Of all the skills sports junkie kids learn from their sports junkie parents, perhaps none is more important than proficiency in changing the channel while multiple events are happening. For everyone else, there's the weekend recap, with a look at the best things I saw from the weekend.
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Gonzaga and Michigan. That's it, that's the article. In all seriousness though, while writing this feels incomplete knowing neither has earned its spot in the Final Four (Michigan-UCLA a 10 o'clock tip on Tuesday? Well done, NCAA!), the Zags and Wolverines are barreling towards one another at the speed of a well-run fast break.
The only conversation that feels relevant as of 9:00 A.M. Monday, March 29th, is whether Gonzaga is the best team ever. That can change in a hurry obviously, as soon as Tuesday, as USC does not need a Trojan horse to sneak up on anyone. The Mobley brothers will get their shot to slay Grendel (Goliath has gotten enough love). But tearing off the arm of the beast will not do in this setting. Gonzaga's too good, too deep, and too confident. It's been a while since a team seemed so skilled at taking a close game and blowing it open in a matter of minutes. It's even more frightening considering arguably the Zags' two best players, Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs, did not play the best games of their careers in the Sweet 16. And Mark Few's team still crushed Creighton.
Which brings us to Michigan. The Wolverines are easily taking the title, "The Team Everyone Forgot How Good They Really Are," and running with it...literally. Michigan spaces the ball and cuts as well as any team remaining in the field. Brandon Johns Jr. does not look anything like the version of himself that was playing four weeks ago. Instead, he looks like an NBA power forward who is a consistent 3-point shot away from the first round. Of all the intangibles so important to success, confidence is key. And Johns has it right now. UCLA is hot, there is no doubt. The extra game appears to have gotten the Bruins in a rhythm few saw coming outside of Westwood (if even there). But, on paper, UCLA will need Alcindor and Walton to beat Juwan Howard's bunch. I'd certainly expect Michigan and Gonzaga on the same court Saturday night. So naturally, I know we're all looking forward to UCLA-USC.
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The NCAA Women's Tournament may lack an equal budget, but it's not lacking excitement. Paige Bueckers-Caitlin Clark Pt. 1 went to UConn, with Bueckers flirting with a triple-double. Obviously the Huskies are loaded (Christyn Williams, anyone?), but Bueckers is special. She arrived in Storrs with as much fanfare as the 4,132,356 other All-Americans Geno Auriemma has signed, and, not surprisingly, is living up to the hype. Bueckers is averaging nearly 20 a night with five boards and six assists. All are crazily impressive for a freshman, but they get more impressive when comparing Bueckers to the most recent UConn star: Breanna Stewart.
Now, they play different positions, and maybe it would be more beneficial to compare Bueckers to Diana Taurasi or Sue Bird. But Stewart won Final Four MOP all four years, was a three time Consensus National Player of the Year, and won four national titles. So she feels like a pretty good litmus test. And it's Bueckers who had the far better first season on campus. Stewart entered her first NCAA Tournament averaging 12 points and six boards a game, while playing 22 minutes. Having already mentioned Bueckers stats this year in the paragraph above, instead focus on the minutes: Bueckers plays nearly 36 a night, which is also translated to, "she never comes off the floor." In the sport's most elusive Mt. Rushmore, Paige Bueckers is three wins away from the UConn athletic department at least kicking the tires on commissioning a sculptor.
And how bout Vic Schaefer? If a men's coach coming off two Final Fours and three Elite Eights in three season's switched jobs, they'd break into Saturday morning cartoons. As is, if you don't watch the women's game, you have no idea who Schaefer is. Which is a shame. Cause he can coach. Ask Maryland. The man who helped build Mississippi State into a powerhouse now has Texas in the Sweet 16, where they'll meet South Carolina. That's the same South Carolina program that beat Schaefer's Mississippi State team in the 2017 National Championship game. Hmm.
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Staying in San Antonio, we've reached the week before The Masters. That means it's time for the 6th major of the year, the Valero Texas Open...or something. It might as well be a major for Rickie Fowler. Fowler's fall from the top of the leaderboard comes right as his good friend, Jordan Spieth, seems to have found his form. And while you can be sure the action on Spieth at Augusta will be plentiful, Fowler needs a win in San Antonio for there to be any action on him at all. A betting person would put good money on The Masters happening without Rickie Fowler. Which seems impossible.
Fowler hasn't missed a major since 2010. He hasn't had a top-10 finish since before the world stopped due to Covid (January 2020). The Sir Nick Faldo comments are likely to get recycled this weekend. Faldo, someone who is paid to give his opinion and analysis on golf, gave his opinion and analysis on one of golf's most notable players, and then everyone freaked out. Naturally. No matter how many quips about the number of commercials he's in, Fowler appears as a duck above the water. He handled Sir Nick's comments with grace, and has said all the right things. But if saying the right things mattered in golf, I'd be playing in San Antonio this week, not typing about it. I'll have more on Fowler on this week's episodes of "Open Mike."
Joel Dahmen has said the right things about golf for a long time. That's why it's so easy to root for someone who now can add, "PGA Tour Winner," to his resume. Dahmen won yesterday at Puntacana, his first PGA win, and promptly lost it. No one would blame you if you lost it watching the scene unfold. I certainly did.
Dahmen, whose hat often has, "Cancer," crossed out, as he's beaten testicular cancer, is well known in the world of golf social media. He's appeared with the Foreplay guys, and is skilled at self-depreciating humor, something everyone loves. But he's never been more human than he was yesterday, getting emotional in the arms of his caddie, of his wife (who he gushed over afterwards for helping him get to this point), and then nearly losing his bucket hat in the wind. The hat was saved, by Dahmen's caddie. Dahmen's career, although perhaps not in as dire a situation as his hat, also appears to be safe.