Sports

the Fifth Line: the Home Stretch

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Hey, wanna see something totally not at all depressing if you’re a Chicago fan?

Arizona and Buffalo, the two teams whose front offices are tanking the hardest, are teams that have been gutted in an effort to land a top-two draft pick. Their games against each other are so awful, and filled with fans cheering against their own team, that such games have been likened to existentialist avant garde performance.

Chicago’s offense has been so bad the last couple months, they’re playing at these teams’ level. [Read more…]

NCAA Hoops: The 2015 Final Four

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Kentucky survives and advances. Photo credit

Kentucky survives and advances. Photo credit

For what more could we possibly ask? Over two days, eight teams exuded personality, created palpable drama, and competed for regional championships. Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Duke advanced but Arizona, Notre Dame, Louisville, and Gonzaga deserve admiration for their efforts in a memorable weekend of high quality college basketball. Making a Final Four is no easy feat. In a “championship or bust” sports culture, it becomes easier and easier to overlook the fact that 4 teams, 1.14% of the 351 Division I schools, qualified for and survived a single elimination tournament with insane variation in seeding, matchups, and location. Each team brings a unique story and set of qualities that make this one of the most anticipated Final Fours of recent memory.

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the Fifth Line: Championship Time Nears

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Everything is accelerating now. Bubble teams are on their last ditch efforts to make the NHL playoffs, while playoff-bound teams jockey for position. Every little defect of a team is worried over, whether by paranoid fans or bookies.

Meanwhile, the NCAA teams have been seeded for the men’s national tournament. The Golden Gophers from Minnesota have already claimed the women’s national title. But we’ll get to them later. We start here in Chicago. [Read more…]

NCAA Hoops: On Trend

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Arizona's position improved dramatically during the tournament's first weekend. Photo Credit

Arizona’s position improved dramatically during the tournament’s first weekend. Photo Credit

FFifteen glorious games remain in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, beginning tonight at 7:15pm ET/6:15pm CT on CBS. The 2015 Sweet Sixteen offers a number of fun teams, fascinating match-ups, and potential for the strongest Final Four, by seeding and KenPom rank, that we’ve seen since 2012. Before looking ahead too far, though, let’s consider some high level trends from the first week of March Madness.

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Wrestlemania XXXI: The Great Roman Reigns Experiment

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Wrestlemania XXXI, Sunday, March 29, 2015. Photo Credit

Wrestlemania XXXI, Sunday, March 29, 2015. Photo Credit

Heat transfers exist all around us. We put ice in our water to keep it cool. We cook food in an oven to make it edible. But in the world of professional wrestling, heat transfer is an intentional, complicated process: take the crowd reaction one wrestler earns – positive or negative – and transfer it to another. At Wrestlemania XXXI, Vince McMahon and his creative team will attempt to take the kinetic energy from the Undertaker’s 21-match Wrestlemania win streak, have it flow through Brock Lesnar, who ended the Streak last year, and create a new mega-star in Roman Reigns. It is the most daring attempt to “make” a wrestler since the Stone Cold Steve Austin baby-face turn eighteen years ago, and the top reason to watch this year’s show.

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Thoughts From the Dugout: NL Season Preview

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Image of Andrew McCutchen

MVP Candidate Andrew McCutchen

There’s moving and shaking going on. As I mentioned in Friday’s piece, I’ll break down each team in a brief season-preview – covering things to look for, intriguing story lines, and expectations for the year. These may be high, or these may be low, but there are expectations moving forward. I’ll try and pick which teams make the playoffs as well, an easier proposition given that a third of baseball’s teams make the postseason now. If I get even four out of ten right, I’ll be pleased as punch.

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Hope Springs Eternal: Thoughts from the Dugout Season Preview

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Image of Wrigley FieldMarch Madness is upon us – my bracket’s not busted because come on, Kentucky’s going to win. (Ed. Note – I will redact this to whomever actually wins the tourney so as to appear ultimately omniscient. TC) The NBA is surging towards the postseason – if by surging, we mean limping at a fetid pace with most relevant starters resting on the bench. Hockey is WILD FOR THE WILD a thing that happens. Football is…well, let’s not.

Meanwhile, the National Pastime returns in less than two weeks. Two weeks! Anything is possible!

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Crash Course: NCAA Wrestling Championship Tournament

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Ohio State’s Logan Stieber celebrates a National Championship

A less publicized but equally entertaining college championship tournament takes place this weekend in St. Louis, Missouri. For the second consecutive year, ESPN will broadcast every match of the NCAA Wrestling Tournament on ESPNU or ESPN3.com with Championship matches airing live on the flagship Saturday at 8:00pm Eastern, 7:00pm Central.

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the Fifth Line: Coming Into Focus

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Only a dozen games (or so) are left on the NHL schedule. Teams have until April 11th to get out of the bubble and into a playoff spot.

There are some constants with the Stanley Cup playoffs: the Kings finally show up, they and the ‘Hawks are never quite dead, the Penguins will have their lack of depth exposed, and the Sharks will choke.

This year, though, the Sharks might fall on their face before the playoffs. If that happens, it’s because they first shot themselves in said face before planting it on the ice.

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Removing the “C” from this guy’s jersey really worked out, didn’t it?

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