An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
What happened on Sunday, January 11, 2015?
So much football: There were four National Football League playoff games this past weekend. That’s one more than the number of total games left in the season now that the weekend is over. We’ll have full (but brief) coverage off all the games later this morning in our NFL One Liners column. Check back in an hour or so to learn your lines for football conversation today.
Southampton staves off the inevitable: This season in British Premiere League soccer has in part been defined by how topsy-turvy the standings were for the first part of the year. Some traditional powers, Manchester United first among them were relatively terrible and stuck near the bottom of the standings while some unexpected teams floated to the top, like Southampton. As the year has gone on, most of those oddities have righted themselves. Starting the weekend, Manchester United had climbed all the way up the standings had a chance to cement their one point lead over Southampton with a win in their game against each other on Sunday. No dice! Southampton beat Manchester United 1-0 to pull themselves up above the behemoths in the standings once again. Line: Not sure how long they can keep this up, but I’m rooting for Southampton.
Crisis in Cleveland: This was not how it was supposed to go for the Cavaliers this season. Over the summer, they assembled what looked like a super team by bringing in LeBron James, Kevin Love, and several other additions. Now, with LeBron sidelined with knee and back injuries, the Cavaliers are losing and losing badly. They lost 103-84 to the Sacramento Kings last night which dropped their record for the season to .500 — an even number of wins and losses. Line: I bet the Cavaliers coach gets fired soon.
A day of upsets in Men’s college basketball: Only four teams ranked in the top 25 played yesterday in college basketball and three of them lost! NC State upset 2nd ranked Duke which lost for the first time all season, 87-75. My alma mater, Rutgers, beat 4th ranked Wisconsin 67-62. RUTGERS!! And, Oregon State squeaked by 7th ranked Arizona 58-56. Line: Lots of big upsets in college basketball yesterday, huh?
