🏀 Building College Resumes

It’s Thursday! College basketball fans had a little hump day treat yesterday with nine of the Top 25 teams in action as schools look to add to their March Madness resumes with Selection Sunday just 10 days away. The NHL trade deadline is looming as contenders have been very busy. The league leader in goals was also busy last night creating some fireworks in overtime. Pro hoops featured some great contests, while one team is making it hard for us to believe they aren’t tanking. More do-or-die Champions League matches and the Bills cut some really talented players. Let’s Blitz!

WTF Stat: Kevin Durant has the most consecutive NBA seasons averaging 25+ PPG while shooting over 50% from the field with 11 and still counting! Shaq (10) and Kareem (9) are behind KD, and it should be noted those are big men not shooting from long range.

🏈 Bills are cutting two recent All-Pros from the secondary in CB Tre'Davious White and S Jordan Poyer - If you read to the bottom of yesterday’s trivia question, you’d know Buffalo is $41M over the salary cap for 2024…

🏈 Commanders have signed veteran TE Zach Ertz to a 1-year deal worth up to $5M - this will be the former All-Pro’s 13th NFL season

🏒 Panthers have acquired Vladimir Tarasenko from the Senators for a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick, 2025 third-round pick and Ottawa will retain 50% of Tarasenko's salary

🏒 Golden Knights have traded for star defenseman Noah Hanifin from the Flames - see the full NHL trade tracker here as the deadline ends tomorrow at 3pm ET

🏃‍♂️ Steve Waithe, a former college track and field coach, will serve five years behind bars for setting up fake social media and email accounts in an effort to trick women he used to coached into sending him nude photos

Men’s College Basketball - Top Games

• #4 Tennessee 66, #17 South Carolina 59: This game was cut to three points with under two minutes left, but it was too little, too late with SEC Player of the Year candidate Dalton Knecht (26 PTS) using five made threes to grab the road win and more importantly the SEC regular season title

• #2 UConn 74, #8 Marquette 67: The Huskies looked like a team that could repeat as NCAA champs with Alex Karaban (23 PTS, 5-9 3PT) and Cam Spencer (17 PTS, 5-7 3PT, 6 AST, 8 REB) each getting hot from deep as they overcome a rowdy Golden Eagles crowd - this broke a streak of 19 consecutive losses against AP ranked teams on the road

• #6 Iowa State 68, #20 BYU 63: BYU led most of the game in enemy territory with a 14-point lead at one point, but Iowa State climbed back late in the second half with Tamin Lipsey (19 PTS, 6 REB, 5 STL) leading the Cyclones in scoring - the fanbase out in Ames, Iowa is no joke as they went 18-0 at home this season (first time undefeated at home since 2001)

• #1 Houston 67, UCF 59: The No. 1 ranked team in the nation was on their heels all game but L.J. Cryer (25 PTS) scored 19 second half points to help clinch a share of the regular season Big 12 title in their first season in the conference after coming over from AAC - many critics thought they wouldn’t be able to compete as well in a Power 6 conference, they were all dead wrong

See the full NCAAM scoreboard here and the current rankings here. See the full NCAAW scoreboard here and the current rankings here.

NBA - Top Games

• Los Angeles Clippers 122, Houston Rockets 116: We talked about Alperen Sengun (23 PTS, 19 REB, 14 AST) being a young star yesterday, but his career night wasn’t enough to hang onto a 10-point 4th quarter lead as Kawhi Lenoard (28 PTS, 7 AST, 6 REB) came up clutch

• Orlando Magic 119, Washington Wizards 109: After commanding a 20-point lead, the Wizards did their best Pistons impression now losing 16 straight games, tying a franchise record, with Orlando All-Star Paulo Banchero (25 PTS, 10 AST, 6 REB) really coming into his own this season - this loss breaks a tie with Detroit for the worst record in the NBA at 9-53

• Memphis Grizzlies 115, Philadelphia 76ers 109: Jarren Jackson Jr. (30 PTS, 11 REB, 6 BLK) had a big night in the paint - MEM +5 was our Blitz Prime Lock of the Day, we’re hot

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here.

NHL - Top Game

• Toronto Maple Leafs 2, Buffalo Sabres 1 (OT): The best goal scorer in the world, Auston Matthews, came up clutch in the free period scoring the walk-off with just 40 seconds left off a beautiful set up from Mitch Marner - Matthews 54 goals is most in the NHL by nine and the Leafs just hit 80 points on the season

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here.

Champions League - Round of 16 (Leg 2)

• Manchester City 3, FC Copenhagen 1: With a 3-1 aggregate lead heading into this match, all Man City needed to do was keep the ball out of the net, but they poured in the goals as well with two in the first 10 minutes of the game as they move onto the quarterfinals

• Real Madrid 1, RB Leipzig 1: Madrid will move onto the next round following a second leg draw beating Leipzig 1-0 in the first leg to grab an advantage with Vinicius Junior scoring the difference maker in the 65th minute

This question is connected to today’s On This Day Section…

On March 7, 1996, Magic Johnson became just the second NBA player to dish out 10,000 career assists, joining only John Stockton to reach this milestone. This 1995-96 season was after he took several years off as a player due to testing HIV positive and it would be his last as an NBA player finishing with 10,141 career assists. Now only five other players have joined the “10K Assist Club” since Magic including Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, LeBron James, Steve Nash and Mark Jackson.

NBA

• Miami Heat @ Dallas Mavericks 7:30pm ET, TNT

• Boston Celtics @ Denver Nuggets 10:00pm ET, TNT

• Full Schedule

NHL

• St. Louis Blues @ New Jersey Devils 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• Vancouver Canucks @ Vegas Golden Knights 10:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Full Schedule

Men’s College Basketball

• Washington @ #18 Washington St. 9:00pm ET, FS1

• #5 Arizona @ UCLA 9:30pm ET, ESPN

• Full Schedule

Trivia Time Answer

B. John Stockton. He finished with 15,806 career assists, which is over 3,000 more than second placed Jason Kidd (12,091). Chris Paul (11,755) and LeBron James (10,855) are behind Kidd with Steve Nash (10,335) rounding out the top five.

Prime Lock of the Day

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