BASEBALL BUFFOONERY
The start of Spring Training is nice, but it’s not really spring until the Seattle Mariners release their new batch of commercials. This year’s crop proves to be strong: Robinson Cano appears to be the spitting image of Edgar Martinez, King Felix Hernandez fields questions about his royal life, the team’s marketing department tries to help Kyle Seager shed his white-bread image, and Nelson Cruz attempts to capitalize on his destructive home run power. Hopefully these ads won’t be the highlight of the M’s season.
A MARCHING WE WILL GO
The opening week of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament featured epic upsets, classic buzzer beaters, and countless busted brackets.
Washington’s only representative remains alive, as the 11-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs dominated both 6-seed Seton Hall and 3-seed Utah to make the Sweet 16. After by far the most frustrating season during Gonzaga’s 18-straight year tournament run (trust me, I’m an alum who watched almost every game), a now favorable bracket means this might improbably be the year GU finally makes the Final Four. They call it Madness for a reason.
Here are just a few of the best moments the tourney has offered up so far:
Northern Iowa’s Paul Jesperson goes all Steph Curry and hits a half-court shot to beat the buzzer, upsetting 6-seeded Texas in the first round and forever earning a spot in NCAA Tournament lore.
Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig hits a buzzer beating three-pointer to send Wisconsin past Xavier and into the Sweet 16.
Middle Tennessee State University pulls perhaps the biggest upset in tourney history, knocking off title popular title pick Michigan State in the first round.
Providence steals a round one win when USC falls asleep while defending an inbounds play in the final seconds.
Notre Dame moves onto the Sweet 16 with a late tip-in against tourney darlings Stephen F. Austin.
Arkansas-Little Rock’s Josh Hagins heaves in a desperation 3 to force overtime against Purdue, where the Trojans eventually pulled the upset.
After being on the right end of the week’s best moment, Northern Iowa falls apart against Texas A&M in the second round. The Aggies miraculously score 12 points in the final 44 seconds of regulation, and win in double overtime.
REAL MAGIC
Because sometimes all you need is a monkey freaking out over a magic trick in order to start your week out right.
