The Final Four for men’s college basketball is set. Two of the teams that were expected to be here at this point have made it. Gonzaga and Baylor. The other two that made it are Houston and UCLA.
UCLA is the true Cinderella team for this year. I know that might sound odd to say because UCLA has won 14 national championships, but they haven’t won one since 1995. And Houston has not made the Final Four since 1984, way back when Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon played for Houston. The last time Baylor made it to the Final Four was in 1950 when there were only eight teams in the tournament. Gonzaga is definitely the favorite to win because they have been scoring 70 to 80 points a game! If they can win the tournament they will be the first team to go undefeated since Indiana did that in 1976. This should make for some really great games to watch this Saturday and Monday.
In the NFL, there is a lot of news about player safety right now. This is a good thing but there seems to be an odd point being argued that's really a moot point. The "big" change is that there is going to be a 17-game regular season schedule instead of 16 games for the NFL this coming year. This seems reasonable even though there are a lot of players complaining about it. One preseason game has been eliminated so this really makes for the same number of games. I don't feel like they are really getting to the crux of the issue here, and I hope there will be more focus on how to protect the players no matter how many games are played.
I am going out on a limb and making a ridiculous prediction. As the baseball season officially gets started, I predict that the World Series will be the defending champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers from the National League versus the New York Yankees from the American League. Can you tell I have missed baseball A LOT!?
The Dodgers have a ridiculously strong rotation, anchored by right handed pitcher, Walker Buehler and Cy Young award winner Trevor Bauer, who came from the Cincinnati Reds. They also have Clayton Kershaw, future Hall of Famer as their third best pitcher. This team is projected to win over 100 games.
I also picked the Yankees because of their powerful offense. Aaron Judge, Juan Carlos Stanton and Aaron Hicks are going to be scoring runs like crazy. We shall see how this all plays out in the season ahead. Hopefully Covid will not be a factor this year and we all get to sit back and enjoy the summer and the long baseball season ahead of us. I will refrain from any Phillies comments for now.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
