Weekly Updates – Week of December 3rd, 2018

Weekly Updates – Week of December 3rd, 2018

Basketball – College: 4 ranked vs ranked match ups this week. Including 2 for #19 Purdue.

Basketball – NBA: Bulls coach fired. Beverley ejected for throwing a ball at a fan.

Football – College: Final Four announced! Who is in? Conference Championship craziness and coaching changes.

Football – NFL: Kareem hunt dismissed. Packers head coach fired.

Golf: Jon Rahm wins Hero Challenge. Tiger 2nd to last. 

Olympic Sports: 2020 Tokyo swim coaches named.

Basketball – College:

• Trayce Jackson-Davis (#17 of the ESPN Top 100) committed to Indiana on Friday. He chose Indiana over UCLA and Michigan St.
• Akok Akok (#40 in the ESPN Top 100) committed to UConn on Saturday. He chose UConn over Pitt, Georgetown, Syracuse and Providence.
• BodyArmor is now the drink of March Madness as the Kobe Bryant brand took over all NCAA championships from Powerade. The goal of the brand is to top the sports drink market by 2025.

• Loyola presented Sister Jean with a Final Four ring. You may remember her as the adorable 99 yr old who cheered on her Cinderella story of a team in last year’s final four. Unfortunately. Loyola lost in that round to Michigan but Sister Jean is ready for this season. So are we, sister, so are we.

Basketball – NBA:

• Bulls fire head coach Fred Hoiberg and promote Jim Boylen to take over the position after a dismal 5-19 start.

• Clippers Guard Beverley was ejected from their game with 9 min left in the game against the Mavs after he threw the ball at a fan. The fan reportedly said F your mom to Beverley a number of times.

Football – College:

• The Final Four CFP teams have been decided.
  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Notre Dame
  4. Oklahoma
     • To recap why you have been hearing so much about this, see next post.
• Conference Champions have been decided:
  • Big 12: Oklahoma for the 4th straight year
  • Pac 12: Washington
    • Washington won the championship without scoring a single offensive TD.
  • ACC: Clemson for the 4th straight year
  • Big 10: Ohio St
  • SEC: Alabama
    • Alabama had beaten all of their opponents by 20+ points (first team to do so since Yale in 1888) until this game. Georgia was leading by 14 points two different times during the game. In the whole season before this game, Alabama had only trailed an opponent for 3 plays… This game caused quite a stir of who deserved that #4 spot. Lets just say Georgia made a strong case.
    • Tua, Alabama’s starting QB, who was in the Heisman race went out injured and did not come back in. Jalen Hurts came in to finish off the game when the Tide was down. Sound familiar? Because this is exactly reversed of what happened last year in the National Championship game. Against the same team. With the same QBs.
  • American: UCF
    • Even without their starting QB
  • Mountain West: Fresno St
  • Conference USA: UAB
  • Sun Belt: Appalachian St
  • MAC: N. Illinois
• Now bowl season is upon us. Come back to see the full bowl schedule
  • GFHint: Usually any team with a winning record (especially in the Power 5) will make a bowl. The threshold is usually 6 wins. But sometimes you can get a few 5-5 teams in the mix. Yes, there are a lot of bowls.
• The ACC Network will officially launch on 8/22/2019. The first game to be on the network will be the Clemson vs Georgia Tech football game.
• Bill Snyder (who is 79) announced his retirement from Kansas St after a long career with the Wildcats. Snyder retired from K St once already in 2005, however after 3 years of dismal performance without him, he returned in 2009 and turned the program around for a second time. He coached a total of 27 seasons at K St and only won 1 game in this first season. Snyder retires with 215 wins, a Hall of Fame career and his name on the stadium, the only current coach to do so.
• Coaching changes are common this time of year.
  • Some new faces and new places:
    • Les Miles to coach Kansas
    • Mac Brown to coach UNC
    • Jake Spavital to coach Texas St
    • Matt Wells to coach Texas Tech
    • Tyson Helton to coach Western Kentucky
  • Here are the schools with openings yet to be filled (including those with an interim named): Akron, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Charlotte, Colorado, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Kansas St, Louisville, Maryland, UMass
• Losses in the top 25:
  

  Losses in the Top 25
  Visitor	Home	Stadium	Day	Time (CT)	TV	Score
  1. Alabama	4. Georgia	Mercedes-Benz Stadium (GA)	Sat 12/1	3:00 PM	CBS	35-28
  14. Texas	5. Oklahoma	AT&T Stadium (TX)	Sat 12/1	11:00 AM	ABC	27-39
  17. Utah	11. Washington	Levi’s Stadium (CA)	Fri 11/30	7:00 PM	FOX	3-10
  25. Fresno St	22. Boise St	Albertson’s Stadium (ID)	Sat 12/1	6:45 PM	ESPN	19-16
  21. Northwestern	6. Ohio St	Lucas Oil Stadium (IN)	Sat 12/1	7:00 PM	FOX	24-45

Football – NFL:

