The wacky college basketball season just keeps getting wackier, the Buffalo Bills hire the first full-time female coach in NFL history, Josh Gordon files for reinstatement, the Warriors keep rolling, and John Clayton is back in his Slayer shirt on SportsCenter. We get to all that and much more here at Thursday’s Cheat Sheet…
This college basketball season is nuts
Since the latest AP top-25 college basketball poll was released on Monday, the following ranked teams have already lost:
No. 1 (Oklahoma)
No. 3 (Kansas, lost to unranked Oklahoma State)
No. 5 (Xavier, lost to unranked Georgetown)
No. 6 (West Virginia, lost to unranked Texas)
No. 11 (Michigan State, lost to unranked Nebraska)
No. 18 (Butler… granted they lost to No. 16 Providence)
No. 20 Duke (lost to unranked Syracuse)
The No. 7 (Maryland), 13 (Virginia), and 24 (South Carolina) teams all needed overtime to beat unranked teams, while the No. 4 team (Villanova) beat unranked Seton Hall by just one point.
We went into this a little bit at Tuesday’s Cheat Sheet, particularly in regards to Oklahoma becoming the fifth different No. 1 team to go down already. But it’s just getting crazier by the day. On Wednesday night, we had No. 6 West Virginia losing at home as 12-point favorites to unranked Texas:
Texas defeats No. 6 West Virginia Longhorns first road win as an unranked team over an AP-Top 10 opponent since 3/5/05 at No. 8 Oklahoma St
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 21, 2016
Then we had unranked Nebraska going into Michigan State and handing the Spartans (15-point favorites) their third straight loss. Huh? Tom Izzo teams don’t lose three in a row.
What a win for the @Huskers! Check out the final seconds as @HuskerHoops holds on to beat the Spartans, 72-71. https://t.co/lvwRJb0K4L — Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) January 21, 2016
Another one: No. 11 Michigan State loses its 3rd straight game for 1st time since 2013, 72-71 to Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/5wongp9T89
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 21, 2016
As Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg writes, “Chaos is the only certainty in college basketball this season.” Seriously, March is going to be fantastic (even more than usual, that is).
Bills hire first full-time female coach in Kathryn Smith
(Photo via BuffaloBills.Com)
The Buffalo Bills hired Kathryn Smith as a quality control special teams coach on Wednesday, making Smith the first full-time female assistant coach in NFL history. The Comeback’s Andrew Coppen has more:
Smith isn’t just a gimmick hire either, she has the chops of just about any male counterpart looking to break in to the coaching realm. It doesn’t hurt that she has a long-standing back office relationship with Bills’ head coach Rex Ryan either. She worked as the administrative assistant to coach Rex Ryan in 2015, a position she also held during Ryan’s final year with the Jets. Before that, she spent seven years as a player personnel assistant with the Jets. Previously, she was a game day-special events intern and a college scouting intern.
Deadspin’s Kevin Draper explains what goes into a quality control coaching position, and how it’s a great start-up spot for Smith to potentially work her way up the NFL coaching ladder:
Quality control coaches don’t have a strict job description, but they usually spend very long hours breaking down tape, analyzing data, and presenting reports to coaches. It’s the very bottom rung of the NFL coaching profession, but also what Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley called, “the greatest job in football as far as learning,” and the starting point for numerous NFL head coaches.
Quick Hits
– Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon applies for reinstatement from NFL. He will only be 25 years old to start next season, and led the NFL in receiving yards in 2013. Best of luck to Josh with getting his career turned around.
– Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming needed 22 stitches after saving woman from burning car.
– The Warriors followed up crushing the Cavs on the road by crushing the Bulls on the road. People actually sounded concerned when the Warriors lost a couple games last week. Lol.
– Sorry, 26 other teams, but Shlomo Sprung writes how there are only four real NBA title contenders. Hard to argue with this right now…. unless you want to say that there are only two or three real NBA title contenders.
– The NFL might have a UK-based home in next six years. So… that would be a pretty big deal.
– The Los Angeles Rams have already collected 45,000 season-ticket deposits.
– This is amazing: The Jim Harbaugh recruiting trip checklist.
– NCAA will test alcohol sales at College World Series.
– The Lightning suspend Jonathan Drouin indefinitely for refusing to report to AHL affiliate.
– Ranking the four potential Super Bowl 50 matchups.
– More on a topic we shared here yesterday: Kirk Herbstreit would work on EA Sports’ “NCAA Football” video game for free.
– John Clayton did a SportsCenter hit in a Slayer t-shirt.
– High school basketball player makes a layup with his face after getting drilled.
– Fun, in-depth feature here at The Comeback, ranking every superhero show.
– Star Wars Episode VIII to open December 5, 2017.
– Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks behind Pluto.
– There are new “Shenmue 3” screenshots. The original was a revolutionary, addicting game on Dreamcast. It would be fun to see what they could do with this series with the next-gen system power.
– Amy Schumer responds to new accusations of stealing jokes.
One last breath of gratuitous procrastination
You know this guy was totally like, “No, I got this!” when someone tried to spot him too.
