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TL’s Sunday Notes | Sept. 14, 2025

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – “What’s Goin’ On?”

Last weekend before the U.S. Open men’s singles final, the United States Tennis Association issued a statement to request media outlets refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity.

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The USTA Statement read in part:

“With respect to Broadcast Coverage, the President will be shown on the World Feed and the Ashe Court Feed during the opening anthem ceremony,” the USTA said in the memo, which has been viewed by multiple publications.

“We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG coverage.”

Quoting U.S. Open champion John McEnroe years ago when he stormed the courts and argued with chair umpires, “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

While I understand the USTA back pedaled and pretended the request was akin to asking cameras at all sporting events not broadcast a drunken fan running out on the field of play, being chased by the Keystone Cops, I could read the lines themselves and see in between the lines that they were sending the media in attendance a preemptive strike – surely requested by The White House – to not show the chorus of boos which accompany the current President of the United States (POTUS) nearly everywhere he travels.

The ridiculous act of censorship, thankfully, was not adhered to by ESPN and other media on site, covering the event as the news it is. But, the USTA’s reprehensible action immediately leads to the question, “Just what is next?”

Let’s ask Grok?

“Censorship has indeed escalated in recent years, manifesting in various forms across governments, corporations, and institutions. This includes direct bans on platforms and content, algorithmic suppression, legal pressures on social media companies, and self-censorship driven by fear of repercussions,” wrote the AI guru.

As so many media members state on the airwaves these days, “there’s a lot to unpack,” so let’s dice it up for a second.

Governments, Corporations and Institutions – directly placing a ban on content. The verdict here, in these United States – GUILTY!

Bans on platforms and content – GUILTY!

Legal pressures on Social Media companies – GUILTY!

Self-Censorship (by media) driven by fear of repercussions – GUILTY!

What happened to “telling it like it is with he thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. News crews covering … the human drama of athletic competition? Maybe Wide World of Sports should’ve added, “unless the fans boo one of the competitors or boo a newsworthy happening in the stands which reflects negatively on a corrupt politician.”

USA Today’s Nancy Armour wrote of the boo-birds, “Resistance takes many forms.

“Sometimes it’s people taking to the streets in protest, as they did this weekend in Chicago and its suburbs. Sometimes it’s governors banding together to ensure their citizens have access to vaccines that have been thoroughly vetted, as the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii have.

“And sometimes it’s ABC and ESPN not muting the full-throated chorus of boos that occurred when the president of the United States was shown at the U.S. Open on Sunday.

“The U.S. Tennis Association’s request that broadcasters “refrain from showcasing any disruptions to the President’s attendance in any capacity” was an embarrassment. This is not North Korea or Russia, and it is not ABC’s, ESPN’s or any other broadcaster’s job to stroke President Donald Trump’s ego.

“To suggest otherwise was wholly inappropriate by the USTA and, worse, served to overshadow the anticipation for the latest meeting in what has become tennis’ next great rivalry. Instead of talking about Sinner and Alcaraz, the focus before the match was on the USTA’s clumsy attempt at censorship,” she wrote Monday morning.

Let’s take look at what the records show:

  • Nearly 4.8 billion people (60% of the global population) faced some form of restriction in 2024.
  • Social media saw 360 censorship instances across 76 countries from 2006-2023, accelerating mostly after 2018.
  • U.S. Federal agencies, such as The White House and FBI coerced Meta (Facebook, etc), Twitter (pre-Elon Musk era), and others to censor what they believed to be “misinformation.”
  • In 2024, U.S. libraries faced 821 challenges targeting 4,190 titles on race, gender, and sexuality.
  • The general censorship moved to the State Houses as 56 bills were filed in U.S. State legislatures in 2024, all restricting discussions on race, gender and American history. Of those, 22 were enacted in 16 U.S. States by mid-2025, citing “divisive concepts” in higher education and the classrooms.

If you think the Colorado Rockies have had a bad year, consider the American Civil Liberties Union. Founded 105 years ago, the ACLU has been set back the full century, maybe more. Then again, the ACLU hasn’t had a big win since Miranda v. Arizona in 1966.

Going forward, the media companies and their leaders need to grow a spine. News divisions must stand up for the rights of the people they serve. Sports media needs to cover the news of the event, not the news that event organizers prefer you cover.

When you hear the sentence, “Instead of that, you should be covering,” media need to run to their laptops, cameras, tape recorders and editing machines to report the very news they’ve witnessed, live and in color. Report the truth and nothing but the truth.

The truth should never be censored. Observations and opinions should not be censored and crowd reactions, peaceful assemblies and protests should never be censored.

Of course, later in the week leading into this weekend missive, the United States saw another murder by long gun in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. This columnist must admit to having never even heard of Kirk before the news of his death. Regardless of political ideals, the “must relate” was as a father of two – his kids just toddlers. What, possibly, can Kirk’s young wife tell those two little kids?

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: As a follow-up to a previous column on the WNBA and a potential move of the Connecticut Sun to Boston after former Celtics team owner Steve Pagliuca made an offer to purchase the franchise for $350 million. when the news broke, many a Boston-area politician and pundit was considering it a done deal. “Not so fast,” said the WNBA league office. Then, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey really jumped on the bandwagon, claiming, “we’re ready for the WNBA. Well, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) thinks otherwise. The Senator sent a letter to the WNBA this week “officially warning the league” to stay out of negotiations, and that “any attempts by the WNBA to block efforts to keep the Sun in Connecticut could violate federal antitrust laws,” he wrote.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (file photo/NBA)

TELEPHONE LINE: Here’s another very bad example of the misinformation circulating regularly on “X,” the once called Twitterverse. The story starts with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conducting a short press conference to update NBA media (and thus the fans) on the news stemming from the NBA Board of Governors meeting held this week. Topics of discussion included: The Board ratifying slight changes to the replay rule (in regard to last second heaves (now to count as a Team FG attempt, rather than an individual attempt).

In the misinformation world, a snippet of Silver’s full press conference made its way around social media and – guess what? No one bothered to read the full, well thought out and thorough answer to the question. Instead, Silver was tattooed for the snip where he said “the NBA is very much a highlights driven league.

What he really said, was a full 180-degree opposite of the words he is being criticized for saying in the midst of a much broader point – focusing mainly on the fact that in 2025-26, the NBA will have more free-to-air broadcasts (off full games) than anytime in recent history. Here’s the full transcript:

Q. It’s become very expensive to watch the NBA as a fan, not just going to games but also in order to — there’s different streaming services you have to subscribe to, some of the RSNs are expensive. I know that there are other points of entry for fans to interact with the NBA. There’s social media, and a lot of younger fans, that is how they’re experiencing the sport. But I wonder how much you think about that and how that will shape the next generation of fans?

ADAM SILVER: “I think about it a lot. I will say, I saw the story your publication ran. You took all the different streaming services and added them up and what those costs would be. I look at it a little bit differently, because most people can only consume so many games. By way of one example, in these new media deals, we’re going from essentially 15 exposures on broadcast television to 75. So to the extent someone wants to put little rabbit ears on their television, you can still get 75 marquee games in essence for free in the marketplace.

“I’d say in addition to that, and this is an ongoing issue for the league, there’s a huge amount of our content that people essentially consume for free. This is very much a highlights-based sport, so Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you name it, any service, the New York Times for that matter, to the extent that your content is not behind a paid firewall, there’s an enormous amount of content out there. YouTube, another example that is advertising based that consumers can consume.

“I think this is a new world now of streaming media. I think we’re paying a lot of attention to that. It was one of the discussions we had with our media partners, not just the cost of the games — and I think most people are conditioned to paying a certain amount for high-value content — but also the discovery of those games.

“Again, I’m a fan of many different sports. I think we’ve all had that experience where you’re going to Google to find the game you want to watch because the world has changed it’s not just automatically in the place you thought it would be.

“But ultimately, I’ll talk about it in terms of reach and how you reach your consumers. It’s interesting — because of the disruption in the regional sports network business, I never would have predicted this was coming 10 years ago, but a lot of our local games are moving back to broadcast television. In fact, we have more games on broadcast television locally than we’ve had anytime in recent history.

“We’re continuing to look at it. But the ultimate answer is we think a lot about it. We know where we have mass appeal. On a global basis, we’re literally reaching billions of people. We don’t want to disenfranchise people by working with partners that are creating price points that make it inaccessible to them.”

So, those who clipped and pontificated on the “highlights” failed to underline the main point of making more full games (what was 15 will now be 75 free-to-air broadcasts).

Shame on those who regurgitated the snippet as though it was Silver’s only comment.

UNDER FURTHER REVIEW: The accusatory line of questioning directed at Adam Silver for the NBA’s new TV deal seemed to lean towards a money-grab without regard to the best interests of the fans. Yet, many of the same people accusing Silver and his NBA Board of being greedy think that the sun rises and sets on College Football, the bands, the pageantry and the, ahem, wagering. But, to watch a full day of NCAA college football on Saturday, September 13th, a fan would need to have his remote wired and his subscriptions paid up to watch a rather weak schedule of college football games televised by (hold your breath):

  1. ABC
  2. CBS
  3. FOX
  4. CBSSN
  5. ESPN
  6. ESPN2
  7. ESPN+
  8. SECN+
  9. ESPNU
  10. FS-1
  11. Paramount+
  12. Peacock Net
  13. HBO Max
  14. YouTube TV
  15. truTV
  16. TNT
  17. Spectrum Sports
  18. Big Ten Network
  19. SEC Network
  20. SECN+
  21. ACC Network
  22. Mountain West Network
  23. The CW Network
  24. NEC Front Row

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: From the sports business file, SBJ on Friday reported a reorganization within the NBA league office structure. Such events occur yearly in the September 15 to Oct 1 zone. This year, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver focused his office on increasing viewership and global appeal. Key changes include integrating direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing teams with digital consumer products under Chris Benyarko, Head of Direct to Consumer Products, Technology & Operations. Additionally, media and brand teams, led by Janine Dugre and Andy Heatley respectively, will now report to Gregg Winik, President, Content & Executive Producer, to align with content and media partners. These adjustments are designed to enhance operations and strengthen the NBA’s strategy for a broader global audience and greater engagement with digital offerings.

CFP TOP 12, ACCORDING TO THE AFCA COACHES: As of week two of the college football season, here are the top 12 teams.

Rank, School/Team, (First place votes), Points from Voters, W/L Record

1 Ohio State (62) 1,668 2-0

2 Penn State (4) 1,576 2-0

3 Georgia 1,488 2-0

4 LSU (1) 1,472 2-0

5 Oregon 1,423 2-0

6 Miami (Fla.) 1,330 2-0

7 Texas 1,288 1-1

8 Notre Dame 1,041 0-1

9 Illinois 1,019 2-0

10 South Carolina 1,007 2-0

11 Clemson 995 1-1

12 Florida State 843 2-0

THIS JEST IN: After visiting the Gulf of America, then playing a few rounds of golf near Mar-a-Lago, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced in a press conference that the office building where he calls home base will now be called the Octagon. “We’re planning to add a few sides,” said Hegseth when informed the word Octagon would indicate eight sides as opposed to the five-sided building now standing. … There’s no word on whether the United States Military Academy will change its name from ARMY to ICEY.

