College Baseball Update

Here's where the regionals stand:

BRACKET ONE

Los Angeles:  Won by Cal Poly.  (1) UCLA was eliminated by St. Mary's.

Morgantown:  (16) W. Virginia v. Kentucky for the title at 5 PM Central

Hattiesburg:  Won by Ark-Little Rock

Gainesville:  (8) Florida v. Troy for the title at 5 PM Central

Chapel Hill:  Won by (5) N. Carolina

College Station:  (12) Texas A & M v. USC for the title at 8 PM Central

Lincoln:  Won by Mississippi

Auburn:  (4) Auburn v. Milwaukee for the title at 4 PM Central

BRACKET TWO

Atlanta:  (2) Georgia Tech v. Oklahoma for the title at 2 PM Central

Lawrence:  Won by (15) Kansas

Tallahassee:  (10) Florida St. will play St. John's at 11 AM Central.  If the Johnnies win, they take the region.  If FSU wins, there will be a final elimination game to decide the title

Tuscaloosa:  Won by (7) Alabama

Austin:  Won by (6) Texas

Eugene:  Won by (11) Oregon

Starkville:  Won by (14) Mississippi St.

Athens:  Won by (3) Georgia

This will give us the following Super Regionals:

BRACKET ONE

(16) W. Virginia or Kentucky v. Cal Poly

(8) Florida or Troy v. Ark-Little Rock

(5) N. Carolina v. (12) Texas A & M or USC

(4) Auburn or Milwaukee v. Mississippi

BRACKET TWO

(2) Georgia Tech or Oklahoma v. Kansas

(7) Alabama v. (10) Florida St. or St. John's

(6) Texas v. (11) Oregon

(3) Georgia v. (14) Mississippi St.

College Baseball Update

UK just barely made it into the NCAA Baseball Tournament as the Number 3 seed in the Morgantown Region.  The Cats then beat Wake Forest 6-5, and beat West Virginia 11-9 to reach the regional final.  The Mountaineers took out Wake 10-5 in the losers' bracket to create a rematch with UK.  Going into the ninth inning, the Cats were up 9-6 and were three outs away from hosting a Super Regional.  Then the roof collapsed.  I don't know everything that happened, because I've just been watching the meltdown on Twitter.  I know there was an error by the third baseman to start the inning, and then two walks to load the bases.  At some point there was a sacrifice to make the score 9-8, and then a balk to make the score 9-9, and then WVU hit a two-run homer to take an 11-9 lead.

At that point, one of the Twitter accounts that usually follows college basketball tweeted out "FIRE MARK POPE!"  Which is fair.

NBA Update

Let's look at what the Knicks have done.

On the evening of April 23, the Knicks trailed Atlanta 2-1 in the first round of the NBA playoffs, after back-to-back one-point losses.  Since then, the Knicks have won eleven playoff games in a row (home team listed first):

04/25:  Atlanta 98 - 114 New York

04/28:  New York 126 - 97 Atlanta

04/30:  Atlanta 89 - 140 New York (Knicks win 4-2)

05/04:  New York 137 - 98 Philadelphia

05/06:  New York 108 - 102 Philadelphia

05/08:  Philadelphia 94 - 108 New York

05/10:  Philadelphia 114 - 144 New York (Knicks win 4-0)

05/19:  New York 115 - 104 Cleveland (OT)

05/21:  New York 109 - 93 Cleveland

05/23:  Cleveland 108 - 121 New York

05/25:  Cleveland 93 - 130 New York (Knicks win 4-0)

I don't remember a run like this since the 1983 Sixers, and that was 43 years ago.

The NBA Finals start on June 3, so this list means that the Knicks will have a perfect 8-0 record in the month of May, which is amazing.

Meanwhile, the Thunder/Spurs series is very much up for grabs:

05/18:  Oklahoma City 115 - 122 San Antonio (Double OT)

05/20:  Oklahoma City 122 - 113 San Antonio

05/22:  San Antonio 108 - 123 Oklahoma City

05/24:  San Antonio 103 - 82 Oklahoma City

Game Five is in OKC tonight, and it should be a cracker.  In fact, the title is very much up for grabs.  Here are the current odds to win the NBA Championship:

Oklahoma City:  +110

New York:  +210

San Antonio +270

NBA Update

Here's where it stands:

EAST:

(3) New York 3 - 0 (4) Cleveland

The Knicks are going to win the East for the first time since 1999.

WEST:

(1) Oklahoma City 2 - 1 (2) San Antonio

After losing the first game at home in double overtime, the Thunder have played two great games, winning 122-113 in OKC, and then going to San Antonio and picking up a surprisingly easy 123-108 win.  OKC's ability to put up over 120 points in back-to-back games against a team with Wembanyama on defense is extremely impressive.  My guess is that San Antonio will tie the series tonight, however, so OKC is not out of the woods yet.

This is still the best NBA playoff since 2019, and I think that will be true no matter what happens.

NBA Update

Time for the conference finals:

EAST:

(3) New York Knickerbockers (53-29) v. (4) Cleveland Cavaliers (52-30)

WEST:

(1) Oklahoma City Thunder (64-18) v. (2) San Antonio Spurs (62-20)

Here are the odds to win the NBA Championship:

Oklahoma City:  -165

San Antonio:  +310

New York:  +550

Cleveland:  +2200

Last ten winners of the Eastern Conference (NBA Champs in bold):

2016:  Cleveland

2017:  Cleveland
2018:  Cleveland

2019:  Toronto

2020:  Miami

2021:  Milwaukee

2022:  Boston

2023:  Miami

2024:  Boston

2025:  Indiana

Last ten winners of the Western Conference (NBA Champs in bold):

2016:  Golden St.

2017:  Golden St.

2018:  Golden St.

2019:  Golden St.

2020:  L.A. Lakers

2021:  Phoenix

2022:  Golden St.

2023:  Denver

2024:  Dallas

2025:  Oklahoma City

San Antonio hasn't reached the final since 2014, when they beat LeBron and Miami.

New York hasn't reached the final since 1999.  The Knicks haven't won the title since 1973, which is amazing to me.