Category Archives: Sports

Basketball, Sports

NCAA March Madness preview and predictions

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It’s that time of the year again, when 68 college teams try to conquer the March Madness tournament. The first round consists of 8 different teams qualifying to enter. Once that’s over, all 64 teams are placed in a division ranked one through sixteen. The divisions/sections are called: Midwest, West, South and East. The 16 teams in each section battle it out to get to the final four. The best team in the South plays the best team in the East, and the same goes for the Midwest and West.

The selection day for the 68 teams is Sunday, March 12th. The first four (8 qualifying teams) games play on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 14th and 15th. The official 64 team bracket starts Thursday, March 16th, and goes to the second round on Saturday, the 18th. The first and second rounds both last 2 days. The 2 day format also applies to the Sweet Sixteen (3rd round) and the Elite Eight (4th round). The Final Four round is Saturday, April 1st, and the championship game is Monday, April 3rd.  

This year’s top teams include: Kansas, UCLA, Gonzaga, and last year’s winner Villanova. Kansas is currently ranked number 1 in the top 25. They have beaten 5 teams in the top 10. Kansas is carried by senior point guard Frank Mason the Third, and freshman superstar Josh Jackson. They for sure will get a number one seed in the bracket. UCLA will be a major threat with freshman point guard Lonzo Ball. He’s one of the most athletic guards in the NCAA this year. He’s also accompanied by TJ Leaf and senior Bryce Alford. These 3 players combined average 47.7 points a game. Their team altogether averages an NCAA best 91.3 points per game. They are more than likely to receive a number one seed.

Gonzaga looked to be a real threat after starting 29-0, but they lost to BYU by 8 points, and that loss sent them from ranked number one to four. Their biggest problem is that they don’t play in a good enough conference, which might prove why they had such a good record until they played BYU. They finished 32-1 and won the West Coast Conference Championship. Their team is led by junior guard Nigel William-Goss, who averages 16.9 points per game and 5.7 assists per game. They are more than likely to lose early in the tournament. They would be lucky to receive a number one seed, as the number two seed fits them better.

One last team that’s being talked about, coming into the tournament, is the reigning champs, Villanova. They defeated North Carolina in the championship last year after Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer beater three for the win. He’s now in his senior year and playing well, but the star player for Villanova is senior guard Josh Hart who leads the team in points per game with 18.7 and with 6.5 rebounds per game. Villanova has a great chance of winning the tournament in back-to-back years. They will have a number one seed.  

My one sleeper team is SMU. They are ranked 12th with a 27-4 record. They haven’t played many ranked teams, and their free throw shooting is only at 69%, but they have won 13 straight games. They have also won 23 of their last 24 games, only losing by 2 points to 22-ranked Cincinnati. Senior Ben Moore has been a lot of help for SMU; he has 11.8 points per game and standing at 6 feet 8 inches, he grabs 8.2 rebounds per game. SMU could go deeper than people may expect as they’re likely to be a 4 or 5 seed in the South section of the tournament.

Hockey, Sports

Stanley Cup predictions

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The NHL’s 100th season only has a little than than 2 months to go before the end of the regular season. The league is starting to show which teams are great, good, decent, bad, and the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche are the worst team in the NHL and soon enough will be officially eliminated from the playoffs. As of February 24th, they have a record of 16-40-3 (35 points). The league’s best, the Washington Capitals, have 87 points.

The Western Conference has been weaker this year, with a few really good teams and then some disappointing teams. The Minnesota Wild have played their best hockey in franchise history and have a nice 3 point lead over Chicago. The San Jose Sharks also have a comfortable 3 point lead over Anaheim and Edmonton thanks to SJ defenseman Brent Burns’ 5 goals in the last 4 games.

As for the Eastern Conference, the worst team is just 12 points (6 games behind) out of a playoff spot, and the Atlantic division is still up for grabs where the Capitals have a good 5 point lead over Pittsburgh. This year, even with the Capitals great 40-12-7 record, they are not big favorites for winning the Stanley Cup. They have not made it past the second round since the 1997-98 season.

