Weekly Update – Week of March 29, 2020

Baseball: Opening Day April 1!

Basketball-NBA: Gordon Denver Debut. NBA Africa League debuts in May. NBA standings update.

Basketball-NCAAM: March madness continues with the Elite 8 tonight. Final Four on Saturday! Only 1 #1 seed out. Memphis wins NIT. Texas HC prospects. Indiana new HC. OU has HC openings.

Football: Watsons continued women woes. U coach Schnellenberger passes. Georgia ends 2021 recruiting class with a bang and starts 2022 just as hot. Reed signs with Chiefs. Alualu stays in Pitt. Vikings sign Woods.

Golf: Dell Match Play showdown has Horschel>Scheffler. Dahmen wins 1st PGA Tour title. Masters in 2 weeks!

Olympic Sports: US Men’s Soccer team out of another Olympics. Olympic torch relay begins. World Figure Skating Championships: Chen rules again. Americans earn 3rd woman’s spot. RUS owns the rest. Cayard to head US Sailing. Poirier/McGregor part 3. NOR Tande hospitalized. FRA Pomagalski dies.

Baseball:

• Baseball season is back!! Opening Day, which means regular season games for those of you who don’t know, start April 1!
  • There is not much other news besides who is starting on Opening Day.
• The Twins have reached a 5 year extension with P Randy Dobnak for $9.25MM. For a kid who was undrafted, went to Alderson Broaddus University in WV then went to the United Shore Professional Baseball League , signed out of there for $500 and spent 2 years as an Uber driver, this is a big deal!
• The Indians traded their RHP Adam Plutko for a TBA player/cash from the Orioles. Plutko has played in 50 games for the Indians and 36 starts since 2016. The Indians will now put Logan Allen, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill on their Opening Day roster.

Basketball-NBA:

• Aaron Gordon made his Denver debut last night against the Hawks. He went 6 of 9 scoring 13 to help his team win 126-102. The team acquired Gordan at the same time as JaVale McGee from the Cavs, although he did not play, as they make a run in the West. The Nuggets are currently sitting in 5^th in the conference but its a tight race.
• The Spurs have signed C Gorgui Dieng, a 9 year league vet to their front line.
• The NBA Basketball Africa League is set to finally debut on May 16 in Rwanda. The league has 12 teams that will play in 26 games all played in Rwanda. Originally the league was supposed to play all over Africa and debut in March 2020 but that was obviously derailed due to the pandemic. According to ESPN “The 12 teams include Algeria’s GSP (Groupement Sportif des Pétroliers), Angola’s Petro de Luanda (Clube Atlético Petroleos de Luanda), Cameroon’s FAP (Forces Armées et Police Basketball), Egypt’s Zamalek, Madagascar’s GNBC (Gendarmerie Nationale Basketball Club), Mali’s AS Police (Association Sportive de la Police Nationale), Morocco’s AS Salé (Association Sportive de Salé), Mozambique’s Ferroviàrio de Maputo, Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers BC, Rwanda’s Patriots BC, Senegal’s AS Douanes (Association Sportive des Douanes) and Tunisia’s US Monastir (Union Sportive Monastirienne).”
• NBA Standings:
  • East: 76ers, Nets and Bucks (32, 31, 29 wins respectively)
  • West: Jazz, Suns, Clippers (34, 31, 31 wins respectively)

Basketball – NCAAM:

