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Dwyane Wade:
Still haven't got over his Saturday triple-double, linchpin of the best executed game plan of this year's Tournament.
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The Lead Item
Two Words For You:
FINAL. FABULOUS.
Surprise teams sure make the Final Four a lot more
fun than chalk. Here's a preview of a few of the week's storylines: Tom Crean, motivational
genius ... Rick Barnes, "he-was-due" Final Four
newbie ... Roy Williams, saddled with title-or-bust
expectations ... Jim Boeheim, on the receiving end of
whining for once.
All that, plus more Final Four winners (and
whiners) ...
Winners
Stardom is age-indifferent: There's a
Syracuse freshman (Carmelo Anthony), a Texas soph (T.J.
Ford), a Marquette junior (Wade) and two Kansas
seniors (Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison).
Of course, you don't hear anything about any of these
ridiculously clutch and NBA-ready players displacing
unproven LeBron from the top of the NBA draft heap.
(Read on for MJ's take on LeBron.)
Whiners
That wasn't Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson (and
a chorus of critics) complaining about the Albany game
location, was it?
Because I didn't hear any complaints about the
Sooners' placement in Oklahoma City in the early
rounds. And I didn't hear any requests to swap with
2-seed Kansas in the brutal West on Selection
Sunday.
Sure, the pod system is a joke, between
Syracuse in Albany and Texas in San Antonio. But don't
diminish the real keys: the Orange's dominating
zone D and the Longhorns' bench strength.
MLB Openers
Here's a sign this baseball season
will be a wacky one: The previously hapless Rangers
started their season with a 6-3 win last night over the
defending champion Angels. Is it Buck Showalter's
influence? Not as much as the three HRs.
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"IS IT APRIL ALREADY?" EDITION |
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| CONVERSATION TOPICS THAT ARE IN PLAY: |
1 If I was UCLA, I'd open bank for Marquette's Tom Crean
2 T'Wolves' familiar spring swoon coming early this year
3 Great American Ball Park: Yeah, but it's in Cincy |
| CONVERSATION TOPICS THAT ARE SO OVER: |
1 NCAA Tourney "home-court" advantage for Texas, 'Cuse
2 Complaining about that "home-court" advantage
3 No more Judd sightings: Worse than office-pool cellar |
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MJ on LeBron
MJ declined to say if James clears the
mythical "Men-Dunleavy Line": But the reigning
king said that while the would-be king has "unlimited
potential," he enters the NBA "toward the bottom" of
2s and 3s.
Love-ing the TPC
Every story about Davis Love always seems to
include the adjective "underachieving," an
early-career label that stuck, the poor schnook.
Not sure if his six-stroke TPC title will help, but we know Tiger will never have that rep, even
though he put three shots in the drink and finished out of the top 10.
NASCAR
Dale Jr. was beat out by Ryan Newman in Texas
this weekend, but you didn't hear him
complaining about the pro-Syracuse crowd in Albany.
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Faking It: MLB
A few baseball talking points for workplace
"faking it," knowing you don't fully engage until
the Final Four is over:
"K-Rod a set-up guy? What a waste!" ...
"As far as baby names go, 'Magglio' is the new
'Casey'"...
"The Phillies are this season's Angels" ...
"Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing how great
those overachieving small-market teams are."
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Blue Jays' marketing department:
Bought newspaper ad Sunday encouraging fans -- in English and Japanese -- to come out and boo Hideki Matsui. And bring the kids!
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| What's been the best moment of the Tournament? |
VOTE at SportsNation
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Today on ESPN.com
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| P2: Wacky Bracket |
| MLB Preview |
| MLB: Twins will win |
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MLB Opening Day is about the One-Name pitchers: Pedro,
Unit, Rocket, Maddux, K-K-K-K-Kerry. ..
Anyone who picked all four No. 1 seeds for the Final
Four has lost prediction legitimacy ...
Kobe should have saved some of Friday's double-nickel
for the Sonics on Sunday ...
Top NFL prospect Terrell Suggs was reportedly in a
brawl this weekend, which means his draft file gets a
notation: "Nicely aggressive" ...
So much for the "Re-seed the Final Four because
Arizona playing Kentucky isn't fair!" movement ...
The No. 1 Brit single is a deodorant ad theme song,
which is kind of like "Byyyyy ... Mennen!" being No. 1
here ...
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