SwampSwami.com - Sports Commentary and more!

Another year, another abysmal performance by ol’ SwampSwami in the CBS Sports March Madness predictions. Though I played high school basketball, I remain “O-for-Life” at predicting the men’s March Madness champion. My chances for victory crashed last Thursday after the University of Houston lost to Illinois in the Sweet Sixteen round. The same failed outcome happened for my pick (LSU) in the women’s bracket. Kim Mulkey’s Tigers lost to Duke on a last second 3-pointer in the Sweet 16 to sink my battleship in that competition. CBSSports.com showed my men’s picks currently ranked a pitiful 1,138,732 (which must be somewhere near the bottom). My women’s selections have been slightly less embarrassing, but I am still ranked at a microscopic 477,876th overall. Go ahead and laugh. I’m used to it. Since my personal top selections are now vaporized, let’s take a closer look at the upcoming weekend of March Madness games. But first… I wanted to take a moment to agree with legendary UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma about some issues which he expressed concern about last week. Beginning in 2023, the NCAA found a way to screw-up the women’s second weekend of Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games. In the second weekend of men’s play, there are four regionals (East, South, Midwest, and West). Each region features four teams. By contrast, the women’s second weekend featured just two regions with eight teams assigned to each site to play the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games. Why did the NCAA do that to the women’s tournament? (Hint – $$$) Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma rightfully complained about logistics issues created by lumping eight teams together. His team was one of the eight assigned to “Region 1” in Fort Worth, Texas. The other eight teams in “Region 2” played in Sacramento, California. In both cases, the city’s arena is needed to host two tournament games per day. That leaves the eight participating teams with odd practice times and inconsistent media times for the players and coaches. Some practices were conducted at the crack of dawn. Others happened in evening hours after the second game of the day concluded. Coach Geno Auriemma told the assembled press last week, “You know what time our shoot-around was yesterday? 6:20 AM for just half an hour. Does anybody who makes these decisions ever ask the coaches and the players?” The UConn coach then rolled off the poor 3-point shooting statistics for every team participating in last week’s 8-team Fort Worth regional. He added, “They bring in new baskets and new basketballs right out of the box. We’ve got people dribbling the ball off their feet, missing layups all over the place! How many arenas are we going to sell out with that BS!” He was blunt and made several valid points. The eight teams teams in each of the two women’s regions had very little time to get familiar with the arena surroundings prior to playing in last Friday and Saturday’s games. The only plausible reason for doing this is a cost savings decision by the NCAA. It is cheaper to lease two arenas than four like the men are utilizing during the tournament’s second weekend. The television production costs for ESPN are also lower with only two sites to broadcast from. It’s doubtful that the NCAA home office in Indianapolis gave much (if any) thought to the logistical difficulties caused by bringing eight teams together to play over two days in the same facility. One report indicated that the NCAA will keep this format for another two years. Good grief. How cheap can you get? Now that we have that out of the way. Let’s review the women’s Final Four! This year’s women’s semifinal and final games are being played in Phoenix. The same four finalists from last year (UConn, South Carolina, Texas, and UCLA) will return and try to win the title currently held by Connecticut. This elite quartet won an incredible 95% of their games this season with a combined record of 143-7. Semifinal #1 – 6PM CDT Friday on ESPN – Connecticut (38-0) vs. South Carolina (35-3) Get your popcorn ready for this epic battle! This is the women’s basketball version of pitting King Kong vs. Godzilla. These two teams have captured three of the last four national titles. UConn defeated South Carolina 82-59 in last year’s championship game, so the Gamecocks want payback. Carolina has five players averaging in double figures led by All-American forward Joyce Edwards. She scores nearly 20 points per game. Connecticut counters with two of the best players in the country. Forward Sarah Strong and guard Azzi Fudd are responsible for nearly 40 points per game this season for the Huskies. Semifinal #2 – 8:30PM CDT Friday on ESPN – Texas (35-3) vs. UCLA (35-1) Texas features ten players getting more than ten minutes of playing time every game. Forward Madison Book

Springtime means a return of increasingly warm temperatures (ugh), pollen galore (yuck), and a very eventful initial weekend of sports. Major League Baseball’s 2026 season opened as all 32 teams began tied for first place with a 0-0 record After this past weekend of opening games, it should come as no surprise that the homeless “Athletics” are off to an 0-3 start. Voodoo dolls in Oakland seem to be having their desired effect on this wandering baseball franchise! The former Oakland Athletics vacated the Bay Area last year and temporarily moved into a minor league baseball stadium in Sacramento. This team is simply known as the “Athletics” today. They will remain in Sacto for 2026 and 2027. A new indoor baseball stadium is under construction in Las Vegas and is expected to become home for this downtrodden franchise starting in 2028. The UFL returned, too. It’s a good thing St. Louis still has their team! Spring professional football’s UFL began its third year with four games played over the weekend. The St. Louis Battlehawks attracted more than 31,000 fans to watch its 16-10 win over the defending champion DC Defenders on Saturday in the Battledome. Three other UFL home teams failed to attract even 15,000 patrons for Game #1. The new Louisville Kings franchise were welcomed by 14,000 fans in their inaugural game being played in Kentucky. They watched the Birmingham Stallions rally to score the game-winning touchdown with two minutes left in a 15-13 victory over the hometown Kings Friday night. A Sunday night gathering of 11,000 cheered as Orlando “Stormed” to a 23-16 victory over the Columbus Aviators. The Dallas Renegades pulled a quaint crowd of less than 9,000 fans to its debut game in Frisco, Texas on Saturday. As stated in my league preview last week, the UFL continued to have problems getting most of its teams to score points. Only two of the eight teams in Week #1 tallied 20 or more points. Are the NFL referees going on strike soon? An under-the-radar story this weekend involved the growing tension between the NFL and its referees union. The NFL Referees Association may be recommending a strike soon. The current collective bargaining agreement between the refs and the league is set to expire on May 31. NFL owners have angered the referee union by wanting to raise the probationary period from three years to five and make playoff assignments based on performance rather than seniority. As you might expect, the referees union looks at those issues differently. A referee strike last occurred in 2012 and lasted three games into the NFL’s regular season. After several botched calls during the opening weeks of the regular season, the owners and referees finally reached an agreement in late September, 2012. This weekend’s news indicated that the NFL owners are preparing to move forward if there isn’t a new deal soon. They are compiling a list of possible replacement referee candidates from the ranks of college football. If a new deal with the NFL referees’ union is not reached by May 1, the football league may be planning to hire and train a set of new referees for the upcoming football season. Golf – first, let’s have some good news! PGA golfer Gary Woodland’s last professional victory came at the 2019 US Open. About three years ago, the golfer underwent a very delicate surgery to remove a lesion from his brain. Just two weeks ago, Woodland told the media that he had developed PTSD during his difficult recovery from brain surgery. Sunday’s final round saw Gary Woodland holding a one-shot lead starting the final 18 holes at the Texas Children’s Hospital Houston Open. He raced out to a 4-under par 31 on the front nine in posting a final round 67 to win the event by five shots. The Houston crowd chanted, “Gary…Gary…Gary!” on the closing holes as Woodland tried to remain focused on the task at hand. Woodland once played on both the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team and on college golf team. He wisely chose to play professional golf for his post-college career. Now 41, Gary Woodland picked-up his fifth career PGA win in Houston and a paycheck for nearly $1.8 million. His emotional win in Houston also came with an invitation to play in The Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia in just ten days. Golf – Tiger Woods flipped his SUV and earned a DUI charge in Florida Now 50 years of age, Tiger Woods captured the spotlight once again on Friday. Golf’s biggest name since Jack Nicklaus was placed under arrest near his home in central Florida after flipping his Land Rover vehicle at a high rate of speed. Tiger Woods’ SUV quickly came upon a truck which was slowing to turn into a driveway. Woods lost control of his vehicle. The SUV flipped onto its side and Woods safely crawled out of the passenger-side window. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic around when the accident occurred. Woods agreed to a breathalyzer test for alc

