The Perfect Season!

We've got ourselves a Monday… and Mondays are for Championships! We’ll look at last night’s women's basketball finish and tonight’s men’s matchup, the NBA playoffs, and some other news while we’re here.

Let’s get this Monday rolling.

First Things First

💰️ We hope you took our advice the other day and bet on UConn to win and cover the spread against Bama. Easy money! Even though Saturday’s game was tight in the first half, UConn showed why they were the overall 1 seed in the tourney. I hope you took your winnings and got new kicks, you deserve it!

👉️ What can we say about the Purdue/NC State matchup other than we’re sad the run had to come to an end for big man DJ Burns, but we’re sure glad it happened. Purdue got the W 63-50, relying heavily on the back of 7-footer Zach Edey who played the entire 40 minutes and had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Tonight’s Matchup

We’ve got 1 seeds playing each other in the National Championship for only the 8th time in 30 years!

We’ve got last year’s national champs, the UConn Huskies, taking on the Purdue Boilermakers tonight in Phoenix!

📺️ Gametime is 9:20 pm ET on TBS

💰️ UConn is favorited by the exact same amount of points they were favorited by last year against San Diego State. A solid 7.5 points! While we've had other 7.5-point spreads in recent years, you’d have to go back 25 years to find anything higher. In 1999, Duke was favorited by 9 points against… you guessed it.. UConn. And UConn won!

so… I think UConn eats up Zach Edey today. I think they’ll cover the 7.5 and I think this game will come in under the 145.5

Women’s National Championship

Congrats to the South Carolina Gamecocks, who completed the perfect season yesterday afternoon after beating Iowa 87-75. They are the 10th team in D1 history to go undefeated and it was almost ruined by Caitlin Clark.

Clark scored 18 points in the first quarter, almost outscoring the entire SC team. Iowa had a lead at the end of the first 27-20, and we had ourselves a game. Over the next two quarters, South Carolina showed Iowa why they were on the brink of an undefeated season and just dominated. South Carolina outscored Iowa 48-32, entered the fourth quarter with a 9-point lead, and did enough to hold the Hawkeyes back for the rest of the game.

South Carolina had nine players score points yesterday, and that was a big part of the story. SC’s bench scored 37 points, and Iowa’s scored zero! Take a look at every other category, and it was clear that SC dominated. SC had a better field goal percentage, 22 more rebounding, more steals, more blocks, and and more points in the paint—all the things you need to have the perfect season and a great win in the title game.

Can South Carolina run it back next year?

Wait, wait, wait…. what?

John Calipari is reportedly leaving behind the University of Kentucky basketball program and is finalizing a 5-year deal to become the head coach at Arkansas. Calipari's contract is expected to have an overall base salary of slightly less than the $8.5 million he's making at Kentucky. However, the deal is expected to be incentive-laden with the ability to pass that number.

Why is Calipari even leaving? It could be related to the immense pressure on him to succeed at Kentucky. The pressure is warranted, though. Kentucky is a destination for many college players, and Calipari always has one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. He’s been there since 2009, only had 1 national title to show for it, and he was bounced by a 15-seed and 14-seed in two of the last five years of March Madness.

I’m not sure the fans are less crazy in Fayetteville than in Lexington, but good luck, John!

NBA Playoffs

Every team has about four games left in the rest of the NBA season, and some tight playoff races are coming down the stretch.

In the East

The Celtics and the Bucks have clinched playoff spots. The Bulls and Hawks have secured play-in spots and have no shot of getting a regular playoff seed. That leaves 6 teams fighting for 4 playoff spots and 2 play-in spots. The Magic and Knicks are tied in the standing for 3 & 4. Behind them are a few teams. The Cavs are .5 games behind, the Pacers are 1.5 games behind, the 76ers are 2.5 games bhehidn and the Heat are 3 games back. It seems likely the seeding will remain almost the same over the next week or two.

In the West

The top of the West is pretty much settled. Minnesota, Denver and OKC have clinched. The Clippers are currently the 4 seed and should have no problem keeping a playoff spot without risk of falling into the play-in tournament. Here’s the deal. The Mavs are in the 5 spot, 2 games behind the Clippers, and the Suns are in the 6 spots, 4 games behind the Clippers.

The Pelicans are 4 games back from the Clippers also, the Kings are 5 games back, the Lakers are 5.5 back, and the Warriors are 7 back. Currently, the way things sit, these 4 teams are in the play-in games, but the Pelicans, Kings, or Lakers could find a way to sneak by the Suns and get an actual playoff spot.

The Suns have a tough final 4 game stretch where the face the Clippers twice, the T-Wolves once, and the Kings who are fighting for that 6 seed spot.

More Holes In Golf… Two Different Ways

Valero Texas Open

Akshay Bhatia and Denny McCarthy gave us some extra golf to watch yesterday as they both birdied hole 18 at TPC San Antonio, and both came in a -20 for the tournament. That sent both golfers back to the tee at 18 for a playoff hold, and Denny McCarthy did what all bad golfers love to do. HE FOUND THE WATER.

Yup, from 99 yards out, he caught it a little chunky, and his ball went into a small creek. That opened the door for Bhatia, who made birdie and secured his 2nd ever PGA Tour win.

Jon Rahm Wants More Golf

Jon Rahm recently switched to LIV Golf, which plays a 54-hole format and is not recognized by the Official World Golf Ranking systems. In case you didn’t know, LIV is just Roman numerals for “54.”

Rahm has come out and is already calling for LIV to make the event 72 holes in order to hopefully earn OWGR points. The question is whether or not LIV would actually go for this. Their whole thesis around the new league was to play fewer holes and make golf faster with shotgun starts and limited fields. I’m all for the golfers getting ranking points, but what’s the league going to be called now?

I think we can all agree we just the merger to happen already and get all these good golfers back on the same playing field!

That’s all for today!

Enjoy your Monday and if you’re in the path of totality for the eclipse, please wear approved glasses!

AND DON’T FORGET TO SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE YOU’RE WATCHING THE ECLIPSE WITH!