Go ahead and take the field if you dare.
The Cheat SheetBy Kevin McGuire on

A mid-March snow storm is the perfect excuse to take a day off…

… but there is no rest for the team here at The Comeback. As snow falls on the east coast, we’ll be here to fill your sports need. And if you don’t live in an area affected by this winter storm, well too bad, because you’re going to have to hear about it anyway. So what better way to start off this mronign’s edition of The Cheat Sheet than on the ice with some pucks?

Columbus Blue Jackets make franchise history in Philly

The Columbus Blue Jackets topped the Philadelphia Flyers on the road last night, pushing them to a record of 44-18-6 (94 points). The win set the franchise record for most wins and points in a season, and they still have 14 games to play. That was cause for some celebration.

The win helps the Blue Jackets remain in firm position of their division championship goal as they moved one point back of the Pittsburgh Penguins (who lost) and Washington Capitals. While the Blue Jackets are in the thick of the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Flyers continue to fall off the pace for a wild card spot in the playoffs. Assuming the Flyers don’t make the playoff cut, that will be three years in the last five without a postseason berth.

UConn women looking for 5th straight national title

Go ahead and take the field if you dare.

At this point in time it would be very easy to suggest there is almost nothing stopping UConn’s women’s basketball team from cutting down the nets in this year’s women’s basketball tournament. As has come to be expected, No. 1 UConn was named the top seed in the women’s bracket Monday. Their first victim? Albany, in Storrs.

https://twitter.com/TheCore28/status/841483367665160193

The other top seeds in this year’s women’s bracket are Notre Dame, Baylor and South Carolina. Some other notable programs to watch if you think anyone might take UConn out may include Stanford (No. 2 in Notre Dame’s bracket) and Mississippi State (No. 2 in Baylor’s bracket). If all goes according to plan, UConn won’t have to leave the state until the Final Four in Dallas. Uconn will host the first two rounds in Storrs and the Sweet 16 and regional final for UConn’s region is being played in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The ESPN panel did find some reasons to nitpick some of the seedings in the women’s bracket, proving no bracket is safe from being overanalyzed and ripped to shreds.

Quick Hits

Here is LaVar Ball, likely in the midst of making some insane claim that has caught the sports world by storm.

– Kawhi Leonard MVP Watch: How did Leonard do last night in the Spurs’ 107-99 victory over the Atlanta Hawks? Not too bad, with 31 points and five rebounds, although it was not a particularly sharp night from the field (10-24 and 3-8 from three-point range). Regardless, the Spurs move to 52-14 while the Hawks are still winless in San Antonio since Domique Wilkins was playing and the world only had three Star Wars films in existence.

– LaVar Ball never seems to disappoint. When not capitalizing on the success of his young star basketball sons and demanding a $1 billion, 10-year shoe contract for the entire family, he’s making outlandish claims. The latest may take the cake, as the basketball father says he would take Michael Jordan to school if in a one-on-one matchup back in Ball’s heyday. I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you Ball at 18 and I’ll take Jordan in a race to 21 points and let’s see who wins.

Also, Chipper Jones has some words of advice for Ball regarding that $1 billion contract request…

– What I’d like to know is if LaVar Ball could take Jim Harbaugh in a one-on-one matchup. I hear Harbaugh is a monster on the driveway.

– Back on the ice, the Calgary Flames set a franchise record last night as well with a shootout win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

– The Tim Tebow experiment continues with the New York Mets this spring. Yesterday, the former Heisman Trophy winner finally cracked a batting average of .100 with his first hit of the spring and made a nice little diving catch (that really any major or minor leaguer should probably make somewhat routinely).

– Tebow’s most recent NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles, welcomed back former starter Nick Foles and released Chase Daniel. Weird.

– After some confusion regarding tiebreakers in the World Baseball Classic, Venezuela was sent to a tiebreaker game against Italy, and needed Miguel Cabrera to come through in the clutch. Yeah, he did that in the ninth inning. Cabrera launched a game-tying home run as Venezuela scored three runs in the final inning to come from behind to win 4-3.

Venezuela will be the fourth team in Pool F of the World Baseball Classic. The United States, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are also in the mix, with the top two teams advancing to the WBC Semi-final in Los Angeles. Pool E in Tokyo consists of Japan, Netherlands, Israel and Cuba. Pool E play is already underway.

– The LA Galaxy and Portland Timbers were having some fun on Twitter. See NBA? It’s not all that bad.

– Here are your obligatory links to stories connected to the Baylor rape scandal and the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State that popped up yesterday. In other Penn State news, today just so happened to be the day the university unveiled long-term plans for a master renovation project for the entire athletics department, including much-needed upgrades to Beaver Stadium.

As for Baylor, there was a late-breaking report last night from CBS affiliate KWTX that Baylor had fired its Associate Director of Football Operations, DeMarkco Butler, after it was learned he had been sending inappropriate texts to a teenager.

– You have to love perfectly placed advertisements on websites. It never fails…

– And speaking of advertising, it turns out Heinz is going to use an advertising campaign worked up by Mad Men.

– Iron Fist, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was dropped on Netflix on Friday. I totally forgot all about it and will have to spend some time during this snowstorm binging it. Unfortunately, it seems it has not been well-received by the critics so far, which has left star Finn Jones a tad miffed.

One last gratuitous moment of procrastination

It’s time to figure out what channel TruTV is for many sports fans wanting to catch the NCAA basketball tournament, but I proudly admit to watching TruTV on an almost daily basis thanks to Impractical Jokers and the seemingly never-ending play of reruns. Here’s a glimpse of what the show hass to offer with some of the best punishments the show has dished out.

 

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