It’s official! Former LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade is returning to Baton Rouge to coach the Tigers again next season. The 43-year old Wade coached the LSU basketball team from 2017-2022 until he was fired following an NCAA probe into improper payments being offered to certain LSU basketball recruits. Back then, the NCAA did not allow schools to pay their players. Yet. Ironically, Will Wade’s dismissal by LSU in 2022 happened right as the NCAA’s new rules (such as they are) were being implemented to allow college athletes to receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Wade was simply ahead of his time. LSU was slapped with five NCAA sanctions and sent the basketball coach to the unemployment line. Will Wade re-emerged at McNeese State University in Lake Charles a year later in 2023. He led the Cowboys into their first-ever NCAA March Madness tournament in 2024 and, again, in 2025. Wade was then hired to become the head coach at North Carolina State this past season. His NC State Wolfpack team was selected to participate in the NCAA “First Four” round. They lost to Texas in that game to finish the year at 20-14. While that was happening in the life of Will Wade, LSU’s then-Athletics Director Scott Woodward hired former Murray State basketball coach Matt McMahon to run the men’s program in the spring of 2022. The Murray State Racers qualified for the NCAA March Madness tournament three times in five seasons under Coach McMahon before he left for LSU. Four years later, coach Matt McMahon’s LSU teams had won only 17 SEC games against 55 conference losses (23.6%). This season’s Tigers finished dead last in the league with a woeful 3-15 record. Matt McMahon was dismissed this week, but he won’t go away empty handed The ex-LSU basketball coach will receive nearly $8 million as part of his contract buyout provisions. He joined a growing number of former LSU sports leaders who were fired in recent years but received lucrative going-away presents upon their exit. Former LSU head football coaches Brian Kelly ($54 million – 2025) and Ed Orgeron ($17 million – 2021) along with former AD Scott Woodward ($6 million – 2025) have been paid handsomely to hit the road. When added to Matt McMahon’s $8 million buyout, that is $85 million which LSU’s wealthiest athletics backers have been asked to cover. In exchange, the school’s financial backers demand winners (sooner than later) in return for being asked to pay for so many expensive changes in Baton Rouge. Speaking of money, basketball coach Will Wade’s former school at North Carolina State will receive $4 million as compensation after his abrupt exit following season #1 in Raleigh. NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan was understandably miffed at coach Will Wade’s decision to leave his program after just one year. “As far as the resignation letter, it was an email that we received from his agent,” said Corrigan. “I’m disappointed at how it went down.” Is the LSU basketball job actually better than North Carolina State? LSU has zero NCAA men’s basketball tournament titles. Long-time coach and fan favorite Dale Brown’s Tigers played in two Final Four appearances (1981 and 1986), but his teams lost in the national semifinals both years. Brown’s successor, John Brady, led LSU to another Final Four appearance in 2006. Same result. Over the past twenty years, LSU was selected for the NCAA post-season tournament just five times. Three of those occurred during coach Will Wade’s five seasons with the Tigers (2019, 2021, and 2022). After being fired by LSU, Will Wade rebuilt his credibility by turning the McNeese State Cowboys of the Southland Conference into a basketball powerhouse during his two years in Lake Charles. The Pokes went 30-4 and 28-7, won the Southland Conference title both years, and made two consecutive March Madness post-season appearances. Wade left after two seasons to take the job at North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Wolfpack already had two national championship trophies in Raleigh. Coach Norm Sloan’s 1973-74 team featured dynamic high-flying forward David Thompson, 7’4” center Tom Burleson and diminutive 5’7” point guard Monty Towe. NC State defeated legendary coach John Wooden’s mighty UCLA Bruins in overtime in the semifinals and then polished-off Marquette to win the school’s first basketball title. Coach Jim Valvano’s 1983 North Carolina State team won the ACC Tournament and barely qualified for the NCAA March Madness field as a lowly #6 regional seed. His “Cardiac Pack” thrilled the nation by defeating a series of top teams on their way to the title game against heavily favored Houston. Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Houston’s Phi Slamma Jamma team lost to NC State on a stunning last second put-back for the Wolfpack’s seco

Ah, yes. Springtime means the return of your favorite eight United Football League (UFL) spring football teams for a third consecutive season. Except for the San Antonio Brahmas, Michigan Panthers, and Memphis Showboats, that is! Those three UFL teams were vaporized last summer to become a part of league history. The UFL moving trucks have been busy during the off-season United Football League team locations in San Antonio, Detroit, and Memphis were replaced with new franchises in the states of Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky. The Orlando Storm, Columbus Aviators, and Louisville Kings will join the Birmingham Stallions, DC Defenders, Houston Gamblers, and St. Louis Battlehawks in 2026. In addition, the former Arlington Renegades moved across town to morph into the Dallas Renegades. But even the name “Dallas” is a bit misleading. The Renegades will play this season in Toyota Stadium – a 24,000 seat soccer stadium in fast-growing Frisco. That city is 25 miles north of downtown Dallas. The UFL has smartly downsized its stadiums and cut more costs this season. All eight UFL teams still practice at the same facility in Arlington, Texas on weekdays and then fly to play games on weekends in each team’s respective home market. All but two of the eight spring football franchises will play in smaller soccer venues beginning this season. The new stadiums generally have a seating capacity of no more than 25,000. The Houston Gamblers vamoosed from the 40,000 seat football stadium at the University of Houston in favor of a more “right sized” environment at the downtown home of the Houston Dynamo soccer franchise. Wisely, the UFL owners have learned that the optics of showing thousands of empty seats on nationally televised football games is a very bad look for TV. The high costs of leasing a traditional football stadium was another big factor in making that switch, too. The St. Louis Battlehawks (which led the UFL in home attendance with more than 30,000 fans per home game) will continue to play in the 60,000 seat Dome at America’s Center. Locally known as the “BattleDome”, the indoor football stadium was the former home of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams prior to the team moving to Los Angeles. Birmingham will continue to play in UAB’s state of the art 47,000 seat football stadium. The league smartly cordoned off the upper deck last season, so the actual seating capacity for Stallions home games is about 25,000. When is the first UFL football game this year? The 2026 UFL season picked a bad time to get started (again). This weekend’s season openers will have stiff competition from the men’s and women’s NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. Game #1 of the new UFL season is this Friday night (March 27) at 7PM CDT on FOX. The Birmingham Stallions visit Kentucky to play in the first-ever home game for the Louisville Kings. Saturday, March 28 will feature an afternoon doubleheader. The opening game will start at 11AM CDT on ESPN as 2025 champion DC Defenders invade the St. Louis Battlehawks. The second game (3PM CDT on FOX) has the Houston Gamblers riding up I-45 to play their intrastate rival, the Dallas Renegades. Sunday’s final opening weekend game will pit two new entries taking the field for the first time. The Columbus Aviators take flight to central Florida to play the Orlando Storm at 7PM CDT on ESPN. The UFL added a giant source of cash as billionaire Mike Repole joined the ownership team Who is Mike Repole, you ask? If you have heard of beverage brands such as VitaminWater and BodyArmor, it was entrepreneur Mike Repole who built and sold those companies to Coca-Cola for a cool $12 billion. That means that the UFL just added another financial partner with deep pockets. Mike Repole is about to learn that the UFL and every other prior spring football iteration has been a gigantic money pit. Last season’s UFL was owned by former WWE wrestling legend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia along with Fox Sports, Disney (ESPN), and private equity investor Redbird Capital Partners. The privately-held United Football League is not required to publish annual financial reports. They are quite tight-lipped about the league’s finances. It’s not a secret that the UFL has posted annual losses into the tens of millions of dollars. A lot of cash is required to pay stadium leases, players, and other significant costs One source reported that Ford Field in Detroit (former home to the now-deceased Michigan Panthers franchise) cost the league $500,000 per home game. That’s a cool $2.5 million per season for just one stadium’s rental fees. Last year’s Michigan Panthers averaged less than 12,000 fans per home game. Their average ticket price in 2025 was about $25. That generated about $300,000 in ticket revenue per home game for a season-ending total of about $1.5 million. Ouch. But wait, there’s more. Each team had 45 active players