TURTLES: Mark Volman, the singer who co-founded the popular 60s rock band, The Turtles, died at the age of 78. Reps for Volman confirmed the death to Rolling Stone, citing a “a brief and unexpected illness.” In 2020, Volman was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, but continued touring and only announced his diagnosis in 2023. In fact, when promoting his memoir “Happy Forever: My Musical Adventures with the Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, and More” in 2023, Volman went public with his 2020 diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, a disease that results in a decline in cognitive ability, affecting reasoning, memory and movement. Here’s a tune.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: For decades, the European Basketball championship final would feature the likes of Spain, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Italy and Lithuania. This year? It’s reigning FIBA world champion Germany against an upstart national team from Türkiye. … Dating back to 1935, Türkiye has medaled only one time. That silver medal came in 2001 when the tournament was played on their home court.

In what looked to be a much closer matchup (on paper) turned into a one-sided affair, with Turkey winning 94-68. Greece had trouble scoring all around, finishing with three players in double figures, but none with more than 15 points, including NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) who was held to 12 points, on 6-for-13 shooting.

Türkiye’s Alperen Sengun (Houston Rockets) had 15 points in the victory but Ercan Osmani (Efes Pilsen-EuroLeague) was the star, tallying 28 points and playing a stellar defensive game against Antetokounmpo.

Head coach Ergin Ataman (Panathinaikos-EuroLeague) had some choice words: “As I said, this isn’t the NBA. In European basketball, if you prepare well, protect the paint, and your players stay aggressive, you can be successful, it’s not that hard to stop him (Antetokounmpo). I think Osmani played excellent defense against Giannis. I don’t know if my friend, the GM of Anadolu Efes, will be in trouble because many NBA teams might come after Osmani to stop Giannis. But I believe he’s happy at Efes. He stopped him really well, with both intelligence and aggression”

Türkiye will face Germany in the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket Final at 2:00pm (ET) today (Sunday, September 14).

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | 8/31

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

NORTON (Mass) – The stars are aligning in the game of golf. Let us count the ways:

  • The PGA Tour concluded with a very entertaining FedEx Cup Playoffs (won by England’s Tommy Fleetwood in grand Fashion).
  • The LPGA tour is cruising through Massachusetts during this great Labor Day weekend as the best female golfers in the world compete in the FM Championship at TPC Boston – formerly the site of a PGA Tour/FedEx Cup Playoff round.
  • The Ryder Cup is on the horizon and United States Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Bradley, had a very difficult decision this week as he made is choices for Captain’s picks to round out the 12-player USA team. England’s Luke Donald will do the same and make his Captain’s selections on Monday (September 1). The Ryder Cup will be contested between Europe and the USA from September 26-28 at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, NY.
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While readers of WWYI might’ve expected a full column on the Baseball home stretch, the start of college football or a preview of the NFL season ahead, you’ll be keen to know that an amazing connection to the PGA Tour-LPGA Tour-and-Ryder Cup walked right into the path of your intrepid columnist earlier this week. Thus, footy can wait a week or so and WWYI will educate you on the great Pat Bradley, aunt of Keegan, and one of the classiest athletes in history – any sport, anywhere. Ms. Bradley was publicizing the 2025 FM Championship when WWYI ran into her and reminisced about rainy summer days on Long Island.

From this observer’s point of view, the FM Championship at TPC Boston is the LPGA equivalent of the Traveller’s Championship, held each June at TPC River Highlands near Hartford.

Why?

They are both the best run, organized, challenging but reward for risk golf tournaments on the circuit. The Traveller’s is a Signature Event (elevated purse) and it comes at a challenging time, usually right after the U.S. Open. Nevertheless, the pro golfers all turn up, as the tournament has the best reputation of taking good care of the golfers and their families.

So it says for the (relatively) new FM Championship for the LPGA. Raised purse, great course in a great place (players stay in locales near either Boston or Providence). The sponsors have dedicated time, hard work, money and Human Resources (volunteers as good as they get) to staging what will surely be the model for all future LPGA events in the years to come.

Bradley was on hand as the media met the powers that be in staging this weekend’s FM Championship in Norton. She was fabulous and this columnist remembers watching her play on Long Island at the Meadowbrook Golf Course in the Western Union International (1979-1982). Pat Bradley was often high on the leaderboard and came from the Commonwealth and was quite accustomed to golf in the Northeast.

“I remember playing the LPGA Championship at Pleasant Valley in 1975 when I was on tour, so the history of professional golf has always been strong in Massachusetts,” said Bradley. “To be back here at TPC (Boston) is a huge treat. The talented athletes are great ambassadors, not only to the game of golf, but to the world of golf. It’s a joy to walk the fairways and watch them do their thing.

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“I am celebrating my 50th year on the LPGA Tour, and when I think back, gee wiz, when I joined the tour in ‘74, the LPGA was about 25 years and here we’re celebrating 75 years. It’s been a tremendous organization and it gets stronger and stronger every year. And, when you have sponsors like FM believing in you as an organization, as athletes, as golfers, it just makes your heart grow and full. You just can’t wait to play these fairways.”

Bradley was joined by Brockton, Massachusetts native Megan Khang who proudly noted she winters in Boston, although it’s a short break with the fact the LPGA Tour runs from about January 18 to November 24. This weekend, Khang sits T-18 after a (-3) score of 69 on Saturday.

“I love being around Massachusetts,” said Khang. “It’s where my family is. For me, being from Massachusetts and playing MassGolf growing up, it’s cool to say, you don’t have to move somewhere warm full-time.’

Bringing it back to Pat Bradley, the 1981 U.S. Open champion, she’ll always have eyes on the LPGA, but this week she was watching her nephew on television, first at the TOUR Championship where he finished T-7 and pocketed a cool $1,121,667 for his efforts after shooting 70-64-63-70 on the championship weekend. Despite his No. 11 ranking on Tour, (No. 8 if you only look at USA golfers), Keegan did not pick himself to play on the Ryder Cup and his aunt had faith in his decision.

“If I said anything to Keegan, it was whatever decision you make, it will be the right decision,” noted Aunt Pat, keeping the family business as close as a Corleone might practice. “I know he’s been dealing with it (Ryder Cup pressure) and he’ll be dealing with it for a little more time. Keegan is the right guy for Bethpage Black, and he and his team will bring the Cup home. He’ll let the fellas know to keep their focus, because otherwise Bethpage Black will let them know.

“It’s been a tremendous moment for Keegan and his family,” added Ms. Bradley. “I’m so proud of all that he has done. I’ve never been so proud of him than the day he took that phone call (to be the US Ryder Cup captain) a couple years ago.

“When a young man goes into Yankee Stadium with a Red Sox baseball cap, you know he’s got guts,” she concluded in her sum-up of the USA’s captain.

FOR THE RECORD: These United States pro golfers made the Ryder Cup team by points earned during the past season:

  1. Scottie Scheffler
  2. J.J. Spaun
  3. Xander Schauffele
  4. Russell Henley
  5. Harris English
  6. Bryson DeChambeau

Then to round out the team, Bradley’s Captain’s picks were: (in alphabetical order)

Sam Burns

Patrick Cantlay

Ben Griffin

Collin Morakawa

Justin Thomas

Cameron Young

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HERE NOW, THE NOTES: There’s been no better moment for the college football season than watching the retiring ESPN commentator and former coach, Lee Corso,make his final pick of the week in front of 100,000 Ohio State fans on Saturday at Noon. ESPN College Game Day ranks neck and neck with the Inside the NBA crew of Turner Sports as the best two wrap-around shows in the business. Game Day might have the edge, as it’s always a live remote on a pumped-up college campus, always the “biggest” game of the week, the best match-up, the most important game. It was no surprise to see Corso pick Ohio State to please the hometown fans. Corso donned the head piece of Brutas the Buckeye mascot to a standing ovation, possibly the loudest in college sports. Second to the Lee Corso tribute, was the college football pageantry on display at the legendary “Horseshoe” in Columbus. Saturday proved to be a perfect, 70-degree, 44% humidity, deep blue postcard blue sky day. Can you imagine being a first-year student just enrolled at The Ohio State University and on campus for a week or two? (Corso was correct, by the3 way, as Ohio State defeated No. 1 ranked Texas, 14-7).

On the other hand, the vaunted Army Black Knights football team suffered one of its most stunning defeats in history, falling 30-27 in double overtime to the Tarleton State Texans football team, an FCS program.

PREDICTIONS: Making these College Football Playoff prediction with the benefit of seeing the Ohio State win over Texas, here are the WWYI thoughts for CFB Playoffs 2025-26:

  1. Ohio State
  2. Clemson
  3. Penn State
  4. Georgia
  5. Notre Dame
  6. Texas (lost Saturday)
  7. Oregon
  8. LSU
  9. Alabama (lost Saturday)
  10. Miami (Florida)
  11. Texas Tech
  12. Arizona State

TL’S – In the Hunt: Illinois, South Carolina, Michigan, Florida, Ole Miss and SMU.

NFL Predictions will come next week.

THIS JEST IN: The bat tossed in the air by a New Jersey Little Leaguer to celebrate a home run which earned him a suspension (lifted by a judge in appeal) was sold Friday for nearly $10,000 at auction. The proceeds from the sale of 12-year-old Marco Rocco‘s autographed bat will be donated to the program he plays for, Haddonfield Little League. The auction was conducted by the reputable firm of Goldin Auctions and it drew 68 bids. The winning bid was $9,882, but the name of the winning bidder was not announced. Marco’s bat flip on July 16 in the final of the NJ Little League sectional tournament resulted in an ejection, a one-game suspension and a legal fight won by the flipper.

THIS JUST IN: In Saturday’s semifinal of the AmeriCup men’s basketball tournament, the United States (3-2) fell to Brazil (4-1), 92-77, in Managua, Nicaragua. Canada and Argentina were playing in the other semifinal at press time. The USA will face the loser of that game for the 2025 FIBA Men’s AmeriCup bronze medal.

Over in FIBA EuroBasket 2025, the Group stage is just being completed and the tournament will advance to the Final phase this week. See the STANDINGS.

Celtics fans want to know: Kristaps Porzingis is averaging 16.7 points per game while playing 26.8 minutes per game for Latvia. The Celtics traded Porzingis and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks this past June in a three-team deal that sent TeranceMann and the No. 22 pick (Drake Powell) in the 2025 NBA Draft to the Nets, while Georges Niang and a second-round pick headed to Boston. In another move to clear additional salary off the books, the Celtics subsequently sent Niang and two future second-round picks to the Utah Jazz for rookie wing RJ Luis Jr., out of St. John’s.