The Chicago Blackhawks are always favorites with superstars Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Corey Crawford, but some of their stars aren’t stepping up. Jonathan Toews has just 44 points this year, even though he missed 9 games, it’s still not his standard, but recently he put up 3 goals and 2 assists vs. Minnesota, so Chicago is hoping this might be his turnaround. Brent Seabrook also hasn’t been very productive with a -1/ plus-minus rating and only scoring 3 goals.

Another popular contender is last year’s runner-up, the San Jose Sharks. They’ve been playing good this year, and have been keeping Connor McDavid, and the Oilers, out of the top spot in the division, but they were best known for their play on the road, which was the best in 2015-16, but they already have more road losses this year than all of last year.

My last honorable mention, for possible contender, is the reigning champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This year they have 3 guys with 50+ points, which leads the league, but they’re having trouble catching up to Washington for the division lead. They have been deadly at home – winning 24 games, but have won only 13 on the road, which will be a big problem once they enter their opponent’s playoff atmosphere arena.

My main prediction to win it all this year is the Minnesota Wild. I’m trying to not be biased, but after watching this team win and win over and over, they really qualify as contenders. They have 8 players with at least 30 points, and 10 players with up to 10+ goals. This team doesn’t have a ton of superstars, but they mainly just work hard and have a team with great chemistry. A lot of this is thanks to new head coach Bruce Boudreau, who has the best winning record, percentage wise, in the NHL. In the offseason they added Eric Staal who has been a great addition to the team for just $3.5 million per year.

They also made a smart signing in getting Chris Stewart, who is a well-liked guy in the locker room. The younger players have really stepped up too. Nino Niederreiter is tied with Mikael Granlund with 19 goals, and  Granlund also leads the team, and is 12th in the league, with 55 points. Also, 5 of the 10 top plus-minus players in the NHL are Wild players, with Ryan Suter leading the league with a +33 rating. This team is not only contenders now but also for the future too; being the 10th youngest team in the league with an average age of 26.96. 

The main reason to the Wild’s success is goalie Devan Dubnyk though. He has by far put up the best numbers in the NHL, leading all goalies with 32 wins, a .933 save percentage, is 2nd place with a 2.01 goals against average (GAA), and is tied 4th with 5 shutouts this season. He’s been lights out and has really proved he is worthy of winning the Vezina Trophy (awarded to the best goalie during that season).

Note: All data presented is as of February 24th.

Basketball, Scoreboard/Schedule, Sports

Sports schedule for: Feb 27-Mar 4

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For  a full calendar of events please refer to: http://www.sports.spps.org

Activities the Week of Feb. 27- Mar. 4

Monday Feb. 27:

Tuesday Feb. 28:

Boys Basketball vs. Como Park @ HP 9th & JV 5:30pm  Varsity 7pm

Wednesday Mar. 1:

Thursday, Mar 2:

Friday Mar. 3:

Boys Basketball @ SPA 9th grade 4, JV @ 5:30 and Varsity 7pm

Saturday Mar. 4:

Boys Basketball Twin Cities Game @ Mpls. Site TBD

Football, Sports

The wildest ending in Super Bowl history

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Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots, defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28, in overtime, to win the Super Bowl.

In the first quarter, not much happened offensively for the 2016/17 season MVP Matt Ryan, of the Atlanta Falcons, as the first quarter ended 0-0.

In the second quarter, Devonta Freemen ran it in for the first Atlanta touchdown. The Falcons then got the ball back and scored again, this time throwing it to the tight end, Austin Hooper, for another touchdown, making it 14-0 very quickly. Even though no team has ever come back from being more than 10 points behind, the Falcons were still relentless. Tom Brady ended up throwing an interception, which was returned for a touchdown by Robert Alford, a starting corner for the Atlanta Falcons, making it 21-0.  The Patriots got some life back by kicking a late second quarter field goal, making it 21-3 at the half.

The Falcons started the second half the same way they did in the second quarter – scoring a quick touchdown making it a 28-3 game. Matt Ryan threw his second touchdown to Tevin Coleman. Brady then finally threw his first touchdown of the game, late in the third quarter, giving Patriots fans hope in a comeback. That hope quickly went away though, as Gostkowski, the Patriot’s kicker, missed the extra point, narrowing the deficit to 19 points going into the 4th quarter: 28-9.