The opening weekend of the men’s March Madness concluded late Sunday night. The women’s first two rounds of their tournament are ending today (Monday) with eight games being played. As widely expected, the majority of the top 16 seeds in the women’s bracket have remained intact through Sunday evening. Not so in the men’s division after the second round. Down went #1 East seed and defending men’s champion Florida! The Gators were chomped by 9th seed Iowa 73-72 on Sunday in Round 2. Iowa’s Hawkeyes (now 23-12) lost four of its last five games coming into the NCAA tournament. Iowa finished in 9th place in the Big Ten Conference this season with a mediocre 10-10 record. Obviously, something has clicked for the Hawkeyes. Iowa’s new basketball coach brought a long track record of success to Iowa City Ben McCollum isn’t a household name among men’s college basketball coaches – yet. The 44-year old head coach at Iowa had won four national titles at the NCAA Division II level over his 15 years at Northwest Missouri State University in rural Maryville, Missouri. That success translated into job offer for McCollum at Drake University in Des Moines last season. The coach took the Division 1 Bulldogs into the second round of the NCAA March Madness tournament last year and finished with an amazing 31-4 record. Afterwards, the state’s largest public university in Ben McCollum’s birthplace of Iowa City made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The Iowa Hawkeyes had fired Fran McCaffery in March, 2025 after 15 seasons at the school. Though Coach McCaffery’s teams made the NCAA tournament field on seven occasions, the Hawkeyes never advanced beyond the second round. Until this year – under new head coach Ben McCollum. Iowa defeated defending national champion Florida 73-72 on a three-point shot with less than five seconds to play. The gritty Hawkeyes are advancing to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1999. They will face another Big Ten upstart in the University of Nebraska. Cornhuskers coach Fred Hoiberg had the loudest fans this weekend Oklahoma City is 430 miles south of Lincoln, Nebraska. You would never have guessed the arena wasn’t transported from Oklahoma to Nebraska over the weekend. OKC’s basketball arena just hosted the first two rounds of the South Region. If you watched either game involving the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the 18,000-seat arena sounded like those contests were being played in a major Nebraska city. Coach Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska Cornhuskers are now 26-8. They claimed the school’s first ever March Madness men’s basketball victory on Thursday with a convincing 76-47 win over Sunbelt champion Troy. Big Red basketball fans then returned in even larger numbers Saturday for the team’s second round match-up against SEC tournament runner-up, Vanderbilt. In one of the most dramatic game of this year’s very exciting NCAA tournament, Nebraska’s loud and proud fans pushed Big Red to grab a two point lead on a basket with 2.2 seconds remaining. Then, Vanderbilt’s talented freshman guard Tyler Tanner lofted a desperation half-court shot which could have won the game at the buzzer. The ball was online the entire way. It hit the backboard, bounded inside of the rim, but somehow bounced back out again. Nebraska survived 74-72 and advanced into the Sweet Sixteen round this week in Houston against fellow Big Ten Conference rival, Iowa. Cornhuskers coach Fred Hoiberg and Iowa men’s coach Ben McCollum have something unique in common – other than playing in the Big Ten Conference. These two successful basketball coaches were Finance majors in college. Today’s NIL-driven college sports teams require coaches who can manage a payroll as well as they teach a pick and roll. This weekend’s games may end the coaching careers for other top basketball coaches! University of Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is 63 years old. He accepted the Jayhawks top job 23 years ago at age 40. Coach Self has won two national championships while at Kansas (2008 and 2022). His Jayhawks have participated in the NCAA March Madness post-season tournament in each of his 23 years at the school. That’s amazing! Coach Self’s Kansas Jayhawks were just bounced out of the NCAA tournament on Sunday by a spunky, quirky St. John’s team 67-65. KU finished the season 24-11. The Kansas Jayhawks simply failed to launch this season. They invested (quite literally) much of the team’s capital into signing a prima donna 5-star basketball recruit named Darryn Peterson. Coach Self already knew that Peterson would be another “one and done” freshman player looking to impress NBA scouts in this June’s annual college draft. Peterson played well at times and will, no doubt, become a high draft selection in the “We rarely play defense” NBA. He seems quite ready for his future role. Darryn Peters

That’s right! My men’s and women’s March Madness college basketball picks have a perfect record. I have been been wrong on selecting a champion in every previous season for decades during my adult life. Forget about having a perfect bracket. This former high school basketball player is still seeking his first winning team to watch cutting down the nets at the end of March Madness! That makes me “O-for-Life”. Yes, I somehow cannot bring myself select the overall #1 seed to win it all. Why accept the easy way? That’s much too boring. The NCAA March Madness men’s tournament starts on Thursday. The women tip-off on Friday. Thankfully, I am not someone who donates money to local gambling establishments to profit from my annual embarrassment. If you are so inclined, my NCAA March Madness selections have been posted at the CBS Sports website. Feel free to check the entry called “SwampSwamiSports.com”, and we’ll review how well my picks are doing. Let’s face it. I AM overdue for a winner this year, right? Who is SwampSwami ruining the chances for this year? Given that the statistics may (perhaps) work in my favor with my advancing age, I am selecting (drum roll, please) the University of Houston to win the men’s bracket. This would be U of H’s first national championship in men’s basketball. If you had believed that the famous Phi Slamma Jamma teams of the early 1980’s had won at least one title, you are incorrect. It’s time for the Cougars to finally bring home their first national championship to H-town! In the March Madness women’s tournament, let’s crown…(drum roll again) the LSU Tigers – to capture their second national title under Coach Kim Mulkey. LSU needs some breaks along the way and several of its top players to perform well for the next six games to pull the big upset. This team is sneaky-good. You’ve been warned. For fans of both the University of Houston and LSU, I am NOT trying to jinx your favorite teams! I really like both coaches and both programs. I truly WANT them to win. Unfortunately, I tend to select winners based on my emotions every season. That’s why I am “O-for-Life” in picking a team which eventually gets to cut down the nets. My March Madness picks are like watching Charlie Brown running to kick that football just as Lucy picks up the ball and causes ol’ Chuck to fall on his backside. Let’s start with the Women’s March Madness field The top of the women’s college basketball field is filled with several very impressive teams. UConn is 34-0 and the only unbeaten team in this field. The #2 overall seed in the tournament is UCLA. They are no slouch at 31-1 and received a top seed for their region. Don’t forget the SEC’s dynamic duo of South Carolina and the University of Texas. Both of those #1 seeds are 31-3 entering this week’s first games. The #2 seeds for the women’s tournament are also quite good. SEC gives us another two powerful teams. LSU (27-5) and Vanderbilt (27-4) are worthy of a title run. The Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes (26-6) and Michigan Wolverines (25-6) should be in the mix for at least the first two weekends of the women’s tournament. The #3 seeds on the women’s side are very good, but I don’t expect any team below a #2 seed to win it all. I do believe that at least one of the #3 seeds will make a run into the Elite Eight. Duke (24-8), Ohio State (26-7), TCU (29-5), and Louisville (27-7) are all capable of getting to the cusp of the Final Four. Since 2012, women’s college basketball has been ruled by a very small group of teams with elite coaches and extremely talented players. UConn (5 titles), South Carolina (3) and Kim Mulkey (3 – two at Baylor and one after moving to LSU) have ruled the women’s division. Expect nothing less this year. My women’s Final Four is UConn, South Carolina, Texas, and LSU. That makes three SEC teams ganging up on poor ol’ undefeated Connecticut. I’ll take UConn to take down South Carolina in an epic battle in one semifinal game. LSU (fresh off of defeating #1 regional seed UCLA in the Elite Eight) will subdue its SEC rival Texas in the other. LSU wants no part of South Carolina in this tournament. The Gamecocks have won 19 straight games against the Tigers. LSU will (quietly) be pulling for the Huskies against South Carolina. I think UConn will finally crack under the pressure to post an undefeated season. I envision LSU pulling a thrilling upset to win the women’s title for the second time in school history! March Madness – Men’s top tournament teams Unlike the women’s field, the winner in the men’s division could be fairly wide open this year. Beginning in 2012, only UConn (2014, 2023, and 2024) and Villanova (2016 and 2018) have posted multiple titles during that span. Last year’s champion (Florida) is 26-7 an