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CAN’T MAKE IT UP: As reported annually by the Associated Press with a dateline of BUÑOL (Spain), thousands of people from all around the world seeking a challenging date for their Tide detergent skills and a messy thrill to boot, spent one fun-filled hour flinging bushels of overripe tomatoes at each other during Spain’s “Tomatina”celebration this week. It was dubbed, “the mother of all food fights” as a packed street in the town of Buñol went deep red as revelers squished, smashed and hurled 120 tons of the overripe garden favorite. Tarps covered building fronts as an estimated 20,000 people let loose amid screams and laughter. The gazpacho didn’t stand a chance, but it beats getting gored by an angry Bull.

STREAKING: Heading into today’s (Sunday) series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates, arguably the worst hitting team in MLB, the Boston Red Sox have lost five home games in a row. That’s after the Sox won nine of the previous ten (July 26-August 16). Adding to the woes of inconsistency for this hometown team, the Sox have lost four of their last seven series after winning four straight series from July 25-August 6. … Boston has scored three or fewer runs in 11 of their last 16 games. Boston is now (75-62) and are positioned as the American League’s 2nd World Card team, trailing the New York Yankees by one game. Boston is 3.5 games back of AL East division leader Toronto (78-58) … The Seattle Mariners are the 3rd Wild Card team and trail the Red Sox by 2.0 games.

IF THE PLAYOFFS BEGAN TODAY: Here’s the way the teams would match-up if the MLB postseason began today.

AMERICAN LEAGUE:

(1) Blue Jays vs. winner of (4) Red Sox vs. (5) Yankees

(2) Tigers vs. winner of (3) Astros vs. (6) Mariners

NATIONAL LEAGUE:

(1) Brewers vs. winner of (4) Cubs vs. (5) Padres

(2) Phillies vs. winner of (3) Dodgers vs. (6) Mets

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Aug 17

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – HBO’s “HARD KNOCKS” is the best sports television show in history. It’s not even close. While Ernie (Johnson, Jr.), Charles (Barkley), Kenny (Smith) and Shaq (O’Neal) of Turner Sports fame can make you laugh out loud every time, not one of the “Inside the NBA” shows has ever made me feel like running through a wall after watching the show. Hard Knocks does that. Every episode.

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Just hearing the Hard Knocks theme song gets me revved-up and there’s been no highlight show or team documentary that has ever come close to unearthing such emotion. Hard Knocks often features a team I couldn’t care less about in the fixtures of the NFL, yet each summer I, along with legions of sports fans, come away from a few episodes of a weekly TV show rooting like hell for the team that’s been featured.

That is happening this year as the Buffalo Bills are featured and Tuesday night marked just the second episode of the 2025 version of the show which debuted in the “Way Back Machine” with the Baltimore Ravens in 2001.

The NFL and HBO have called Hard Knocks “the first sports-based reality series” in television history. That’s B.S. because long before 2001, anyone and everyone in the sports industry realized we had the best reality programming in history, and it was our games themselves.

CBS reality series – Survivor – premiered on May 31, 2000. Executive Producer Mark Burnett hatched an idea that – somehow – has lasted 25 years, with the property gaining and keeping its loyal audience while also spinning out other reality shows on everything from cooking/chefs to swamp people.

Facing facts, reality shows can easily be taped and watched at a later date, although office water cooler talk might spoil a surprise ending. Sports, on the other hand, has to be watched live. Every sports fan knows it and it’s impossible to steer clear of the score of a game unless you’re asleep and watch the game before leaving your bed or touching your phone device.

Hard Knocks married the two and has become must see TV, especially as avid NFL fans countdown the days to the opening weekend of football. The Hard Knocks theme song prompts the visceral reaction of the human mind and body.

The theme was written for NFL Films by David Robidoux, a music composer who hails from the tough town of Reading, Pennsylvania. Robidoux is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music with degrees in audio engineering and film scoring. He began working for NFL Films in 1991 and is a 40-time EMMY nominee and 15-time EMMY Award winner. He’s created nearly 3,000 compositions for the NFL alone but has done everything from a Dressage routine for US Olympian Laura Graves in the Rio 2016 Olympics, featuring “Man Of War” to a “40 Years of NFL Films Music” 10 CD Box Set.

If the theme doesn’t cement you in your armchair for an hour, then the voice of narrator Liev Schreiber will provide you with chills throughout every episode. Schreiber, best known for his acting role as Marty Baron – editor-in-chief of the Boston Globe in the Academy Award winning movie, Spotlight, was so perfectly cast to be the voice of Hard Knocks. Back in 2023, when Hard Knocks was featuring the New York Jets, then-Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers referred to Schreiber as “the voice of God” for his efforts in the series, and rightfully so, as the actor has been with the docuseries each and every episode – all but one season. In 2007, he didn’t narrate and turned the duties to Kansas City Chiefs fan Paul Rudd.

Schreiber’s only on screen performance came in that J-E-T-S season when he choppered over to NYJ training camp for a look-see and meet & greet with the Jets players and coaches. This year, with the Bills, Schreiber is back in the familiar place of narration – Thank God.

That brings us to the content (and buzzword 🚨 alert) storytelling. Hard Knocks covers training camp of NFL teams, but its secret sauce is the character development created on each and every episode. Sure, a fixed camera in the GM’s office secretly filming a player being cut from the team has been the type of behind the scenes access NFL fans dreamt they watch, but the more compelling storylines are the deep dives into the off field lives of the players. Often depicted with their families or pictured in everyday life, shopping or mixing up a breakfast smoothie for a roommate/teammate, the bond created by Hard Knocks with the rank and file players of each team, create that magical fan to player love affair that is the very root of all sports.

Yes, sometimes, that player/character who became the unexpected star of an episode is later cut from the team and it draws on a fans raw emotions, fully understanding what a player and his wife/family have gone through during camp.

One such player was John Connor, aka “The Terminator.” Then-New York Jets coach Rex Ryan tagged the nickname on Connor (not to be confused with Arizona Cardinals running back, James Conner). Fans of the J-E-T-S fell head over heels for Connor when, as a fullback, he was assigned to be a lead blocker and clear a hole for his running backs. Connor didn’t make a block, he often hit defenders so hard, they’d drop to their knees and be carted off the field, dazed and confused by the alien that just ran them over – thus, the nickname, “The Terminator.”

Of course, the reality of NFL camp took over when Connor was sidelined with an MCL sprain and hamstring injury and was released by the Jets a month into the 2012 season. He bounced from New York to Cincinnati, back to New York for a short stint with the Giants and Jets (again), before playing his final NFL camp with the Buffalo Bills where he was among the final cuts on September 4, 2015.

Connor’s career stat line in the NFL consists of 108 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, along with 12 receptions and a pass receiving TD. His game did not stand out for NFL teams, but, through Hard Knocks, his name will live on forever.

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HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Boston University is facing a lawsuit from Baylor University over a logo battle. The complaint was filed this week in Waco, Texas – where Baylor is located – and it seeks to prevent Boston University from using an “a specific interlocking BU design that is identical or strikingly similar to Baylor’s federally registered marks.” Baylor University noted it’s been using the interlocking BU letters since, at least, 1912 and the school registered for a trademark in 1987. The lawsuit says Boston University initially opposed the application, but the schools reached an agreement and Boston University has been using the letters side-by-side in its logo.

But the settlement went South, the lawsuit alleges, as Baylor found out – back in 2018 – that Boston University was using the interlocking BU on different hat styles in its campus store. Baylor asked Boston University to cease and desist in 2021, but the request was ignored. “Rather, its use has continued to expand, and a very large number of such goods now appears on the Defendant’s website,” Baylor said in the complaint.

A spokesperson for Boston University told WBZ-TV in Boston that the school does not comment on pending litigation. Meanwhile, Baylor is asking a judge to permanently stop Boston University from using the interlocking BU, and to destroy any products or signs with that specific logo.

WWYI wonders if Baylor would settle the case by playing an ice hockey game, with the winner getting rights to the BU. Surely, Baylor would rather play football.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: Close to the old homestead, and alma mater is fact St. John’s President, Reverend Brian J. Shanley, OP, has been named Chair of the Big East Conference Board of Directors. This prestigious role is a testament to his leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to both academics and athletics. … In other words, St. John’s better get all the close calls on the court this coming season. … Former PGA Tour TV guru and WNBA Commissioner (2005-11) Donna Orender is trying hoops again. Orender is Commissioner of The UpShot League, a development league for women’s basketball (a la WNBA). The league is scheduled to play in May 2026. The UPSHOT League’s regular-season schedule will consist of 40 games, including 20 at home and 20 on the road for only four teams. Currently, the clubs are:

  • UpShot Charlotte
  • UpShot Greensboro
  • UpShot Jacksonville
  • UpShot Savannah – (Might they be named the Savannah Roseannadannas)?

The new league is being organized by Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, a firm that owns, manages, and operates the Jacksonville Icemen, Savannah Ghost Pirates, Greensboro Gargoyles, 32 Degrees Marketing, Community First Igloo, Charlotte Checkers, and Gastonia Ghost Peppers. Zawyer Sports is in the business of hosting family based entertainment. Investors include, Cheryl Miller and Anne Meyers Drysdale, among others.

SOX STUFF: Aside from the hot, hot, hot Milwaukee Brewers (NL), the Boston Red Sox are second-best in the majors and an AL-best 26-12 since July 1. … At Fenway Park, the Sox are a scorching 16-2 in their last 18 games, 18-3 in their last 21 home games, and 25-6 in their last 31. … Not surprisingly, the Red Sox have sold out for their last 13 games, with Saturday’s crowd of 36,192 the most recent crowd. … The Red Sox starting pitchers lead the American League with 57 quality starts. … Boston ace Garrett Crochet will take to the mound vs the Marlins on Sunday (1:35pm).

JIMMY FUND: Monday, Aug 18 and Tuesday, Aug 19, 2025 mark the annual WEEI-Radio/NESN Radio Telethon to benefit The Jimmy Fund (Dana Farber Cancer Institute). Since 2002, the generous support of Sox fans and WEEI listeners/NESN viewers has raised more than $74 million to support pediatric and adult cancer care and research at Dana Farber. Tune-in and contribute, if you can: Visit HERE

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | July 27

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House of Horrors (File Photo)

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – There’s a load of confusion and a ton of mixed messages being strown about the streets of Washington DC in regard to the future of college athletics, name, image and likeness (NIL) parameters, outside (Private Equity) investments into the Athletics Departments of colleges and universities throughout the land.

The House v. NCAA settlement, which took effect on July 1, 2025, allows for direct payments to college athletes by their schools. This landmark agreement, approved by Judge Claudia Wilken, also includes revenue sharing and roster limits. A key aspect is the $2.8 billion in back damages to be paid to athletes over the next decade (2025-2035). Power 5 NCAA conferences (plus Notre Dame) must follow the new rules, while other Division I schools can choose to opt-in

The settlement also addresses potential future issues with revenue sharing, roster sizes, and NIL regulations. It’s expected to reshape the landscape of college athletics and how athletes are compensated.

