The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

One season ends, another begins

One of the best things about today is we crown a new national champion in college basketball and start with a (mostly) clean slate in Major League Baseball. Of all the days on the sports calendar, this is truly one of the greatest.

Carolina blue blood vs. college basketball new blood

It all ends here. North Carolina and Gonzaga will play for the right to cut down the last net of the season.

If you dismissed Gonzaga at all during the 2016-17 season and this tournament, you would not be alone. The Zags have gone from being the darling Cinderella program to an up-and-coming program that failed to get over the hump time and time again, to being ridiculed as an overhyped program and now have reached the ultimate stage college basketball has to offer. As far as I am concerned, Gonzaga has already done enough to prove it belongs on this stage, regardless of what happens. But it is somewhat fitting Gonzaga will get one final chance to silence their doubters against one of the Carolina bluest of bluebloods.

The battle between Gonzaga and UNC is similar in theme to the Duke-Butler national championship game from 2010 with a small underdog program going up against college basketball royalty. Will Gonzaga, in their first Final Four, have a better outcome than Butler?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPT7h661wo

Over the weekend, both the Bulldogs and Tar Heels had to win tight games in the semifinals. Gonzaga had a roller coaster of an evening with South Carolina, leaving Gamecocks head coach Frank Martin feeling quite emotional (and well worth your viewing). The Tar Heels may not have played their best game against Oregon, but they ended up getting by to play another day even with the CBS broadcast being dubbed in at the stadium in Phoenix. And speaking of CBS, the network saw a serious bump in the TV ratings for the Final Four compared to last year’s broadcast on TBS. It’s amazing how playing a sporting event on a primary network will grab more eyeballs than a cable network. You hear me, College Football Playoff and ESPN?

Gonzaga. UNC. The metrics seem to like Gonzaga, but the money in Vegas is on the Tar Heels, which is to be expected. I find myself in a similar position. One thing that is certain is UNC must play better if they are going to rebound from last season’s last-second championship game defeat against Villanova. If not, then Gonzaga will do something all programs like Butler, George Mason and VCU in college basketball and Boise State, Houston and Western Michigan in college football could not.

If Gonzaga pulls it off, @OldTakesExposed will have a field day.

Tonight’s championship game tips off at 9:20 p.m. ET.

South Carolina wins women’s NCAA basketball title

The South Carolina women did their part this basketball season.

While the South Carolina men may have fallen short of their dream ending, the Gamecock women celebrated its first national championship in program history. To do so, they had to take down SEC foe Mississippi State, who had managed to snap UConn’s 111-game winning streak. Add one more item to the list of achievements for Dawn Staley…

A couple of South Carolina football coaches offered their congrats…

With UConn being knocked out, the sport of women’s basketball was guaranteed to have a new champion to celebrate, which can be good for the game. But South Carolina becomes the first SEC school other than Tennessee to win the championship (of course, Mississippi State would have held that same honor with a win), and the first SEC school to win the championship since 2008.

It’s been a heck of a year in the state of South Carolina. Coastal Carolina won the College World Series. Clemson won the College Football Playoff. Now, South Carolina won the women’s basketball title.

https://twitter.com/britttbratttt_/status/848695772652720128

Baseball’s back and I’m already wanting to see Madison Bumgarner in the Home Run Derby

Today is the day most fans will call the official Opening Day in baseball, but the 2017 Major League Baseball season officially pulled back the curtain on Sunday with a triple-header of games. We are one day into the season and San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner is your home run leader with two. That’s right. Bumgarner rocketed two home runs off his bat in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on baseball’s opening day.

The first came off Zack Greinke for a 2-0 lead…

He did it again later in the seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie.

Too bad for Bumgarner that he did not get the win. The Giants handed a 5-4 lead over to their brand new, $62 million closer Mark Melancon and he promptly blew the save and took the loss as the Diamondbacks celebrated a walk-off win to take sole possession of first place in the National League West. Their uniforms still suck.

In the Sunday night game, the  St. Louis Cardinals had a seemingly comfortable 3-0 lead on the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs when Cardinals manager Mike Matheny made the decision to bring in closer Seung-Hwan Oh for a six-out save. Perhaps a decent move on September or October 2. On April 2, it was just destined to fail. And it nearly did. Wilson Contreras provided the long-awaited spark the Cubbies needed with a game-tying three-run home run in the ninth inning…

… Fortunately for Oh (and Matheny), the Cardinals got the last laugh on this night when Randal Grichuk saved the day (he also had a home run in the eighth inning to pad the lead).

Quick Hits

You never know what you will see at Wrestlemania.

– Prior to hosting the Cubs for Opening Night, the Cardinals announced a new three-year $60 million deal with catcher Yadier Molina.

– MLB Network had its best week ever recently thanks to the World Baseball Classic. The United States going on to win the tournament and not stumbling to a fourth-place finish at best sure helped.

– WrestleMania brought out the hulk-a-manic in none other than Rob Gronkowski, of course. Also, John Cena proposed to Nikki Bella.

– The New England Patriots are reportedly set to have a meeting with running back Adrian Peterson today.

– Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thinks the NFL should stop testing for marijuana.

– Derrick Rose needs surgery. This is a copy-and-paste news item.

– Also from the Adrian Wojnarowski Twitter feed is word Patrick Ewing will interview with Georgetown about their head coaching vacancy.

– We head north of the border to witness the Everett Silvertips take down the Victoria Royals in a playoff series-clinching game, 3-2. What’s so amazing about that? It took place in the fifth overtime…

And to think, that is still three overtimes shy of matching the longest hockey game in history, which we witnessed in Norway just a few weeks ago.

– Roger Federer faced Rafael Nadal once again and came away victorious in the Miami Open.

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

Let this be a reminder to always watch where you are going when on the field at a track-and-field competition.

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