NCAA Update and the Terrible Astros

Two Top Seeds Fall in Sweet 16

• The #1 seed in the East, the #1 seed Indiana Hoosiers, fell to the #4 seed Syracuse Orange Thursday night, behind a big game by guards Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche. The Hoosiers, who seemed totally flustered by the Syracuse 2-3 zone, never got into the game, couldn't make passes through the long Syracuse defenders and were thoroughly defeated on the boards leading to a 61-50 loss.
• The #2 seed Miami Hurricanes also ran into a Big East buzz saw in the #3 seed Marquette Golden Eagles. Miami was hurt by ice cold shooting in the first hand. The Hurricanes only scored 16 points in the first half and faced a 13 point deficit at halftime. Even outscoring the Golden Eagles in the second half wasn't enough to overcome the 2-12 shooting first part of the game.
• In the other two sweet 16 games last night, the top seeds prevailed. Ohio State needed a last second 3-pointer (for the second straight game) to defeat the Arizona Wildcats. LaQuinton Ross' 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left gave the Buckeyes the 73-70 edge that ended up being the final, winning, score. In the other game in the west regional, the Wichita State Shockers soundly defeated the La Salle Explorers ending their Cinderella run through the tournament.
• Tonight features the South and Midwest games. #1 seeded Kansas plays #4 Michigan in Dallas, and everybody's favorite #15 seeded Florida Gulf Coast plays #3 Florida in the second game. In Indianapolis, #1 Louisville plays the #12 Oregon, and #2 Duke plays #3 Michigan State.

A-Rod to make more than Astros

• Despite the fact that he is injured and may miss most, if not all, of the 2013 season, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez will make more money this season than the entire Houston Astros team.
• Rodriguez is nearing the end of a massive deal he signed a few years ago and is making more per year despite seeing a drop in production. The Yankees were reportedly looking for a way to void the remainder of his deal earlier this offseason when he was linked to a PED clinic in Miami but they were unable to do so.
• The Yankees have 4 of the 6 highest paid players in baseball this season with Rodriguez, pitcher CC Sabathia, 1B Mark Texeira and OF Vernon Wells (though the Los Angeles Angels are going to be paying $29 of the $42 million left on Well's contract), who they just traded for. Philadelphia SP Cliff Lee and NYM SP Johan Santana round out the list.
• To put this statistic in context, the Houston Astros salary is so small because they are terrible and young. They are in the process of rebuilding their team that finished a Major League worst 55-107 last season. Many may joke that the team is a quadruple-A team, however they only have about about 7 major league caliber players on their 40-man roster.

Tiger, NBA Streaks

Tiger Roaring

- Tiger Woods won for the second straight week to leapfrog Rory McElroy for #1 in the world. Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational pretty comfortably, and will enter the Masters (his next tournament) on the biggest momentum ride since he last was on top of his game in late 2009.
- Justin Rose finished second, while Rickie Fowler (Woods’ partner the last two rounds) finished tied for 3rd with three others. Fowler got as close as 2 strokes on the 12th hole, but Woods sunk a 25-foot birdie putt to push the lead back to 3, and he never looked back.
- Woods’ 8th victory at the Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill ties the record of most wins at a single tournament for a player (with Sam Sneed who won the Greater Greensboro Open 8 times). The Masters start in Augusta, Georgia on April 11th.
- This week is Woods' 624th week atop the PGA rankings, where he's spent more than 2/3 of his career despite not being ranked #1 since October of 2010.


NBA Streaks

- The Miami Heat continued scorching opponents, beating down on the Orlando Magic 108-94 Monday night.  The Heat go for the 28th consecutive straight win tonight in Chicago against a feisty Chicago Bulls team who is still playing without former MVP Derrick Rose who is physically, but not mentally ready to recover from offseason ACL surgery.
- Also worth noting is the Denver Nuggets who had a team record 15 game winning streak end Monday, which put them in position to contend for the #3 seed in the West.  Denver lost to the Hornets badly, possibly because they were looking ahead to their next game, in San Antonio against the Western Conference leading Spurs.  Many people don't give the Nuggets a chance against the West's powerhouse team but probably the most energetic and best rebounding team in the NBA, Denver has a decent chance to make some noise, especially if they get the #3 seed and play Oklahoma City in round 2, as they've beaten the defending West champs 3 times this season.

