(NCAA)—It is possible.
But it is not likely.
The Missouri Tigers and the St. Louis University Billikens could meet in the NCAA Tournament.
The winner would play for the national championship.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The Billikens are a nine seed in the west regional and will play 8th seed Georgia in the first round. Missouri, a ten seed in the Midwest regional will play number 7 Miami. The second round will be much tougher. St. Louis likely would go against number one Michigan and Missouri’s likely opponent would be second seeded Purdue.
(MIZZOUBB)—-The question for Missouri is the same question we’ve had all year. Which Tigers will show up?
Three straight losses, two in the regular season and one-and-gone game in the SEC tournament—three games they might have won on one of those proverbial “any game” situations.
Good enough to beat teams in the last ten of the top 25 most of the time but far from being called “elite.” Except for Mark Mitchell, who paid a price for being with a mid-pack team by being only a second-team all SEC choice.
To start the NCAA Tournament, Missouri will face a Hurricanes team that was 25-8 under new coach Jai Lucas after finishing 7-24 a year earlier and going to an interim coach at mid-season. They lost in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament.
Tipoff of the game, which will be in St. Louis, is scheduled for 9:10 p.m. Friday.
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(BILLIKENS)—-The St. Louis University Billikens finished the regular season 28-5 after losing to Dayton in the ACC tournament semifinals. Coach Josh Schertz, in his second season, is taking the school into its first NCAA tournament since the 2018-2019 season.
They’re a nine seed and they’ll play Georgia, seeded 8th. Georgia was 22-10
Their game will be Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis.
(MOSTATE)—The Missouri State men’s tean is done for the year but the women are headed to the tournament after winning the Conference-USA tournament title, beating Louisiana Tech 43-38. The Lady Bears had gone into the conference tournament as the sixth seed. They’re 22-12. Techn finished 26-6. They’re into the NCAA tournament for the 18th time.
It’s a play-in game against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. If the Lady Bears win, they’ll go into the tournament as a 16 seed against top-ranked Texas.
The Missouri State Men’s team finished 9-23 under former Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin, who coached previously in Springfield 2008=2011 and was Dennis Gates’ predecessor (2017-2022) at Missouri. It might have been a losing record but it was an improvement over the previous year’s 9-23.
(PORTER)—Former Missouri basketball player Jontay Porter, banned for life from the NBA, appears to have found new life with the independent United States Basketball League.
Porter’s His first few games have been sad reminders of what might have been.
In his debut with the Seattle Superhawks, he racked up 21 points, 14 rebounds and an equal number of assists plus a couple of steals and three blocked shots.
Later, against the Salem Capitols, he broke the USBL rebounding record with 32, breaking the record of 28 jointly held by former NBA players Manute Bol and Anthony Man. He finished the game with 29 points, seven assists, four steals and five blocks.
Porter, whose Missouri career was shortened by a knee injury, was with the Toronto Raptors when he got involved with sports gamblers.
(CARDINALS)—A key figure in one of the big offseason trades for the Cardinals won’t be ready for opening day. Pitcher Hunter Dobbin had ACL surgery last July is still rehabbing the knee. He’s been throwing on the back fields but the Cardinals don’t want him to rush his recovery. He had been the 13th best prospect in the Red Sox’s organization when he was hurt. He came to the Cardinals in the Wilson Contreras trade.
He did pitch in thirteen games for the Red Sox last year before he was hurt. He struck out 45 and walked only 17 in 62 innings while hanging up a 4.43 ERA.
Seven more players were cut on Sunday as the roster-whittling goes into the final days before opening day in less than two weeks.
Ten Cardinals are at the World baseball Classic representing eight countries. None are on the United States team.
(ROYALS)—The Royals started the weeks with 21 pitchers, 2 catchers, eight infielders, two catchers, and nine outfielders on the roster, as of yesterday morning. Second baseman Jonathan India is sidelined with a groin strain that he felt this weekend.
They’re hoping this will be the breakout year for Joe Caglionone, who struggled against big time pitching last year. He’s on Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic and has heled the team get to the semifinals while hitting .364 in four games.
He’s joined on the team by first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino who became the first WBC player to hit three home runs in one game. Before leaving the Royals camp, he was ripping the ball—three balls at more than 115 mph including one home run that was measured at 120.2 coming off his bat.
The Royals have seventeen players at the classic. Only three, pitchers Michal Wacha and Matt Strahm and shortstop Bobby Witt are playing for the USA team. The others are playing for teams from nine other countries.
(GOATS)—For those who need a football fix in the gap months between the UFL season and the resumption of NFL play can catch the St. Joseph Goats, who start their Arena Football League play on May 29 against the Arkansas Diamonds in Hot Springs.
The Goats are moving from Kansas Cit mto St. Jo his year.Their home opener is a week later, June 6 against the Ozark Lunkers at St. Joseph’s Civic Arena.
They’ll also have games against the Iowa Woo (Waterloo), the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Axemen,
Memphis (Tennessee) Hound Dogs, Grand Island (Nebraska) Siege, and the Monroe (Louisiana) Greenheads.
(CHIEFS)—The Chiefs have upgraded their backfield with the signing of Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III away from the Seattle Seahawks. They’re investing $45 million in him hoping he’ll have three years that are at least as solid as his 2025 that saw him rush for more than a thousand yards including 65 carries for 313 yards and four touchdowns for the Super Bowl and two other playoff games.
