Time to dance.

Let’s hit it!

 

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The roundup:

Joel Embiid remains a gem. Here he is doing shoulder presses before the game in LA (where he met with doctors) from reader Mike:

And then he dropped in on Jessica Cammarato’s live hit:

How does she not ask about his health here?

And then with Molly Sullivan and Dario:

Consider that Embiid likely has a ROY bonus coming to him if he wins. What a guy.

 

It’s that time of year again… when Jim Boeheim finds something to bitch about.

 

I am TICKLED that Phil Martelli’s and Fran Dunphy’s new March role is being Nova pontificators for local media. Behold– cucks:

Hehehe. I NEED IT:

I can NOT get enough of this. Martelli is the Cosell to Jay’s Ali. I move if Nova wins the National Championship again for the parade to be held on 76 and for it to go past the St. Joe’s exit. Martelli will have no choice but to give up the fraternal jig and absolutely lose his shit.

Few things on CSN’s Facebook Live tournament special: While I applaud the social media video to #targetmillennials, why not also put this on TV? They were airing some Wilt bullshit while this was happening on Facebook. They surely could’ve done a live show AT NOVA, gotten a few interviews, talked to the actual coach playing in the tournament, and re-run it half a dozen times over the next 24 hours. Easy-peasy. Rather, we get Frankenstein and Dunph on stools with Amy Fadool shot at an uncomfortable angle for all involved. And I’m not talking about Amy’s skirt– I’m talking about Martelli’s equator. Meanwhile, poor Sarah Baicker was relegated to storage B and left to mumble something about a stapler. All that’s missing was a #CSNSweater.

 

In things CSN did well, Comcast-NBCSports multi-pronged documentary, Tomboy, represented some welcomed original content from the network. They held a symposium of sorts last week:

Golf clap.

 

Hard to argue with this. I like Malvern-Villanova guy Dunphy, but at what point do we start to question if he’s a good coach? Temple has gone backwards under his stewardship. And if there was ever a cautionary tale about blowing money on a football stadium in North Philly, it would be Dunphy’s inability to turn a more respectable program (their basketball team) into any sort of big-time competitor and fill his arena.

I know I’m all over the place here, but here’s the perfect argument for why a football stadium would never work for Temple: The “if you build it, they will come” trope rings hollow. Consider that, for basketball, Villanova is able to draw 18k+ to the Wells Fargo Center on their own. Yet, when they play at Temple, two local fan bases can’t fill the 10k-seat Liacouras Center. The only explanation is that NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. You think the football program would be able to draw 35k against lackluster competition? Come on.

 

CSN has your March Madness watching guide with an eye towards the NBA draft.

 

Doug Gottlieb remains an asshole:

 

The Ringer’s Mark Titus also thinks Villanova (and Wisconsin) got screwed with potential second round matchup:

Team that got screwed (OK, this one was by the committee): Wisconsin. This was the biggest shock of the bracket and something that will never make sense to me no matter how many times it’s explained. I know the Badgers aren’t great and that the Big Ten isn’t either, but this 25–9 squad getting a no. 8 seed is so ridiculous that I can only assume it’s selection committee chairman and Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis’s payback against Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez for Alvarez shitting in his shoe or something at a Big Ten meeting. And not only do the Badgers have a no. 8 seed — if they survive their first-round matchup against Virginia Tech, they’ll have to play no. 1 overall seed and defending national champ Villanova in the second round. Oof.

…

These are two preseason top-10 teams led by seniors. They’re two teams that have recently competed in national title games. They’re also two teams that play at ploddingly slow tempos. One team (Wisconsin) has a devastating big man in Ethan Happ, while the other (Villanova) barely has a big man at all. One team (Villanova) has athletic guards who have been unstoppable all season, while the other (Wisconsin), um, doesn’t. THIS. IS. MARCH.

More from Titus:

The media wet-dream scenario: We could conceivably get Sweet 16 matchups of Jay Wright against Tony Bennett (battle of the dreamboat head coaches!) and SMU against Duke (the Mustangs’ leading scorer and best player is Semi Ojeleye, who transferred from Duke in December 2014). More importantly, we could get an Elite Eight showdown between Villanova (defending champions, no. 1 overall seed) and Duke (champions from two years ago, preseason no. 1 team) in Madison Square Garden — THE MECCA OF BASKETBALL — with a trip to the Final Four on the line. If reading that doesn’t make you rock f’ing hard, I’m sorry to say that you probably don’t have a future covering college basketball for a living.

I’m cumming.

 

NASCAR fight!

 

Donald Trump’s former campaign advisor is taking consulting fees to help businesses avoid incurring the wrath of the president in a tweetstorm. That is BANANAS and not at all crooked. Nope, not at all.

