The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

It’s Shamrock Shake season

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, but it is already Shamrock Shake season for those of us who consider ourselves Shamrock Shake lovers. I had my first Shamrock Shake of the season yesterday. I tried out the new chocolate Shamrock Shake and do think it is my new seasonal favorite. Give it a try! No, this was not sponsored, but if anyone from McDonald’s happens to be reading this, give me a call.

No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 11 Cincy, No. 12 Virginia lose in men’s hoops; UConn women going for 100th straight win

Behold the least important bracket of all time!

If men’s college basketball was being played on Sunday, then the odds were good a top 25 team would take a loss. On Sunday, we saw three teams in the top 12 take a loss with No. 7 Wisconsin getting upset at home by Northwestern, No. 11 Cincinnati losing on the road at No. 25 SMU and No. 12 Virginia taking an “L” in double overtime in Blacksburg against Virginia Tech.

So, quick thoughts on these three games. First, Wisconsin taking a loss at home came at a bad time for those ripping the NCAA selection committee for not placing the Badgers in the top 16 of the early tournament seedings (more on that in a moment), but I think we can start to say Northwestern is going to break their tournament drought barring a major collapse down the stretch. Cincy losing to SMU? Nothing to worry about in the AAC yet. Virginia losing to the Hokies will strengthen the parity argument ACC basketball fans cling to, or maybe Virginia is just a pretty good team and not a great team. Who knows?

Yes, that is former President George W. Bush showing off his SMU pride on the sideline, with his wife Laura by his side.

On Saturday, the NCAA selection committee provided an early look at the top 16 seeds for the upcoming men’s basketball tournament. There was very little drama attached to these rankings, and not a ton of surprises once seeing them revealed other than the complete absence of the Big Ten perhaps. Defending national champion Villanova was the top overall seed, while AP No. 1 Gonzaga (still undefetaed) was No. 4. This might be a pretty fun Sweet 16 if it all worked out, but of course that will not happen.

Heck, the NCAA selection committee’s own chair came out and practically said these rankings were pointless.

But the focus tonight will be on the magnificent and dominant UConn women’s basketball program goes for their 100th straight win. To do so, they will have to pick up a win against No. 6 South Carolina in Storrs. UConn’s last loss came on November 17, 2014 at Stanford, a 88-86 setback in overtime. Their last loss in Storrs? January 5, 2013 against Notre Dame. Yeah, it’s been a while.

UConn’s women’s basketball team lost 12 games during Barack Obama’s entire presidential term.

Nike’s latest advertising campaign pushes equality

Nike’s new advertising campaign gets political.

If you missed it on Sunday, odds are you will be seeing this a bunch in the coming days. Nike launched a brand new advertising campaign promoting equality, featuring LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Serena Williams and more.

https://twitter.com/Nike/status/830823275844468738

The campaign is clearly politically motivated, which will be sure to ruffle a few feathers as the reactions to Nike’s latest mission ripple through the country. The timing of the launch of this campaign may be a coincidence, but being coming just days after Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank taking some heat for his praise of President Donald Trump’s economic objectives, including from notable Under Armour client Steph Curry (Curry’s remarks were more geared toward Trump, not Plank).

Nike wasn’t the only apparel company getting in the political mayhem. Reebok took inspiration from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently.

Your move, Adidas.

Adele messed up at the Grammy’s, again

Adele botched the start of a tribute to George Michael and called for a mulligan.

A year ago at the Grammy’s, Adele had some unfortunate audio issues to perform through. In what may be becoming a Grammy’s tradition, Adele once again was in the spotlight for another Grammy’s mishap, this time at the start of a tribute to George Michael. As the tribute got underway, Adele seemed to miss her entrance and she was not going to pull a Mariah Carey on New Year’s Eve and stand on stage without doing anything. She halted the tribute and asked for a second try.

Although the audio was censored, Adele reportedly dropped an f-bomb into the microphone. Later you can see her mouth the word once again in her frustration.

But Adele being Adele, she came through the way she is known to do and was given a warm reception afterward. Now, all we need to know is just what might go wrong for Adele at the Grammy’s in 2018.

Adele later won a few awards throughout the night, including the Grammy for song of the year (“Hello”) and handed off the microphone to co-writer Greg Kurstin, but the Grammy producers were having noen of it.

Pregnant Beyonce wowed the crowd too, because of course she did.

https://twitter.com/BLVCKMATTERS/status/830993144317607938

I’m not one to go toot my own horn I like to think, but I was pretty satisfied with my response to Jason Whitlock last night.

https://twitter.com/WhitlockJason/status/831000315562319872

Of course, this was another celebrity-focused awards show, which meant there were going to be some shots taken at none other than President Donald J. Trump. That’s your cue, Busta Rhymes…

Quick Hits

The Raptors blew a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter, which still is only the second worst blown lead of the month.

– The Detroit Pistons stunned the Toronto Raptors on Sunday with a mighty fourth quarter effort. Down by 16 points in the fourth quarter, Detroit outscored Toronto 36-19 to get out of Canada with a 102-101 victory. It was the second straight loss for the Raptors and fourth loss in the last six games as they now sit 3.5 back of first-place Boston in the Atlantic Division.

– First, the NFL wanted to ban highlights from being shared on team Twitter accounts. Now the NBA wants its teams to start playing nicely with each other on Twitter, because the NBA doesn’t want us to have fun on Twitter. So, to drive the point home, the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings made a mockery of the whole thing in terrific fashion.

https://twitter.com/SteveStfler/status/830848963280568320

– I can’t recall a time I’ve ever seen a hockey ref get this into his penalty announcement, but I could get used to it.

https://twitter.com/mkmolnar/status/830943259501424640

– Also, this is not cool. Don’t do this.

– After taking a bad loss at home against Michigan, Indiana head coach Tom Crean ripped his own players afterward, because coaches are never to blame when things are not going well. How much longer can Crean last at Indiana?

– Check out this bizarre shot by a North Dakota State basketball player from this weekend…

– Spring training is just around the corner in baseball and the Atlanta Braves just picked up Brandon Phillips from Cincinnati. So much for rebuilding in Atlanta?

– This is why you have to pay attention in the stands…

View post on imgur.com

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the Nintendo 64, or at least a good amount of information you may have not known before.

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

View all posts by Kevin McGuire