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Bruins, Fans Return to TD Garden

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BOSTON – After a two-game postponement and COVID-19+ pause in their season, the Boston Bruins will return to their home ice at TD Garden with a limited number of fans in the stands to watch the game in-person. The game tonight against the New York Islanders will be the first major sports game with fans in the stands since the global pandemic shutdown the world and the sports industry last March.

The Bruins cancelled a routine morning skate today. The club did practice yesterday after a week of being sidelined and that practice came after David Krejci, David Pastrnak and Craig Smith were cleared after spending five days in the NHL protocol.

Bruins Jake DeBrusk and Sean Kuraly remained on the list for a seventh consecutive day.

Game time is 7pm EDT on NESN.

 

World Golf Champ – Dell Technologies Match Play

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AUSTIN – The 64-player WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play field is divided into 16 four-player groups. Each group will play roundrobin matches within their group on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Players receive one point for a victory, ½ point for a tie and zero points for a loss.

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The player with the best record in each of the four-player groups advances to the Round of 16 for single-elimination match play. In the event two players are tied in points following the completion of group play, those players will have a suddendeath hole-by-hole-playoff starting on No. 1. If three or more players are involved, it will be a stroke-play hole-by-hole playoff.

The Round of 16 will be played Saturday morning, followed by the Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon. The Semifinals will be Sunday morning, followed by the Championship Match and Consolation Match(third place) on Sunday afternoon.

The top seed for each of the 16 four-player groups are the top 16 players in order of their position in the Official World Golf Ranking. The remaining three players in each group were determined by a blind draw from each of the three pools depending on their standing in the world rankings.

For complete PGA Tour Brunch (6-Days a Week) subscription, please click HERE

WGC Opening Round Notes:

On Wednesday, the top-16 group seeds went 6-6-4 in the first round. The top-seeded player to lose was Justin Thomas (No. 2) while Dylan Frittelli, seeded (No. 64), won his opening match.

Of the 22 players making their first appearance at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, 13 went on to claim at least a ½ point in their opening match. Geoff Ogilvy (2006) was the last player to win the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in his first event.

In his bid for a seventh World Golf Championships title, reigning FedExCup champion and No. 1 seed Dustin Johnson defeated Adam Long, 2-up while defending champion Kevin Kisner defeated Louis Oosthuizen, 2 and 1.

2010 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play winner Ian Poulter won five consecutive holes (Nos. 9-13) to defeat Rory McIlroy, 6 and 5, in his 30th match in 15 starts of the match play event. Wednesday’s round also marked the fourth occasion in 12 starts that McIlroy, the 2015 champion, has lost an opening match (2013, 2017, 2018 and 2021). McIlroy’s biggest loss in any match was 8 and 7 to Ben Crane in round two of 2011.

Match Play Recaps:

All of Wednesday’s opening round matches recapped: (link)

Tournament Site: (link)

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: World Golf Championship 

COURSE: Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @DellMatchPlay

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26: 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 – Early coverage on Golf Channel from 10:00am to 2:00pm and the switch to NBC for 2:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT) on Saturday and 3:00pm to 7:00pm EDT on Sunday.

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups on Thursday and Friday from 10:15am to 8:00pm (EDT); Saturday from (8:30am-2:00pm (EDT) only.

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Thursday – Friday – 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT); then Saturday, March 27 from 10:00am to 6:00pm EDT and Sunday, March 28: (11:00am to 7:00pm (EDT)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.

Sports Biz: Good for the Goose!

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CHICAGO – Where is Goose Gossage when you need him?

Wrigley Field, Chicago (Getty Images)

TeamWorks Media announced that Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company will become the presenting sponsor of Being Guillén, La Vida Baseball’s regular visit with the Guillén family for the opening month of the MLB season. The show will stream from the Goose Island Brewhouse opening week to coincide with the Cubs home opener and then April 8 (White Sox home opener) before moving back to the La Vida Baseball® studio in Chicago for the rest of the month. It will feature Ozzie Sr, Ozzie Jr, and Oney Guillén offering their always entertaining take on baseball and family.

