ben Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The best NBA games on this week’s schedule
This is the time of year in which sports fans should be primarily focused on the Men’s and Women’s college basketball postseason tournaments. The “amateurs” have put on quite a show that deserves attention this week....
Presenting the ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me’ Team from opening day of March Madness
If you’re like me — an NBA fan who pivots to college basketball for a few weeks in March — the best part of the NCAA tournament is the unknown. What I don’t know about draft stock, a coach, a player, a team, or anything, makes the discovery all the more entertaining....
Here's how Furman just busted your bracket
One of the first thrilling finishes of the 2023 NCAA Tournament also gave us our first March Badness play to consume in the form of Virginia’s stunning 68-67 loss to the Furman Paladins. Clad in Willy Wonka purple, Furman earned their golden ticket to the tournament for the first time in 43 years, a...
From the guy who told you about Saint Peter's: Furman is about to bust your bracket
Last year, I believe I was the only person on the internet who sang the praises of Saint Peter’s before the NCAA Tournament. And then it shocked the nation by beating then-No. 2 seed Kentucky. And the Peacocks won two more games before they ended their season one step short of the Final Four. I’m ba...
College ump made a call so bad, he's been indefinitely suspended
Somewhere Fred VanVleet is smiling and cursing happily after a subpar official received his just due. The University of New Orleans defeated Mississippi Valley State 7-3 in a college baseball game on Friday. As the college basketball season is heating up, millions of people still found time to view ...
Fred VanVleet’s expletive-laden remarks cost him $30,000 and put him in a special group
Fred VanVleet is now immortal. Hitting nearly every 3-pointer you attempt for two playoff rounds and winning a championship is great. However, only Toronto Raptors’ fans and non-causal NBA watchers remember that. The narrative in the 2019 NBA Finals was Kevin Durant’s injury and Kawhi Leonard playin...
The best NBA action you missed last night
Mavs v. Pelicans: The Mavericks mounted a furious comeback against the Pelicans, to try and overcome a 25-point fourth-quarter comeback but fell just short. They went 10-18 from the 3-point line but still ended up losing the game 113-106. The Mavericks’ performance behind the arc explains how they g...
Light the beam: The Sacramento Kings on pace for historic offensive output
It’s well past time for a media mea culpa on the Sacramento Kings. That means myself included. Prior to the season, The Athletic’s John Hollinger had the Kings finishing 10th in the West, FiveThirtyEight’s Jared Dubin predicted they’d finish 16 games under .500 and in 12th. DraftKings, Vegas sportsb...
Jalen Williams is becoming the jewel of this NBA rookie class
For much of the past year, Jalen Williams has been an underground jewel for NBA mole people. He won’t be discussed on First Take because he came from a mid-major and got jammed into one of the NBA’s smallest media markets. ...
NBA Disarray Rankings: Ja Morant and Russell Westbrook are the captains of their teams’ demises
This is the juncture in the seesawing NBA season when champions begin raising their games and pretenders plummet into sinkholes. Disarray isn’t a permanent status. Over the course of an 82-game season, lulls, injuries, suspensions and a lack of focus can derail even the steadiest contenders. However...
Tommy Fury put an end to Jake Paul’s ‘hustle’ — thank God
Since suckers are born every minute, it means that the world is full of them. And for the past few years, Jake Paul — and his brother Logan — have been scamming “sports” fans like tourists who keep trying their luck at three-card monte. But, eventually, every fraud gets exposed. Mike Tyson once said...
JJ Redick is taking the path less interesting
I never thought I’d say, “You know what, maybe J.J. Redick doesn’t suck,” but he’s surprisingly insightful in his post-playing career gig at ESPN. The former Blue Devil understands how the current iteration of the game is played as well as any analyst for the network and takes a refreshing approach ...
Couldn't be scripted better: Netflix QB doc focuses on NFL, Super Bowl LVII MVP Patrick Mahomes, others
Yesterday, Netflix announced a brand new docuseries, “Quarterback,” set to air later this year surrounding the experiences of three NFL quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota — during the 2022 NFL season. According to the announcement, these three men were all mic’d up for ...
2023 NBA Anti-All-Stars: The dregs of the East
The NBA All-Star Game is an honor bestowed upon the most distinguished hoopers every season. Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re doing here. Their time will come. However, the NBA’s worst rotation players deserve to receive their dead flowers too. Stare into this dark void with me and commemorate t...
Ben Simmons is going to be out of the league very soon
This isn’t the first time Ben Simmons has had his “own” team as so many fans wondered what a roster built around his skill set would look like. It is the first instance that he’s been the, umm, marque name of an NBA franchise, but he was the No. 1 guy at LSU, and forfeited the opportunity to be the ...
Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson franchised - so what now?
Today the Baltimore Ravens notified the NFL Players Association that they’ve placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on Lamar Jackson, after months of the two teams being at an impasse over a new deal for their star QB....
Here's what you need to know as the Champions League returns
It only feels like the Champions League is late in returning for its knockout stage, but this is the normal time of year. What isn’t normal is cramming a World Cup in between the group stages and the knockouts, which makes it seem like this season has already gone on forever even when most leagues a...
Which companies wasted their money on terrible Super Bowl ads?
We all know that companies advertising during the Super Bowl don’t expect to recoup their outlay in sales. It’s mostly about cementing your name at the top of the top, keeping your brand top of mind for any possible consumer. Still, the idea of spending $6 million for 30 seconds, one would think you...
The best (and worst) moments of the Super Bowl's first half
The pre-game on FOX ridiculously started at noon. And we’ve been here the entire time. You didn’t miss anything until approximately 5:30 pm ET, when FOX aired the first Snackin’ with the Stars ad....
Let's remember (forget?) the worst Super Bowl halftime shows
When you think of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the names that come to mind are the biggest stars and best performers in the music industry. It didn’t used to be that glamorous, though. ...