Closing Weekend: College Basketball Championship Report
The race for conference championships and the NCAA Tournament comes down to the last weekend of the regular season in college hoops. Find out what’s on tap for Saturday and Sunday.
J.P. Flynn
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NBA Weekend Preview
The elite teams of the NBA are all hitting their stride as we head into the first post-All Star break weekend of action. Miami has won nine in a row, Oklahoma City seven in a row, Chicago’s win streak is at four, and even Indiana is getting into the act, with a five-game win streak that’s helping the Pacers get a little separation from the non-Bulls/Heat portion of the Eastern Conference playoff race. It all sets the stage for a weekend of basketball that’s highlighted by a great Sunday card.
NHL Weekend Preview
Four of the NHL’s six division titles are still very much in play as we head into the homestretch of a regular season that ends on April 8. Only the New York Rangers in the Atlantic and the Vancouver Canucks in the Northwest are really home free for a first-place finish and guaranteed top-three seeding, and of these two, only the Rangers are in complete command for the race for the #1 seed in their conference. Everything else is neck-and-neck.
NASCAR Sunday: A Desperate Johnson Comes To Phoenix
Get a preview of Sunday’s Subway Fit 500 in Phoenix from the eyes of a casual NASCAR fan informed by expert outside opinion.
Road To The Triple Crown: John Battaglia & Gotham Stakes
The Road To The Triple Crown continues on Saturday with two Kentucky Derby prep races, the John Battagalia Memorial from Turfway Park in Kentucky. And the prestigious Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in New York. TheSportsNotebook takes a look at both.
In Case You Missed It…The Week That Was At TheSportsNotebook
Because I know so much of Western civilization hinges onTheSportsNotebook, I make sure to compile all the features run here this week into one simple post, so they’re easily accessible even after they leave the home page. (an aside–I used to work with a horse race handicapper who regularly called his hotline “world-famous”–and meant it. We used to joke that it’s what they were talking about in the salons of Paris). Here’s what ran from February 27 thru March 1….
The Pac-12’s Five Contenders To Move Off The NCAA Bubble
No conference race has as many good scenarios for the final week than the Pac-12, as the league begins its usual run of Thursday night games that set the stage for the weekend. The championship is in play, five teams are on the radar for the NCAA Tournament, and only one can really feel secure about its position in the Dance. So if you don’t feel like following the controversy that’s flared up at UCLA about whether Ben Howland is or isn’t in control of the program, there’s still plenty of on-court action to keep up with in the Pac-12. TheSportsNotebook will look at the five relevant teams.
The LA Lakers Keep Hanging In The NBA’s Western Conference
At the start of the season the Los Angeles Lakers were being mostly written off as a serious contender for the NBA title. They only had three players worthy of the name, in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. They were coming off a humiliating postseason, where they were first swept home by Dallas and then embarrassed themselves with dirty play that got Bynum suspended for the start of this season. Finally, after they completed a trade to get Chris Paul, commissioner David Stern steps in, nixes the deal and Paul ends up across town with the Clippers. From about last May forward, not a whole lot went right for this organization. But here they are on the first day of March, 21-14, only a ½ game back of the Clips for the Pacific Division title and lurking in the mix. TheSportsNotebook goes inside the Lakers to see if they’re going to again be a real title threat.
The Big 12 Middle: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State
In the Big 12, Kansas has locked up another conference championship and Missouri’s gotten plenty of attention, both here and elsewhere for their strong second-place finish. Texas is on the NCAA bubble. In between these teams are a trio who are heading for the NCAA Tournament, but need some attention of their own. So just as TheSportsNotebook paid tribute to the Big East Middle & the Big Ten Middle, today it’s time to give a shoutout to Big 12 and take a look at Baylor, Iowa State or Kansas State…
The St. Louis Blues Are A Legitimate Stanley Cup Contender
There’s some good hockey being played in the NHL’s Western Conference. Between Vancouver and Detroit jousting for the #1 spot, to Phoenix rolling through the month of February undefeated, the West is asserting its superiority as we come down the stretch of the regular season. But don’t overlook the St. Louis Blues, who are only two points back of Detroit in the race for the Central Division crown and what would be one of the top two seeds in the playoffs. St. Louis has a four-point lead on Nashville for the four-spot and home-ice advantage in the first round. TheSportsNotebook takes a look at the Blues as we turn the calendar into March.
Morning Line Archives: February 20-26
Friday, February 24: WEEKEND EDITION TheSportsNotebook is looking ahead to a big weekend, and we’ll have a lot of preview articles going up throughout the day. Furthermore, I’ll be podcasting over at PrimeSportsNetwork.com with Greg DePalma at 3 PM EST to look ahead at the weekend, specifically the race for March Madness. Tune in at […]
The Big Ten Middle: Michigan, Wisconsin & Indiana
In the Big Ten’s race for the NCAA Tournament, three times fall in the Forgotten Middle Class. At the top you have likely conference champ Michigan State and Ohio State, still with an outside shot at a co-championship. On the bubble, you have Purdue and Northwestern, and if you’re feeling generous, Illinois and Minnesota. But […]