Josh Allen Signed With Who?

Good Morning! It’s Masters Week, and we will give the full rundown tomorrow… but don’t worry… we’ve got a little teaser for you today, and we need to take another look at crunch time before playoffs start in the NBA and NHL. Stick with us for the next 4 minutes before golf takes over the next 4 days!

Today’s Hot Take

1. I’m not being insensitive; I’m just providing facts

2. Tell me I’m wrong

📺️ The Men’s National Championship game on Monday brought a 4% in viewers compared to last year’s game. That’s pretty good. What were the actual numbers?

Monday night’s audience averaged 14.82 million viewers.

So, what’s so hot about this take?

👀 Have you seen the tv ratings for the Women’s National Championship?

👉️ The Women’s game between Iowa and South Carolina averaged 18.87 million viewers.

❗️Now everyone is clamoring over the women’s game and talking about how it’s so much more popular than the men’s game!

👏 Congrats to the Women’s game; those numbers are freaking awesome…. but I have one point to make.

⏰The Women’s game was at 3 pm on a Sunday….. mid afternoon…. on a weekend . . .

THE MEN’S GAME WAS AT 9:20 PM ON AN EFFING MONDAY NIGHT! I WAS UP UNTIL MIDNIGHT WATCHING THIS GAME!!!

We’re calm now

It is super awesome that the women’s game got so much attention this year. They have stars that have been stealing the spotlight all season and fully deserve it. I could care less if the men’s got less viewership but can we please just start the game a little earlier next time?

Thx.

Headlines

🏒 Toronto Maples Leafs center Auston Matthews scored his 66th goal of the season last night. That sets a new record in the NHL’s salary cap era for most goals in a season. Matthews will attempt to hit the 70-goal mark as the Leafs have four games left to play in the regular season.

⚕️Giannis exited the court last night in a Bucks matchup against the Celtics with a non-contact injury. It appeared he had a calf injury, and if you watch enough sports and never took an anatomy class, you know that calf strains don’t bode well for the Achilles. Giannis has already had an MRI, and his Achilles is fully intact and didn’t suffer any significant damage. The Bucks got a much-needed 104-91 win.

🏀 Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer is retiring after 38 seasons with the university. She finishes with more coaching wins than Mike Krzyzewski, making her the all-time winningest coach in D1 basketball. She led Stanford to 3 national championships that came in 1990, 1992, and 2021. She also took the program to 14 Final Fours. HELL YEAH.

🏈 The Jacksonville Jaguars have signed linebacker Josh Allen to a new contract. Allen agreed to a five-year deal of $150 million, with $88 million guaranteed. He led the Jaguars with a franchise-record 17.5 sacks last year. His average salary per year now ranks 3rd amongst all defensive players in the NFL.

You want to talk about Playoffs??

🏒 The Washington Capitals jumped into the final wild-card spot in the east after they beat Detroit 2-1 last night. Washington was 1 point behind Detroit and is now 1 point after the win.

🏒 The NY Islanders are looking to clinch the final playoff seed in the Metro division and got a solid 2 points last night against the Rangers. The Islanders are on a 5 game-win streak and scored 3 fast goals in the 1st period last night. The Rangers tried to make a comeback, but with under a minute left in the game, controversy ensued. The Rangers’ Vincent Trocheck took a nasty hit from behind that should’ve been called for boarding and the Islanders took the puck down and scored the empty netter to seal the deal.

🏒 The Vegas Golden Knights are trying to secure the final wild-card spot in the West. They’ve got a battle in front of them tonight as they face the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton. Lucky for Vegas, Edmonton will likely be without Connor McDavid, who’s listed day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Vegas is 5 points ahead of St. Louis in the wild card race, but St. Louis has the easier matchup tonight as they face Chicago.

🏀 Seeding for the NBA playoffs is starting to finalize. Phoenix, Sacramento, The Lakers, and Golden State are all trying to make the final push to get out of the play-in tournament and make the actual playoffs.

🏀 The Lakers and Warriors faced off last night, and the Warriors dominated from 3 to win 134-120. The way the seeding is right now, this will be the 9/10 play-in matchup for the West.

🏀 The Kings lost to the Thunder 112-105 last night, and it looks like they will face the Suns in the 7/8 play-in spot. The loser of that game will play the winner of the 9/10 game.

🏀 The Pelicans hold the last playoff in the West, but if things don’t go right the next 3 games, they could slide into the play-in tournament as they face Sacramento, Golden State, and the Lakers in their final games.

🏀 The 76ers are happy to have Joel Embiid back and are now on a six-game win streak, looking to bust their way into the 6 seed and out of the play-in games. The Sixers have the Magic in their last matchup of the season and the loser might just find themselves in the play-in tournament. And yes, the Magic are the 4 seed currently, but there’s not much margin for error in the East right now.

The Masters

⛳️ We’re saving the Masters deep dive for tomorrow, but there is still fun stuff to tune into today! You can tune into the Masters website and catch players getting dialed in on the range on Wednesday.

📺️ There is also the infamous par 3 contest that many players participate in and have a special person carry their bag. That can be streamed on ESPN+ at 1 pm and then at 3 it will switch over to ESPN.

Any Good Games On Tonight?

NBA

🏀 Dallas @ Miami, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 Minnesota @ Denver, 10 pm ET on ESPN (possible Western Conference Finals matchup)

NHL

🏒 Chicago @ St. Louis, 8 pm ET on ESPN+

🏒 Vegas @ Edmonton, 8:30 pm ET on TNT

Enjoy your Wednesday, and stay positive knowing that you’ll be watching the Masters at work tomorrow!

…speaking of work… don’t be afraid to share this with colleagues!