NCAA recap

Florida Gulf Coast Eagles soaring

- With apologies to the other notable stories of the NCAA tournament, there's no way any other team could take the lead after one of the if not the most improbable tournament runs in recent memory.
- Florida Gulf Coast is a tiny school from Fort Myers, Florida founded in 1991 and not even eligible to play in the NCAA tournament until last season.  That didn't stop the Eagles from winning their conference this season and blistering Georgetown, one of the best teams in the nation, in the first round with a 19-2 run (that included this amazing play) to blow open a close game before holding off Georgetown's rally by playing smart and making free throws.
- In their their second game yesterday, they actually got a bit of a reprieve, playing 7th seeded San Diego St., who despite being a quality team with a legendary coach, does not have the size or quality caliber players of Georgetown.  Shockingly, the Eagles managed to follow almost the exact game plan, using a huge 17-0 run in the second half to put away a shocked opponent and threw in a couple more alley-oops for good measure. 
- None of the previous seven #15 seeds to win their opening round game had even come particularly close to winning their next game, but FGCU is now the first #15 seed ever in the Sweet 16, and next they play Florida, the team that many people in their home city of Fort Myers are probably fans of.  You can bet that the Gators won't be taking them lightly.


Best of the rest

- The NCAA tournament actually played 46 games that didn't involve FGCU since Thursday (and an extra four on Tuesday/Wednesday), and many of those have been thrilling as well.  A quick recap:
- Southern University gave #1 seed Gonzaga a big scare but then #9 Wichita State finished what Southern started, defeating Gonzaga 76-70.
- Marquette won a second consecutive thriller, holding off a last second rally and potential game winning three pointer by Butler, winning 74-72.
- Oregon, a #12 seed, made the Sweet 16 after steamrolling #4 St. Louis 74-57.
- Ohio State's Aaron Craft and La Salle's Tyrone Garland made tie-breaking, game winning shots with seconds left to lead their teams into the Sweet 16.  La Salle played one of the "first four" games so they have actually won three NCAA tournament games already and are going to their first Sweet 16 since winning the NCAA tournament in 1954.

NCAA, Reed

NCAA's start with a bang

- The first day of the most exciting tournament in American sports didn't disappoint as the NCAA nearly saw one "smart school" deliver a shocking upset over a #3 seed but Marquette furiously rallied by scoring 13 points in the final 1:33 including a last second layup to edge by #14 Davidson by a score of 59-58.  Later that night a different "smart school" did deliver an upset over a #3 seed as Harvard, who is in their third  consecutive NCAA tournament, downed New Mexico 68-62 and held UNM superstar Tony Snell to only 9 points on 4-12 shooting.
- Additionally, two #12 seeds from the Pac-12 beat up on their higher ranked counterparts as Oregon beat Oklahoma State fairly easily and Cal held on despite a late rally from UNLV.  It was the first time ever that two #12 seeds from the same conference won on the same day, and it justifies the compaints that both Oregon fans and mainstream NCAA fans had made, saying that the Ducks were far better than their #12 seed indicated. 
- Potentially the biggest upset of all didn't quite happen though, as #16 Southern had #1 Gonzaga on the ropes, tying the game multiple times in the final few minutes but could only manage two points in the final 3:46 as they ended up losing 64-58 in a very respectable effort that should worry Gonzaga, who only lost two games all season but looks vulnerable if they can be challenged by such a lowly opponent.  No #16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed in 114 total games.  The remainder of the opening round concludes today before the round of 32 begins on Saturday.