This week, between a dump of thousands of previously classified documents on the life and assassination of the legendary Martin Luther King Jr., blatant lies in front of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the suggestion of a new recipe for Coca-Cola – the (NSFW descriptive term deleted) administration decided to issue an executive order to “prop up” college sports by limiting collegiate athletic programs’ ability to steer money toward specific sports like football and basketball at the expense of other sports. The order, which came amid lawmakers’ heightened interest in having Washington play a role in regulating sports and student athletes, “cast the current state of college sports in apocalyptic terms,” according to Politico.

“Absent guardrails to stop the madness and ensure a reasonable, balanced use of resources across collegiate athletic programs that preserves their educational and developmental benefits, many college sports will soon cease to exist,” the executive order stated.

The order requires athletic departments with more than $125 million in revenue during the 2024-2025 season to offer more scholarships in “non-revenue sports” this year than they did the prior year. Programs with less revenue are instructed to maintain or avoid disproportionately reducing such scholarships, or eliminate roster spots. (Sort of a DOGE for scholarships).

Instead of fewer regulations, the United States’ government seems to be “reversing fields” and positioning itself for more regulations to police the business of college sports which – with recent and self-inflicted rule changes – has entered into an era of pay for play and other professional sports-like day-to-day/season-to-season financial operations.

The new executive order calls for the prohibition of the “third-party market of pay-for-play inducements,” but allows athletes to get paid “fair market value” for endorsements or other services. That largely duplicates part of the NCAA/House legal settlement which governs most college sports programs.

Playing it out – instead of the old way of slipping some cash in an envelope for a FedEx delivery or the new way of having billionaire alums directly paying players for their commitment (read transfer via the portal) and at least one year of service – now the billionaire alums must – instead – pay the players to endorse their business, or consumer products.

Surely, the House nor the administration consulted with the various Compliance Officers at each school or the principal’s office (Charlie Baker’s joint) in Indianapolis. Clearly, the early outlines of the proposals seem to be impossible to enforce and quite easy for school boosters to circumvent, especially in the worlds of collegiate football and basketball. And, regardless, those freight trains have already left the station and are chugging their crafty ways toward title contention in the 2025 College Football Playoffs or 2026 NCAA national basketball championship(s) … aka … March Madness.

For Congress, the West Wing and the colleges, Madness is the perfect term.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Long thought of as a nice game for retirement communities or, maybe, Asian and Jewish grandparents, “Mah-jongg” is making a comeback. That trend is being reported via an in-depth story in this weekend’s edition of The Washington Post. It’s gone so far that one group of young mothers in their 30s – looking for a nighttime activity complete with take-out and cocktails – created a make-shift play group they call “Momjong.” DC has its start-up groups while New York hotels including the Ace and the Standard have hosted mah-jongg nights. While the game was played regularly in China in the 1800s, the resurgence in the USA decades ago weent so far that a group of Jewish-American women who were fans of the game, created the National Mah Jongg League in 1937, developing an American style of the game. How long will it take for some investment group to fund the World Pro Mah Jongg League? The line starts to the left.

CALLING COMMISSIONER GORDON: Sports teams in the Big Apple are increasingly fighting over the nickname “Gotham City,” made famous by the popular Batman comic book, 1960s television series and highly successful motion pictures. Most recently, the J-E-T-S of the National Football League placed a claim by revamping their team locker and the phrase “Gotham City Football” was hung over player nameplates in the home team room. In legal action taken on June 12, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the team’s request to trademark “Gotham City Football” for apparel such as T-shirts, hoodies and caps, according to Sportico. … The dismissal by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office noted that “Gotham City” is geographically descriptive of a physical location that the wider public already knows—in this case, New York City—and physical locations cannot be trademarked. Keep in mind, the Jets represent New York but the team is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, some 38 miles west of the city, and the Jets play their home games 12 miles from NYC in East Rutherford, New Jersey where the club shares the MetLife Stadium facility with the “New York” football Giants. The Jets’ legal team argued that “Gotham City” is not geographically descriptive, but it originated from the iconic DC Comics franchise Batman. However, the USPTO refuted that claim, saying that the “Gotham City” connection to New York City predates the Dark Knight, when writer Washington Irving first coined the nickname of the city in 1807 in a literary magazine. The Jets franchise was founded in 1959 as the New York Titans and became the J-E-T-S in 1963 when they joined the New York Metropolitans (Mets) at the then-brand spanking new Shea Stadium. Sportico noted, “Gotham has become an increasingly crowded territory for sports IP. Sky Blue FC of the National Women’s Soccer League’s rebranded as NJ/NY Gotham FC—nickname: the Bats—in 2021. The club’s governor, Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, is from the family that co-owns the Giants.” And, adding to the confusion, last year, the YES Network and MSG Networks announced a new streaming team-up, Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment (GAME). Tri-State dwellers can now watch the Knicks and Yankees via the Gotham Sports App on their mobile devices where they can also watch Batman, Robin and Commissioner Jim Gordon fight crime in Gotham City. To resolve the confusion, maybe it’s time to grab an Alfred App, unless someone wants to resurrect the Cape Crusaders, a soccer team that played in the USL Premier Development League, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid from 1994 to 2008 before the franchise folded.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: The next time you question the call of a Major League Baseball umpire, you might want to look up his full record. To do so, visit Umpire Scorecards online where the site checks the calls – accurate and not – for every MLB umpire, including balls and strikes. …

THIS JEST IN: Nick Kurtz, a rookie for MLB’s Athletics, hit four home runs on Friday night, an all-time record for major league rookies. Going a perfect 6-for-6 with the four HRs, Kurtz became the first A’s player in franchise history with a four-homer game, the first rookie in MLB history with a four-homer game, and the 20th major league player, overall, to accomplish the feat.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: Ripped from the pages of Variety, or maybe an episode of Law & Order, here’s this week’s edition of YCMIU:

On July 19th, Rapper GloRilla was arrested on felony drug charges after a burglary occurred at her home near Atlanta, Georgia, according to Atlanta’s WSB-TV and TMZ. She then performed at the WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis that night. The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to the Atlanta-based media outlet that authorities were called to a home owned by GloRilla, whose real name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods, at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The rapper then performed at the WNBA All-Star game in Indianapolis that evening, playing a medley of her songs “Let Her Cook,” “Typa” and “TGIF” at the Gainsbridge Fieldhouse. She surrendered to authorities at the Forsyth County Jail on Tuesday and was released shortly afterward, posting a $22,260 bond.

Investigators said three suspects went into the home when Woods was not present and were robbing the residence when an unidentified individual inside the building fired a gun at them. The burglars escaped and investigators do not believe they were injured. During the investigation, officers smelled drugs and found a “significant amount of marijuana” in a bedroom closet. Woods was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance. “The homeowner is a victim of a serious crime, and we are committed to bringing the suspects to justice,” Sheriff Ron Freeman told WSB-TV. “At the same time, we must continue to uphold and enforce the law in all aspects of this case.”

TL’s Sports Notes | June 29

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – Back in the ‘80s, NBA teams suffered through tougher than tough road trips when traveling into the Western Conference’s Southwest, Pacific and Northwest Divisions. Sometimes, it was a Utah-Portland-Seattle run, other times it might be a trip to LA to play the Lakers, followed by a stop in Phoenix and then a get-away game at Denver in the Mile High city.

Possibly the toughest road trip was the very challenging three games in four night through the “Texas Triangle,” visiting the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

At different intervals throughout the decade, a stop in Dallas meant a match-up with Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman and Derek Harper, and later in the decade, the guards were backed-up by a young and efficient Roy Tarpley – Coach Dick Motta’s orJohn MacLeod’s first experimentation with the “stretch four and stretch five.”

In San Antonio, you might battle the great center Artis Gilmore, George “The Iceman” Gervin, and point guard Johnny Moore backed by the Baseline Bums and bigs like Dave Corzine, Mark Olberding and George T. Johnson.

In the early ‘80s, a trip to Houston would require a match-up vs MVP-level center Moses Malone, but soon after, the Rockets fell into fortune via the NBA Draft’s “coin-flip,” rather than the NBA Lottery of today. That luck of Jim Foley, Charlie Thomasand their map of Ireland taken from the walls of Jimmy Weston’s bar in midtown resulted in a Rockets roster of 7-4 Ralph Sampson, 6-9 center Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon – The Twin Towers – and a supporting cast of forwards Otis Thorpe, Robert Horry, Carl Herrera, Rodney McCray, and guards like G-F Clyde Drexler, point guard Kenny Smith, along with Mario Elie, Sam Cassell and a host of others.

Put all together, it was the vaunted “Texas Triangle” and it just might be returning “to a theatre near you” this Fall.

With the Dallas Mavericks selecting consensus college player of the year, Cooper Flagg of Duke, with No. 1 pick in this week’s NBA Draft, the franchise which was under fire from fans and media, alike, has now been rejuvenated. Tickets are flying off the shelves. That said, the state of the Mavericks will depend largely on the injury status of point guard Kyrie Irving (torn ACL in March) who is not expected to play until January 2026.

Meanwhile, NBA All-Star center Anthony Davis battled back at seasons’ end from a left adductor strain suffered just after his trade from the LA Lakers to Dallas in exchange for Mavs’ franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić – a deal that shook the NBA for months.

If Flagg can perform to his highest standards and both Irving and Davis are healthy come the eve of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, Dallas could be a force out West, but chances are, it will take another year or two for the Mavericks to be in full contention.

That leads us to the Houston Rockets, the Southwest Division champion of 2024-25 and the No. 2 seed in the 2025 NBA Playoffs because of their 50-32 record. Houston was upset in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs this past April/May, losing a seven game series to the Golden State Warriors. Of the three Texas teams, however, Houston has the best chance to advance in the 2026 NBA Playoffs and they will depend of budding NBA All-Star in Turkish center Alperen Sengun who averaged 20.9 points and 11.9 rebounds last season.

Next?

The San Antonio Spurs might be a 12-for-12 roster flip wish for every team in the NBA, sans the OKC Thunder. The duo of the past two NBA Rookies of the Year (7-foot-3 Victor Wembanyama and tough-as-nails guard Stephon Castle will be joined this coming season by Spurs’ first-round, No. 2 overall pick Dylan Harper, a 6-foot-6 scorer out of Rutgers. Depending on Flagg’s development with the Mavericks, theoretically, the Spurs could roster the last three NBA ROY winners. (NBA teams have had two in a row, but never three consecutive ROY).

As your self the question, ‘If you were GM of Indiana, Cleveland, New York, Boston, or the LA Lakers or Clippers, would you trade rosters with the San Antonio Spurs?’

I would, after all, everything in Texas is BIG.