Yes, I’m old enough to remember when the term “spring break” was primarily for college students. Apparently, spring break now extends to giving the entire week off to high school, middle school and even the elementary school kids, too. My long-suffering sports wife works a schedule based on our local school calendar. Last week, we visited one of our sons (and two of our grandsons) prior to heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a few more days of vacationing. We had loads of fun but not enough time to keep up with sports. Never fear! We will catch-up right now. March Madness – Men The University of Miami (Ohio) Redhawks were the lone unbeaten men’s team in the nation coming into last week’s Mid-American Conference tournament. The 20th ranked Redhawks took their perfect 31-0 record into last week’s opening round game against the University of Massachusetts (17-16). Miami was only the fifth men’s college hoops team in the past 25 years to post a perfect regular season record. Until Thursday. U Mass took the lead with 30 seconds left to hand the Redhawks an 87-83 loss. Would you believe that some of TV’s talking heads actually felt that 31-1 Miami should be left out of the 68-team NCAA Men’s tournament field? Some of those same people suggested that a 17-16 Auburn Tigers team (just 7-11 in SEC play) should have received Miami’s spot in the tournament field. Perhaps this is why we call it madness For those who favor March Madness invitations going to sub-500 big conference schools like Auburn, please name the last time any team with less than 20 regular season wins made it into the Final Four. I’ll wait while you ask your favorite search engine. Answer: Zero. I understand that Auburn played a really tough slate of non-conference games. The Tigers lost to top-ten teams such as Houston, Michigan, and Purdue in the opening months. However, Auburn also lost eight of ten SEC games played during the final weeks of the regular season. If Auburn cannot beat teams in the SEC, why should they deserve to play for the national championship? However, what have the Miami Redhawks done to deserve a bid? Good question! Miami (Ohio) plays in the Mid-American Conference. That conference has never produced a men’s basketball team which has reached the Final Four. Miami posted a solid 25-9 record last year. Prior to 2025, the Redhawks had not won 20 games in a season since March, 1999. The school is not (yet) a basketball juggernaut. This year’s team raced to a 31-0 start featuring six games which Miami won by three points or less. Yes, they have been lucky at times, but they were also very good. The Runnin’ Redhawks have scored 100 or more points in eight games this season. The NCAA “rewarded” 31-1 Miami of Ohio with a play-in game on Wednesday night against 20-13 SMU. Tipoff will be at 8:15 PM CDT on TruTV. The winner advances to play #6 seed Tennessee (22-11) on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Auburn is playing in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) beginning tonight at 9PM CDT vs. South Alabama (20-11). McNeese State’s home court advantage led to a rout over #1 seed SFA Four years ago, the city of Lake Charles became the home city for the Southland Conference men’s basketball tournament. The games are played on the campus of McNeese State University. The host city’s Cowboys were already coming off back-to-back NCAA March Madness seasons. Unlike previous years, though, the 2026 top seed in the Southland Conference tournament was Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks posted a nifty 20-2 conference record to edge McNeese by one game for the men’s #1 seed in the tournament. These two teams (both 28-5 for the season) met in last week’s conference finale. The hometown McNeese fans packed the gymnasium to standing-room only capacity and cheered their team to a resounding 76-59 win over #1 seed SFA. The Lumberjacks fell behind by 20 points early in the second half and never recovered. McNeese will enter its third straight NCAA men’s March Madness tournament as a #12 seed against #5 Vanderbilt of the SEC. That game will tip-off Thursday at 2:15 PM on TruTV. Stephen F. Austin accepted a bid into the NIT tournament and travels to face Tulsa in the opening round tonight (Tuesday) at 8 PM. March Madness – Women Historically, there has been a wide gap in women’s college basketball between the “haves” and the “not yet’s”. This year has been no different. The #1 overall seed U-Conn Huskies are the only remaining unbeaten women’s team entering this year’s March Madness women’s tourney. Connecticut (now 34-0) is a whopping 54-point favorite over #16 regional seed UT-San Antonio (18-15) in Round 1. Out west, #2 overall seed UCLA (31-1) is a 52-point favorite in their opening round game against #16 seed California Baptist (23-10). The other two top seeded women’s teams are a pair of 31-3 SEC

The traditional March 1 release of the Sunbelt Conference fall football schedule has been delayed. According to one source, the league is waiting for incoming new member Louisiana Tech University to resolve its legal issues with its current affiliate, Conference USA. The Sunbelt Conference lost Texas State University to the Mountain West Conference beginning this fall. That leaves a vacancy in the Sunbelt’s Western Division. That’s where Louisiana Tech was expected to step-in this fall. Except… The Bulldogs from Ruston, Louisiana remain in a legal “dog house” with their long-time partner, Conference USA. Until that issue is solved in the courthouse or out in the hallways with a big sack of cash, Louisiana Tech’s predicament has other members of the Sunbelt Conference twiddling their thumbs waiting for a final resolution. The Sunbelt Conference currently has 14 members. Seven schools are in the Eastern Conference and seven are currently in the West. However, Texas State is bolting for the Mountain West after baseball season ends. That leaves just six teams in the West if Louisiana Tech is unable to work out a suitable exit deal with Conference USA soon. The Sunbelt Conference wants to avoid having an “unbalanced” schedule in 2026 with seven East teams and only six in the West if Louisiana Tech doesn’t come aboard this fall. What a mess! How did we get here? On July 15, 2025, a big celebration in Ruston was held announcing that Louisiana Tech was moving from Conference USA to the Sunbelt Conference no later than the fall of 2027. The expectation was (and still is) that a deal could be reached with Conference USA which would allow Louisiana Tech to begin Sunbelt play this fall in 2026. As of today, neither Conference USA nor the Sunbelt Conference have released their 2026 football schedules. That’s because no one knows where Louisiana Tech will be playing football and other sports beginning this fall. The Bulldogs joined Conference USA in 2013. This rather far-flung conference was considered (at the time) to be a good fit. Prominent C-USA members in 2013 included UAB, Florida Atlantic, Marshall University, UNC-Charlotte, North Texas, Rice University, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, and UT-San Antonio. Every one of those nine schools has vacated C-USA in the past four years to join either the American Athletic Conference or the Sunbelt Conference. The University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) will become yet another major defection from C-USA beginning this fall. The Miners (members of Conference USA since 2005) are joining the Mountain West Conference (like Texas State of the Sunbelt Conference). Why did all of those teams leave C-USA? The television and media revenue offered by other conferences was substantially more than Conference USA’s most recent media contract to pay to its member schools. A majority of Louisiana Tech’s athletic supporters are ready to skedaddle from Conference USA’s geographically expansive league as quickly as possible. C-USA has added schools in recent years such as Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia – 1,000 miles from Ruston, LA) and the University of Delaware (1,321 miles each way from Ruston). Joining the Sunbelt Conference will allow Louisiana Tech to renew regional rivalries with UL-Monroe (35 miles via I-20), UL-Lafayette (185 miles south of Ruston), and even Southern Miss (240 miles to the southeast in Hattiesburg). The travel savings for Louisiana Tech (along with the other Sunbelt schools) will be substantial across all sports. But… Athletic conferences and member schools sign long-term affiliation contracts which require a minimum notice period along with a hefty exit fee to allow the school to leave before the primary term ends. A payment of several million dollars for early termination is likely required for Louisiana Tech to leave Conference USA. With so many other universities bolting from Conference USA in recent years, the conference has pocketed millions in early exit fees. They should be able to afford the finest attorneys to protect their best interests in court, if necessary. The other teams’ departures have left Louisiana Tech as one of C-USA’s top remaining draws. Conference USA appears to have no financial incentive to budge when it comes to allowing Louisiana Tech out of its contract. The Bulldogs’ departure could significantly diminish the current media value of Conference USA’s contract with its TV partners. C-USA signed a five-year media deal with CBS Sports Network and ESPN beginning in the fall of 2023. That new media deal was signed around the same time that three former C-USA members (Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss) negotiated their own early exit deal to join the Sunbelt Conference in 2023. What if Conference USA’s current media deal calls for a payment reduction if one of its primary institutions (such as Louisiana Tech) left during the term of that contrac