• March Madness: The Elite 8 is set and play starts tonight! The Final Four will be contested on Saturday and the National Championship will be next Monday!
  • 3 #1 seeds are still in and haven’t had any problems so far.
  • #11 UCLA beat #2 Alabama in OT on Sunday in a thriller. #12 Oregon St beat #8 Loyola Chicago (much to Sister Jean’s chagrin). These are the 2 lowest ranked teams left!
  • #15 Oral Roberts finally lost to #3 Arkansas in the Sweet 16 but man it was a great run. #11 Syracuse also ran out of steam against #2 Houston, only scoring 46 points all game.
• Memphis won the NIT Championship and its just the beginning according to their coach. The Tiger team had 0 seniors on the roster and won 11 of 13 of their last games.
• Texas needs a new HC after Shaka Smart left to become the HC at Marquette and they have some options. Nets assistant coach Royal Ivery, who played on the 2003 Longhorns Final Four team, interviewed for the position this weekend on zoom. The top prospect still looks like Texas Tech HC Chris Beard.
• Indiana hired a new HC from the Knicks, Mike Woodson. His contract is 6 years with no financial details released. Woodson played for Indiana from 1976-1980 under Bob Knight.
• Oklahoma will also need a new HC both on the men’s and women’s side as both HCs (Lon Kruger and Sherri Cole) have retired. Job postings now open in Norman!

Football:

• Continuing story: last week I wrote a story about how Houston QB DeSean Watson was being sued for sexual assault. Well, the number of women reporting such accusations has increased…to 19! There are a lot of factors at play here, no criminal charges have been filed, blackmail has been claimed, there seems to be some consensual sexual activities that went down, all in all we aren’t sure where this is going just yet. But the fact that there are 19 women certainly doesn’t show Watson in a great light.
• Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger has passed away at the age of 87. Schnellenberger brought in the U’s first natty in 1983 which then broke through the barrier and the team followed that with 3 of the next 6 national championships.
• The Georgia Bulldogs have signed the #31 and #39 ranked recruits, athlete Malaki Starks and LB Jalon Walker, respectively. These are Class of 2022 recruits and the team already ended the 2021 recruiting season with the #3 ranked recruiting class.
• Chiefs have signed a 1-year deal for $7MM with DT Jarran Reed, formerly with the Seahawks.
• DT Tyson Alualu, who had been talking to the Jaguars, has resigned with the Steelers for a 2-year $6MM deal. The Steelers have fellow teammate Cam Heyward to thank for Alualu’s return.
• The Vikings have signed S Xavier Woods away from the Cowboys for a 1-year $2.25MM deal.

Golf:

• The Dell Match was golf’s version of March Madness and it also lived up to the craziness. We saw upsets galore and even some aces. Only 2 of the top 10 ranked players made it out of the round robin group play rounds and 2 players ranked #60 or higher made it to the knockout rounds (16 players make it). Billy Horschel was eventually victorious after playing 122 holes of golf over the weekend. This is Horschel’s 6^th PGA Tour win and first individual since 2017. This is bittersweet on a personal level, as Billy beat Scottie Scheffler, one of our clients and one of the nicest people I have ever met. Scheffler is from Dallas but went to UT so he had a big home crowd at ACC over the weekend. Scottie is looking for his maiden win on the PGA Tour. Mark my words, its only a matter of time!

• There was another PGA tournament this weekend in the DR and Joel Dahmen brought home his maiden PGA Tour title! Dahmen, age 33, had never won the PGA Tour despite being a pro since 2010 and missing 7 cuts in the last 8 tournaments. He went through the Mackenzie tour in Canada and the Latinoamerica tour before making the Korn Ferry tour and finally breaking onto the PGA Tour in 2017. It was bittersweet for the DR however as homegrown, Rafael Campos, missed a birdie on the final hole that would’ve forced a playoff.
• The Masters, which will be played on in 2 weeks, has been in the news quite a bit lately. First, the tournament will not require spectators to have a negative COVID test. The number of spectators has not been announced. Also, civil rights groups are trying to get the Masters to relocate after a Georgia bill passed new voting restrictions. Good luck with that… the Masters has been competed at Augusta National since 1934.

Olympic Sports:

• The US Men’s soccer team has once again missed qualifying for the Olympics. The team needed to beat Honduras in the CONCACAF tournament in Mexico on Sunday. This is the 3^rd straight Olympics that the US will not have a men’s soccer team.
• The Olympic torch relay has restarted in Japan as of Wednesday. The relay will go on for 121 days and end in Tokyo on July 23 for the opening ceremonies.