Reed to Texans

- The Baltimore Ravens loss of players continued on Thursday as future Hall of Famer Ed Reed left for the Houston Texans on what's reportedly a 3 year, $15 million contract.  The offseason has seen Baltimore lose fellow future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, Reed, Dannelle Ellerbe, Paul Kruger, Cary Williams and Bernard Pollard from their 2012 Super Bowl winning defense. 
- While they retained the services of star QB Joe Flacco (at a hefty price), their long-vaunted defense now looks unrecognizable and they should struggle to prevent teams from scoring against them unless they find multiple pieces by Opening Day this season.  One of those pieces may be sack-master Elvis Dumervil whose mistaken release we covered on Wednesday and who may be looking to leave Denver after the debacle.
- The Texans on the other hand, are looking to make the leap to the Super Bowl themselves after two consecutive losses in the Divisional Round of the playoffs (to the Ravens in 2011 and the Patriots last year) and hope that Reed's expertise can help guide a much-improved defense to that goal.

Fax Fault, and WBC Finishes

Dominican Republic wins WBC

• The Dominican Republic concluded a dominant World Baseball Classic on Tuesday night, blanking the Puerto Rican team 3-0 in the finals to finish the classic with a perfect 8-0 slate. It was only appropriate that the game took place in San Francisco, where team general manager Moises Alou's father and uncles all played in the same outfield for games in 1963. Felipe Alou later managed the Giants as well.
• The DR team jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with a two-run double by Edwin Encarnacion in the first inning, added a third run in the 5th, and never looked back. Samuel Deduno pitched an almost flawless 5 innings, and a cadre of relievers finished off the shut out.
• This is the first victory for the Dominican, in the third WBC. The first two were won by Japan who finished third in this year's tournament.
• Perhaps the most entertaining part of the tournament was DR reliever's Fernando Rodney's "lucky plantaine." Rodney held on to the tuber for the better part of the tournament, even showing it to the camera during introductions prior to the championship.

Denver Fax Fiasco

• Elvis Dumervil of the Denver Broncos signed a 6-year $61.5M contract in 2010. The Denver Broncos could not afford to pay him another year, and approached Dumervil to renegotiate or face being cut by the team. A move that would be for primarily financial reasons, though Dumervil has been injured on and off for the past two years.
• After initially rejecting any attempts by the Broncos to renegotiate, Dumervil and his agent changed their mind. However, the contract needed to be signed before 4PM EST this past Friday. After a framework of an agreement was put in place at 3:24 (according to emails released), Dumervil’s agent and the chief negotiator took a little longer to hammer out details. Dumervil, who was sitting in a Kinko’s office in Miami had to sit and wait.
• Dumervil claims he sent the fax with his signature prior to the 4 PM deadline, but the Broncos did not receive the fax until a few minutes after 4 (side note: who still uses a fax machine?!). That being the case Denver was forced to cut Dumervil. With the rules of that govern the NFL salary cap, the Broncos will be accountable for almost $5M of Dumervil’s salary, which makes it difficult for them to re-sign him at all. However, Broncos president John Elway says he has reached out to Dumervil’s new agent (Dumervil fired his agent after this snafu) and has offered a new contract.
• - This story would have been posted earlier but when we tried to fax it to the copy room...

All NCAA Coverage

NCAA Bracket set

• After months of games, the most anticipated tournament in sports, the NCAA Basketball tournament, is set up and ready to go. Louisville earned the #1 overall seed after a fantastic season that culminated in a Big East tournament championship and coach Rick Pitino has the hitting on all cylinders. The other #1 seeds are Gonzaga, Kansas and Indiana. 
• Gonzaga got the final #1 seed over Miami, whose reputation for being more of a football school than a basketball school might have hurt them. No ACC school has ever won the regular season and tournament championships (as Miami did) and not earn a #1 seed. Georgetown, Duke and Ohio State were the other #2 seeds.
• There were no notable snubs of teams left out of the field and the NCAA added 11 at-large teams from small conferences, tied with last year's mark for the most in a decade. The "last 4 in" were all from small conferences. 
• Last year's champion Kentucky Wildcats did not make the field and will likely play in the NIT.

