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Dan Hurley Saved College Basketball

When you think of Men’s College Basketball, the names of Wooden, Dean, Krzyzewski, Williams, Thompson, and Calipari shoot to mind right away. All the memories of the great teams from UCLA, Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, the Big East, UNLV, and even the Fab Five start to rush back. Nostalgia of a time when the sport meant something different. For all those longing for the days when great teams didn’t dissipate into the transfer portal after one disappointing year—Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies are here to save the day! UConn has done something that only seven other programs have done in the history of college basketball, repeat as champions. Forget all the talk about “best team of all-time,” even though if you look at point differential (like it truly matters), this UConn team is the best team to ever play in the NCAA Tournament. This team means much more to the game of college basketball than that. Coach Hurley has given college basketball what it has been missing since the in
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2024 MLB Preview

  Opening Day is about 24 hours away and the Shohei Ohtani gambling story has stole all the headlines and fleeting moments of baseball conversation over the past few days, many have now forgotten about the exciting marathon ahead of us! Even with the ever-evolving Ohtani story clouding the beginning of the Los Angeles Dodgers season, that doesn’t change the fact that L.A. is still the team to beat in baseball. The Dodgers have put their chips at the center of the table, no pun intended, for 2024 to show they can raise another World Series trophy after sending upwards of a billion dollars in free agency. In division however, the surprise Arizona Diamondbacks are capitalizing on their newfound championship window with a fantastic offseason that will have them in the mix to get back to a second straight fall classic. The San Diego Padres are done shopping for superstars, sort of, following a massively disappointing season that saw them move on from one of the games generational talents, J
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The Rock Bottom Brooklyn Trade Machine

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  Tuesday night was rock bottom for the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn got booed out of the Barclays Center as the New York Knicks stormed back from a nine-point third quarter deficit behind All-Star candidates Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson. Brunson received MVP chants when he was at the free throw line late in the fourth. The “home” team had their star, Mikal Bridges, booed at the free throw line when the Nets were looking to close out their cross-borough rival. “It’s not fun when you feel like you [‘re] at an away game at home” is what Bridges softly said Tuesday night following the loss, the sixth loss in the last seven games and the 11 th out of the last 13. The last winning streak Brooklyn has had was late December beating the Detroit Pistons twice in three nights. Since the home and home with Detroit, the Pistons and Nets have the same number of wins, two. In this dry spell for the Nets the losses have come in every kind: buzzer beater, overtime, fourth quarter collapse, blow out—it’
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My 2024 MLB HOF Ballot

  We have reached that point of year where it is time to dust off your Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot. And while some voters are still afraid to give out theirs, I, as a non-voter, am unbashful and fear no one giving out my fake ballot. If old school thinking was to take a victory lap and not allow anyone in, because those people only put Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron in the Hall, it would be this year, however, the following is an explanation as to why there are plenty of worthy candidates on the ballot this year that deserve to be immortalized in Cooperstown. I will do so by grouping these great baseball players into five groups. These groups are not ranking their greatness, but rather a way of opening the eyes of those who shut the doors of the Hall unless you are a slam dunk candidate.   The Only “Slam Dunk” Candidate   1. Adrian Beltre Beltre is as close to Mantle, Mays, and Aaron as it gets with the 2024 class. The Dominican born third baseman recorded
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10 Rules to Help you Navigate Wild Card Weekend

  Welcome to the time of year where the brutal cold and snow has ushered many of us inside to stoke fireplaces, fill mugs with warm tea or hot chocolate, and to huddle together under a nice blanket to watch playoff football. Last year, I put out a Gambling Column with 12 Rules to help the readers of this column win money when put in the position we are at right now. This year, most of those rules are still applicable, but will be shown out of order. However, here are some of those rules that will not be used: Rule No. 9: Back Joe Burrow at every turn because he is basically Superman in the playoffs unless the opponent is hosting a home Super Bowl. Rule No. 10: NEVER EVER, EVER BET AGAINST TOM BRADY. NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT. Live by this rule if it’s the only rule you listen to.   CLE (-2.5) @ HOU Nothing like the first playoff game of the weekend to highlight two of the staples’ rules of Playoff Football Gambling that make this game a tad bit conflicting: Rule No. 1: It’s Hard to beat a
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Ending the Streak was Robert Saleh's Most Important Game as the Jets Head Coach

  After 15 games, eight years, 2,933 days the New York Jets have finally beat the New England Patriots! Finally, the Jets have ended the longest head-to-head losing streak in the NFL. It only took the worst Patriots team in 26 years and a game played in a snow globe to end the streak. It took all of Breece Hall’s 190 total yards to secure victory. It took two 4 th quarter interceptions, one of which was fumbled back to New England on the same play, to finally win against the Patriots. It took seven sacks of New England backup quarterback Bailey Zappe to finally beat Bill Belichick’s team. The same Bill Belichick that took so much joy beating the team he walked away from a via napkin 24 years ago. He finally dropped a game to his most hated rival. This might be the last time Belichick faces the Jets in New England and possibly for the rest of his coaching career. The fact that the Jets beat Belichick in such a situation seemed all but impossible to me, but it happened. This game says m
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