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HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Writing from Fenway Park on a Saturday afternoon, one has to wonder if the Boston Red Sox switched “babies” overnight and fielded a new team? Friday night saw the Toronto Blue Jays shutout the Sox 9-0 and the score could’ve been worse. Despite a halfway decent outing by Sox SP Brayan Bello (three earned runs on eight hits over six innings), the Boston bullpen gave up another six runs to the Jays. On Saturday, the roles were reversed and Boston jumped on Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt for nine runs (eight earned), on eight hits over two innings pitched. … The Saturday afternoon Boston victory snapped a a season high losing streak of six games with much of the recent damage done on a Sox 9-game road trip to the West Coast. Prior to departing on that trip (which coincided with the day Boston shipped Rafael Devers off to San Francisco), Boston had won eight of the nine previous games, dating back to June 10. On Saturday, with a 15-1 win, the Red Sox scored more runs in one game than they scored in their previous five.

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: The NHL Draft was held on Friday night and the New York Islanders selected No. 1 for the fifth time in franchise history and first since 2009. The Isles made highly touted defenseman Matthew Schaefer of the Erie Otters the top pick. Schaefer became the first OHL player to go first overall in the Draft since Connor McDavid in 2015 (also out of Erie) and the first OHL defenseman to be picked at No. 1 in more than a decade, with Aaron Ekblad (2014) the last before him.

An emotional moment for any top pick of a major league sports draft, the dream-fulfilling night had added meaning for Schaefer who lost his mother, Jennifer, to breast cancer in February 2024.

EMOTIONS RAN HIGH: The emotions of the first-rounders and their families at the NBA Draft in Brooklyn Wednesday night were flowing. ESPN anchor Malika Andrews did a great job putting those lifelong dreams into perspective as each player had his name announced. It started with Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks and his entire family embracing for several minutes and continued throughout the first round.

The best reaction, by far, was that of Duke center Khaman Maluach who stayed at his table for an extra 30 seconds to gather his emotions. There certainly wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he lifted his head, stood up and embraced his family and friends before walking to shake hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Maluach, who was selected by the Houston Rockets but traded, will have an opportunity to play immediately as a member of the Phoenix Suns, a club overhauling its roster.

While there might not be crying in baseball, there was a fair share of crying at the NBA Draft and it was nothing other than great. Each year, the sound of their names being called by Commissioner Silver sends shivers up and down the spines of the players and their families.

(Personal note: Back when I worked with the league, we used to try (and I stress try) preparing the rookies for the rush of emotion upon being drafted. The day before each draft, the rookies would be playing it cool, and stating, ‘They’d be alright when the time came.’ We’d warn them, and even go to the length of slipping a roster of the team they were picked by into their hands after they shook the Commissioner’s hand and were welcomed into the League.

Players would forget their names, never mind the names of new teammates or the head coach, and quite a few players came to us after things calmed down to say, ‘You were right. I couldn’t think of a thing.’

THIS JEST IN: A few picks after the Islanders, the Boston Bruins selected forward James Hagens in the first round (7th overall) of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. Hagens, 18, appeared in 37 games for Boston College during the 2024-25 season, recording 11 goals and 26 assists for 37 points, with a plus-21 rating. The 5-foot-11, 177-pound forward ranked third among Boston skaters and fourth among NCAA freshmen in points, earning a spot on the Hockey East All-Rookie Team.

In 2023-24, Hagens appeared in 58 games for the U.S. National U18 Team, as part of the National Team Development Program, totaling 39 goals and 63 assists for 102 points. The Hauppauge, Long Island, NY native was part of the United States’ gold medal-winning team at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, ranking second among U.S. skaters in points (nine). Hagens was named most valuable player after leading tournament scoring at the 2024 IIHF U18 World Junior Championship, recording 22 points in seven games to help Team USA win the silver medal.

He also won gold at both the 2023 IIHF U18 World Junior Championship and 2022 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge

SAD, BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: Louisiana’s Supreme Court this week ruled that former LSU coach Ed Orgeron owes his ex-wife Kelly nearly half of the buyout he received from the school … In a 5-2 ruling, the court said Kelly Orgeron should receive $8.13 million from the buyout since the two were married when Ed signed his extension to coach football for the LSU Tigers in January 2020. Coach Orgeron filed for divorce six weeks after he signed the extension, though the contract was not approved by the school’s board of directors until divorce proceedings had already begun. Orgeron received nearly $17 million from the school when he was fired in 2021 with an agreement to finish the season. In November of 2021, former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was named LSU’s 33rd head coach … In 2018 Ms. Orgeron underwent surgery to correct the back condition, “scoliosis.” After complications from the surgery, she fully recovered. She maintained a social media presence until 2021 at Twitter.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | May 4

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The 1999 NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs in Milan

By TERRY LYONS. Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – Earlier this week, Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs announced Popovich will transition from head coach to president of basketball operations. In 29 seasons as the Spurs head coach, Popovich amassed 1,422 regular season wins, the most in NBA history. During his tenure, the Spurs captured five NBA championships.

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“While my love and passion for the game remain, I’ve decided it’s time to step away as head coach,” said Popovich. “I’m forever grateful to the wonderful players, coaches, staff and fans who allowed me to serve them as the Spurs head coach and am excited for the opportunity to continue to support the organization, community and city that are so meaningful to me.”

After joining the Spurs in the summer of 1988, as an assistant coach on Larry Brown’s staff, Popovich enjoyed a 37-year career in the NBA as a coach and executive. He spent two seasons, from 1992-94, as an assistant coach for Don Nelson with the Golden State Warriors. His other 35 NBA seasons have all been in San Antonio with the Spurs, making him the longest tenured professional coach among the four major North American leagues.

Popovich’s pre-NBA career is, perhaps, more amazing than his run in the league. As noted in Military dot com, Popovich was born in East Chicago in 1949, the first child of Raymond and Katherine. His father, a steel-mill pipefitter, had served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

As a youngster, Popovich did well in school academically, but “was the biggest wiseass you ever saw, and all I gave a damn about was playing ball,” he told the U.S. Army Installation Management Command in a 2012 interview. He enrolled in the Air Force Academy, and played basketball for the Air Force Academy in El Paso County, Colorado, just north of Colorado Springs.

Popovich majored in Soviet studies and graduated in 1970 after starting all four years for AF basketball where he was team captain and the leading scorer for the Falcons his senior season at the academy.

Then, it got very interesting.

Popovich served in the Air Force for the required five years of active duty, during which he toured Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the U.S. Armed Forces basketball team. After graduation, his first assignment put him with the 6594th Support Group at the Air Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSCF) in Sunnyvale, California. In those years of service, he operated spy satellites monitoring Soviet missile launches under the top-secret facility, under command of the Space and Missile Systems Center.

Popovich continued playing basketball while touring Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces Team. As a member of an all-star team Goodwill Tour from April to May 1972, he traveled to the then USSR capital of Moscow, the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

“The opportunities I got in the military to travel with basketball really made me understand how much basketball is played around the world, how many good players there are,” Popovich told The New York Times in 2005.

By 1973, he was transferred to Diyarbakir Air Station in Turkey, an American-Turkish military base that tracked Soviet launches.

After months of service in Turkey, Popovich returned to Colorado to coach high school at the Air Force preparatory school — for which he received an Air Force commendation medal — and then coached college-aged cadets at the Air Force Academy. He also was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon and Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon. He continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve until 1993, working his way up to the rank of major.

Popovich remained at the Air Force Academy for six years and served as an assistant for head coach Hank Egan, who later helped Popovich as an assistant coach with the Spurs.

In 1979, Popovich became the head coach of the Pomona-Pitzer men’s basketball team, but his biggest break came with his move in 1988 to the NBA as an assistant coach to Larry Brown with the Spurs.

Popovich became general manager of the Spurs in 1994, then head coach after Bob Hill was fired in 1996.

In 2015, Popovich was named head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team for the 2017-20 quadrennium, but the team suffered a tough loss to France in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Two years later, the USA men’s national team earned a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. (The 2020 Games were postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and staged in 2021).

While the biography remains stellar and Popovich’s work with the Spurs continues, his resume also includes a rather manipulative and cranky side. In many instances with his interactions with the media, he was an intimidating bully, one who was actually sending messages to the NBA league office and then-Commissioner David Stern.

Popovich detested doing in-game interviews and remained “old-school” throughout his coaching days, even as the NBA became more and more media savvy and the demands of TV partners mounted. Quite famously, Popovich gave the late Craig Sager of Turner Sports the hardest of times as Sager’s outside reporter duties called for him to interview Popovich on the basketball court at times when Popovich preferred to be with his club and not be bothered.

The one word answers – complete with a smirk or roll of the eyes – became legendary, the insults grew embarrassing and frequently Popovich crossed the line of sic human decency. But through it all, Popovich developed a sincere appreciation for Sager’s doggedness and tenacity, admiring Sager’s preparedness as well. Somehow, through it all – in years, not days or weeks – the two became solid friends.

When Sager was battling leukemia and the entire NBA and sports world were paying tribute to the broadcaster, Popovich led the way – often very subtly and behind the scenes and sometimes on camera – joking with Sager about his wildest sport coat, and breaking any tension that might’ve existed in the past.

That edge and manipulation factor were out-done by Popovich’s pure and honest humanity. The coach’s insights and generosity were seen more often and his commentary of current events, world politics and the state of the United States presidency remain legendary quotes and must-see TV.

So, in the TL take side of this column, I am not here to bury Gregg Popovich but to praise him. There were more than a few practical jokes he played on us, and we’d all get a laugh. And, he truly loves the game of basketball and – without a doubt – he’s the greatest NBA coach of all-time.

Do I wish there were fewer “cross the line” intervals with the NBA’s media contingent over the many years? Yes. Do I wish there were fewer (F-U) messages sent in code to the NBA league office and its Commissioner? Yes. Do I wonder what it was like for then rookie Tony Parker being crushed and degraded as a ballplayer to the point where longtime Spurs basketball GM R.C. Buford had to talk “Pop” off the ledge from cutting Parker? Yes.

But, like everything in his life, somehow Popovich would come full circle to see the results he envisioned, and thus the incredible rise of Parker to NBA Finals MVP level (2007).

The tail end of Popovich’s illustrious coaching career sadly will be remembered for the “mild stroke” he suffered on November 2, 2024 while at the Spurs facilities. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson was named the acting coach in Popovich’s absence and Johnson named the next full time head coach of the Spurs this week.

All-in-all and despite the abrupt end to Popovich’s on court coaching career, there have been too many wins, too many Hall of Famers coached to their highest potential, and too many NBA titles (5) to call his scope of work in the NBA anything other than fabulous – maybe even, FAN-tastic, a phrase to honor the coach and his contributions to San Antonio, the Spurs organization and the overall and worldwide game of basketball.

The Winningest Head Coaches in NBA History

  • Gregg Popovich – 1,388
  • Don Nelson – 1,335
  • Lenny Wilkens – 1,332
  • Jerry Sloan – 1,221
  • Pat Riley – 1,210

The other two coaches to be highlighted among the very best of all time were the two “Reds” – Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics and Red Holzman of the New York Knickerbockers.