More NCAA Talk

• This year's final four (which will be in 3 weeks) will be in Atlanta's Georgia Dome which has hosted the event twice in the past 15 years (with Florida winning in '07 and Maryland in '02).
• It is estimated that almost $134M in wages will be lost in the first two days (Thursday/Friday) of the tournament from people watching the tournament. It is a well known fact that overall productivity drops each year around this time due to people watching their alma mater or favorite team.
• Some potential interesting first weekend matchups - Oklahoma State v. Oregon 3/21 at 4:40. Oregon, the Pac 12 champion will play a very good OK State team.VCU v. Michigan (potential second round matchup) - perennial Cinderella team VCU would take on former #1 overall team Michigan, in a matchup of two guard heavy teams. Kansas v UNC (potential second round matchup) - if both Kansas and North Carolina win in the first round UNC coach Roy Williams will face his former team Kansas, in Kansas City.

Major FA Signing, the WBC and First Basketball teams making the playoffs

More Free Agent Noise

• The NFL Free Agency period has continued its fast start out of the gates, with numerous additional moves occurring over the past couple days after Tuesday's hot start. To recap the bigger ones:
• Star WR Wes Welker left Tom Brady and the Patriots for Peyton Manning and the Broncos (and afterwards made it sound like a break up, specifically saying it was hard to move on from Brady).
• Sack Machine DE Cliff Avril left Detroit to make a scary defense in Seattle even scarier (as did Michael Bennett, formerly of the Bucs).
• Hard hitting Safety Dashon Goldson left San Francisco for a huge contract in Tampa where he will pair with 2012 draftee Mark Barron to form one of the best Safety duos in the NFL.
• Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie found a home before Nnamdi Asomugha, the other Eagle CB who was recently cut, signing a short term deal in Denver with the Broncos.

US Playing for its Life in the WBC

• The quadrennial World Baseball Classic beings to wind down to the final round of the tournament and the US will play against Puerto Rico for a spot in the semi-finals.
• The Dominican Republic scored twice in the 9th inning to defeat the United States. A rally, sparked by Eric Aybar against LA Dodgers closer Craig Kimbrel put the Dominican Republic into the semifinal round of the WBC. The other bracket of the WBC will be sending Japan and the Netherlands to the semifinals.
• San Francisco Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong will start against Arizona Diamondback’s Nelson Figueroa who will be pitching for Puerto Rico. The winner will be the second representative from the 2nd Pool (with the Dominican Republic being the first). The semifinals start on Sunday in San Francisco.

Spurs/Heat Lock Up Playoff Spot

• The Miami Heat haven't lost in almost two months, and have locked up the first playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They are on track to lock up the #1 seed in the East very early. The #2 team, the surprising Indiana Pacers are 9.5 games behind the Heat with only 19 games left.
• The San Antonio Spurs crushed the Dallas Mavericks a few nights ago to lock up the first playoff spot in the West. Lead by a gigantic effort from future-hall-of-famer Tim Duncan's 28 points and 19 rebounds, the Spurs locked up a playoff spot. In true Spurs fashion, they laid an egg the next game, losing by almost 30 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