• Kareem Hunt was released from the Chiefs, the AFC-West division leader, after he knocked a woman down to the hotel floor and proceeds to kick her while she is still on the ground. The incident happened back in February but when questioned later about the incident, he lied about his role in it. I found the video for you but it’s not pretty. 
• Packers fired Head coach Mike McCarthy after their 20-17 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.
• Vikings WR Adam Thielen exchange heated words with Patriots coach Bill Belichick after the Patriots challenged a play. Thielen thought a Patriots player going down in injury at a critical reviewable play was ‘convenient.’ For the video, click here. Warning Bill says something inappropriate.
• Chargers beat the Steelers  by kicking a FG in the final seconds after trailing 23-7 at halftime. Even crazier: the Chargers kicker missed the FG twice but the Steelers jumped offsides 2xs to give him 3 attempts to make the kick. The FG was originally 39 yrds but after the 2 offsides penalties was a chip shot of 29 yrds, which he makes to win the game.
• Saints, Steelers and Redskins added a loss to their division leading records. This caused the Redskins to drop to #2 in the NFC-East to the Cowboys.
• Which game to watch coming  up? The Rams play the Bears on Sunday at 7:20pm which will be a showdown between 2 division leaders in the NFC. It’s not likely to change the leader of either division. Can the Bears spoil the Rams league winning season so far?
•  Division Leaders:
  • • AFC
      • East – Patriots (8-3)
      • North – Steelers (7-3)
      • South – Texans (7-3)
      • West – Chiefs (9-2)
    • NFC
      • East – Redskins (6-5)
      • North –Bears (8-3)
      • South – Saints (10-1)
      • West – Rams (10-1)

Golf:

• Jon Rahm won the Hero World Challenge on Sunday over Tony Finau. Rahm ends 2018 with 3 titles.
  • Justin Rose needed to finish T-2nd to take the #1 spot from Brooks Koepka. He finished in a solo 3rd.
  • Woods finished second to last in his event.

Olympic Sports:

• USA Swimming appointed Cal’s Dave Durden and Stanford’s Greg Meehan as head coaches for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Sports to watch this week:

Basketball – College:

• Mon 12/3
  • 14. Iowa at 9. Michigan St @ 5:30pm on FS1
  • Morgan St at 4. UVA @ 6pm on ACC
• Tues 12/4
  • Oklahoma vs Notre Dame @ 6pm on ESPN
  • Wofford at 2. Kansas @ 7pm on ESPN+
  • UNC Asheville at 8. Auburn @ 7pm on SEC
• Wed 12/5
  • Hartford at 3. Duke @ 6pm on ESPN2
  • Washington at 1. Gonzaga @ 10pm on ESPN2
• Thurs 12/6
  • 24. Maryland at 19. Purdue @ 6pm on BTN
• Fri 12/7
  • 5. Nevada at Arizona St @ 10:50pm on ESPN2
• Sat 12/8
  • South Carolina at 7. Michigan @ 11am on FS1
  • 9. Michigan St at Florida @ 11am on CBS
  • 10. Kentucky at Seton Hall @ 11am on FOX
  • Yale at 3. Duke @ 4:30pm on ESPN
  • NM St at 2. Kansas @ 7:30pm on ESPN2
  • Dayton at 8. Auburn @ 7:30pm on SEC
• Sun 12/9
  • 6. Tennessee vs 1. Gonzaga @ 2pm on ESPN in AZ
  • 5. Nevada at Grand Canyon @ 4:30pm on ESPNU
  • 19. Purdue at 17. Texas @ 5pm on ESPN2

Basketball – NBA: 

• Wed 12/5
  • 76ers at Raptors @ 7pm on ESPN
  • Spurs at Lakers @ 9:30pm on ESPN
• Thurs 12/6
  • Knicks at Celtics @ 7pm on TNT
  • Rockets at Jazz @ 9:30pm on TNT
• Fri 12/7
  • 76ers at Pistons @ 6pm on ESPN
  • Warriors at Bucks @ 8:30pm on ESPN

Football – NCAA:

• Sat 12/8 – Heisman Trophy Award @ 7pm on ESPN
  • Finalists are between Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray as top 2. The others in the running: Will Grier (WV QB), Dwayne Haskins (Ohio St QB), Gardiner Minshew (WSU QB), Travis Etienne (Clemson RB) and Trevor Lawrence (Clemson QB)
  • 3 men go to the ceremony. Those 3 will be announced later today.

Football – NFL:

• Mon 12/3 – Redskins at Eagles @ 7:15pm on ESPN
• Thurs 12/6 – Jaguars at Titans @ 7:20pm on FOX
• Sun 12/9
  • 8 games @ 12pm on CBS or FOX
    • Depending on your geographical location
  • 2 games @ 3:05pm on CBS
    • Bengals at Chargers
    • Broncos at 49ers
  • 3 games @ 3:25pm on FOX
    • Eagles at Cowboys
    • Steelers at Raiders
    • Loins at Cardinals
  • Rams at Bears @ 7:20pm on NBC
• Mon 12/10 – Vikings at Seahawks @ 7:15pm on ESPN

Golf:

• QBE Shootout
  • Friday 12/7 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
  • Sat 12/8 @ 1:30pm on Golf Channel
  • Sun 12/9
    • @ 1pm – 2pm on Golf Channel
    • @ 2pm on NBC