In case you slept through it, a predawn lunar eclipse occurred at 5:38AM CST this morning (Tuesday, March 3). The “Worm Moon” (as dubbed by the astronomy community) is a nod to earthworms which tend to emerge from the ground at this time of year during winter thawing. Anyone living south of I-20 knows a thing or two about thawing of late. Air conditioners here in the deep South have also emerged from hibernation after a recent wave of 80+ degree temperatures – even before the end of February. As can happen during these full moon events, the weekend featured a number of rather unusual sports stories. Women’s half-marathon in Atlanta ended with a surprise finish Sunday’s women’s Half Marathon Championship in Atlanta provided a lead vehicle in front of the leaders pack. These are commonly used for races in major cities. With a little more than one mile to go in the race, the top three women runners followed such a vehicle. Unfortunately, it led the top trio off the race course and down the wrong street! The other runners in the field quickly noted the error, made the proper turn, and proceeded on toward the finish line. The confused race leader needed about 60 seconds to notice that she was running the wrong way. She and the other two leaders quickly made a U-turn. Those unfortunate detour required almost two minutes in order to return to the original course route. By then, the confused trio of competitors would complete the race in 9th, 12th and 13th place. The top prize of $20,000 went to another runner. This threesome of wayward runners filed an immediate protest afterwards. It was denied. Officials claimed that the entry form clearly required each runner to know the race layout prior to the start of the competition. What about that lead vehicle? Ironically, the vehicle was provided by the host city’s Atlanta Track Club. Driving in a big city like Atlanta can be challenging, but that was downright embarrassing. USC’s 26-year old (!) top scoring basketball player is no longer with the team The 18-11 USC Trojans men’s basketball team has lost five straight games. After the team’s weekend loss to #12 Nebraska, USC announced that its 19 point-per game starting forward was no longer with the team. Chad Baker-Mazara went down with an apparent injury early in the second half of Southern Cal’s 82-67 home loss to the surprising Cornhuskers on Saturday. Instead of sitting down on the team’s bench, the 6’7” basketball player was found sitting in the stands near the bench between a young lady and another injured teammate. The trio was seen having a delightful chat during the second half of USC’s fifth straight loss. USC has fallen from a likely NCAA March Madness selection to a team unlikely to make the field unless they win the upcoming Big Ten basketball tournament. Second year coach Eric Musselman was unaware of the severity of Chad Baker-Mazara’s injury during the game other than the trainer telling the coach, “He couldn’t go.” Chad Baker-Mazara is from the Dominican Republic. He has played collegiately for Duquesne (Pittsburgh), San Diego State, Northwest Florida State, Auburn (2023-2025) and at USC this season. He has a history of being rather temperamental on and off the court. The 26-year old Baker-Mazara was listed as a graduate student at Southern Cal. However, he was drafted in late January by a professional basketball league based in Puerto Rico. Perhaps he’s had enough of those tough grad school courses at age 26 to get that degree. Famed “Bear Trap” snared PGA golfer Shane Lowry in Sunday’s final round The 15th, 16th, and 17th holes at PGA National’s Champion course are well known to professional golfers. Called “The Bear Trap” to honor course designer Jack “The Golden Bear” Nicklaus, this trio of holes is among the most difficult on the PGA Tour. Add a stiff Florida ocean breeze and carding a par on each of those three holes is considered a big success. The 2019 British Open champion Shane Lowry was atop the leaderboard by two shots coming into the infamous “Bear Trap” holes at the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach, Florida Sunday. Lowry made a par 3 on the 15th hole to retain his lead. At the par-4 16th hole, Shane Lowry’s tee shot drifted to the right and splashed down into the adjacent lake. A double bogey six tightened the match and allowed his playing competitors back into the game. The final “Bear Trap” obstacle was the treacherous par-3 17th hole. With mounting pressure and gusting winds, Shane Lowry’s tee shot again drifted right and sank to the bottom of a lake. That second consecutive double bogey also sank Lowry’s chances to win the golf tournament. Columbia’s Nico Echavarria held steady and gladly accepted his good fortune to claim a victory and paycheck of more than $1.7 million. Shane Lowry finished in a tie for second place. His payday of $726,000 was one million doll

