit losses. Off the field issues were definitely what did the coach in.
- Standings:
- AFC – East: Bills and Patriots are tied
- AFC – North: Bengals lead
- AFC – South: Titans lead
- AFC – West: Chiefs won the division
- NFC – East: Cowboys won the division
- NFC – North: Packers won the division
- NFC – South: Buccaneers won the division
- NFC – West: Rams are leading by 1 over the Cardinals who have also clinched their playoff spot
- Teams that are eliminated from playoffs: Seahawks, Panthers, Lions, Bears, Texans, Jaguars and Jets
Golf:
- Last week: Tiger and his son finished 2 shots behind the leaders, The Dalys at the PNC.
Olympic Sports:
- Kristen Hayden is the first Black woman to win a diving title when she took the W at the USA Diving winter national championships. She partnered with fellow Indiana Hoosier Quinn Henninger to take the 3M mixed synchro title.
- 2x Olympic champ Yuzuru Hanyu landed the first quad axel to win Japanese nationals easily. This quad includes an additional half rotation and ultimately landed with 2 feet causing the jump to be downgraded to a triple. Hanyu is the leading competitor to challenge Nathan Chen in the Olympics in 6 weeks. Chen will compete in US nationals in 2 weeks.
- The NHL will not be sending players to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. They used to have a break set up so players could participate in the Olympics but 50 games have already been postponed in the NHL regular season due to COVID. The NHL and NHLPA had negotiated to participate in the 2022 and 2026 however there was a clause that said if the NHL season was ‘materially impacted’… well that has happened now.
- JPN has elected to join the diplomatic boycott with the US.
What to watch this week
Basketball-NBA:
- None on TV
Basketball – NCAAM: Only Top 25 on TV are listed
- Tues 12/28
- New Orleans at 14. Ohio St @ 5:30pm on BTN
- UConn at 18. Xavier @ 6pm on FS1
- Incarnate Word at 16. Texas @ 7:30pm on LGHN
- Wed 12/29
- Duke at Clemson @ 1pm on ACC
- High Point at 11. Michigan St @ 2pm on BTN
- Nicholls at 3. Purdue @ 4pm on BTN
- LSU at 12. Auburn @ 6pm on ESPNU
- Seton Hall at 22. Providence @ 6pm on FS1
- Mizzou at 20. Kentucky @ 6pm on SEC
- Tennessee at 10. Alabama @ 8pm on ESPN2
- Temple at 23. Villanova @ 8pm on FS1
- Fri 12/31
- High Point at 20. Kentucky @ 11am on SEC
- Sat 1/1
- West Virginia at 16. Texas @ 11am on ESPNU
- Baylor at 9. Iowa St @ 1pm on ESPNU
- Villanova at 15. Seton Hall @ 1pm
- Duke at Notre Dame @ 5pm on ACC
- Sun 1/2
- Michigan St at Northwestern @ 1pm on BTN
- Houston at Temple @ 4pm on ESPN
- Ohio St at Nebraska @ 7pm on BTN
Football- NCAAF:
Football-NFL:
- Sun 1/2
- 9 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- FOX:
- Falcons at Bills
- Raiders at Colts
- Panthers at Saints
- Bucs at Jets
- Eagles at Washington
- CBS:
- Giants at Bears
- Chiefs at Bengals
- Dolphins at Titans
- Jaguars at Patriots
- FOX:
- Broncos at Chargers – or – Texans at 49ers @ 3:05pm on CBS
- Cardinals at Cowboys – or – Lions at Seahawks @ 3:25pm on FOX
- Vikings at Packers @ 7:20pm on NBC
- 9 games on @ 12pm depending on location on CBS/FOX
- Mon 1/3
- Browns at Steelers @ 7:15pm on ESPN
Hockey:
- All of Monday’s games are postponed
- Wed 12/29
- Stars at Avalanche @ 9pm on TNT
- Sat 1/1
- Blues at Wild @ 6pm on TNT
Soccer:
- Tues 12/28
- Premier League: Southampton vs Tottenham Hotspur @ 8:55am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Leicester City vs Liverpool @ 1:55pm on NBCSN
- Wed 12/29
- Premier League: Brentford vs Manchester City @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
- Thurs 12/30
- Premier League: ManU vs Burnley @ 2:10pm on NBCSN
- Sat 1/1
- Premier League: Arsenal vs Manchester City @ 6:30am on USA
- Premier League: Crystal Palace vs West Ham @ 11:30am on USA
- Sun 1/2
- Premier League: Chelsea at Liverpool @ 10:30am on USA