Matt Ryan was sack fumbled by Donta Hightower, but the Patriots could not capitalize with the great field position they had and settled for a field goal making it 28-12 in the 4th quarter, with 9:44 left in the game.  Atlanta got the ball back, but didn’t do much with it as they went 3 and out. Tom Brady then drove down the field, once again, and threw a touchdown pass to Danny Amendola. The Patriots were successful in their 2 point try making it a 20-28 game. The Patriots somehow got the ball back again with 3 minutes left, scoring with less then a minute on the clock making it 28-28 and sending the game to overtime.

The refs called the coin toss for possession in overtime. The Patriots selected heads and the coin flipped heads. The Patriots selected to receive the ball, and they drove down 75 yards and scored the game winning touchdown, making the game 34-28, and completing the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.

 

Sports

Things athletes do during their off-seasons

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Recently, many people in the world were focused on their television because of Super Bowl LI. Many of the athletes go through intense training to be the best of the best. But do your ever wonder what many athletes do when they’re done with their season? The answer is that most professional athletes take time to do things they aren’t able to do during their seasons.

One athlete, named LeBron James, is a professional basketball player. LeBron is the superstar guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a four-time winner of the NBA’s most valuable player award. According to complexsports.com LeBron decided to travel to foreign countries in 2015, during his off-season, instead of playing basketball or working out, and he agreed to play a role in the movie Trainwreck. When he’s not playing sports he likes to act in movies.

Another athlete, Jen Rhines, is a 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympian. According to running.competitor.com when she had an injury she had to take three weeks off in July, so she traveled to Italy with teammates and biked around Tuscany. When Jen Rhines isn’t running she doesn’t worry about what she eats and takes a mental break from her race schedule “You can’t be on your game all the time,” she said.

And lastly, athlete Larry Fitzgerald Jr., who is a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, likes to travel to foreign countries according to complexsports.com. Larry Fitzgerald Jr. has been to more than 80 countries total since first breaking into the NFL. He averages about two months of globetrotting every off-season. He has scuba dived nearly 30 sites worldwide, and has set foot on all seven continents.

Most athletes don’t usually practice all the time when it’s the off-season, so they can also enjoy some of the things we do everyday.

Basketball, Scoreboard/Schedule, Sports, Swimming & Diving

Sports schedule: Feb 20-25

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Activities the Week of February 20-25

Monday Feb. 20:

Tuesday Feb. 21:

Boys Swim Sectional TBA

Boys Basketball vs. Humboldt @ HP 9th & JV 5:30pm  Varsity @ 7pm

Girls Basketball @ Humboldt  C-Squad 4pm  JV 5:30pm  Varsity @ 7pm (Bus 3:20/8:15pm)

Wednesday Feb. 22:

Thursday, Feb. 23:

Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Mounds Park Academy @ HP 6pm

Friday Feb. 24:

Boys Basketball vs. Johnson @ HP 9th & JV 5:30pm  Varsity @ 7pm

Saturday Feb. 25:

Girls Basketball Twin Cities Game TBD @ Mpls. Site

Editorials/Student Voice, Sports, Tech/Games

How eSports and traditional sports compare

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image taken from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/tribeca_cms_production/uploads/article/header_marquee/55d4a46ac07f5d973a000002/large_large_lcs.jpg

Esports, maybe you’ve heard a lot about them, but most people have no idea what they are or why they’re popular. For people who aren’t familiar with video games, it might seem confusing why people would want to watch someone play a game that they could just play by themselves. If you think about the premise though, it’s very similar to “real” sports.

Let’s just start with the premise of the competition and tournaments. In traditional sports, teams compete through a long regular season where they play games weekly, and at the end of the season whoever is at the top of the standings will advance to the playoffs, and perhaps the championships. In most eSports, it works almost exactly the same. For example, in the extremely popular eSport, League of Legends, there is a six month long regular season, and a world tournament at the end of the year. So, just by the basic structure of the leagues and competition, the two entities are similar.