Football season is over, so it’s time to catch-up on this year’s basketball action. I have followed basketball ever since I could read the box scores. That said, I must admit that my interest in the National Basketball Association has been waning over the past few decades. Perhaps it is a lingering 23-year bout of “LeBron James Syndrome.” The King (of flopping) is still playing hoops for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 41. Incredibly, LeBron James is scoring 21 points per game during his 23rd NBA season. Will this guy EVER retire? The defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder is still leading the Western Conference. A vastly-improved San Antonio Spurs team is in hot pursuit and only two games back. The NBA Eastern Conference finds the (gasp!) Detroit Pistons leading the Boston Celtics by 5 ½ games. However, a growing number of losing teams are now trying to out-lose each other in order to finish with the coveted last place title. Welcome to tanking – the NBA regular season soap opera’s not-so-new problem A general definition of the term “tanking” is to intentionally field a noncompetitive team in order to take advantage of league rules which benefit the team losing the most games. In the NBA, the biggest loser generally has the most likely chance to select #1 in the annual player draft. The current system utilizes a weighted average format with the worst of the 14 non-playoff teams having the best chance to receive the top pick. Unlike football or baseball, basketball has just five starting players. Adding the top college basketball player might be enough to help your team become an immediate playoff contender. The NBA’s defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder “tanked” for three years (2021-2023). By making some solid draft picks and a few nifty player trades, OKC is positioned to be a top team for several years to come. Once Oklahoma City transitioned from nearly worst to first, others are following the playbook. Case #1 – this year’s Detroit Pistons Detroit finished at or near the bottom of the NBA’s Eastern Conference for five consecutive years from 2020 through 2024. The team’s lousy record earned the Pistons a number one choice (Cade Cunningham in 2021) plus the #5 pick three times and the #7 overall selection once. This year’s Detroit Pistons are now in first place in the NBA East with a 43-14 record. Cade Cunningham averages 25 points per game and is an NBA All-Star. Three of the team’s other four high draft selections are averaging about ten points per game for Detroit. Was it worth finishing near the bottom for several years to, perhaps, move to the top of the standings down the road? Case #2 – The San Antonio Spurs The five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs also went “all in” on tanking from 2022 through 2024. They finished at the bottom of the NBA’s Western Conference in 2023 and earned the #1 overall selection. San Antonio’s talented 7’4” center Victor Wembanyama is now in his third season and averages 24 points and 12 rebounds per game. He was the top pick in 2023 and has helped transform a woeful Spurs team into a contender in just two years. San Antonio also struck gold with 2024’s #4 overall selection, Stephon Castle. The talented guard is averaging 17 points per game in his second NBA season. The rest of the NBA is copying Detroit and San Antonio with excessive tanking Nearly one third of the NBA’s teams are trying to lose games at a record pace this season. Winning even one basketball game can reduce your team’s chances to finish with a bad enough record to “win” a top NBA pick in June. There’s even a website called “Tankathon.com” dedicated to providing the daily odds of each NBA team trying losing its way to receive the #1 overall draft pick. Today’s stats showed that the leader (worst team in the NBA) is Sacramento (13-46). The Kings have dropped nine of their last ten games. Woo hoo – nice job, Sacto! In hot pursuit of the Kings are the Indiana Pacers (15-44) and Brooklyn Nets (15-42). Both of those NBA teams have lost eight of their last ten games. That’s just not good enough to be #1, guys! The woeful Washington Wizards sit in fourth place today at 16-41 with the New Orleans Pelicans perched right behind at 17-42. The Pelicans’ coach may be in big trouble, though. His team has actually won two games in a row! The Utah Jazz are trying to get into the mix for the #1 pick by fading fast, too. They have an 18-40 record today but are on a three-game losing streak. Lose, Jazz, lose! Be careful what you wish for That group of NBA teams is hoping their fans will fantasize about having the top pick in the annual player draft in June. Historically speaking, the majority of these overall #1 choices will have a fairly productive NBA career. A few even blossom into NBA All-Stars. Unfortunately, most #1 overall selections do not lead their teams into the NB

Many of you have already cut the cord from your longtime cable television provider. I wrote about my evaluation of doing this back in 2023. Giving up a security blanket called cable television has been hard to do. In 2023, I successfully negotiated a cheaper overall rate by agreeing to a multi-year fixed price deal with our cable television and internet service provider. We could have opted to switch to an internet-based television provider at the time. The price difference came out to less than $10/month to switch. My wife and I agreed that the hassles probably weren’t worth $10 per month – yet. Three years later, it was time to go to bat with the same large cable television and internet service provider. This time, the outcome would be different. We have enjoyed a three decade love/hate business relationship You may have seen a number of advertisements for our current cable/internet provider during the Winter Olympic games. While watching the women’s US Olympic curling team lose the Bronze medal to the evil Canucks the other night, my wife and I saw the company’s promotional ad several times. It proudly proclaimed, “$50/month for 5 years of 1 GB internet service. No price increases. No contract required!” That’s funny. The same company has been charging us $99 per month for the same level of service. Why are they offering such a deep discount to newbies? Talk about bad timing. The cable/internet company had just mailed the February bill to us late last week. It contained a big 20% surprise! The company raised our bill by $36.17 per month for our combined cable television/internet package (125 TV channels plus their “Superspeed” internet service). Our former bill was $182.33 per month. The new bill amounted to $218.50 per month. There were no added services. Hey, that’s almost 20% more? What is going on here?!!! Our cable television package has zero add-ons for premium movies or sports packages. Just the 125+ channel tier has been fine for us. The menu of cable television services offered by this national provider has relatively few (five as of today) bundled packages at various price points. Their so-called basic package isn’t cheap and generally provides an assortment of local channels. No, thanks! That’s why I bought my $29 Phillips plug-in antenna (for use as a back-up to watch local TV stations when needed). The next price level had been our current 125-channel line-up. My wife was happy with her favorite channels like Food Network, HGTV, and a few movie options such as USA, Freeform, and AMC. Her sports-nut husband generally watches ESPN, Golf Channel, and a few others from his 10′ x 10′ SwampSwami SportsCave in the back portion of the house. It’s OK to laugh and call me cheap. I prefer being called “fiscally prudent” with respect to our monthly entertainment expenditures. We played this same game exactly three years ago We took a hard look at our options in 2023 after a similar price hike surprised us by the same folks. Here’s a link to that story. First, we decided to get rid of one of the two cable “boxes” and saved $14/month. A $49 Roku stick on the TV back in my SportsCave allowed me to watch the same cable television offerings via our wireless internet. We had already purchased our own internet modem ($150) to jettison another of their monthly rental fees. It paid out in less than a year. When I was finally able to bargain to lock-in a multi-year pricing deal in 2023, the net price increase came to less than $10 month. We opted to stick around – and watch. Your cable company will pass along the higher prices of ESPN and others Some television pirates like ESPN have spent billions in the past decade bidding-up the cost of sports to maintain a dominant market position. They are quite aware that the vast majority of us sports-addicted viewers are likely to pay the higher tab. I get it. You must also step back and evaluate your purchasing habits at times, too. Economics 201 would define this as the Elasticity of Demand. At some price point, people will reject your product and walk away. Grocery and utility prices have gone up. They are passing along the incremental costs of doing business. Customers have to make some hard choices. Watching your wife shiver on the sofa during winter because her cheapskate husband wants to keep the thermostat at 68 degrees is not easy. Are those tears or icicles coming from her eyes? I no longer purchase as much of the now-$9/pound lean hamburger or my favorite hot chocolate mix anymore to save a few bucks. Tonight, it’s red beans and rice Monday at our house. Anyone from New Orleans knows that the dish is a local tradition borne out of economic necessity. We used to add smoked sausage to our Monday mixture years ago. Alas, not anymore. Perhaps my waistline should send a thank-you note to our local grocer for pricing us out of few items which I loved to consume. Time for the lat

