It would be great for college basketball if perennial Cinderella, Gonzaga, beats one of college basketball’s true blue bloods, North Carolina, for the national championship. I sure hope it happens. Carolina is really talented and has circled this game since losing to Villanova in a stunner a year ago. Gonzaga has finally broken through, and is not just some underdog going against the Tarheels. They can win it, and a lot of college basketball media types who cover games for a living think they will win it. My heart says Gonzaga, but my head says Carolina.
* The Pirates will start the season tied with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in the standings. After that, the Buccos will most likely be looking up at their division rivals. As much as I want to see the Pirates win again, I don’t see them finishing higher than third place in the NL Central. The champion Cubs are young and should only get better. The Cardinals are the Cardinals, one of the model organizations in all of sports. The Pirates have done little to better their team. I’d love to believe the Buccos will Beat em in 2017, but I don’t.
* The UConn vs Miss. State women’s Final Four semifinal was one of the best games I have ever watched. I expected UConn to win another national championship. Instead, they fell to a team they beat by 60 points in last year’s tourney. The overtime thriller ranks up there with men’s classics like Duke-UNLV, NC State-Houston, Villanova-Georgetown and Wisconsin-Kentucky, other memorable upsets. The loss has to be devastating for the UConn kids who went 36-0 prior to going to Dallas. My guess is they will come back stronger than ever next year. They are young, now have experience playing under pressure, and will add another stellar recruiting class. UConn may be down, but they will be back.
* The Pens had lost four in a row heading into the weekend, but came back nicely to win a pair of games. There’s no question that all of the injuries have started to catch up with the Pens. When you have eight guys out of the lineup like the Pens have, it’s tough to keep winning. The good news for the Pens is that several of the injured, including stars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, should be back in time for the playoffs. The Pens need some offense, especially with Phil Kessel in such a scoring drought, and Geno can sure put the puck in the net. Letang is the key, in my opinion. I don’t think the Pens can win the Stanley Cup without him. They need him back, and soon!
* Maybe the Pens’ goaltending isn’t as big a concern as previously thought. Matt Murray had really struggled over the last month, but looked pretty good in the nets in beating the Rangers and Hurricanes. Murray admits he’s been off his game. Marc Andre Fleury has been pretty good, but he hasn’t had to carry the load. The Pens want Murray to be their guy heading into the playoffs. We know he’s capable of coming up big in the big games. Murray needs to start rounding into playoff form. Otherwise, it’s doubtful the Pens will repeat as champs.
* Tiger Woods is done. He’ll miss the Masters for the third time in four years due to another injury. No athlete dominated his sport the way Woods once did. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Even if he had made it to Augusta it’s hard to imagine Woods could compete with today’s young guns. The Masters will go on without Tiger Woods.
* With the Raiders about to abandon Oakland for the second time, that makes it three NFL teams who have moved or have announced their move in the last fourteen months. The NFL can spin it anyway they want, but in each case it’s a money grab plain and simple. The Rams, who never should have left Los Angeles in the first place, are back home, leaving poor old St. Louis a loser for the second time. I feel for fans of that city. I’ll never understand why the Chargers moved to LA. And leave it to Mark Davis to do what his father did and leave an incredibly devoted fan base in Oakland for a better deal. The NFL claims it cares about its fans. But the reality is, the NFL only cares about making as much money as it can. And these moves prove it.
* Some politicians in Oakland want the Raiders to leave immediately. Good for them. Some devoted fans also say they’ll never go see the Raiders play again while they’re still in Oakland. I wouldn’t either. If my team announced it was leaving I would never support that team again. Especially if that team was going to stay in town for a few more years before moving into a brand new stadium. Back in the day the rivalry between the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers was the best in the NFL. Raiders’ fans, like Steelers’ fans, were rabid and devoted. While I can’t stand the Raiders, I do feel very bad for those fans. They’ve had the rug pulled out from them twice. Here’s to hoping the Oakland Coliseum will be mostly empty on game days until Mark Davis takes his team out of town for the last time.
