BASKETBALL

The NCAA suspended Louisville basketball legend Rick Pitino for five games for failing to monitor an escort scandal involving recruited athletes. The school may have to forfeit their 2013 championship as well as their winning record during the time the “sex-for recruits scandal” took place. The story came out in 2015 when Katina Powell wrote a book about Louisville’s basketball program claiming she was paid to provide women (including her daughters) to entertain the recruits.

FOOTBALL

Interest in American football is growing rapidly in Israel, and the arrival this week of a group of Hall Famers certainly made a splash. New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft and the President of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, David Baker are leading the delegation which includes Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Jim Brown, Marshall Faulk, Jerome Bettis, Chris Carter, Joe Green, Bruce Smith and Jerome Bettis. 18 Hall of Famers embarked on the weeklong trip to the Holy Land called “Touchdown in Israel II-We are All Patriots”.  Kraft told the Associated Press, “I love football. I love Israel. I love America. I think kids in America would die to have this group of players come and view them. The game of football teaches you lessons in life that nothing else does.”

(photo credit:ALLON SINAI)

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The University of Maryland President, Wallace Loh, commented recently on NCAA’s  3 year investigation of the University of North Carolina for an academic scandal. Loh said, “For the things that happened in North Carolina, it’s abysmal. I would think that this would lead to the implementation of the death penalty by the NCAA. But I’m not in charge of that.” The NCAA investigation is looking into over 3000 (mostly student athletes) from UNC taking “no-show” classes and getting good grades. No word on when the investigation will conclude or what the consequences could be.

Newly retired Dallas QB Tony Romo suited up and hung out on the bench with the Dallas Mavericks in their Tuesday night game against the Denver Nuggets. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanted to sign Romo to a one-day contract so Romo could come off the bench and play in the game, but NBA Commissioner Adam Sliver wouldn’t allow it. Romo made some shots with the team during warmups and couldn’t have looked happier!

BASEBALL

Yoenis Cespedes and the NY Mets had a great night Tuesday when Cespedes belted in three home runs, becoming the only player in franchise history to have two three home-run games (the first was in August of 2015). The Mets came away with a big 14-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

BASEBALL

Tim Tebow mesmerized the crowd with a 2-run homer in his first official at-bat in the minor leagues. The former Heisman trophy winner and NFL QB, Tebow is playing for the Mets’ A team in hopes of making it to the Majors. Tebow hasn’t played baseball since high school, but has been working hard with a great attitude and fans are certainly behind him.

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LaVar Ball is making news again. Two weeks after UCLA (his son Lonzo’s team) lost in the NCAA Sweet 16 round, he told the Orange County Register, “Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow.” Lonzo is projected to go high in the NBA draft, but some are worried about LaVar’s influence and outspokenness.

GOLF

Unfortunately current #1 player Dustin Johnson is missing The Masters due to a freakish accident on Wednesday. He was walking down the stairs, slipped and landed on his back. It looked like he might actually tee-off yesterday, but then felt too stiff in his back to compete so at the last minute withdrew from the tournament.

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March Madness is officially over, and North Carolina is the 2017 National Champions! The North Carolina vs Gonzaga matchup stayed close until the final seconds where the players were on the ground scrambling over possession of the ball. North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks was awarded the ball, but apparently the ref missed the fact that Meeks had his hand out of bounds thereby giving Gonzaga possession of the ball. With 26 seconds to go and down by one point, that call could have made a difference. The Tar Heels were devastated last year when they lost in a buzzer-beater to Villanova.  They redeemed themselves this year, and with a 71-65 win, North Carolina marks its 6th National Championship. Congratulations to North Carolina and Congratulations to Joel Barry II for earning the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament. For a recap of all the highs and lows of the tournament, watch the “One Shining Moment” video (a montage posted at the end of every tournament for the last 30 years).

Georgetown University hired NBA Hall of Famer, Patrick Ewing, as their new Head Coach.  Ewing played 4 years for Georgetown and reports he’s happy to return to his alma mater.

FOOTBALL

Tony Romo will be released from the Dallas Cowboys and will reportedly leave football to pursue broadcasting opportunities.

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It was bound to happen eventually and on Friday it did. The mighty UConn women’s basketball team finally lost. After an historic 111 win streak, UConn lost to Mississippi State in an exciting buzzer beater sending Mississippi State to the Finals. On Sunday, South Carolina ended Missisissippi State’s euphoria with a big 67-55 win to bring home the NCAA Title. All eyes were on South Carolina’s coach Dawn Staley as the NCAA Title eluded her when she was a college player. It was also South Carolina’s first NCAA Title. Congrats.

In the men’s Final Four tourney, #1 Gonzaga beat South Carolina on Saturday and #1 North Carolina beat Oregon. The two #1’s will face each other Monday night in the NCAA Finals. This is Gonzaga’s first appearance ever in a National Title Game. The excitement starts at 9:20 pm tonight.