TeamWorks Media is the parent company of La Vida Baseball® and this is an expansion of the partnership with Goose Island that began last October.

“We are all looking forward with a return to normalcy this spring, and nothing could be more fun than to spend it with the Guillén family as fans and baseball return to Chicago,” said Jay Sharman, CEO of TeamWorks Media in the official news release. “Our partnership with Goose Island got off to a great start in October as the season ended, and we are ready to expand it with some fun engagement during MLB’s opening month.”

The show will touch on all the recent developments in and around the Chicago teams and look ahead to what is one of the most anticipated seasons in baseball in The Windy City for some time. There will be special guests from around the country as well as engaging fan segments and a host of other promotions as Being Guillén™ and Goose Island help celebrate the exciting return of baseball.

Additional La Vida Baseball programming includes the live social media streaming series, La Vida Baseball ¡Live!, the brand’s weekday interactive, fan-centric live show, hosted by Jennifer Mercedes (@Chica_Deportes) and Julie Alexandria (@JulieAlexandria); Gaming with The Guilléns™, a live, engaging Twitch experience where Ozzie Guillén Jr. challenges Major Leaguers to play him in the video game “MLB The Show,” and the rowdy and hilarious Spanish language show, Pólvora, Voz y Diamante, hosted by Polo Ascencio, Pliego Villa and Jesse Castillo, offering baseball conversation like you’ve never seen before and mixing hilarious pop-culture sensibilities with an undeniable love for the game.

 

NFL: Patriots Sign RB White

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FOXBORO – The New England Patriots re-signed unrestricted free-agent running back James White and came to terms with exclusive rights free-agent fullback Jakob Johnson, shoring-up their backfield  on Thursday.

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White will return for his eighth season with the Patriots, while Johnson, 26, returns for his third year with the club.

James signed a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $2.5 million while the financial terms of Johnson’s one-year deal weren’t disclosed, according to ESPN.

Red Sox: Countdown to Opening Day

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FORT MYERS, March 24 – Today marks the second of two Grapefruit League meetings between the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, following a March 4th Baltimore 6-3 win over Boston in Sarasota. The Red Sox are coming off a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves in yesterday’s road game. The Sox are 8-2 at jetBlue Park and 4-6-1 on the road.

Including today, the Sox have four home games and three road games remaining.

The Sox will play the Orioles 19 times in the regular season (nine home, 10 road), including the season- opening series at Fenway Park (April 1-4).

Six of Boston’s first nine games will be vs. the Orioles, as well as 10 of their first 36. In an 82-game stretch from May 11-August 12, the Sox will not face the O’s.

Boston is  5-2 over their last seven games and 9-3-1 in their last 13. Only the Royals (13-6-3), Blue Jays (13-8-1), and Yankees (13-7-2) have more wins than the Red Sox. The Sox have only seven games remaining in spring training before opening the regular season.

PGA Tour: Match Play Starts Today

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AUSTIN – PGA Tour play this week consists of two tournaments. Starting today, the best of the best compete at the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Championship. Tomorrow, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship begins with a B-list of professionals playing in the Dominican Republic. Here’s a look at both tournaments:

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship is the first PGA Tour event to be held in the Dominican Republic and it is now in its fourth year, with Brice Garnett claiming victory in its inaugural year of 2018, Graeme McDowell in 2019 and Hudson Swafford winning in 2020. Prior to 2018, the tournament had a two-year stint on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule where the winners were Dominic Bozzelli and Nate Lashley.

The field playing Thursday through Sunday in the Dominican Republic includes each of the five players who have victories at the Corales Golf Course, including Lashley (2017) and Bozzelli, who won the tournament as a Korn Ferry Tour title in (2016).