  • Red Auerbach – 938 (coached Washington Capitals and Tri-Cities Blackhawks, too)
  • Red Holzman – 696

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday was named by the NBA as the recipient of the Joe Dumars Trophy for winning the 2024-25 NBA Sportsmanship Award. This is the second NBA Sportsmanship Award for Holiday, who also earned the honor in the 2020-21 season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Presented annually since the 1995-96 season, the NBA Sportsmanship Award honors a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court. The trophy is named for Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and two-time NBA champion Joe Dumars, who won the inaugural NBA Sportsmanship Award and played his entire 14-year career with the Detroit Pistons.

Each NBA team nominated one of its players for the 2024-25 NBA Sportsmanship Award. From the list of 30 team nominees, a panel of league executives selected six finalists (one from each NBA division). Current NBA players selected the winner from the list of six finalists.

In addition to winning the NBA Sportsmanship Award twice, Holiday is a three-time recipient of the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award for his selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team. Holiday is also a finalist for the 2024-25 NBA Social Justice Champion Award, marking the third time he has been a finalist for the honor in its five-year history.

A 16-year NBA veteran, Holiday is a two-time NBA All-Star and six-time Kia NBA All-Defensive Team selection. He has won two NBA championships (one each with Boston and Milwaukee) and two Olympic gold medals with the USA Men’s National Team.

Sadly, the glut of the “do good” awards has forced the hand of the Pro Basketball Writers Association and they have discontinued the annual J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award that was given annually by the writers from 1975 until 2024. (James) Walter Kennedy was the NBA’s second Commissioner (1963-1975) and his title was league President. He passed away in 1977 at the young age of 65. A native of Stamford, Connecticut, Kennedy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1981.

The NBA now recognizes:

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Award
  • Jack Twyman-Maurice Stokes Teammate of the Year Award
  • Joe Dumars Sportsmanship Award
  • Lifetime Achievment Award

While the Basketball Hall of Fame recognizes:

  • John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award (Highest basketball honor outside Induction/Enshrinement into the Basketball Hall of Fame itself).
  • Manny Jackson Human Spirit Awards (usually recognizing three players)
  • Ice Cube Impact Award (presented to Ice Cube himself in its inaugural year)

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: TPC Craig Ranch is hosting The CJ CUP Byron Nelson golf tournament for the fifth time, honoring the legacy of the tournament namesake, in the great Byron Nelson. It was the first PGA Tour event to be named in honor of a professional golfer. Nelson had 52 career PGA Tour wins including a record 18 event titles (11 straight) in 1945.

SOX: The Red Sox won 16 games during the month of April, trailing only the Detroit Tigers (18) for most in the American League … A streak of six straight quality starts by Boston pitchers ended Saturday when Sox RHP Hunter Dobbins missed earning a quality start by one batter. Dobbins did go 5.1 innings to extend Boston’s streak of 15 starting pitchers going at least 5 IP. That dates back to April 18.

For no reason at all, Boston broke out their yellow “Boston City Connect” (tribute to the Boston Marathon) uniforms on Saturday. Prior to Saturday’s afternoon game, delayed by rain, the Red Sox are 37-16 when they don the yellows. Boston is 22-12 in the uniforms since 2023.

Of late, the Red Sox have lost three of the last four games and six of their last 10. In MLB, the fans tend to do some scoreboard watching come September but sometimes the games of May or June determine the season.

When Red Sox left fielder Jarren Duran faced Minnesota Twins closer Jhoan Duran in the 9th inning at Fenway Saturday, it was Duran-Duran. Although Boston’s lead-off hitter was “Hungry Like the Wolf,” he grounded out to shortstop and must’ve “Come Undone.”

On Sunday, May 4, the good folks at Strat-O-Matic will “take over” the Mets House NYC at Union Square, in Manhattan from 11:00am through mid-afternoon for open Strat-O-Matic play, prize giveaways, meet-and-greets with Strat-O-Matic founder Hal Richman and other staffers. The latest simulated games (series) was between the current 2025 Mets and the 1986 Mets, one of the best and most likable teams in NYM history. In the decisive Game 7, the ‘86 club’s Ray Knight hit .375 and his teammates, Mookie Wilson and Keith Hernandez, both hit .333 as the ‘86 squad won the simulated series in seven, rallying for two runs in the bottom of the 10th to win, 4-3.

If you’re wondering how Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and the ‘69 Mets would fare, the simulation boards had the current 2025 team winning four straight. Red hot NYM 1B Pete Alonso hit .353, with two HR, and four RBI while SS Francisco Lindor batted a blistering .412, scoring five runs. On the hill, closer Edwin Diaz, appeared in four games, and earned three saves to close down the series against those pesky ‘69 Mets.

THIS JEST IN: Roger Clemens stopped by the Fenway Park press box on Friday night, but it was Saturday afternoon when the Rocket watched his son, Kody, hit his first homer of 2025, a 398 foot blast to right field. It was Kody’s first time ever facing the Red Sox and he has only the Baltimore Orioles remaining for teams he hasn’t played against. Kody is a 28 year old, 6-1, 190 lb infielder.

Here’s one for the ages. On Tuesday, Netflix will premier Untold: Shooting Guards (emphasis on the shoot). The promo reads: “What really went down between GilbertArenas and Javaris Crittenton? It continues, “This exposé unpacks how a gambling dispute led to guns drawn in an NBA locker room.”

NBC Sports commentator Mike Tirico was forced to sit out for the 2025 Kentucky Derby broadcast after suffering a nut allergy exposure.

John Skipper, the former head of ESPN and once most powerful man in sports, stepped down from his post at Meadowlark Media, a production company he founded with former ESPN host Dan LaBatard. In between ESPN and Meadowlark, Skipper was executive chairman at DAZN.

RIP: Stan Love, a 6-foot-9 forward and father of NBA star Kevin Love, passed away last week at the age of 76. Stan Love was a top-notch player for the University of Oregon, and was selected ninth overall in the 1971 National Basketball Association draft by the Baltimore Bullets, the predecessors of the Washington Wizards. He averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds a game with modest playing time over four seasons with the Bullets and the Los Angeles Lakers of the N.B.A. and the San Antonio Spurs, then of the American Basketball Association. Stan was also the brother of the singer Mike Love of the Beach Boys and a onetime bodyguard and caretaker of the band’s brilliant but troubled leader, Brian Wilson

TL’s Sports Notebook | April 13

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – The radio and its sister, the transistor radio, gave way to the television which soon became a color TV. A few years later, we watched sports from around the globe by way of satellite TV. Years later, the technology improved from over-the-air to cable TV. A little while after that we could buy our own pizza-sized DIRECT-TV satellite dish which gave way to the smart TV and streaming devices.

Basketball’s set shot became a jump shot which morphed into running one-handers and finger rolls. Sooner or later, we had the dunk shot, then the slam dunk. Years later, the gimmick three-point shot was brought into the gamed years after that, pro teams were shooting 50 three-point attempts per game.

In baseball, the fastball was soon joined by the curve ball which gave way to a slider, then a cutter which is now a sweeper.

All-in-all, things ch, ch, ch, change.

Things change in life and in sports. It’s inevitable. When you take a giant step back to examine the progress, progress is good. Standing still is bad.

Take a look at the coverage of the 2025 Masters Tournament. CBS Sports via Paramount+ (and similar coverage by ESPN and its ESPN+ Streaming service) will provide over 100 hours of coverage this week. ESPN+ served up four hours of coverage of the Par 3 tournament on Wednesday. Not too long ago, over-the-air TV coverage of the Masters was limited to four or five hours from Augusta on the weekend.

For all four days of Masters Tournament play, viewers can watch four Featured Groups per day and Featured Holes coverage of Holes 4, 5 and 6, the famed Amen Corner and Holes No. 15 and No. 16. – all streamed on ESPN+ or Masters.com sites.

That a ton of TV coverage and a ton of change for the members of Augusta National who used to pride themselves as the ultimate “less is more” believers.

The “less is more” theory was perfected by the late NBA Commissioner David Sternwhen the league had to consolidate regular season coverage on CBS Sports in order to land a (then) lucrative tv deal that really focused on the NBA Playoffs and Finals. At the time, the NBA national tv deal was only eight regular season exposures plus the NBA All-Star Game. The power of the league’s cable tv package via Turner Sports had yet to reach its eventual impact.

Let’s talk about another ch, ch, ch, change.

The NBA will begin postseason play this week with a relatively new Play-In Tournament that will be as competitive as any first round match-up. Upon conclusion, the two teams to survive the Play-In will be in position to upset the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. That’s especially so in the West where about four games separates seed No. 2 from Seed No. 8.

In other words, the No. 2 Houston Rockets will have their hands full with their opponent, no matter who it is. That’s good for competition and good for the NBA which sparks interest in an extra four franchise markets and a massive marketing deal with So-Fi as the NBA Playoffs begin.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Back in the good old days of the Masters, these nine players were atop the leaderboard. In 2025, they all missed the cut. In fact, of the 18 former champions in the 2025 field, nine made the cut and these nine did not”:

  • Dustin Johnson, 3 over (74-73)
  • Bernhard Langer, 3 over (74-73)
  • Sergio Garcia, 4 over (72-76)
  • Mike Weir, 4 over (75-73)
  • Fred Couples, 4 over (71-77)
  • Phil Mickelson, 5 over (75-74)
  • Adam Scott, 5 over (77-72)
  • Jose Maria Olazabal, 7 over (77-74)
  • Angel Cabrera, 11 over (75-80)
  • Vijay Singh withdrew on Monday

This year’s tournament marked the end of his Masters playing career for Germany’s Bernard Langer, one of the true, gentlemen of the game of golf. He missed a 10-foot par putt on 18 and missed the cut by one after rounds of 74 and 73. Not only would making the putt have extended the two-time champion’s Masters career by two rounds, but it also would have made Langer the oldest player to ever make the cut at Augusta National. “It was a very special last two days for me,” said Langer, the 1985 and 1993 Masters champion, after 41 years playing Augusta.

All five amateurs in the 2025 Masters field missed the cut. Justin Hastings, the Latin American Amateur champion, shot 76-72 to lead the amateur contingent, but a player must complete 72 holes to earn low amateur honors. Hastings, No. 12 in PGA TOUR University, finished T13 at this year’s Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.

MASTERS: After an opening round 72 (even par), Rory McIlroy put two great rounds of (66) together and leads the 2025 Masters by two strokes over an equally impressive Bryson DeChambeau (69-68-69). The tournament’s 18 and 36-hole leader, Justin Rose, shot (75) on Saturday and fell seven strokes off the lead and is tied for sixth place. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler is also seven back heading into Sunday’s final round.

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | March 30

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While We’re Young (Ideas) | On NCAA Madness to Come

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

BOSTON – There are two (somewhat) hidden gems in the annual NCAA championship calendar. One is underway, and the other is Memorial Day Weekend – this year at nearly Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Sometimes, they are overlooked with all of the hullabaloo of March Madness, the GranDaddy of them all. The two best?