GOLF

In an odd twist over the weekend, 22 year old Lexi Thompson lost her 3 shot lead in the ANA Inspiration tournament on Sunday after a TV viewer sent in a video complaint showing her misplace a ball by 1 inch on the 17th green.  On Sunday, officials approached Thompson with the news that she was penalized 2 points for the misplaced ball and another 2 point stroke penalty for improperly signing her scorecard. Incredibly, she didn’t let the news rattle her, but it wasn’t enough for her to win. Social media erupted with fans expressing their outrage that a TV viewer could weigh in and change the course of a tournament. Even Tiger Woods wrote on Twitter, “Viewers at home should not be officials wearing stripes.”

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The Cleveland Cavaliers lost again Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls, their 5th loss in 7 games. The Team is now 1/2 game behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Kyrie Irving wasn’t shy in expressing his opinion of the Team’s mental state after the game, “To be perfectly honest, we’re probably all over the place. It’s no time to kind of back up into the wall and panic. I’m not panicking and I don’t think anyone in this locker room should panic. We’re going to be just fine. It’s ugly right now. It’s real, real ugly. But we’ll get out of this, we’ll be fine.”

Big weekend of college basketball. The NCAA Women’s Final Four begins at 7:30 pm Friday night featuring South Carolina vs Stanford then at 10:00 pm Connecticut vs Mississippi State.

On Saturday night, the men’s Final Four features South Carolina vs Gonzaga at 6:09 pm followed by Oregon vs North Carolina at 8:49 pm.

NASCAR

Nascar season is underway and the talk so far has been of the “Monster Energy Girls” inappropriate outfits. Critics of the girls called their outfits inappropriate for a family event and took to social media calling them “hookers”.  Monster Energy put together a video in order to give the girls a platform to explain their presence at the track.  Not sure if the video hurt or helped the girls, but Monster Energy (the title sponsor of the NASCAR series) is sure getting a lot of play from all the attention.

HOCKEY

Just days before the World Championship, the US women’s national hockey team reached an agreement with USA Hockey. Among the changes in the agreement, USA Hockey agreed to an increase in salary to $70,000 per player with bonuses for winning medals. The Women’s Team has won 6 of the last 8 World Titles and will compete on Friday to defend their legacy in the first round of the World Championship against the Canadians.

It’s the end of an era for the Detroit Red Wings. With their loss on Tuesday, they will miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 25 years.

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In a win over the Houston Rockets, the Golden State Warriors recorded their 60th win for the 3rd straight season, becoming only the 5th franchise in history to do this. The win was also a milestone for coach Steve Kerr as it notched his 200th victory.

FOOTBALL

It’s official. The Raiders will move to Las Vegas. They received 31 of 32 votes in yesterday’s meeting. The only owner voting against the move was the Miami Dolphins’ Stephen Ross. He said, “My position today was that we as owners and as a league owe it to the fans to do everything we can to stay in the communities that have supported us until all options have been exhausted. I want to wish Mark Davis and the Raiders organization the best in Las Vegas.” The Raiders are expected to move into the new stadium in 2020 and will stay in Oakland until the stadium is ready.

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To no one’s surprise, the University of Connecticut Huskies cruised into the Final Four of the Women’s Championship. UConn has now won 111 consecutive games and is heading to its 10th straight Final Four appearance. Up next, UConn takes on Mississippi State and South Carolina and Stanford face off.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have fallen into a losing spiral and are now 1/2 game behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

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The odds of predicting the Final Four Teams in the NCAA Championship was almost impossible, particularly when factoring in that Gonzaga and South Carolina have never made it this far, and Oregon hasn’t gotten to this point since 1939 when they won the tournament. We don’t  just have Cinderella teams however. North Carolina rounds out the group with 22 appearances in the Final Four and 5 championships. On April 1st Gonzaga and South Carolina will square off, and later in the night, North Carolina and Oregon will compete for the National Championship on April 3rd.

Devin Booker made history draining  70 points on Friday night against the Boston Celtics to record the highest scoring game in Phoenix Suns’ history. Shockingly it wasn’t enough to give the Suns a win, but he did secure his place in history becoming the third youngest player in history (at 20 years and 145 days old) to score at least 50 points in a game. He shares this honor with LeBron James and Brandon Jennings.

FOOTBALL

As of this afternoon, it appears the Oakland Raiders will get enough votes from NFL owners to approve its relocation to Las Vegas. City and State officials came up with a pledge of $750 million dollars to fund a new stadium.

BASKETBALL

March madness continued last night with a stunner of an upset. Xavier shocked everyone with a win over #2 ranked Arizona. Ranked #11, Xavier was the lowest ranked seed to make it to the Sweet 16. After a February losing streak, where the team almost didn’t make it in to the NCAA tournament at all, the players bought a calendar, wrote in their losing February games, then burned the calendar and kept the ashes in a jar (giving the impression of an urn) for motivation moving forward.  As their coach said, “We wanted our urn to go with us. So our players were forward-thinking and not worried about what happened.” Xavier will play Gonzaga (who beat West Virginia Thursday night) on Saturday with the winner heading to the Final Four.

In other games Thursday night, the Oregon Ducks took down Michigan in a 69-68 nail-biter, while Kansas blew past Purdue with a 98-66 rout. Check out the updated bracket for how your favorite teams fared.