Author: Michael

UConn basketball went into the locker room at halftime of Monday’s national championship with a 12-point lead. That wasn’t good enough for head coach Dan Hurley.
Dan, the younger brother of Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley, turned 50 years old in January. He is in his fifth season with the Huskies after six years at Rhode Island and two years at Wagner.
To call Hurley passionate would be an understated.

No ref is safe when he’s around.

Dan Hurley letting the refs know how bad of a ball that was pic.twitter.

null

As San Diego State tipped off against UConn in the national championship game on Monday night, 700 Aztecs were in the stands on the school’s dime. It was a pretty cool gesture.
San Diego State Aztecs fans react from the stands prior to the game against the Connecticut Huskies during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament National Championship game at NRG Stadium on April 03, 2023 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
San Diego State, a California state university located inside of a city, has a student population of about 34,000.

Texas Rangers left fielder Josh Smith ate a nasty pitch to the grill during the third inning of Monday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe’s 89-mph sinker connected with Smith’s jaw in the third quarter of the game.
Smith Survives Gnarly Pitch To The Face
Smith hit the ground and required attention from the Rangers’ medical staff.
WATCH:

Scary moment. @Rangers Josh Smith hit in the face on this pitch. Left the game. @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/kdKFXG4p3K
— Pat Doney (@PatDoneyNBC5) April 4, 2023

Just broke Josh Smith’s face. pic.twitter.

Buried deep in a Golfweek article by Adam Schupak is a gem of a story told by Jordan Spieth about Masters tickets.
Shupak interviewed golfers and asked them one, simple question: “What’s the strangest request you’ve received pertaining to the Masters?”
Decent starting point for a Masters week article, but certainly depends on the answers. Shupak starts with Keegan Bradley, who had nothing interesting to say.
From there, we start going down a list of notable golfers, but few have much to offer. Tommy Fleetwood notes that he takes extra Masters pencils for his dad and golf coach.

While New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes was very solid on the mound against the Phillies on Monday, giving up just one run in his five innings of work, it was a play he made behind the plate that had MLB fans in awe. It also happened to result in the final out of his night and stopped the Phillies from possibly putting some more runs on the board. 
With two outs in the fifth inning, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto hit a single to right. New York’s Franchy Cordero fired a ball to home plate that sailed over catcher Jose Trevino’s head.

Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon will serve a four-game suspension starting Monday due to a public altercation with a fan in Oakland last week.

LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa in the national championship was a watershed moment for women’s basketball in America — not just because of its massive television audience, but also in how many storylines it generated off the court.
On Monday, it added another one. First lady Dr. Jill Biden made waves by suggesting the Hawkeyes visit the White House in addition to the victorious Tigers.
Reaction was swift from LSU after a fiercely fought game that ended with Tigers forward Angel Reese co-opting a favorite celebration of Iowa guard Caitlin Clark.

The bad news is only getting worse for college hockey player Carson Briere. The young man shoved a woman’s wheelchair down the stairs at a bar in Eerie, Pennsylvania, and while the move was not the smartest, the consequences have been steep.
Briere, son of Philadelphia Flyers interim GM Danny Briere, not only received backlash online for being spotted in the video shoving the wheelchair, he also received misdemeanor charges for the act, been permanently banned from the bar and has now been booted from his university’s hockey team.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Several players started getting acclimated to the course at Augusta.
One of the cool things about The Masters is the coverage the PGA nails each and every year. And that starts on Day 1 when the players kickoff their practice sessions.
The biggest names to receive the biggest attention on the opening day of the practice rounds were Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. The two were joined by Tom Kim and legendary golfer Fred Couples and the four decided to keep tradition alive at Augusta.
Skipping a ball across the water at at 16.