• World Figure Skating Championships
  • Nathan Chen has moved among the greats in figure skating after he won his 3rd straight World title on Saturday. The last American to threepeat was Scott Hamilton (4 world titles 1981-1984). Chen landed 5 quads in his free skate and demolished the field winning by ~30 points. Reigning Olympic champion, Yuzuru Hanyu, slipped to 3rd and Yuma Kagiyama, age 17, took the silver.
  • The American women did manage to earn a 3rd spot in next year’s Olympics with Karen Chen placing 4th and Bradie Tennell placing 9th. The Russians swept the medals on the women’s side: 1st AnnaShcherbakova, 2nd Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and 3rd Alexandra Trusova. This is the 2nd time a team has swept in the modern era; last time was the US in 1991 with Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding and Kristi Yamaguchi. Russia also took the pairs and rhythm dancing titles as well.
• Women’s NCAA Gymnastics regional round is this weekend! Here is the bracket of your favorite teams.
• Paul Cayard is the new head of US Olympic Sailing Team as executive director. He is an Olympic and America’s Cup veteran and was the 1st American skipper to win the Whitbread Round the World Race. The Sailing team earned 0 medals in the 2012 Olympic Games and only 1 in Rio 2016.
• It looks like fans will get what they wanted: a trilogy fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor III later this year. No further details have been released yet.
• NOR Daniel-Andre Tande, a ski jumper, was taken to the hospital after he had a heavy fall at the Slovenia World Cup event on Thursday. The 27-year-old is now in stable condition.
• FRA Olympic snowboarder Julie Pomagalski has died in an avalanche on the Swiss Alps at the age of 40. She competed in the 2002 SLC and 2006 Turin Games. She also won gold at worlds in 1999.

What to watch this week

Baseball-MLB:

• Thurs 4/1 – Opening Day!
  • Blue Jays at Yankees @ 12:05pm on ESPN
    • Ryu vs Cole
  • Dodgers at Rockies @ 3:10pm on ESPN
    • Kershaw vs Darvish
  • Mets at Nationals @ 6:09pm on ESPN
    • deGrom vs Scherzer
  • Astros at A’s @ 9:07pm on ESPN
    • Greinke vs Bassitt
  • Sun 4/4
    • Braves at Phillies @ 12:05pm on ESPN
      • Anderson vs Eflin
    • White Sox at Angels @ 7:37pm on ESPN

Baseball/Softball–NCAA: (ranked vs ranked only)

• Mon 3/29
  • NCAA Softball: 3. Alabama vs 7. Kentucky @ 6pm on SEC
• Tues 3/30
  • NCAA Softball: 3. Alabama vs 7. Kentucky @ 1:30pm on ESPNU
• Thurs 4/1
  • NCAA Baseball: 13. Notre Dame vs 24. Pitt @ 3pm on ACCX
  • NCAA Softball: 20. Mizzou vs 23. South Carolina @ 5pm on SEC+
  • NCAA Softball: 15. Arkansas vs 25. Auburn @ 5pm on SEC+
  • NCAA Baseball: Ole Miss vs 15. Florida @ 7pm on SEC
• Fri 4/2
  • NCAA Softball: 15. Arkansas vs 25. Auburn @ 12pm on SEC
  • NCAA Baseball: 13. Notre Dame vs 24. Pitt @ 2pm on ACCX
  • NCAA Softball: 7. Kentucky at 19. Tennessee @ 4pm on ESPNU
  • NCAA Softball: 20. Mizzou vs 23. South Carolina @ 5pm on SEC+
  • NCAA Baseball: Ole Miss vs 15. Florida @ 5:30pm on SEC+
  • NCAA Baseball: Vanderbilt at 22. LSU @ 8pm on ESPNU
• Sat 4/3
  • NCAA Baseball: 13. Notre Dame vs 24. Pitt @ 12pm on ACCX
  • NCAA Baseball: 3. Ole Miss vs 15. Florida @ 12pm on ESPN+
  • NCAA Softball: 15. Arkansas at 25. Auburn @ 1pm on SEC
  • NCAA Softball: 20. Mizzou at 23. South Carolina @ 1pm on ESPNU
  • NCAA Softball: 16. VTech at 12. Duke @ 4pm on ACC
  • NCAA Softball: 7. Kentucky at 19. Tennessee @ 5pm on ESPN2
  • NCAA Softball: 5. Florida at 18. Georgia @ 7pm on ESPN
• Sun 4/4
  • NCAA Baseball: UNC at 17. Florida St @ 11am on ACC
  • NCAA Softball: 7. Kentucky at 19. Tennessee @ 1pm on ESPNU
  • NCAA Softball: 16. Vtech at 12. Duke @ 2pm on ACC
  • NCAA Softball: 5. Florida at 18. Georgia @ 2pm on SEC
  • NCAA Baseball: Vanderbilt at 22. LSU @ 8pm on ESPNU