NFL Free Agency starts

NFL Free Agency starts

- The NFL’s Free Agency period opened yesterday, and the run-up to that saw a couple of big moves. First, the Minnesota Vikings sent disgruntled wide receiver Percy Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for a couple of draft pick, including their first round pick this year.
- A mere few hours later, the defending champion Baltimore Ravens continued their stripping of the team that just won a Super Bowl by sending Anquan Boldin to the team they just defeated, the San Francisco 49ers, for a single 6th round draft pick. While it may not seem like equal returns for the leading receiver in this year’s playoffs, the Ravens were going to have to cut Boldin, so even this small return is greater than what they would have received.
- The biggest winner of the early hours of free agency are the Miami Dolphins who signed former Steelers Wide Receiver Mike Wallace to a 5-year deal that could bring Wallace up to $60 million. The Dolphins also signed former Ravens linebacker Dannell Ellerbe to a 5-year $35 million deal, and former Oakland Raiders linebacker Philip Wheeler to a 5-year $26 million deal. Other players who have found new teams are Ravens lineman Paul Kruger (who signed with the Cleveland Browns), lineman Chris Canty who will go to Baltimore to try and replace some of these lost defensive stars and former Dolphins Running Back Reggie Bush, who is reported to have come to terms with the Detroit Lions.
- Stay tuned for more big signings as they come through the wire.


Howard crushes former team

- Dwight Howard's exit from Orlando was anything but smooth and in his first game back in Orlando against the Magic, the fans let him hear it all night, booing him at nearly every opportunity.  Unfortunately for those fans, Howard played very well, scoring 39 points and grabbing 16 rebounds on 25-39 shooting from the Free Throw line (The Magic intentionally fouled Howard for a good portion of the second half but it didn't work as he shot 16-20 from the line in that half).
- Afterwards, Howard said about the reception: "I wasn't nervous tonight. I was looking forward to playing here.  It was a hostile environment, but I think that was something that was good for me. For my progress as a player, I think I needed that tonight."
- Howard's 39 attempts from the line tied his own NBA record and were the most by a Laker player, shattering Shaq's record of 31 attempts in 2002.

Heat Still Streaking and Woods Wins

Heat win 18th straight

• The Miami Heat continued to scorch their opponents, winning their 18th consecutive game, defeating the Indiana Pacers (the last team to beat them) by a score of 105-91. Lebron James had his worst scoring output during the streak, only scoring 13 points but Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers and Chris Bosh each scored at least 23 and Wade added 6 steals as well, just one off of his career high. 
• The winning streak is the ninth longest in NBA history and the longest since the Celtics won 19 straight in 2008.  Chalmers scored 26 points on only 9 shots, making 5 three pointers and all 7 of his free throws while only missing 2 field goal attempts total.
• Miami next hosts the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night.

Tiger Wins Masters Tune-Up

• Tiger Woods won the WGC-Cadi llac Championship, after leading for most of the weekend. Woods won by 2 strokes, amongst the closest anybody had gotten to him all weekend. He only took 100 putts through 72 holes, a career low for him. His 27 birdies (one stroke under par) was only one short of a career high. Tiger closed the gap between him and world #1 Rory McIlroy.
• This victory was Woods’ 5th in the past year, and he is preparing for the Masters, the first major of the year. His 14 major championships is second all time, but he has not won one since 2008. Tiger is going into the Masters, next month, in the best form he has in a long time.

Rivera Retires, Big East's Big Name Change

Rivera to retire after season

• Sources report, the unquestioned greatest relief pitcher, Mariano Rivera will officially retire after this season. Taking his indomitable cutter and going home.
• Mariano Rivera, who is 43 years old, has the most saves ever and more than double any active pitcher, missed last season after tearing his ACL shagging fly balls in the outfield.
• He will return this season for one final run, and what he hopes will be fifth World Series ring in his 18th season (19 if you include 2012) all with the Yankees. He may have problems however, as Alex Rodriguez is out for possibly the whole season, Derek Jeter is returning from injury, Curtis Granderson will be out for a couple months, and Mark Texiera out for the first two months, and the Yankees have let a good amount of their remaining offense leave after last season in money saving moves.
• Rivera's return is a key part to the Yankees' plan for this season, as the team (that is old) tries to get healthy.

Big East -> America 12?

• After 7 of the current 12 Big East Schools decided to leave the conference to form their own, religious based, athletic conference, the remaining Big East Schools will form a new conference and  the conference's lawyers have registered a number of websites using the moniker "America 12."
• Between the defection of the 7 Catholic schools, and a few other schools leaving for other conferences, the new Big East, er.. America 12, only has one member (UConn) that was in the Big East as of 2005.
• In 2013-14, the conference will only have 10 teams, with the hopes to expand to the nominal 12 by the 2014-15 season.