Another way that traditional sports and eSports are similar is the formalities of competition. You may think that video game tournaments are just messy, loud rooms filled with nerds staring at screens, but in reality it’s a highly organized event. Teams wear jerseys, shake hands, have equipment sponsors, coaches, substitutes, referees, announcers, and large live audiences. All these things exist in both sporting realms. It was through obtaining these things that eSports was able to get the attention of big investors, and become the nightmare of traditional TV producers.

One way that eSports have gained recognition is just the sheer number of people that love and watch them. Online viewership for eSports happens on video game streaming websites like Twitch and YouTube and has skyrocketed in the past few years with events like the Counter Strike Global Offensive championships garnering 2.2 million concurrent viewers (1.2 million off the internet and 1 million people on TV, according to dextro.com), smashing the record for concurrent viewers of any eSport. The way that professional video gaming is able to attract so much attention is through their platform. People who play their game will see notifications for an ongoing eSport event when they log in, allowing the companies to target an audience they know will be interested in watching the matches.

A final way to compare traditional sports and eSports is the players themselves, but obviously physical athletes are much more in shape than the average eSports competitor so let’s consider the training hours. Most sports teams will spend up to 5 hours a day training, working out, revising strategy and reviewing film. The average eSports team spends 9-12 hours a day training, and although playing video games may not be as strenuous physically it can a exhausting, draining effect, and the players have to pour just as much energy and focus into their work as other athletes do. A big concern for physical athletes is injuries, but those do happen in eSports as well. The most common sorts of injuries are wrist, finger, and elbow, but often mental injuries can occur as well. When you play a seemingly silly game in front of 12,000 people, for 10 million dollars (basically your only chance of getting a real salary that year), after training for 12 hours a day stress related problems often happen. Recently a big victory was scored for all of eSports when Riot Games lobbied the US Citizen and Immigration Services to make P-1 athletic visas available to professional gamers, to allow them to traverse from tournament to tournament easily.

Recently, eSports have been gaining more recognition throughout the world, and as time goes on the industry will only grow. The biggest question surrounding eSports today is whether they will ever be able to compete with the likes of the NFL and other major sports leagues. In my honest opinion, those sports will never be topped by video games, but maybe, someday, the two could be equal.

Hockey, Sports

North Star College Cup results

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The North Star College Cup is a college hockey tournament that consists of 5 Division 1 hockey schools from Minnesota. Those teams are: the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Bemidji State Beavers, St. Cloud State Huskies, Minnesota State Mavericks and the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. The tournament started back in 2014.

The University of Minnesota won in the cup 2014, Bemidji State won in 2015, and St.Cloud State won last year in 2016. 2017 marks the 4th annual tournament and most likely the last.

The tournament has been taking place at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul, and it has not been drawing a crowd. This year’s tournament took place Friday to Saturday, January 27th and 28th. Last year only 23,584 people combined showed up for both days, which is not a lot considering a Minnesota Wild game usually has 18,000+ in attendance per game.

This year’s teams consisted of just 4 of the original 5 teams, with Minnesota State withdrawing. The Duluth Bulldogs took home the cup this year in a 2-1 overtime win against St. Cloud State. St. Cloud State got to the championship by defeating Bemidji State 2-1, while the Bulldogs defeated the Gophers in an exciting 3-2 win. This all set up for a boring 3rd place game in which Minnesota won 4-0 over Bemidji State.

Late in the 1st period, of the championship game, St. Cloud State defenseman Will Brogen opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the right side of the left circle; off a pass from Forward Robby Jackson. The Bulldogs responded just 42 seconds into the second period, as Alex Lafallo scored by finding a loose puck in front of the net off a pass from behind the net and shooting it past the goaltender.

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image taken from: NCAA.com

Both teams had tremendous chances for the rest of the second period and for the whole 3rd period, but neither team could score another goal which sent the game to overtime. With 6 minutes into overtime Duluth defenseman Neal Pionk shot a puck from the point and it was deflected to the left side of the net where left-handed Duluth forward Kyle Osterberg shot the puck past goaltender Jeff Smith. The Minnesota-Duluth fan section erupted out of their seats as the Bulldogs had won their first North Star College Cup.

This was Duluth’s first championship appearance since they lost in a shootout 5-4 vs. Minnesota in 2014. Again, this is more than likely the last North Star College Cup because of the lack of attendance, but it will always be something the players and local hockey fans enjoyed.

