The Connecticut Huskies and Geno Auriemma won yet another title, and the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off a shocking victory over the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. We get to those topics, plenty of MLB action, and a couple of glorious gifs, here at the Wednesday Cheat Sheet…
The UConn women’s basketball team won their 4th consecutive title
In his recap of the UConn Huskies blowing out the Syracuse Orange to win the women’s college hoops national championship, Sean Keeley put it perfectly:
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and UConn women’s basketball.
This was — incredibly — the fourth consecutive title for the Huskies.
UConn wins their 4th straight National Title in Women’s basketball pic.twitter.com/TcyNDhOAle
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) April 6, 2016
75 straight wins, 4 straight nat’l champs. Trying to diminish how hard that is to do is silly. Even the very best falter sometimes. #UCONN — Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) April 6, 2016
uconn basketball teams have competed in 15 national championship games and have won 15 national championship games. p good
— We take the stairs (@NoEscalators) April 6, 2016
UConn completes its 6th perfect season and the 9th undefeated season in women’s Division I history. pic.twitter.com/cal3fqcZ9r — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 6, 2016
Remarkable, dominant stuff.
And speaking of remarkable, dominanat stuff: With the the victory, Geno Auriemma passed John Wooden (John freaking Wooden, folks) as the all-time leader in NCAA championships, with 11.
Geno Auriemma passes the great John Wooden as the all time leader in NCAA championships with 11.
— Kevin Negandhi (@KNegandhiESPN) April 6, 2016
What Geno Auriemma has done at UConn defies comprehension. For once let’s dispose of cynicism and appreciate greatness. — Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) April 6, 2016
What a legend.
Oh, and the UConn seniors knighted each other after the game. This is awesome:
UConn players “knighting” each other pic.twitter.com/9p6ScPN9bx
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) April 6, 2016
So, the Timberwolves went into Oracle Arena and beat the Warriors
The Golden State Warriors have to go 4-0 now if they want to get the regular-season record 73 wins, after the Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off a shocking 124-117 overtime victory at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night. The Wolves showed off their tremendous young talent, with Andrew Wiggins scoring 32 points, Karl-Anthony Towns scoring 20 (while also pulling down 12 boards), and Shabazz Muhammad dropping 35 (a career-high) off the bench!
The Warriors losing to the Wolves at home is a stunner no matter how you look at it, but especially when you factor in that Golden State held a 17-point lead in the third quarter.
Here are the highlights:
Two the four remaining Warriors games are against the Spurs. Will Gregg Popovich rest his stars?
Pop’s dilemma:
On the one hand, he hates fun so he’ll want to tank these games. On the other, he hates fun, so screw the Warriors. — Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) April 6, 2016
Quick Hits
– Matt Zemek has the top 10 moments of the NCAA Tournament. This is a fun read and I had forgotten some of these moments already, which is more because just so much crazy, awesome shit happened in that tournament (especially with how it concluded).
– Villanova cancelled their classes Tuesday to celebrate the championship.
– And… the top 10 crying Jordan memes from the national championship.
– David Rogers writes how MLB should make Opening Day a bigger event and spectacle. I agree. Also, it would be nice if the MLB and NCAA could come together and not put the national championship game and Opening Day at the same time.
Related: The NCAA Championship ratings were down 30%. Certainly MLB Opening Day factored into that quite a bit, and putting the game on TBS over CBS.
– Baseball is incredibly unpredictable — that’s what makes @cantpredictball such a great follow on Twitter — and Joe Lucia took note of 18 wild and wacky things that happened on Opening Day.
– Giancarlo Stanton hit an absolute moonshot off Justin Verlander. I really like his chances for 50 dingers this year (he hit 27 in just 74 games last year).
Giancarlo Stanton shows off the light-tower power vs Justin Verlander. pic.twitter.com/wxwViDZ56o — The Comeback (@thecomeback) April 6, 2016
– Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ended up with the best seats at Yankees Opening Day.
And about that game: The Yankees played it under protest after the team lost thanks (in large part) to a controversial error. Joe Girardi was not happy.
– The Yankees-Astros game was not even the most controversial one in MLB on Tuesday. That honor would belong to the Blue Jays-Rays game, where the new Utley Rule played a factor:
Correct call or not, that ruling is pretty damn frustrating if you’re a Blue Jays fan. Or especially if you’re manager John Gibbons, who WENT OFF in the postgame presser.
– More Blue Jays: Troy Tulowitzki is going to ridiculous lengths to keep his ancient glove. I would too if I were him…. he’s as good as they come at shortstop over the last several years (well, after Andrelton Simmons, anyway).
– The San Diego Padres still haven’t scored a run.
– Kawhi Leonard buried the Jazz with a game-winning jumper.
– I couldn’t believe this one… the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets’ Single-A affiliate) are giving away crying Wilmer Flores bobbleheads.
– Rays’ minor leaguer tries to throw shade at Bryce Harper. Lol okay dude.
– Broncos star defensive end Derek Wolfe threw punches at a nightclub crowd.
– In lighter (former) Broncos news, Peyton Manning sang some karaoke.
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoys disgusting mayonnaise and banana sandwich.
– China is now consuming more beer than the U.S.
One last breath of gratuitous procrastination
The Reddit comments say this guy is a champion drag biker, but I have my doubts.
Screw it, one more breath of gratuitous procrastination
Sliding into Masters week like