Lakers, Heat both playing well

Lakers sneaking back

- The L.A. Lakers, given up for dead as a playoff contender despite four likely hall of famers in their starting lineup, are quietly beginning to make a push for one of the last couple playoff spots.  The Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks Sunday night to reach .500 for the first time since January 1st.  They lost the following game on Tuesday night, however it was at Oklahoma City where the Thunder are a shocking 27-4 (and received more good news, that PF Serge Ibaka will be fined but not suspended for a low blow against the Clippers Blake Griffin).  The Lakers, who are 12-6 in their last 17 games have slowly recovered from a rough patch in the middle of the season.
- The Lakers, as they have for years, have been riding Kobe Bryant during this stretch.  Kobe scored 34 points and added 6 rebounds and 4 assists to lead the Lakers to the win on Sunday after they almost blew a 16-point lead in the second half. Steve Blake stole the last minute pass to secure the 99-98 victory.
- The Lakers are 2.5 games out of the playoffs currently and will look to catch either Houston or Utah to make the playoffs.


Heat streaking

- Last week we told you about the roll the Chicago Blackhawks are on, having not lost a game all season (they're still undefeated, 20-0-3 with a 10 game winning streak as of today).  Today we'll tell you about the NBA's equivalent.  The Miami Heat are on a blistering 15 game winning streak and have not lost a game since February 1st against Indiana.
- It's the longest winning streak in team history and the Heat have a realistic chance to become just the fourth team in league history to win 20 in a row, joining the Los Angeles Lakers (1971-72), Houston Rockets (2007-08) and Milwaukee Bucks (1970-71). The Lakers hold the record with 33 straight victories, a feat the Heat would need a perfect record through April 6 to match.  That's still a long ways off and they'd have to beat the same Pacers who last beat them this Sunday but it's definitely feasible.
- The only thing that could potentially stop the Heat is if the Harlem Shake music begins playing during a game causing them to transform into dancing lunatics mid-game.

Blackhawks sizzling, NFL QB news

Blackhawks soaring to new heights

- If the Chicago Blackhawks were any hotter, they'd melt the ice that they play on.  Chicago is a mind-boggling 17-0-3, getting at least a point in a record 20 straight games to start the year. 
- The team is led by Patrick Kane's 24 points (10 G, 14 A) and great play from both of their goalies (Corey Crawford and Ray Emery), each of who has given up less than 2 goals per game. 
- The Blackhawks are only 4 games from completing an undefeated first half of the season as the NHL schedule is only 48 games long this season because of the labor dispute that shortened the season, however if history tells us anything it's that dominant regular season teams don't necessarily win in the playoffs.  Many #1 seeds have lost in the first round in recent years and with Chicago a strong favorite to win the East already, they need to hope they can buck that trend.


Ravens/49ers make QB moves

- Alex Smith, the starter at the beginning of the season for San Francisco who was benched halfway through the year despite having the best completion percentage in the NFL is on his way to the Kansas City after the teams agreed on the Chiefs' second round pick as compensation.  The trade can't be completed until March 12th but it appears to be a done deal and the Chiefs will get a solid starter to fill a hole at QB that would not have been filled in a lackluster QB draft class.
- Smith joins new Chiefs coach Andy Reid as they hope to turn around a talented but struggling team that has finished last in the AFC West in the past two seasons and had the worst record in the NFL in 2012. 
- The other Super Bowl contestant, the Baltimore Ravens, also made news at the QB position as they agreed to give Joe Flacco what is reported to be the highest deal for a QB in NFL history.  Flacco was phenomenal in this year's playoffs finishing with a record-equaling 11 TD passes and zero interceptions, going 73 of 126 for 1,140 yards.