Introducing The AFC Champion New England Patriots
The SportsNotebook’s Super Bowl preparation begins in earnest today as we break down the starting lineups for both teams. Here’s a position-by-position look at the New England Patriots.
J.P. Flynn
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Surprises In The NBA West: Denver Nuggets & Utah Jazz
Quick now, who’s the top challenger to Oklahoma City in the NBA’s Western Conference right now? It’s not San Antonio or the LA Lakers, who would be on the road for first-round playoff series if the season ended today. It’s not last year’s champion Dallas. It isn’t even this year’s media teddy bear, the LA Clippers. No, it’s the Denver Nuggets who are riding high with a 14-7 record and sitting at #2 in the West coming into today. Today TheSportsNotebook takes a closer look at the Nuggets, as well as another surprise team in the same part of the country, the Utah Jazz.
St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, BYU Battle In The West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference is the leading power among the midmajors this year (for the record, I include the Mountain West and Atlantic 10 among the “majors”), with the addition of BYU giving them three solid contenders to not just make the NCAA Tournament, but make some noise in March. St. Mary’s, Gonzaga and BYU are looking to close the season strong and the push starts tomorrow night when the Zags match up with BYU (11 PM ET, ESPN2). Today, TheSportsNotebook takes a look at the WCC’s Big Three. The NCAA Tournament seed projections come from ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi and are based on whether the season ended today.
The Race For March Madness: The Big 12’s Middle Five
The Big 12 has three teams that tower above the rest in Kansas, Missouri and Baylor when it comes to the conference championship. Below the Power Trio are five more teams angling for NCAA Tournament berths and it’s that Middle Five that draw the attention of TheSportsNotebook today. We can break the five teams down […]
Tennessee State Of The Union: NHL Predators & NBA Grizzlies
The state of Tennessee is renowned for its college sports, particularly Volunteer football, with the occasional foray from Memphis basketball. But right now, it’s the pros who give hope to the good people of the state with the NHL’s Nashville Predators running near the top of the Western Conference and the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies being […]
Morning Line Archives: January 23-29
THE WEEKEND EDITION This is the weekend where we all start to adjust to what our lives will be after the Super Bowl next Sunday. It’s also the weekend the NHL has its All-Star game and coming up by early afternoon on Saturday, TheSportsNotebook will post a complete report on how things are shaking out […]
Big East Report: Marquette Surges; Cincinnati Slides
Has anyone noticed that Marquette is right on the heels of Syracuse in the Big East race? Not only that, but that the Golden Eagles are the only team within a game of the frontrunning Orange? Marquette has quietly rattled off six straight wins, including a come-from-behind effort at Villanova on Saturday. When Georgetown was […]
Milwaukee & Cleveland Put Up A Fight In The NBA East
The NBA’s Eastern Conference is marked by a steep drop-off after the top six teams, creating a tight race among mediocre teams for the final two playoff berths. And situated right in between well-publicized Eastern teams in Boston and New York, are small-market hubs in Milwaukee and Cleveland. Each team is coming off a big […]
NHL All-Star Break Report
The NHL All-Star Game takes place in Ottawa on Sunday (4 PM ET, NBC), so today the TheSportsNotebook takes a complete look at the NHL playoff picture. Teams are broken into three categories—the elite contenders, solid playoff teams and fighting for survival. THE ELITE CONTENDERS While anything is possible in the hockey playoffs, more so […]
Road To The Triple Crown Goes To Florida On Sunday
The Road To The Triple Crown continues here at TheSportsNotebook this weekend, as hopefuls for the Kentucky Derby show up in sunny Florida at Gulfstream Park for Sunday’s Holy Bull Stakes (4:45 PM ET). Unlike last week’s Lecomte Stakes, which got the road to Churchill Downs started in earnest, the Holy Bull won’t be a […]
Chicago-Miami Highlights NBA Sunday
With this being the first no-football weekend since August, that means it’s time for the NBA to slowly start taking over Sundays, a trend that will hit full steam after the Super Bowl. ABC is striking quickly this week with Chicago-Miami (3:30 PM ET, ABC) set to highlight the Sunday card. Through an unpredictable year, […]
The Weekend In College Basketball: Conference-By-Conference
Here is a conference by conference summary of what’s going down in college basketball this weekend… BIG EAST: Syracuse’s loss last Saturday at Notre Dame has opened this race up, with several teams just one back of the Orange. One of them is Marquette, putting together an under-the-radar 17-4 season and going to Villanova today […]