Volume 6

Vol. 6 March 29, 2025

Sweet and Sour 16

The Men’s March Madness Sweet 16 just finished. During the Sweet 16 there were eight games. In the South Region, #1 Auburn handled #5 Michigan winning by a score of 78-65. The other South Region game was between #2 Michigan St and #6 Ole Miss. The Spartans came back from multiple second half deficits to win 73-70. In the East, Caleb Love’s 35-point game was not enough as Cooper Flagg’s 30-point game led #1 Duke past #4 Arizona. #2 Alabama made 25 3’s as they cruised past #6 BYU by a score of 113-88. In the West, #1 Florida bested #4 Maryland winning 87-71. The #3 Texas Tech Red Raiders needed overtime to come back from double digits and dispatch the #10 Arkansas Razorbacks. The Red Raiders won 85-83. In the Midwest #1, Houston scored on an incredible shot with less the a second to play to beat #4 Purdue 62-60. The Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats played in their third meeting of the season. The Vols finally got the best of the Wildcats, winning 78-65 and picking up their first win vs UK this year.

Battle of the Best

The NHL’s two best teams, the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, met in Winnipeg for a possible Stanley Cup Championship preview. The NHL leading Caps are the only team to have clinched a postseason spot; they stand at 102 points. The Western Conference leading Jets sit at 100 points. The Jets kicked it off with a Josh Morrissey goal early in the first. Later in the first, the Caps struck back with a goal of their own by Andrew Mangiapane. The score was 1-1 at the end of the first. Then the Jets’ Mason Appleton scored to make it 2-1. The score remained 2-1 until in the third when Alexander Ovechkin put one in the back of the net and made it 2-2. That goal put Ovechkin 6 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record. In overtime, Nikolaj Ehlers scored to give the Jets the 3-2 win. The win helped Winnipeg clinch a postseason berth.

Opening Day Baseball

This year on Opening Day there were 14 games. To kick it off the Brewers traveled to the Bronx to take on the defending AL pennant winning Yankees. New York handled Milwaukee with ease winning 4-2. In a division battle, the Orioles won by 10 over Toronto by a score of 12-2. It took 10 innings, but the Phillies erased a deficit to win 7-3 over division rival Washington Nationals. The Red Sox and Rangers were locked at 2 until Wilyer Abreu hit his second homer of the day in the top of the ninth to make it 5-2. Then the Red Sox put it away in the bottom of the ninth to win. Abreu went 3-3 with a single, a walk, a pair of home runs. He had 3 runs and 4 RBIs on the day. The Marlins came back to win 5-4 vs. the Pirates. In the Giants-Reds game, Wilmer Flores hit a three run go ahead HR with two outs in the top of the ninth as the Giants won 6-4. The White Sox started the season by beating the Angels 8-1. Chicago definitely did not look like a team that lost 121 games the previous season. The Guardians won in the 10th 7-4 over the Royals. The Astros and Padres picked up wins vs. the Mets and Braves. The Cardinals and Cubs beat the D-backs and Twins. The Dodgers won as Shohei Ohtani homered. Los Angeles has started the season 3-0 after their two wins in Japan. The Mariners beat the A’s 4-2 to get their season off to a good start.

Women’s Madness

The Women’s Sweet 16 got underway with the #1’s UCLA and South Carolina winning to advance to the Elite 8, as #5 Ole Miss fell to #1 UCLA. UCLA star Lauren Betts scored 31 in the Sweet 16 win vs Ole Miss. UCLA coach Cori Close said “We have a generational player on our team”. #1 South Carolina beat #4 Maryland 71-67. #2 Duke advanced as they beat #3 North Carolina 47-38. #3 LSU beat #2 North Carolina St. After giving up an 11-point first half lead, the Tigers ended the game on a 10-0 run to win 80-73. Later today, there are four more Sweet 16 games as #1 USC takes on #5 Kansas St. USC star Juju Watkins tore her ACL in the Round of 32. So today we will see how the Trojains perform without her. #2 UConn plays #3 Oklahoma. UConn star Paige Buckers declared for the WNBA draft earlier this week. She is the projected first overall pick. This year will be UConn’s last chance to win a championship with Paige Buckers. The Huskies are coming off 69 and 34 point wins. Connecticut is favored by 15.5 points tonight vs Oklahoma. #1 Texas plays #5 Tennessee, and #2 TCU plays #3 Notre Dame.