Basketball-NBA:

• Wed 3/31
  • Mavericks at Celtics @ 6:30pm on ESPN
  • Bucks at Lakers @ 9pm on ESPN
• Thurs 4/1
  • Hornets at Nets @ 6:30pm on TNT
  • Nuggets at Clippers @ 9pm on TNT
• Sun 4/4
  • Lakers at Clippers @ 2:30pm on ABC
• All other games are on NBATV

Basketball – NCAA: (rankings correspond to their seed now)

• Mon 3/29 – Elite 8
  • Oregon St at 2. Houston @ 6:15pm on CBS
  • Arkansas vs 1. Baylor @ 8:57pm on CBS
• Tues 3/30 – Elite 8
  • USC at 1. Gonzaga @ 6:15pm on TBS
  • UCLA at 1. Michigan @ 8:57pm on TBS
• Sat 4/3 – Final Four
  • Game 1: Teams TBD @ 4pm on CBS
  • Game 2: Teams TBD @ 7:30pm on CBS
• Mon 4/5 – National Championship @ 8pm on CBS

Golf:

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

Hockey:

• Mon 3/29
  • Islanders at Penguins @ 6pm on NBCSN
• Tues 3/30
  • Hurricanes at Blackhawks @ 6:30pm on NBCSN
• Wed 3/31
  • Rangers at Golden Knights @ 9pm on NBCSN
• Thurs 4/1
  • Hurricanes at Blackhawks @ 7pm on NBCSN
• Sun 4/4
  • Red wings at Lightning @ 11am on NBC
  • Stars at Hurricanes @ 6pm on NBCSN

Motorsports:

• Sun 4/4
  • MotoGP – Doha GP @ 9:30pm on NBCSN

Olympic Sports:

• Thurs 4/1
  • Gymnastics: NCAA Regionals @ 3pm on SEC+
• Fri 4/2
  • Wrestling: 2021 Olympic Trials @ 6:30pm on NBCSN
• Sat 4/3
  • Wrestling: 2021 Olympic Trials @ 6:30pm on NBCSN

Soccer:

• Wed 3/31
  • FIFA World Cup Qualifying: ENG vs POL @ 1:45pm on ESPN2
  • UEFA EU U21: CRO vs ENG @ 11am on ESPNU
• Thurs 4/1
  • NCAAW: Mississippi St at Columbus St @ 3pm on SEC
• Sat 4/3
  • Premier League: Leeds United vs Sheffield @ 8:55am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Leicester City vs Manchester City @ 11:25am on NBCSN
  • German Bundesliga: RB Leipzig vs Bayern Munich @ 11:30am on ESPN2
  • Italian Serie A: Bologna vs Internazationale @ 1:45pm on ESPN2
  • Premier League: Arsenal vs Liverpool @ 1:55pm on NBCSN
• Sun 4/4
  • Premier League: Newcastle vs Tottenham Hotspur @ 8am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: Ashton Villa vs Fulham @ 10:25am on NBCSN
  • Premier League: ManU vs Brighton & Hove Albion @ 1:10pm on NBCSN