Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for March 25, 2013 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
- Sixteen teams are left in the NCAA basketball tournament. Three #1 seeds survived, Gonzaga didn't. Florida Gulf Coast is the first #15 seed to reach the Sweet 16.
- UCLA fires coach Ben Howland.
- It's now a 26 game winning streak for the Miami Heat
- The Arnold Palmer Invitational will be completed today. Tiger Woods leads by three shots with 16 holes to play.
- The Yankees and Angels reportedly have a deal to send outfielder Vernon Wells to New York. Derek Jeter is expected to start the season on the disabled list. The Yankees might be the first team with a shorter NDL (Non-disabled list).
2. March Madness
It was nice hearing from my Top 5 subscribers over the weekend who wanted a shoulder to cry on. Yes I'm profoundly sorry that your bracket blew up. And yes nobody picked Georgetown, New Mexico, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin all coming up losers so early. Actually one person did. Of the 8.15 million entries into the ESPN contest, there was only one perfect bracket after Friday night's games. He or she obviously used darts. And nobody picked all 16 teams left. Four people got 15 of 16 which is pretty amazing. And in the contest that you really care about, a chance to win a That's Sports hat by picking the two teams to make the final, 64 percent of you are still alive.
3. Know-It-All
I love listening to and reading people who know for sure exactly what's going to happen in sports. Yesterday morning I read the following on a popular website. (No need to pile on. The name is unmentioned to protect the guilty.) "Indiana vs. Temple -- is expected to be the biggest rout of the round. How many televisions will click over to watch Tiger Woods in his quest to get back to No. 1..." Well, as things turned out, Temple led Indiana by three at halftime and if you clicked over to watch Tiger, you saw him on tape. The golf was in a weather delay. That crystal ball takes some funny bounces sometimes.
4. Jump Ball
When's the last time you heard a crowd get excited about two players about to participate in a jump ball early in the fourth quarter of an NBA game? It happened the other night in L.A. When Kris Humphries of Brooklyn and Lamar Odom of the Clippers got ready to jump, the crowd roared. I'm told it has something to do with a Kardashian and their being former brothers-in-law. It must be an L.A. thing.
5. Bud Palmer
When I heard that Bud Palmer passed way at the age of 91 I honestly didn't know he had still been alive. I remembered him as a handsome smooth TV sportscaster for ABC. But he had another life as the first captain of the New York Knicks. He was one of the first players to shoot a jumper. He said he went into sportscasting because it paid better than basketball. How times have changed.
Happy Birthday: Danica Patrick. 31.
Bonus Birthday: Sir Elton John. 66.
Today in Sports: Horton Smith wins the first Masters golf tournament. 1934.
Bonus Event: Now we can have gondolas. The city of Venice, Italy is founded. 421.
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