The Cheat SheetBy David Lauterbach on

The first full week of March is about halfway over and its been full of NCAA Men’s Basketball Conference Tourney Madness. Outside the conference tournaments the College Basketball Hall of Fame announced its class of 2017, the NFL opens up Free Agency Thursday, and Star Wars Episode VIII video has dropped.

March Madness has arrived before Selection Sunday

This upcoming Sunday March 12th is Selection Sunday and based on what transpired on Wednesday in the various men’s college basketball conference tournaments, the committee won’t have an easy time making the field.

Chris Mullin is the Head Coach of St. Johns and hasn’t had an easy year. Going into this week’s Big East tournament, St. Johns was a rough 13-18 overall and 6-11 in conference. Well, Mullin started the Big East tourney with a win over Georgetown, but it wasn’t easy. The Red Storm snuck away with a 74-73 win and during that victory, Mullin and Hoyas’ Head Coach John Thompson III got into it.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are on the bubble for some and off the bubbles for others depending on who you talk to. Well on Wednesday, they didn’t help their chances with a 99-90 loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament.

The Demon Deacons did have one big highlight from their loss, and sadly it involved them taking a seven point lead. Sadly, they later lost that lead despite one heck of a buzzer beater at the half.

While schools around the Power 5 conferences were focused on big games in the near future or their bubble status this coming Sunday, the University of Michigan was trying to get to Washington D.C. for the Big 10 tournament when their plane had to abort takeoff and slid off the runway. Thankfully everyone is okay.

Just like Wake, Syracuse is on the bubble for some and off the bubble for others. On Wednesday, the Orange didn’t help its case either with a 62-57 loss to Miami in the ACC Tournament.

‘Cuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim is known for making headlines during his press conferences and on Wednesday he did it again. Only it wasn’t because of some big statement he made about the game. Instead, it was because of what he said about the location of the tournament and the city of Greensboro.

The city of Greensboro didn’t take kindly to Boeheim’s comments either.

https://twitter.com/greensborocity/status/839563546518294530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

– Completely off the court, our own Michael Grant wrote a great piece about Louisville’s return to March and our own John Cassillo wrote about how championship week hurts small conferences.

Tim Duncan, Jay Williams, John Stockton headline College Basketball HoF Class of ’17

8 Mar 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons stands on the court with the ball during a playoff game against the North Carolina Tarheels at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. North Carolina won the game 86-73.

With less than a week to go until Selection Sunday, Wednesday was Selection Wednesday for the College Basketball Hall of Fame, which announced its 2017 Hall of Fame Class.

The 12th ever College Basketball Hall of Fame class includes three star players in Tim Duncan (Wake Forest), John Stockton (Gonzaga), and Jay Williams (Duke).

The three are joined by three more players and a great head coach to make up the seven member class: Rick Mount (Purdue), Cleo Hill (Winston-Salem State), Scott May (Indiana), Paul Silas (Creighton), and head coach Bo Ryan (Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Wisconsin-Platteville).

NFL teams get ready for Free Agency

NFL Free Agency begins Thursday and on Wednesday teams and players prepared for the craziness.

The biggest pre-free agency news was the Dallas Cowboys decision to release Tony Romo.

Romo would be an upgrade for many teams behind center, including the aforementioned Broncos and Texans, but teams need to be wary of his injury history. Prior to his one game 2016, Romo appeared in just four games in 2015. Given his age (37 in April), it wouldn’t be a shock to see him go down once again.

Meanwhile one NFL GM made a tiny bit harder for Darrelle Revis to sign a contract.

Revis was sent packing to his own island on the free agent map Wednesday as teams move forward in the free agent period of the offseason, and the suggestion floating out there appears to be there may be little interest in adding Revis to a roster as he continues to show a possible decline on the field with his production. One reaction from an anonymous NFL general manager to the New York Post’s Manish Mehta said “I wouldn’t let him play for me for free.”

Outside of the NFL, one former first round NFL pick started his comeback by getting closer to a deal with a CFL team. That former first rounder? Vince Young.

According to a report from TSN, citing agent Leigh Steinberg’s travel plans, Young is closing in on a deal to sign with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A formal announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

While Young was busy finalizing his deal in Canada, Brandon Marshall was busy finalizing a deal with a team in the same city as his last team. That’s right, Brandon Marshall is moving across MetLife Stadium from the New York Jets to the Giants.