This is the first of three tournaments (U.S. Open, Masters) to be contested twice in the 2020-21 PGA Tour season which marks first time an event has been played twice in the same season in the last 70 years.

Brandon Hagy, who made the largest jump in the FedExCup (No. 178 to No. 77; 101 spots) with his runner-up at last week’s Honda Classic, will make his second start in the event (MC/2020).

The field includes some golf luminaries.

World Golf Hall of Fame members: Retief Goosen, Davis Love III

Five major champions: Retief Goosen (2001 & 2004 U.S. Open), Padraig Harrington (2007 & 2008 The Open Championship, 2008 PGA Championship), Davis Love III (1997 PGA Championship), Graeme McDowell (2010 U.S. Open), Charl Schwartzel (2011 Masters Championship), Danny Willett (2016 Masters Tournament).

Grupo Puntacana, which owns and operates Puntacana Resort & Club, serves as the host organization while the Corales Course is the tournament venue.

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Champ

COURSE: Corales Golf Club, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

ARCHITECT: Tom Fazio

YARDS/PAR: 7,670 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $3,000,000/$540,000

DEFENDING Champion: Hudson Swafford – (Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points Available/Winner Share: 2,989/500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup #CoralesChampionship @CoralesChamp

TV COVERAGE: Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26: 10:00am to 1:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 27 10:00am to 5:00pm EDT on Golf Channel. and Sunday, March 28 – 2:30pm to 5:30pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. (WGC on NBC during those times).

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will stream WGC.

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Will cover WGC.

TEE TIMES: (link)

WEATHER: A few isolated showers with temperatures 71-84 degrees. Winds E-to-NE at 8-15 mph. Similar forecast for Friday-to-Sunday with winds 11-22 mph. 20% chance of rain.

The World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, the only official head-to-head match play event on the PGA Tour schedule, returns to the PGA TOUR schedule after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This week, 64 of the top 69 players in the Official World Golf Ranking as of March 15 are in the field, including every player in the Top 10.

Reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is seeking his seventh WGC victory. Johnson’s six WGC titles are second only to Tiger Woods (18). The 2018 WGC semifinalist Justin Thomas is making his first start on Tour since winning THE PLAYERS Championship.

There are five players who qualified but will not compete: Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland.

Is Match Play a different game? Maybe so as no player has won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and gone on to win the FedExCup in the same season (best result: Luke Donald, (No. 3) in 2011.

Back in 2019: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play champion Kevin Kisner holed a 20-foot birdie putt to close out Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, to capture his third PGA Tour title and first World Golf Championships victory. In the 2019-20 season, the South Carolina native made 21 starts, qualified for each of the three FedExCup Playoffs events and finished No. 23 in the FedExCup standings.

For complete information and a full look at PGA Tour Brunch, subscribe HERE.

NHL: Boston Bruins Update

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BOSTON – The Boston Bruins will return from an in-season, COVID-19 pause when they play the New York Islanders Thursday night at TD Garden after having two games postponed this past week. Boston has a seven-game home stand awaiting their return to action, ranging from March 25 to April 5.

With the lack of practice and access to team facilities and media sessions, Boston General Manager Don Sweeney met with the Boston-area press via video conference call.

“Our apologies that we’ve been a little off the radar for the last couple of days,” said Sweeney.  “You can imagine in conjunction with the protocols and medical advice, we have not returned to the facilities … that’s just adhering to all the medical advice and protocols of the National Hockey League.

“But I want to make ourselves available to answer any questions as we continue to gain knowledge and move forward over the next couple of days with the hope of returning to a practice environment at some point in time on Wednesday, but we have some hurdles to cross before we can get there,” he added.

“Subsequent testing here over the next couple of days may determine who’s available to us. We do believe that we’ll have a couple of players that will be unavailable, and then the rest of the test results will determine who is available to participate on Thursday night if we’re able to do so,” said Sweeney.