Walker hit the market after the Seahawks refused to name him a franchise player, which would have given him about $14 million next year. The NFL Network says his contract with Kansas City makes him the highest paid running back in NFL history.
In his four-year career in Seatle, he’s averaged better than four yards per carry (821/3555). He’s also caught 131 asses for another 1005 yards. Walker is 25, five feet-9 and 211 pounds. He played college ball at Wake Forest and at Michigan State.
They’ve also grabbed former Chargers safety Alohi Gilman for three years and $24.75 million. He’ll replace Bryan Cook, who found Cincinnati’s three-year deal for $40.25 million irresistible. Gilman is two years older than Cook but the Chiefs are familiar with him because he has spent most of his career with the Chargers before going to the Ravens last year.
The Chiefs have gained about $2.5 million in cap space by renegotiating the contract of linebacker Drue Tranquill, who drops from $6 million to $3.5 for the coming season. Three million dollars of that is guaranteed.
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Travis Kelce decided not to go the free agent route to his fourteenth season. He has signed a one-year deal for $12 million. He said on the Pa McAfee Show, “I’m still in love with this game. I still love going to work, putting on the pads, grinding it out and just playing the game.”
The Washington Commanders have signed DE Charles Omenihu for one year and as much as seven million dollars.
Penalty-prone right tackle Jawaan Taylor was released after a Chiefs career marked by false stars and illegal formation penalties. He has joined teammate Trent McDuffie with the Rams.
As we were going to press, ESPN’s Adam Schefter was reporting Kansas City is giving the New York Jets a 2027 sixth-round draft pick to get Justin Fields to be Parick Mahomes backup. The Jets were ready to let Justin Fields to go after an undistinguished career with them and after trading for Geno Smith with the Raiders. The Chiefs are paying only $3 million of his ten million dollar salary.
The Chiefs have been looking for a replacement for Gardner Minshew, who left for the Cardinals. They still have their backup to the backup and the backup to the backup to the backup quarterbacks, Chris Oladokun and Jake Haener, who combined to start three games.
Fields was drafter by the Bears in 2021. With the Jets last year he was 2-7 as a starter had a QB rating of 37.3, which was 31st out of 36 passers. He is 16-37 in his career starts.
The Jets still have former Missouri quarterback Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe on their roster as backups to Smith.
(MAHOMES)—Coach Andy Reid says Patrick Mahomes is doing serious work rehabbing his knee. Reid told reporters recently, “He spends a ton of time here, seven hours a day. He’s in there cranking away and making progress every day. It’s great to see. Julie grinds on him and makes sure he stays on task and challenges him. He keeps showing up. That’s about half the battle on these things when you have these injuries. It’s not going to be a pleasant thing. Every day, you’ve got to fight through it, and you’ve got to attack the challenge of the workout and rehab. He’s doing a great job with that.”
(“Julie” is trainer Julie Frymyer. She helped him deal with his ankle injury in 2022.)
Enough of the stick and ball stuff.
(INDYCAR)—Kyle Kirkwood ran down Alex Palou from more than two seconds back and made an aggressive pass with fifteen laps to go and won the first Grand Prix of Arlington—a race on a special track laid out around the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys stadiums in Arlington Texas.
Kirkwood and Palou made their last pit stops with 21 laps left and Palou’s team got him out almost two seconds faster than Kirkwood’s crew finished its work. He caught and passed Palou on lap 55 and seven laps later turned the fastest leader lap of the race in building a five-second lead. The lead was closed, however, by Christian Rasmussen’s crash on the last lap led to a one-lap shootout.
Kirkwood and teammates Will Power and Marcus Erricsson took three of the top four positions in the race. Palou’s second kept the race from being a podium sweep for Andretti Global. Will Power’s third-place finish is his first top ten for his new team.
The win boosts Kirkwood into the IndyCar points lead over Palou. But it’s only the third race of a schedule that runs into September. The series is taking next weekend off before a race at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama on the 29th.
(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has become the tenth biggest winner in NASCAR history, driving through the field to win his first race of the year, at Las Vegas. He tied Kevin Harvick for tenth last year. Hamlin was 31st after a pit speeding penalty but came back to lead 134 laps and finish a half-second ahead of Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron.
Hamlin said after the race that he’s “fortunate” to be on the list with legends of the sports, men who “were far more talented than I have ever thought about being.”
His sixtieth career victory last year was a personal goal that he wanted to reach while his father was still alive. His father, in failing health, died a few weeks later in a fire that destroyed his parents’ house. His loss in last year’s championship race and the loss of his father left him questioning whether he wanted to get back in a race car. “I knew it took a few eeks to feel like driving,” he said. Over the last couple weeks, I definitely regained my love of it, got refocused. These are great opportunities for us.”
(FORMULA1)—President Trump’s War in the Middle East has forced Formula 1 to cancel two of its scheduled races—Saudi Arabia on April 12 and Bahrain a week later.
Kimi Antonelli became the second-youngest driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix at Shanghai during the weekend. He finished ahead of his veteran Mercedes teammate, George Russell. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton took his first podium finish since joining Ferrar two years ago.
Antonelli was 19 years, six months, and 18 days old. Max Verstappen, was 18 years, seven months and 15 days old when he won the Grand Prix of Spain ten years ago.
(Photo Credits: Missouri-Miami—MU; Porter—Anthony Hopkins, Goats Shirt—St. Jo Goats; Kirkwood—Rick Gevers; Hamlin—Bob Priddy)