Adapted Floor Hockey, Basketball, Gymnastics, Hockey, Nordic Skiing, Scoreboard/Schedule, Sports, Swimming & Diving, Wrestling

Sports schedule: Feb 13-18

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Activities the Week of Feb.13-18

Monday Feb. 13:

  • Co-Ed Nordic Ski @ Como Park Grade Level Costume Meet  3:45pm (Bus 2:30/4:45pm)

Tuesday Feb. 14:

  • Girls Basketball @ Central C-Squad 4pm  JV 5:30pm Varsity @ 7pm (Bus 3:20/8:15pm)
  • Boys Basketball vs. Central @ HP 9th & JV 5:30pm  Varsity @ 7pm

Wednesday Feb. 15:

  • Co-Ed Nordic Ski State Tournament @ Biwabik (Bus7am/ Return 4pm)

Thursday, Feb. 16:

  • Co-Ed Nordic Ski State Tournament @ Biwabik (Bus7am on 2/15/4pm return)
  • Boys Basketball @ Harding 9th & JV 5:30m  Varsity @ 7pm (Bus 4/8:30pm)
  • Boys Varsity Hockey vs. Becker/Big Lake @ Highland Arena 4:20pm

Friday Feb. 17:

  • Girls Basketball vs. Harding @ HP  C-Squad 4pm  JV 5:30pm  Varsity @ 7pm

Saturday Feb. 18:

  • Boys Hockey vs. Johnson  @ Phalen Arena JV  5pm  Varsity @ 7pm
Sports

NBA All-Star Weekend 2017

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This year the NBA All-Star Weekend is set to take place in great city of New Orleans. A lot of drama, excitement, and effort has been put into this year’s All-Star Weekend. This year, the festivities will begin Friday night, February 17th, and promises to be a fun and exciting experience for both players and fans.

A lot of drama has surrounded the location of the All-Star festivities this year. The original location of the All-Star Weekend was Charlotte, North Carolina, which would have have been Charlotte’s 2nd time hosting. However, due to the implication of the HB2 bathroom bill, the NBA decided they wouldn’t have an All-Star Weekend there until the bill was repealed. The NBA decided to move the game to New Orleans, an All-Star favorite, this will be the city’s 3rd time hosting the game (the last time the city hosted was in 2014).

The NBA All-Star Weekend starts out on Friday with 2 events. The first one is the All-Star Celebrity game. This is a game played by retired NBA players, athletes from other sports, and various celebrities. The second event on Friday is the Rising Star game. This is a game played entirely by players new to the league. This year, the game features players like Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Kristaps Porzingis.

On Saturday, there are 4 events. The first event is the D-League All-Star Game. This is a game played by the best players chosen from the NBA Development League. The second event is the Slam Dunk contest. The contest features some of the league’s best dunkers, who show off their most creative and impressive slam-dunks. The third contest is a Three-Point contest. Three of the league’s best shooters are chosen to participate, and they each get 5 shots from different points around the 3-point line. The player who makes the most shots wins. The fourth event on Friday is the Skills Challenge. For this event, players have to navigate their way through an obstacle course full of dribbling, shooting, and passing.

On Sunday, there is the actual All-Star Game. All of the best players from the league are chosen and placed on two teams. The two teams play each other, and this always makes for a very exciting game

The formula used for this year’s All-Star game has been changed. This year, and most likely for years to come, the fans made up 50% of the vote and the players and media each made up 25% of the vote.

The 5 starters have been announced for the West and the East already. Headlining the front court for the West is James Harden, of the Houston Rockets. Having an amazing season so far, Harden leads the NBA in assists, averaging 11.6 per game. Then we have the two teammates Steph Curry and Kevin Durant representing the Warriors, arguably the best team in the league. In the backcourt, there are the defensive stars Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis.

In the East, making his 13th All-Star appearance is the King, Lebron James. Accompanying Lebron is his teammate Kyrie Irving at Point Guard, and the Raptors Demar Derozan, at Shooting Guard. Also on the East, making his first appearance, is Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Bulls super-star Jimmy Butler.  

This All-Star Weekend is shaping up to be a great one, so mark your calendars and get ready to watch some great basketball.