Baseball – MLB: Pitcher Hill and wife get arrested.
Basketball – NBA: LeBron AP Athlete of the Decade. Pelicans rebound. Harden missed game.
Football – College: LSU vs Clemson National Championship game. LSU plane crash. UTSA player stabs sis. Lamb to the draft. Texas hired Ohio St QB coach.
Football – NFL:Browns, Giants and Redskins fire HCs.
Olympic Sports: Serena Williams AP Top Athlete of Decade. Shiffrin earned 43rd World Cup title. Dlamini broke arm.
Baseball – MLB:
- Pitcher Rich Hill and his wife were arrested at the Bills/Patriots game after an altercation with police over Hill’s wife’s oversized bag. She was arrested for disorderly conduct and trespassing after refusing to leave the area. This all comes after last week when Hill received the Tony Conigliaro Award, which goes to overcoming adversity through the attributes of spirit determination and courage.
Basketball – NBA:
- LeBron James as named the AP Top Male Athlete of the Decade. Runner up was Tom Brady then Usain Bolt. LeBron’s 35th birthday is today – what a great gift!
- After a rocky start, the Pelicans have won their last 4 games and 5 of their last 6 including a come from behind victory against the Rockets.
- Rockets G James Harden missed his first game against Pelicans with a toe sprain. Houston is 8-7 when playing without Harden.
Football – College:
- LSU may have won their playoff game 63-28 but they had their own tragedy. The OC’s daughter-in-law and sports reporter, Carley McCord and 5 others were killed in a plane crash flying to Atlanta for the OU/LSU game. McCord’s husband had to be sedated when he heard the news. They crashed 2 minutes after takeoff. One person did survive and is in critical condition.
- Joe Burrow scored 8 TDs in the semifinal game against Oklahoma which is the most ever in a bowl game and most in any game in SEC history.
- The CFP National Championship game opened with a 1.5 favorite for Clemson. That quickly flipped and the line is now 5.5 LSU!
- Here are the results of the bowl games so far. Look forward to tomorrow and Jan 1st for some other good ones!
- Michael Egwuagu, a former UTSA football player, is charged with stabbing and killing his sister in Austin, TX.
- Texas hired Ohio St QB coach Mike Yurcich as their new OC. Yurcich is no stranger to the Big 12 having spent 6 seasons with Oklahoma St before the last season with Ohio St.
- Oklahoma WR Ceedee Lamb has declared for the draft after their season ending loss to LSU on Saturday. No surprise here but he will be missed.
Football – NFL:
- Browns fired coach Freddie Kitchens after finishing the season 6-10. The Browns are interested in interviewing Patriots OC Josh McDaniels and Ravens OC Greg Roman.
- Giants fired coach Pat Shurmur after 2 seasons. However the team decided to keep GM Gettleman. Rumors have it that the Baylor HC Matt Rhule is in line for the job as he was assistant line coach for the Giants in 2012 as well as Patriots OC Josh McDaniels (although he is also being interviewed by the Browns and Panthers).
- Redskins set to hire former Carolina Panthers Ron Rivera and have let go of their team president Bruce Allen. They fired Jay Gruden after they started their season 0-5.
- Dolphins CB Xavien Howard was arrested for domestic battery after grabbing his fiancées wrist and pushing her back into a mirror.
Olympic Sports:
- Serena Williams won the AP Top Female Athlete of the Decade.
- Simone Biles was AP Female Athlete of the Year
- Russia announced that it will appeal their 4 year Olympic ban.
- Mikalea Shiffrin earned her 43rd World Cup slalom win after beating Petra Vlhova by .61 seconds. This matches Lindsey Vonn’s 43 downhill wins although Shiffrin is still 18 victories short of Vonn’s overall mark of 82. This also brings her total to 17 World Cup wins in a season. She was busy this year; she won 2 world titles, moved into a new house and ended her relationship with Matthieu Faivre
- Dominik Paris is the 1st to win 3 consecutive downhills at the Stelvio track. This was his 13th downhill win.
- The US women under-18 hockey team beat Finland in the World Championships. The US go on to play Russia on Friday. Elimination begins on Monday.
- Nicholas Dlamini, South African cyclist and Olympic hopeful, broke his arm after Cape Town Table Mountain National Park rangers were ‘unnecessarily aggressive and heavy-handed’ while detaining him for riding in the park with no permit or entry fee.
What to watch this week
Basketball – NBA:
- Fri 1/3
- 76ers at Rockets @ 7pm on ESPN
- Pelicans at Lakers @ 9:30pm on ESPN
Basketball – NCAA:
- Mon 12/30
- Xavier at 10. Villanova @ 5:30pm on FS1
- Tulane at 9. Memphis @ 8pm on CBSSN
- Tues 12/31
- Georgia Tech at 17. Florida St @ 11am on ESPNU
- Boston College at 4. Duke @ 5pm on ACC
- Butler at St. John’s @ 6:30pm on FS1
- Thurs 1/2
- Illinois at 14 Michigan St @ 7pm on FS1
- 180 Dayton at La Salle @ 7:30pm on CBSSN
- Oregon at Colorado @ 8pm on ESPN2
- Fri 1/3 – Wisconsin at 2. Ohio St @ 6pm on FS1
- Sat 1/4
- Creighton at 12. Butler @ 11am on FS1
- Indiana at 13. Maryland @ 11am on Fox
- Georgia at 9. Memphis @ 12pm on CBS
- Florida St at 3. Louisville @ 1pm on ESPN2
- Villanova at Marquette @ 1pm on Fox
- Mizzou at 19. Kentucky @ 1pm on SEC
- Iowa at 20. Penn St @ 1pm on BTN
- Duke at Miami @ 7pm on ESPN
- Texas at 7. Baylor @ 7pm on ESPN2
- Arizona St at 24. Arizona @ 8:30pm on PAC12
- Pepperdine at 1. Gonzaga @ 9pm on ESPN2
- SD St at Utah St @ 9pm on CBSSN
- Sun 1/5 – 11. Michigan at 14. Michigan St @ TBD on CBS
Football – NCAA:
Football – NFL:
- Sat 1/4 – AFC Wild Card Playoffs
- Bills at Texans @ 3:35pm on ESPN/ABC
- Titans at Patriots @ 7:15pm on CBS
- Sun 1/5 – NFC Wild Card Playoffs
- Vikings at Saints @ 12:05pm on Fox
- Seahawks at Eagles @ 3:40pm on NBC
Hockey:
- Wed 1/1 – Predators at Stars @ 1pm on NBC
- Thurs 1/2
- Devils at Rangers @ 6pm on NBCSN
- Blues at Avalanche @ 8:30pm on NBCSN
- Sun 1/5
- Red Wings at Blackhawks @ 6:30pm on NBCSN
- Predators at Ducks @ 9pm on NBCSN
Olympic Sports:
- Fri 1/3 – Curling: SCO vs USA @ 9:30pm on NBCSN
- Sat 1/4
- IBSF: Women’s Bobsled @ 1pm on NBCSN
- FIS World Cup: Women’s Slalom @ 2pm on NBCSN
Soccer:
- Tues 12/31
- Premier League: Brighton & Hove vs Chelsea @ 7:25am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Southampton vs Tottenham Hotspur @ 10am on NBCSN
- Premier League: Arsenal at ManU @ 2:55pm on NBCSN
- Thurs 1/2
- Premier League: Liverpool vs Sheffield United @ 2:55pm on NBCSN
- Sun 1/5 – Italian Serie A: AS Roma vs Torino @ 1:45pm on ESPNNEWS