  1. The NCAA Frozen Four
  2. The NCAA Lacrosse Championship

Here’s the bracket for the on-going men’s ice hockey tournament, noting local favorite Boston College was a 3-1 winner over nearby Bentley on Friday afternoon in a very hard-fought game. BC improved to 27-7-2 overall. UConn, Penn State and Denver advanced as well, all three knocking out New England-area schools. Denver will play Boston College on Sunday night at 7:00pm with the winner advancing to the Frozen Four. Boston University played Saturday afternoon and defeated Cornell, 3-2, in overtime, to advance to the national semifinals in St. Louis … You can see all the results by visiting HERE.

When all is settled to four hockey teams, the Frozen Four will convene in St. Louis, Missouri – the hockey capital of the Mississippi River – although the river that runs through it never freezes.

The Frozen Four usually pits schools from New England (and occasional New York State) against schools from the west (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Michigan, Denver). This year, Penn State is representing the top notch Big Ten schools.

Going into the tournament, the four schools ranked in the Top Four were the same to be assigned No. 1 seeds. They were:

  1. Boston College
  2. Michigan State (was ranked as No. 1, while BC was No. 2)
  3. Maine
  4. Western Michigan

No. 3 Maine was ousted by Penn State, 5-1, on Friday while No. 2 Michigan State was eliminated by Cornell, the lone Ivy League representative.

While the men’s Final Four basketball tournament is April 5 & 7, the Frozen Four is scheduled for April 10 & 12.

LAX: Come Memorial Day Weekend, May 24 & 26, with ancillary (Women’s semis/finals and Division II and III men’s championships all weekend, one of the great American events will be staged in nearby Foxborough, Mass., at the home of the New England Patriots (NFL) and Revolution (MLS). Tickets range between $33 and $100 and are available on Ticketmaster. The top schools currently ranked include:

  1. Cornell
  2. Maryland
  3. Ohio State
  4. Princeton

That’s two Ivy League schools and two Big Ten schools at the top but plenty of others knocking at the door, and there’s two months of action and tournament games to come.

One important thing of note, the women’s basketball Finals Four, women’s Frozen Four and the women’s lacrosse championship are tremendous events with outstanding student-athletes, competing at a very high level. I do not want to take one thing away by listing the men’s tournaments without mentioning the women, especially in lacrosse as we’ll see them play in Foxborough this May.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: As long as the topic is tournament time, let’s look at the newest college tournament on the block. The College Basketball Crown is a new 16-team, single-elimination postseason men’s basketball tourney, featuring teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East conferences, along with additional at-large participants. It’s scheduled from March 31 to April 6, 2025, and will be played at two Las Vegas venues – the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena. All games will be broadcast on FOX and FS1.

Look for the likes of Boise State, Georgetown, Oregon State and Villanova competing for NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) money. According to reports, the champion team will receive a $300,000 in NIL money, the runner-up will earn $100,000, and the semifinalists will each take home $50,000 in NIL.

Utah vs. Butler will tip off the event on Monday, March 31, at 3 p.m. EDT.

March Madness Tip-Off

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While We’re Young (Ideas) – Special NCAA Edition

By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk

PROVIDENCE – Highly respected sports industry guru Tony Ponturo, he of multi-time nominee and winner for both the Most Powerful Man in Sports and in the theatre industry, wrote a thought-leadership book entitled, “Revenge of the C+ Student.” Ponturo, a two time TONY Award winner for his efforts on Broadway, reviving “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and producing 2010 Best Musical “Memphis,” helped make the brands “Bud” and “Bud Light” household names on a worldwide basis. Just ask The Budweiser Clydesdales.

Ponturo spent 26 years selling Bud, the exact same amount of time this columnist spent working for David Stern at the National Basketball Association. Looking at those two parallel lines, and enlightened by Ponturo’s book and his transcript, I’d love to author a similar sports business practice book and I’d call it, “At Least I Was Good at Geography.”

To wit, I give you this year’s brackets for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball.

In the East, we have:

  • No. 2 Alabama
  • No. 3 Wisconsin
  • No. 4 Arizona
  • No. 5 Oregon
  • No. 6 BYU (Utah)
  • No. 7 St. Mary’s Moraga (California)
  • No. 14 Montana

In the West, we have:

No. 1 Florida

No. 2 St. John’s (New York)

No. 3 Texas Tech (Lubbock, Texas)

No. 4 Maryland

No. 5 Memphis (Tennessee)

No. 6 Missouri

No. 8 UConn (Hartford, Connecticut area)

No. 9 Oklahoma

No. 14 UNC Wilmington (North Carolina)

No. 16 Norfolk State (Norfolk, Virginia)

There’s a few more.

In the South, there’s Michigan State (Lansing), Marquette (Wisconsin), Yale (New Haven, Connecticut), and Michigan (Ann Arbor) – four schools where you can’t get much further North, unless Canada does become the 51st State and UConn is south of Yukon.

In the Midwest, the bracket claims, UCLA (Los Angeles), Gonzaga (Spokane, Washington), Utah State (Logan, Utah), and then a slew of Southeastern or Southern schools like Wofford (Spartanburg, South Carolina), High Point (North Carolina), Clemson (South Carolina), Kentucky, McNeese (Lake Charles, Louisiana), Tennessee and Georgia.

There are other examples, but you surely get the point.

In recent years, the NCAA made adjustments to the brackets so an Eastern team such as St. John’s (full disclosure as my alma mater) can play in the West Regional but remain in Providence, Rhode Island to do so. But, success in Providence sends teams in that pod to San Francisco while a successful weekend in Seattle for Arizona or Oregon sends a team to Newark New Jersey.

The tournament itself increased from 64 to 68 teams in 2001, so we’ve been bickering about this stuff for decades. Still, there is no resolve and it’s pretty bad when there’s no Big East team in the East.

Admittedly, this is nothing new being reported. The days of a truly East vs West NCAA Tournament went out with the 16 team set-up which gave the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in New York the golden opportunity of securing a very deep field in the late ‘60s and early ‘70’s. As the times changed and the Big Dance played to a bigger ballroom of dancers, the money kicked in and TV programmers maxed-out the billions being spent.

Suffice it to say, the names of the regionals should no longer be East, West, South and Midwest, and maybe the NCAA should take a page out of the NHL’s book and rename the basketball regionals something like:

  • Lester Patrick
  • Conn Smythe
  • James Norris
  • Charles Francis Adams

Joking aside, it’s time to rid the tournament of its D- grade in Geography, as the Men’s and Women’s basketball committees divvy-up the schools with goals other than to stack them to represent a region of the USA.

May it be suggested:

  • Dave Gavitt Division (East)
  • John Wooden Division (West)
  • Ray Meyer Division (Midwest)
  • Guy Lewis Division (South-Texas-Southwest representation)

Those names, in tribute of Dave Gavitt (founder of the BIG EAST), John Wooden (the great UCLA coach), Ray Meyer (coached Chicago’s DePaul University from 1942 to 1984) and Guy Lewis (coach of University of Houston from 1956 to 1986). To pay proper respect to college basketball in the United States, the Most Outstanding Player from each division would be recognized and awarded with:

  • Gavitt MOP received the Patrick Ewing Trophy
  • Wooden MOP honored with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy
  • Meyer MOP receives the Oscar Robertson Trophy
  • Lewis MOP honored with the Junior Bridgeman Trophy

Should the tournament choose to expand, we could very easily add:

  • Gonzaga Division (Northwest) – MOP award John Stockton Trophy
  • Coach K Division (Southeast) – MOP gets the Michael Jordan Trophy (apologies to Grant Hill, Ralph Sampson, Artis Gilmore and Len Bias).

Those two divisional mentioned do not need further explanation, I hope.

The bottom line as the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament begins, is that the famed, crack committee did a pretty good job of selecting the right teams and fairly distributing them across the four existing regional pods, sans the Group of Death they sent out West.

The West is so stacked, a hot team like Florida, after its No. 1 vs No. 16 tilt against Norfolk State, will have a rough road to the Final 4, including:

  • Winner of UConn v.Oklahoma
  • Winner of Memphis v. Colo State/or/Maryland v. Grand Canyon
  • A Regional Final against No. 2 St. John’s or others (Kansas/Texas Tech) etc

There’s gotta be a better way.
They were partying at West End Johnnies at an NCAA Regional in Boston

PICKS: Here are a few picks that are going into a combination of my two or three bracket submission with friends and family. (Note: I always bang out one bracket on Selection Sunday night and set it aside). Then with more thought and research I do another bracket for use in pools.

TEAMS CONSIDERED HOT: These teams were playing the best over the past few weeks and into their conference tournaments:

  1. Florida
  2. Duke
  3. Houston
  4. Auburn
  5. Tennessee
  6. Michigan State
  7. St John’s
  8. Alabama
  9. Texas Tech
  10. Iowa State

FACTS: In the Round of 64, the higher seed wins 71.5% and that includes No. 8 v. No. 9 which are really equal … In the Second Round, the better seeds win at a 73.1% clip. After that, the advantage for the higher seeds declines gradually:

  • Sweet 16 – 63.8% victory pace for higher seed
  • Elite 8 – 55%

In terms of vulnerable seeds since 2009, the No. 6 seeds are (29-31) against the No. 11s. In just the last 10 years, No. 11 seeds are 22-18 vs. No. 6

Applying the 6 vs 11 raw data to this particular year’s bracket set-up surfaces a few interesting upset possibilities:

  • In the East bracket, can No. 11 VCU upset No. 6 BYU in Denver where you have to figure in the travel and altitude?
  • In the South, No. 6 Ole Miss has to play the hot play-in winner of North Carolina.
  • In the West, No. 6 Missouri (22-11) has a tough draw vs. No. 11 Drake (30-3).
  • And, in the Midwest bracket, No. 6 Illinois will face play-in winner Xavier, a team that finished the Big East regular season quite strong with seven straight victories to close out the season before meeting and losing to Marquette at the Garden.

The teams entering the tournament that have executed the best in terms of both Offensive and Defensive efficiency:

  • Auburn
  • Duke
  • Florida
  • Houston
  • Arizona
  • Tennessee
  • Louisville

Not to bore anyone with a full Round-by-Round, Pick-by-Pick selection show, (see Jay Bilas’ column on ESPN.com as he does a much better job than everyone else put together), I’ll simply list my Regional Finalist predictions. Yes, they are rather high seeds.

  • East: Duke vs. Wisconsin
  • Midwest: Houston vs. Tennessee
  • South: Auburn vs. Michigan State
  • West: Florida vs St. John’s

No matter what – whether your bracket is torn up tomorrow or your favorite team survives and advances – it’s time for March Madness. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the spectacle of the best of College Basketball (Men’s and Women’s) with a love of the game and not the X and O marks on a piece of paper, otherwise known in American culture as “your bracket.”

TL

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | March 16

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief, Digital Sports Desk

NEW YORK – At one point in 2023, this column took a deep dive into a lifetime of memories created within New York City’s Madison Square Garden. It’s worthwhile to take a look back at that column and soak in the many experience from such a magical world.