“Testing protocols will determine if we get back at full capacity, or what capacity we get to either Wednesday or Thursday. Really most of the time, it revolves around testing and the league has done a fabulous job of trying to add secondary layers of point-of-care on game days and such, and even in our case on game days or on other teams’ cases. So that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to continue to follow medical advice and cross our fingers to a large degree that everybody remains negative, and the people that have to continue to test, and hopefully return with a full group.”

The question that remains to be answered and will play-out when the Bruins return to the ice absent of recent practice and NHL game-level conditioning, is whether there will be a setback, mentally and physically.

“Well, I think there’s mental fatigue involved in a lot of these things. You’ve got a lot of people that are making decisions for you and putting forth their best medical advice. Even whether or not you’re playing that game on Thursday night, you’re not in a normal routine of preparing, you’re not at the rink on Friday. You’re waiting until a certain period of time when test results come back before you’re able to go to the rink as a group. It’s challenging on the players, it’s challenging on the coaching staff. For all teams involved, not just for our team.”

Sweeney and veteran players have taken the role to keep constant communication open to the players.

“Yeah, we try to communicate as effectively as possible, shooting out updates. Certainly Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] does a really good job of connecting with the players when we do have updates. We’ve been in a holding pattern, they know that. They know the quarantine that they’re facing and the responsibilities each individual has before we’re going to be able to get up and running again. They’re going to adhere to it.

“And we’re going to get back and hopefully move forward and not have any more setbacks from the standpoint of games being cancelled.”

US Basketball Writers Honor Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham

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INDIANAPOLIS – (Official News Release from the USBWA) – Oklahoma State point guard Cade Cunningham, a freshman who electrified the Big 12 Conference and led the Cowboys’ late-season surge to their first NCAA Tournament win since 2009, was named winner of the 2020-21 Wayman Tisdale Award, honoring the National Freshman Player of the Year based on voting by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

The lone freshman on USBWA’s 2020-21 All-America first team, Cunningham led the Big 12 in scoring at 20.2 points per game and was a nine-time recipient of the Big 12 Player and/or Newcomer of the Week honor, the most by any player this season and the most in school history. A USBWA All-District VI selection, he is just the fourth Big 12 player to sweep the conference’s player of the year and freshman of the year awards and was the second-highest-scoring freshman nationally.

Cunningham won the Tisdale Award over three other finalists, all fellow USBWA All-Americans: Michigan center Hunter Dickinson, USC forward Evan Mobley and Gonzaga point guard Jalen Suggs. He is the fifth Big 12 player to win the Wayman Tisdale Award and the 22nd USBWA All-American from OSU, its first since Jawun Evans in 2017.

The award is based on regular-season performance. But Cunningham helped take the fourth-seeded Cowboys into the NCAA’s second round, falling Sunday night to Oregon State 80-70 to finish at 21-9 on the season. His 24 points against Oregon State playing all 40 minutes included four three-pointers. He scored 15 points in OSU’s first-round win over Liberty, including nine straight in the final minutes of its 69-60 win. He finished the season averaging 20.1 points on 43.8 percent shooting, with 62 three-pointers on 40.0 percent shooting outside the arc, 6.2 rebounds per game, 132 free throws made on 84.6 percent accuracy, and a team-high 94 assists and 43 steals.

Cunningham is Oklahoma State’s first USBWA All-American since Marcus Smart in the 2012-13. He joins a trio of previous USBWA National Freshman of the Year Award winners – Smart (2013), Texas’ Kevin Durant (2007) and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley (2008) – in an exclusive group of players to also be chosen as the Big 12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in the same season. He became OSU’s all-time leading freshman scorer during the NCAA Tournament finishing with 544 points, only the program’s third player to score 500 points in a season. Should Cunningham declare his eligibility, he is expected to be among the top picks in the 2021 NBA Draft.