 

Villanova is leaving early to avoid the snowstorm:

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I like this– get away from the distractions that come with being the top overall seed. Those rival city coaches are just vultures in their thirst for dedicated coverage.

 

Richard Deitsch on the much improved selection show:

When you listen to your audience, good things can happen. CBS Sports was rightfully excoriated last year for committing the cardinal sin of alienating its audience by extending the bracket reveal for far too long. The first bracket was revealed 20 minutes in and more than one hour into the show, at the 62-minute mark, viewers finally began to learn the second half of the bracket. When host Greg Gumbel read off the final teams in the tournament, Seton Hall and Gonzaga, viewers had waited 77 minutes for the completed bracket. Wars have been completed in less time. It was the lowest-rated Selection Show since at least 1995.

The network changed course on Sunday—as they said they would—and everyone was rewarded. The first bracket was revealed two minutes into the show and the first half of the bracket was completed in a little over 20 minutes. Viewers had ¾ of the bracket by the 30-minute mark. The entire bracket was revealed by 6:07 p.m, when Maryland and Xavier were announced. That was 37 minutes in. Bravo.

No argument here– CBS skipped the foreplay and got right to sex of declaring Nova the top overall seed.

 

Guy recreates great NCAA Tournament shots:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hit Kris Jenkins’ shot at the gym. If you don’t think I listen to upbeat pop music and shoot “for the championship…” at least three times per week, you’re kidding yourself. But don’t think I didn’t notice this guy changed the end of the Butler game.

 

FiveThirtyEight’s March Madness prediction is live, and Nova is favored to win, but with only a 15% chance. Gonzaga is second at 14%.

 

MLS in Minnesota is good:

 

The Phillies’ Jorge Alfaro hit a bomb in the World Baseball classic and nailed the celebration:

 

And the Phils traded for a pitcher who can throw with both hands.

 

Pro Football Talk said the Eagles offered Malcolm Jenkins and multiple picks for Brandin Cooks. People aren’t buying it.

 

New birds new numbers:

 

When your son makes the big dance, you gotta….well, dance:

 

Dario Saric’s mom has been hanging around while her son crushes it.

 

When you want more playing time and you’re a backup catcher, there’s just one thing to do.

 

Just a slight breeze:

 

David Murphy went in on the Alshon Jeffery signing, which is a thing to do I guess:

The reality is, if the Eagles do not see significant improvement out of an offense that ranked 16th in points per game and 28th in yards per play, they will not only have wasted a year, but they will have done so at the expense of future seasons. Remember, NFL teams can carry any unused salary-cap space into the next season. It’s part of the reason teams have so much cash to spend this free-agent signing period. It’s why the Browns could afford to take on Brock Osweiler’s salary in exchange for a draft pick. The Eagles didn’t just decide that Jeffery was the best they could get out of $9.5 million this offseason, they decided it was better than anything they might have been able to spend it on in future offseasons, too.

Jim: I mean, he’s basically saying it’s risky paying a good receiver because you might have to pay him what he’s worth? That seems like a really dumb argument:

No matter how well Jeffery plays, the Eagles will not have helped themselves beyond this season, because however well he plays is however well they’ll have to pay him beyond this year. If he catches 150 passes for 2,500 yards, he’ll want to be paid like someone who catches 150 passes and 2,500 yards, and the Eagles will have to decide if they want to pay him like that or let him walk. The only potential for value is in 2017. If he is a complete bust, they’ll have wasted $9.5 million of cap space they could have used next season, or at another position.

In that case, we better hope he stinks.

 

Bob Brookover on Howie Roseman’s offensive line obsession:

There’s no denying that the Eagles, under Roseman, spend a lot more time and money on the offensive line than not only Chip Kelly during his brief tenure as head personnel man, but also most of the NFL. The Eagles, for example, are the only team in the NFL that has four of its five starting linemen among the top 10 paid at their position. According to the contract website sportrac.com, Lane Johnson is first among right tackles, Jason Peters is sixth among left tackles, Kelce is eighth among centers, and Brandon Brooks is 10th among all guards.

 

#1 Hockey Mom:

https://twitter.com/jasonp014/status/840171622392815616

Typical lower Delco hockey team, getting their ass kicked on the scoreboard and has to result to what looks like actual crimes.

 

Philadelphia: There are bones everywhere.

 

Another snowstorm, another story about PennDOT getting ready so you know who to blame when it’s a mess.

 

“See you on the TV!”

 

Podcast:

Airing of Grievances with Josh Innes:

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The Stepover Episode 26– discussing Dario and dumb hypotheticals:

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