This week, writing from a press room we used to call “The Rotunda” but now renamed “The Expo,” it’s time to recall the rise of the Big East Conference, which began in 1979-80 but didn’t make “The Garden” its post-season HQ until 1983 after fiddling around with a moving post season home that included:

  • 1980 – Providence Civic Center (Georgetown 87-81 over Syracuse)
  • 1981 – Carrier Dome (Syracuse 83-80 over Villanova)
  • 1982 – Hartford Civic Center (Georgetown 72-54 over Villanova)

In ‘83, the tournament moved to The Garden, and the BIG EAST never looked back, finding the perfect meeting place for a bevy of teams taking the subway, the Tubes, Amtrak or an easy flight into town. When the conferences played square-dancing do-si-do and Val Ackerman was named Commissioner, she and the “Catholic 7” school presidents made sure they kept the rights to play at MSG. Then Ackerman re-upped to the point where this year marks the 43rd consecutive season the BIG EAST champion has been crowned at The Garden.

Just last season, Ackerman and Garden event guru Joel Fisher announced the tournament will continue to be held at The Garden through 2032, ensuring “The World’s Most Famous Arena” will host 50 consecutive BIG EAST men’s basketball tournaments.

Ackerman and the Big East are not just about men’s hoops, as Ackerman was formerly the President of the WNBA (1996-2005) and represents women’s sports about as strongly as anyone in the USA. All totaled, sponsored athletic programs of the Big East institutions provides big time college participation opportunities for more than 3,800 student-athletes on over 200 men’s and women’s teams in 22 sports.

The memories of the past run deep (as the link to column above connects), but what’s most important is that new memories are being created each and every year. The future is quite bright, as long as Ackerman is in the Commissioner’s chair and the game officials continue to excel by allowing the players, ahem, student-athletes to determine the outcomes with a “let them play” style. That works, as long as the teams are evenly matched and there’s no B.S. or malicious intent on the physical nature of the game.

At this tournament, the game officials just might be the MVPs.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: While the topic is NCAA college basketball, here’s to sharing my United States Basketball Writers’ annual choices for men’s and women’s All-Americans, and the Wayman Tisdale Rookie award, along with the Hank IbaCoach of the Year award:

Men’s All American Vote (Ranked)

Men’s All-America 1 – Johni Broome, Auburn

Men’s All-America 2 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Men’s All-America 3 – RJ Davis, North Carolina

Men’s All-America 4 – Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Men’s All-America 5 – Kam Jones, Marquette

Men’s All-America 6 – Mark Sears, Alabama

Men’s All-America 7 – RJ Luis, St. John’s

Men’s All-America 8 – Hunter Dickenson, Kansas

Men’s All-America 9 – Caleb Love, Arizona

Men’s All-America 10 – Alex Karaban, U Conn

Men’s All-America 11 – Kadary Richmond, St. John’s

Men’s All-America 12 – Ace Bailey, Rutgers

Men’s All-America 13 – Eric Dixon, Villanova

Men’s All-America 14 – Dylan Harper, Rutgers

Men’s All-America 15 – Hunter Sallis, Wake Forest

Men’s Most Outstanding Player Vote (Ranked)

Oscar Robertson Trophy 1 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Oscar Robertson Trophy 2 – Johni Broome, Auburn

Oscar Robertson Trophy 3 – Cam Jones, Marquette

Wayman Tisdale Rookie (First Year) Player of the Season Vote (Ranked)

Tisdale Award 1 – Cooper Flagg, Duke

Tisdale Award 2 – Liam McNeeley, U Conn

Tisdale Award 3 – Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn

Hank Iba Award for National Coach of the Year Vote (Ranked)

Henry Iba Award 1 – Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Henry Iba Award 2 – Tom Izzo, Michigan State

Henry Iba Award 3 – Rick Pitino, St. John’s

On the women’s side, here is my All-American ballot:

Women’s All-America 1 – Paige Bueckers, U Conn

Women’s All-America 2 – JuJu Watkins, USC

Women’s All-America 3 – Lauren Betts, UCLA

Women’s All-America 4- Madison Booker, Texas

Women’s All-America 5 – Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State

Women’s All-America 6 – Aneesah Morrow, LSU

Women’s All-America 7- Hailey Van Lith, TCU

Women’s All-America 8 – Olivia Miles, Notre Dame

Women’s All-America 9 – Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame

Women’s All-America 10 – Georgia Amoore, Kentucky

Women’s All-America 11 – Kiki Rice, UCLA

Women’s All-America 12 – Mikaylah Williams, LSU

Women’s All-America 13 – Izzy Higginbottom, Arkansas

Women’s All-America 14 – Grace Larkins, South Dakota

Women’s All-America 15 – Joyce Edwards, South Carolina

HAVERBACK: Also, of importance, the USBWA recognized the long service to the game of women’s basketball by Rose DiPaula, Director of Strategic Communications and Content Development at the University of Maryland, who was honored with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Mary Jo Haverbeck Award winner for 2025. … The award is presented annually to recognize those in women’s college basketball who have rendered a special service to the USBWA and sportswriters who cover college basketball. It is named after the late Mary Jo Haverbeck, the longtime women’s sports communications director at Penn State who passed away in January 2014. The award pays tribute to Haverbeck for her pioneering and visionary work as one of the first women to work in the sports communication profession.

BIG EAST LEGEND: After the press conferences were completed on Friday night, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino presented John Paquette, the retiring BIG EAST head of communications (since Day 1), with an “official” No. 35 St. John’s uniform/jersey to commemorate Paquette’s 35 years of service to the BIG EAST conference. A classy move by Pitino and St. John’s players/athletic staff as Paquette had only announced his decision to retire (at the end of the school year) this week. “While it’s impossible to imagine a BIG EAST world without John Paquette in it, we join in the chorus of congratulations that we know will come his way with this announcement,” said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. “The BIG EAST will be eternally grateful to John for countless late nights, unrelenting travel, his unmatched knowledge about our proud history, and the extraordinary relationships he’s developed with media members across the country. Simply put, few have done more for the BIG EAST than John. We wish him, Debbie, Phil, Charlotte, Terry, and his family nothing but the best as they begin this new family chapter.” Paquette has been active in College Sports Communicators (CSC) – (formerly the SIDs), the national trade organization of college athletics communicators. He has served terms on the CSC Executive Board and Board of Directors and was CSC President for the 2023-24 academic year. Paquette is a member of the CSC Hall of Fame. He’s also mentored countless communications staffers and interns who have gone on to enjoy productive careers in the sports industry.

TIDBITS: Red Sox Slugger Rafael Devers made his 2025 spring training debut on Saturday. He batted second, ahead of INF Alex Bregman and INF Trevor Story. … San Francisco Giants right fielder Jerar Encarnacion is tied for the MLB spring training lead in RBI with 13. … Throughout spring training, the New York Mets pitching staff has raved about teammate Clay Holmes’ “stuff,” saying it’s been “nasty” which is the ultimate compliment. On Friday, Holmes was named as the starter for the Mets’ March 27 in Houston. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, is converting a career reliever to a starter over the past few months and like what he’s seen. … It’s Selection Sunday, and the Southeast Conference might get a load of invites to the Big Dance. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey believes it would be “justified” (his word not ours) for his conference to receive as many as 14 bids to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. “It’s a unicorn league right now. We’re not going to change our name, but we stand alone historically. And I think that’ll be rewarded,” said Sankey as noted in D-1 ticker. “We went 30-4 against the ACC,” he added. … St. John’s went (0-1) against the SEC, dropping a November 24 game to Georgia (66-63). … Villanova relieved head coach Kyle Neptune of his duties after three years at the help. Neptune was an assistant to the NCAA chmpionship coach Jay Wright and went to Fordham for a year or so, turning around the Rams’ fortunes before returning to ‘Nova. The Villanova job is one of the gems of college basketball coaching. They’ll be lining up for interviews in Philly.

THIS JEST IN: Red Sox spring training signee Trayce Thompson leads the Majors in spring training Home Runs with six. He also leads the Grapefruit League in OPS (1.585) and has hit .357 (10-for-28) with 13 RBI in 14 games. At the moment, there’s no clarity on whether the 33-year old veteran MLB outfielder with a career .212 batting average will make the big league club or not. There’s a decent chance he’ll get picked up by another club if the Sox part ways when camp breaks or he might become a fill-in for Wilyer Abreu, who may or may not be ready for Opening Day after a gastrointestinal virus caused him to lost a significant amount of weight this spring. Abreau, however, was in the Red Sox starting lineup on Saturday, batting eighth.

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: There were multiple reports this week on the upcoming fate of the MSG Network and its counterpart in the amazing Sphere venue – the combination being Sphere Entertainment. According to reports in Front Office Sportsa month ago and many financial reports this week, Sphere reported financial results for the three months ending Dec. 31. Revenue declined 2% to $308 million with a net loss of $126 million for the fourth quarter. The company also warned that bankruptcy is an option for the regional sports network if it cannot refinance its $804 million in debt that originally came due last October 11. The RSN’s debt sits within the MSG arm, and creditors can’t make a claim on Sphere. The company and its lenders have entered into several forbearance agreements to extend the deadline, with the current expiration date on March 26. … In other words, “It could be trouble for MSG Net.” … Now, why is that such a “You Can’t Make It Up” item? It seems New York Knicks franchise owner James Dolan – who has been on a two-year rant on this topic – called for a financial resolution to be voted on at this month’s NBA Board of Governors meeting as he’s asking for clearer accounting of the league’s finances, according to a letter received this week by the league office and the NBA Board of Governors. Back in September, Dolan said he wouldn’t be voting on the league’s 2024-25 budget or voting for a chairman of the board. … What’s his beef? … Last year, Dolan sent another letter criticizing the league for its new television deal, which he said would render regional sports networks as “unviable” moving forward. … “The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — deemphasizing and depowering the local market,” Dolan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by ESPN. “Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year’s jersey will be. Don’t worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.

“Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal,” wrote Dolan and his attorney. … The NBA signed a new 11-year media rights deal worth $76 billion, granting broadcast rights on behalf of the league to ESPN/ABC, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video, starting in the 2025-26 season. This agreement will significantly increase the number of nationally televised games and thus limited individual team “home broadcasts.” … In summary, a guy who is bankrupting a regional sports network, complete with linear and streaming rights in the No.1 major market in the USA, is now peering into the line-by-line operation of the league office which has helped increase franchise values from some $32.5 million (expansion of 1998-99) to $125m (expansion of 1995) to some $4 or $5 or even $6 billion in 2025, according to recent reports of the proposed sale of Boston Celtics. He’s seeking minutia from a league office that took the national TV deal from $88m in 1982-83 to its current $76 billion?

C’mon now.

Interestingly, New York Mets club owner Steve Cohen recently added more than 400,000 shares to his position in Sphere Entertainment through his Point72 Asset Management hedge fund, according to a Feb. 14 SEC filing. It pushed the billionaire’s stake in Sphere to 7.3%, according to a report this week in Sportico.

What do the Mets see that MSG/Knicks/Rangers do not?