The Wayman Tisdale Award is voted on by the entire membership of the association. The USBWA has chosen a national freshman of the year award since the 1988-89 season. It was named the Wayman Tisdale Award in the 2010-11 season in honor of the late three-time USBWA All-American at Oklahoma and the first freshman to receive first-team All-America honors from the USBWA.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season

 

Big East’s Villanova & Creighton Advance to NCAA Sweet 16

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INDIANAPOLIS – (Official News Release from BIG EAST) – Villanova and Creighton, the BIG EAST’s top two teams in the regular season, have advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Championship. The Wildcats, who were ranked 18th in last week’s Associated Press poll, will meet Baylor, the top seed in the South Region, on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. ET. The Bluejays, No. 19 by AP, also meet a No. 1 seed, Gonzaga in a West Region semifinal at 2:10 p.m.

Gonzaga is ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, while Baylor is No. 3.

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Wildcat/Bluejay Similarities: Besides being ranked consecutively at 18th (Villanova) and 19th (Creighton) in the AP poll, both teams are No. 5 seeds in their respective regions and will battle the top seeds next. The venue for both teams this weekend will be the same, Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. Both contests will be telecast on CBS. Villanova and Creighton each knocked off No. 12 seeds in the first round and No. 13 seeds in the second round.

Villanova and Creighton shared the BIG EAST regular-season title last year and both were locks for the 2020 NCAA Tournament, if it had been played.

NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

SOUTH REGION
First Round – March 19
No. 5 Villanova 73, No. 12 Winthrop 63

Second Round – March 21
No. 5 Villanova 84, No. 13 North Texas 61

Regional Semifinals – March 27
No. 5 Villanova vs. No. 1 Baylor – CBS 5:15

WEST REGION
First Round – March 20
No. 5 Creighton 63, No. 12 UCSB 62

Second Round – March 22
No. 5 Creighton 72, No. 13 Ohio 58

Regional Semifinals – March 28
No. 5 Creighton vs. No. 1 Gonzaga – CBS 2:10

EAST REGION
First Round – March 20
No. 5 Colorado 96, No. 12 Georgetown 73
No. 10 Maryland 63, No. 7 Connecticut 54

PGA Tour: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Preview

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AUSTIN – The World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, the only official head-to-head match play event on the PGA Tour schedule, returns to the PGA TOUR schedule after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This week, 64 of the top 69 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (as of March 15) are in the field, including every player in the Top 10.

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Reigning FedExCup champion and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is seeking his seventh WGC victory. Johnson’s six WGC titles are second only to Tiger Woods (18). The 2018 WGC semifinalist Justin Thomas is making his first start on Tour since winning THE PLAYERS Championship.

There are five players who qualified but will not compete: Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Tiger Woods, Gary Woodland.

Is Match Play a different game? Maybe so as no player has won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and gone on to win the FedExCup in the same season (best result: Luke Donald, (No. 3) in 2011.

Back in 2019: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play champion Kevin Kisner holed a 20-foot birdie putt to close out Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, to capture his third PGA Tour title and first World Golf Championships victory. In the 2019-20 season, the South Carolina native made 21 starts, qualified for each of the three FedExCup Playoffs events and finished No. 23 in the FedExCup standings.

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: World Golf Championship

COURSE: Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas

ARCHITECTS: Pete Dye

YARDS/PAR: 7,108 yards/Par 71

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $10,500,000/$1,800,000

DEFENDING Champion (2019) Kevin Kisner – (Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points Available/Winner Share: 2,989/500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @DellMatchPlay

TV COVERAGE: Wednesday, March 24 – Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26: 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 – Early coverage on Golf Channel from 10:00am to 2:00pm and the switch to NBC for 2:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT) on Saturday and 3:00pm to 7:00pm EDT on Sunday.

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups on Wednesday-Thursday and Friday from 10:15am to 8:00pm (EDT); Saturday from (8:30am-2:00pm (EDT) only.

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Wednesday –Thursday – Friday – 2:00pm to 8:00pm (EDT); then Saturday, March 27 from 10:00am to 6:00pm EDT and Sunday, March 28: (11:00am to 7:00pm (EDT)) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.