News of this week’s passing of former University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) basketball star Dwight “Bo” Lamar sparked a lot of memories. Lamar was 74 and passed away at a nursing home in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. College basketball in Louisiana when Lamar played during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was filled with dominant scorers and very little defense. The word “defense” seemed to have been banned during this period. Explosive offense had become the name of the game. This brief period was defined by expert marksmanship and crowd-pleasing showmanship. The high scoring antics of college basketball players like LSU’s “Pistol” Pete Maravich and the University of Houston’s “Big E” Elvin Hayes (born in Rayville, Louisiana) captured the imagination of fans. Less than an hour west of Pistol Pete Maravich and LSU, Bo Lamar and the USL Ragin’ Cajuns were entertaining fans in front of packed basketball arenas, too. Lamar was a virtual basketball scoring machine for the Ragin’ Cajuns from 1969-1973. He averaged 31.2 points per game over his entire four-year college basketball career. A first-team All-American as a senior, he was joined on that squad by future basketball Hall-of-Famers Bill Walton of UCLA and David Thompson of North Carolina State. The 6’2” Bo Lamar had one of the best jump shots I have ever seen. He elevated off the floor with ease and then lofted up a high arcing shot from long-distance. This came nearly 20 years before college basketball would adopt the three-point shot. He would have averaged over 40 points per game with today’s three-point line. Bo Lamar glided down the basketball court with ease in leading USL’s frantic fast breaks. He bombed-in a school-record 62 points during a game against Northeast Louisiana University (now UL-Monroe). Scoreboards routinely registered more than 100 points during Ragin’ Cajun basketball games in this era. A 1984 Louisiana Sports Hall-of-Fame inductee, Bo Lamar opted to play professional basketball for the ABA’s San Diego Conquistadors in 1973. He scored 50 points in one game during his rookie year while averaging nearly 21 points per game. After several years in the pro ranks, Lamar later became part of the radio broadcast team for Ragin’ Cajuns basketball games. Mike Green at Louisiana Tech became one of Bo Lamar’s biggest foes If you have watched current NBA star Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets, he looks and plays like a modern version of former Louisiana Tech basketball star, Mike Green. The 6’10” Green played for the Bulldogs from 1969-1974. Mike Green was listed as a center but possessed an incredible outside shooting touch to stretch the opposing defenses. Like Bo Lamar at USL, Green was a prolific college basketball scorer. He averaged 31 points per game as a senior at Louisiana Tech. Add a 15.4 rebounds per game career average, and you understand why Mike Green earned the AP’s Small College Player of the Year award in 1973. He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall-of-Fame in 1996. A friend of mine attended Louisiana Tech in 1971 during the Mike Green basketball era. He recalled a highly anticipated home game against high-scoring Bo Lamar and the nationally ranked Ragin’ Cajuns. Fans lined up for hours hoping to gain entrance to watch this game. Mike Green scored 22 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, and blocked numerous shots as the Bulldogs raced to 103-94 win at Tech’s Memorial Gymnasium. Future Louisiana Tech Hall-of-Fame women’s basketball coach Leon Barmore also witnessed that encounter. He recalled, “It was the greatest game ever at Louisiana Tech – bar none!” While he was a sophomore, Mike Green’s Louisiana Tech team averaged 101 points per game for the entire season. Defense? What defense? Mike Green passed away in 2018 at the age of 67. Time to celebrate Centenary College center Robert Parish! Shreveport’s 7’1” center Robert Parish took Louisiana’s top college basketball player baton from Bo Lamar and Mike Green during the early 1970’s. Robert Parish played high school basketball in the late 1960’s during a difficult time when federal integration mandates forced some schools to close. Parish and his fellow Union High School students suddenly found themselves being bussed to nearby Woodlawn High School. Though this period caused angst for both students and teachers, Woodlawn’s basketball team morphed into a state powerhouse with the addition of talented center Robert Parish. He led Shreveport’s Woodlawn High School to the Class 4A state basketball title as a senior in 1972. Parish was named a national high school All-American. To the dismay of national college recruiters, Robert Parish chose to stay in Shreveport and attend Centenary College. As a freshman, Parish lined-up to play in one game against Louisiana Tech’s talented senior big man Mike G

Last weekend featured several of professional golf’s “Welcome back!” celebrations. PGA Tour star Collin Morikawa braved 30 mph winds at the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links in California on Sunday to earn his first title in 2 ½ years. It was Morikawa’s seventh career PGA Tour victory. Shreveport’s 59-year old David Toms won for the first time in nearly three years at the PGA Champions Tour event in lovely (but windy) Naples, Florida. It was DT’s fifth win on the senior circuit to go with his 13 wins on the PGA Tour. But neither of these two stories can compare with what LIV Golf’s Anthony Kim accomplished over the weekend. Kim had not won a professional golf tournament in nearly 16 years since capturing the Shell Houston Open on April 4, 2010. The magic returned…5,976 days later After literally giving up professional golf for more than a decade, Anthony Kim’s wife and young daughter Bella have served as his inspiration to give the game one more try. LIV Golf’s then-chief Greg Norman invited Anthony Kim back to compete for a permanent spot on the LIV Golf tour in 2024. His comeback didn’t go well at first. Kim finished 56th out of 59 golfers at season’s end. His best tournament finish was in 36th place. That wasn’t exactly a stellar return for the three-time PGA title holder. Anthony Kim had to win a spot in LIV’s 2025 field by placing high enough in the tour’s qualifying tournament. After making the tour again in 2025, Kim finished the year as #55 of the 61 LIV golfers. His best finish was a tie for 25th place. For a second straight year, Anthony Kim had to earn his 2026 spot in LIV Golf by performing well in the qualifying tournament. He did. The first LIV Golf event in 2026 was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Anthony Kim posted his best finish in his two seasons on the LIV Golf tour with a tie for 22nd place. His final round six-under par 66 In Saudi Arabia may have lit the fuse on what was going to happen the following week in Australia. LIV Golf’s second stop was the very popular annual event in Adelaide. As Aussie golf fans cheered for countryman Cam Smith and his Ripper GC golf team, unheralded Anthony Kim came out the gate with opening rounds of -5, -5, and -4 to move into third place going into the final round. If that wasn’t enough pressure to make 40-year old Anthony Kim nervous, he was paired in the final round with former World #1 golfer Jon Rahm and long-hitting two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau. Anthony Kim knew that it would take a terrific final round to beat these two young golf phenoms. After opening with three straight pars, Kim then birdied nine of the next 14 holes to zoom past his two competitors and take the tournament lead. He would finish at 23-under par to win by three shots over Spain’s Jon Rahm. The 9-under par closing round of 63 earned Anthony Kim his first professional golf victory since April, 2010. Why has it taken nearly 16 years for Anthony Kim to win again? Success came early and often for talented young golfer Anthony Kim. After three successful years playing college golf at the University of Oklahoma, Kim qualified to play on the PGA Tour in 2006 at age 21. Two years later, he won two PGA events in 2008 and earned a spot on the victorious US Ryder Cup team. Anthony Kim would add a third PGA victory in April, 2010 at the Shell Houston Open. He wasn’t quite 25 years of age and was already ranked among the world’s top 20 golfers. Kim injured one of his thumbs and had surgery one month after his 2010 victory in Houston. He was unable to play golf for several months. An Achilles tendon injury then put Anthony Kim on the shelf for much of the year 2012. He received a medical exemption from the PGA Tour in 2013 during his physical rehabilitation period. The year 2014 brought the surprising announcement from Anthony Kim that he was no longer playing golf – even for fun. Golf fans were perplexed as to how one of the game’s brightest young stars could literally fall off the map so quickly. The rumor mill added dark stories about Anthony Kim’s off-the-course personal issues. Another circled about Kim trying to collect upwards of $20 million from a disability insurance policy after his run of significant injuries. Kim would later say that he had been victimized by some “bad people” during this time of his life. He also admitted to having an addictive personality and sought professional counseling. He claims to be sober for three years as of February, 2026. Anthony Kim’s wife Emily has been at the center of the golfer’s return to the top There’s nothing like having your wife suggest that she wants to learn how to play golf to inspire Anthony Kim to give the game another go himself. While mentoring wife Emily Kim, the process rekindled a renewed interest in playing golf by the talented husband. After more than ten years without golf in his lif