With Thursday being the start of free agency, here’s a handy dandy tweet to keep in mind this offseason:

First video of Star Wars Episode VIII has arrived in secret

At this point in time, it should be considered fair game to discuss the ending of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. With that in mind, you may be pleased to know the next chapter in the Disney-branded Star Wars saga will reportedly pick up immediately from where we left off with Rey meeting the one and only Luke Skywalker.

Disney has started showing footage of this year’s scheduled Star Wars release, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and while the masses may not have been fortunate to see any full preview footage yet, the reports seem to suggest there will be some good teases to come. There could be some changes between now and the release of the film of course, so keep that in mind as these reports start to come out, but Luke apparently questions our newest aspiring Jedi who she is.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in theaters December 15, 2017.

Quick Hits

– The Boston Celtics managed to go on the road and beat the Golden State Warriors 99-86.

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/839715695806005248

During the contest, there were plenty of big moments from Steph’s killer three…

To this Warriors winning a BRAND NEW CAR!

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/839709076535803904

Something is in the water in the Bay Area that makes everyone drain threes.

– Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Taylor Gabriel dropped one heck of a hot take: he thinks he can beat Usain Bolt in a 30-yard race.

– Ty Lawson continues to find himself in trouble. On Wednesday, news came out he broke probation by failing three sobriety tests in the last seven months.

In March 2016, Lawson received one year of probation after being arrested for driving under the influence twice in one year, and for the fourth time overall.

“You have a terrible history,” Judge Olympia Z. Fay told him at the sentencing a year ago, according to the Denver Post. “You are going down a bad path.”

– In Brazil the 2017 Brazil Open is continuing a great tradition:

For the second straight year, the Brazil Open invited six shelter dogs trained to act as ball retrievers at the tournament. So, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFTVphxjL4g

– In Washington D.C. the United States government is making a lot of headlines while talking about trying to bring jobs back. Also in D.C., robots are taking human jobs by delivering food.

– The NCAA makes a lot of money, but also has to spend a lot of money. On Wednesday, news reports emerged the NCAA’s expenses in 2016 increased $500 million over 2015 to an incredible total of $1.4 billion.

The thing is, the additional $500 million didn’t come out of nowhere. Instead, that large chunk of money was due to the NCAA “allocating more than a decade’s worth of accumulated money to legal settlements and costs and a special one-time distribution to Division I schools.”

– Manchester United is in an odd place, Rostov. Don’t know where Rostov is? Oh it’s in Russia near the Ukrainian border. Man U is there for the first leg of the UEFA Europa League for a match on Thursday against FC Rostov and the pitch they have to play on isn’t that great.

– Remember how long Selection Sunday was last year? This year the show will only be 90 minutes!

CBS Sports head Sean McManus said during the CBS/Turner NCAA Tournament media day that the 90-minute show will lead to a tighter program that will be “crisper” and “better” for viewers. The show will run from 5:30-7 p.m. ET.

In 2016, CBS and Turner decided to double the timefrom its traditional one-hour length to two hours in hopes of increasing the drama and adding more time for interviews. But the show ended up being a trainwreck and the NCAA vowed that it would fix the issues that led to viewer complaints.

– ESPN’s Samantha Ponder is just terrific.

Also this.

– And finally, meanwhile in South Korea.

https://twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/839720087716249601

A Random “The Office” Related Video:

Someone pointed out to me on Wednesday the teapot Jim got Pam for Secret Santa is the same teapot used by the Finer Things Club. I nearly fainted when I saw this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey4o_T1qamU

One Last Glorious Moment of Procrastination:

Winter is Coming. The first Game of Thrones season 7 poster has been released. This is a moment of procrastination because if you watch Thrones it’s likely you’ll now remember how amazing it is and go google stuff about it.

Also if you don’t watch, you need to revaluate your priorities.

About David Lauterbach

David is a writer for The Comeback. He enjoyed two Men's Basketball Final Four trips for Syracuse before graduating in 2016. If The Office or Game of Thrones is on TV, David will be watching.

View all posts by David Lauterbach