***Special thanks to KEEL Radio’s Erin McCarty and Mike Martindale; to Tony Taglavore (shreveportbossierjournal.com) for his excellent 2024 feature story about Larry Ryan, and to Twin Blends: Northwest Louisiana History Hunters’ Facebook page for a few photos in today’s story. I had the pleasure of working as a part-time announcer for Larry Ryan nearly 50 years ago. During the early 1960’s, Larry Ryan may have heard the phrase “You’re fired!” more times than cartoon’s George Jetson did from his boss, Mr. Spacely. The young radio announcer had bounced around from one radio market to another in search of a few extra dollars per week. This 26-year old disk jockey was offered a $25/week raise to move to Shreveport, Louisiana and begin working the evening shift at Top 40 radio station KEEL 710AM in 1964. For more than 60 years, Shreveport, Bossier City and Ark-La-Tex region have embraced “Lovable” Larry Ryan and his immense radio creativity and talent. Last Friday, Ryan’s most recent Shreveport radio station employer (which played “The Greatest Hits of All Time” oldies format) abruptly advised him and his morning crew that their long-time popular morning show was being canceled. Effective immediately. The FM station was recently acquired by a new owner. They wanted to go in a different direction with their 6-9AM morning show. Though it had been awhile, Larry Ryan was quite familiar with hearing that line again. Today, Larry Ryan’s first radio station employer in Shreveport brought him back on the air to provide him with a very dignified way to say, “Good bye” to his legions of loyal radio listeners. The final hour of Wednesday’s News/Talk 710 KEEL morning show featuring Erin McCarty and Mike Martindale was filled with tributes to the area’s radio broadcasting legend. Shreveport mayor Tom Arceneaux and Bossier City mayor Tommy Chandler each read proclamations making it “Larry Ryan Day” in both cities (February 11, 2026). How did Iowa native Larry Ryan become so beloved in Shreveport, LA? Larry Ryan is a native of Marshalltown, Iowa – just northeast of Des Moines. After a one year stint at what is now Northern Iowa University, he joined the Air Force. If he thought it was cold in Iowa during the winter, Larry Ryan found himself stationed in frigid Minot, North Dakota. That’s when he knew it was time to leave the Air Force and find a real job. He would become a radio announcer (DJ, if you prefer) who worked at stations in Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, and Virginia prior to receiving an offer to work the evening shift at AM powerhouse KEEL Radio in Shreveport. Larry reminded listeners today that he also brought along his long-time girlfriend, Suzy. They were married in Marshall, Texas upon his arrival in Shreveport. More about Suzy Ryan in a bit. Larry Ryan’s evening show became a huge hit with the younger audience. He interacted with callers, had fun doing creative “live” spots for sponsors, and even created funny comedy song features such as “Hide The Booze” (performed to the instrumental version of “The Can-Can Song”). It wasn’t long before Larry Ryan was promoted to become KEEL’s morning show host. The 50,000 watt daytime signal of KEEL AM stretches from Texarkana to the north and southward through northeastern Texas and western and central Louisiana down I-49 to Lafayette. “Lovable” Larry Ryan’s morning show beginning in the mid-1960’s featured Top 40 rock and roll hits along with topics of local interest. Talented radio newsmen like Ken Booth and Scott Hodges, syndicated commentator Paul Harvey, and a very unlikely local weatherman added more flavor to this increasingly popular show. This morning, Larry recounted that KEEL’s morning newsman Ken Booth did not like being asked to read the weather at the end of his local newscasts. KEEL’s co-located FM affiliate KMBQ was playing automated reel-to-reel tapes of beautiful music. Larry quickly grabbed the FM station’s young audio operator named Ralph Montgomery and said, “Get in here! I want you to come read the weather on the air for me – now!” Ryan introduced his nervous and totally unprepared 6:05AM weather man to KEEL’s massive audience. “And now…the effervescent…Mr. Weather!” Ralph Montgomery somehow made it through that first weather forecast and won a 50+year radio co-hosting role alongside of Larry Ryan. Mr. Weather’s unique sense of humor always seemed to tickle Larry’s funny bone. It was pure radio magic Larry Ryan & Mr. Weather became the foundation for KEEL’s incredible radio ratings success for the next decade. KEEL’s morning show captured an unheard-of 50% of the total radio audience as both youngsters and their parents were fans of the show. Larry became KEEL’s program director and hired a number of extremely talented on-air personalities to work at other times of the day. Howard C

Watching Sunday’s NFL title game has become one of my least favorite major sports events of the year. You must credit the NFL for making fans wait for two full weeks for the season finale to be played. This brilliant marketing move allows word-of-mouth to spread to the once-per-year viewers who just show-up to watch the commercials and enjoy a party. Those of us season-long football fans are ready to get this final game of the year over with. The pro football season continues to be stretched out longer and longer. Rest assured that football season will eventually shrink if demand falls. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots had exceptional regular seasons with identical 14-3 records. Unfortunately for Patriots fans, their favorite team’s offense was as cold as the weather back east in Boston last weekend. Seattle toyed with New England throughout the first half like a kitten batting around a ball of yarn. A 3-0 first quarter Seattle lead became an equally boring 9-0 halftime advantage for the Seahawks. Sunday’s third quarter likely put many to sleep. Seattle’s kicker Jason Myers added his fourth field goal of the game. Wowee! It was 12-0 heading into the final 15 minutes of the NFL season. At least New England punter Bryce Barringer had the chance to say “Hi, Mom!” as he punted an incredible eight times in the first three quarters. This game was played in perfect weather conditions in Santa Clara, California. Yawn. Some of us tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists put forth that the NFL has exposed a rather interesting “fourth quarter” trend. Nearly every playoff game played this season had an explosion of points coming in the fourth quarter of play. Why has that been happening? Sunday’s season finale was no exception. This game’s final quarter produced (gasp!) 30 points between these two sleepy combatants. Seattle was never in jeopardy of losing the lead during the final quarter. The Seahawks completed a touchdown pass to open-up a 19-0 lead on the hapless Patriots. New England’s passing game finally awakened long enough to produce two late touchdowns after this game was effectively over. Final score: Seattle 29, New England 13 Seattle’s “Dark Side Defense” deserved the MVP The Seahawks’ defense appeared to know New England’s offensive playbook as well as the Patriots did. Blitz after blitz sacked New England’s 23-year old second year quarterback Drake Maye. He was taken down six times, hurried on nearly every throw, had two interceptions, and lost a critical fumble. Seattle’s defense literally threw the kitchen sink at Drake Maye on Sunday. They suffocated New England’s running game, too. The team’s quarterback ran for his life for 37 yards to lead all New England rushers Sunday evening. Seahawks’ running back Kenneth Walker III had a tremendous game with 135 yards on the ground. His backfield dance moves should earn him an invitation to the next season of “Dancing with the Stars”. Walker’s running ability provided some of the only excitement during the first three quarters of this rather boring football game. Walker received the game’s MVP award. It’s a shame that the Seattle defense couldn’t receive this award as a group. New England Patriots – Were they simply lucky to have made it this far? Many are pointing out that New England’s 2025 regular season schedule was loaded with weaker teams. The Patriots played 12 of their 17 regular season games against teams which would post a losing record in 2025. New England finished with a stellar 14-3 record after going 4-13 just a year ago. The Patriots’ excellent defense carried this team into the NFL title game. New England allowed just three points (at home vs. the Chargers), 16 points (home vs. the Texans) and only seven at Denver in three playoff games leading up to Sunday’s NFL title game. This year’s group of AFC playoff teams were, being generous, offensively-challenged. Top-seeded Denver’s defense carried the Broncos all season long. The Houston Texans had a terrific year – on defense. Jacksonville’s surprising season was also led by a better-than-expected defense. It didn’t matter which team emerged from the AFC to face Seattle on Sunday. The Seahawks had a defense capable of clobbering any AFC contender this year and just enough offense to win. That was Seattle’s simple recipe for victory all season long. Is Seattle a dynasty in the making or was this just one great season? Don’t forget that the Los Angeles Rams gave the Seattle Seahawks a run for the NFC West title all year long. The banged-up San Francisco 49ers also gave the Seahawks and the Rams a run for the money. All three NFC West competitors made it into the second round of the playoffs. Seattle finished 14-3 in the regular season. They played just eight teams with losing records this year. The Seahawks’ defense was alre