Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – Final Fours: Down to the Final Four in both NCAA basketball championships this weekend. Can the only school to already do it, UConn, see their men’s and women’s programs both win the same title in the same year for the third time after doing it in 2004 and 2014? On the women’s side it’ll be UConn vs. the South Carolina-TCU winner and UCLA vs. the Texas-Michigan winner. For the men it’s UConn vs. Illinois and Michigan vs. Arizona. If the Michigan women won after deadline on Monday we could have Michigan-UConn both going for the double in the Finals. How cool would that be?

Sports 101: Name the five highest individual player scoring games in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament history.

News Item – NCAA Tournament Notables:

• Biggest Shot – There were a lot, but since Braylon Mullins’s three with seconds left sent UConn to the FF over 1-seed Duke, he gets it.

• MVP So Far – Tarris Reed Jr. has averaged 21.8 points and 13.5 rebounds in four games for 2-seed UConn.

• Record Set – Hannah Hidalgo: After going for 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals, 7 assists and a near quadruple double, as Notre Dame upset 2-seed Vanderbilt 67-64 the ND guard set the all-NCAA record with 199 career steals.

News Item – Early Baseball Stories to Follow:

• The spring batting average for Merrimack’s Mickey Gasper was .358 with a triple, two homers and seven RBI in 28 at-bats and it still wasn’t enough to make the Red Sox varsity, even though the guy in front of him at second base, Marcelo Mayer, hit .196, and .220 his rookie season. So Gasper starts in Worcester.

• Roki Sasaki – It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the 21-year-old Japanese phenom this spring after an up and down Year 1. This spring the ERA was an astronomical 15.58 in four starts with 15 walks in 8.2 innings.

• Prediction – Forgot to say this last week, but I’ve got Ceddanne Rafaela having the breakout year to hit 25 homers.

The Numbers:

2.25 – ERA of the Boston bullpen over three games and 12 innings with a loss and a blown save by Greg Weissert.

21 – combined winning streak ended last week by the streaking Celtics since Jayson Tatum’s return when they beat Oak City (12) 116-106 and Atlanta (9) 109-102 two nights later.

188 – opening day Red Sox payroll in millions down from 240 in 2025.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – Roman Anthony Leading Off: Yes, he’s likely to have their best OBP. But, even with that, how can leading off make sense? It guarantees their best RBI guy comes to bat 162 times with no one on base. And if they have their lowest-OBP guys bat 8 and 9 like usually happens, it’ll be closer to 300. That’s nuts.

Quote of the Week: “All I’m saying is, ‘Young fella, we’ve already got one ‘Iceman,’” one-of-a-kind ABA/NBA scoring genius George Gervin told the Chicago Sun-Times after Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams tried to trademark/steal his nickname.

The Phew Moment – Brad Stevens: It was when Top 5 in the league Celtics GM said he’s staying after his name surfaced as a possible at UNC after Hubert Davis was fired on Tuesday.

Comedic Hiring of the Week – Luke Murray: When Boston College hired son of SNL legend Bill Murray to leave as UConn assistant to be new head basketball coach at BC.

Random Thought: Before you complain about the Sox payroll, remember Milwaukee had 2025’s best record with just MLB’s 23rd highest payroll at $115 million.

Sports 101 Answer: The Top 5 NCAA Basketball Tournament scoring games are 61, Austin Carr, Notre Dame; 58, Bill Bradley, Princeton; 56, Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati; and Carr again, who scored 52 twice.

Final Thought – Who Acquired 2026 Red Sox: Most teams are a composite of acquisitions by the current GM and their predecessors, like the curse-busting 2004 Red Sox, where key guys like Manny, Pedro and Damon were Dan Duquette’s doing, while Theo Epstein found Big Papi, Schilling and Varitek among others. Here are the key guys in the 2026 edition acquired by Craig Breslow and company:

Chaim Bloom draftedRoman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kevin Teel (traded for Garrett Crochet) and Kristian Campbell, traded for Abreu, and acquired FA Trevor Story.

Dave Dombrowski drafted Rafaela, Brayan Bello and Jarren Duran.

Breslow tradedfor Crochet and Sonny Gray, and signed Willson Contreras.

Future: With five OF/DH guys, a boatload of starting pitchers here and in AAA, and talented but under-achieving young’n Triston Casas headed to the minors, they have the pieces to make a major trade this summer to fine-tune the Fenway team.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Red Sox Season Opens: It gets started Thursday, March 26, at the home of baseball’s first organized team, the Cincinnati Reds. An interesting season lies ahead, in part because of a change in team style to something Red Sox Nation is not accustomed to. We’ll see if GM Craig Breslow’s emphasis on improving the pitching and infield defense at the expense of adding the power most (including me) felt they needed will succeed. Or if passing on free agent slugger Pete Alonso (who’ll be in the AL East with Baltimore) and jettisoning Rafael Devers last year was just the result of owner John Henry being cheap.

The other reason for excitement is being led into 2026 by a parade of blossoming young talent like Garrett Crochet and guys who came up big in the WBC: Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran and Brayan Bello. Should be fun.

Sports 101: Of the 33 who have 3,000 career hits, only four from the 20th century and beyond never had a 200-hit season. Name them.

News Item – March Madness Marches On: The opening weekend provided the usual thrills.

• BestIndividualGame:UConn’s Tarris Reed going for 31 points and 27 rebounds in a R1 win over Furman.

• Biggest Upset: 15-seed High Point taking out 2-seed Wisconsin. Iowa taking out defending champion Florida on a last-second shot by Alvaro Folgueiras wasn’t farbehind.

• MIA Award –Rick Pitino: Back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.

News Item – Proposed Trade for Eagle A.J. Brown: No way the Pats should give up what Denver did (first, third and fourth) to get Jaylen Waddle from Miami for Brown. They have bigger immediate needs at OL and edge rusher and need to use the 2026 draft (or trades of them) to get them. If a trade for the speedy Brown can be done after June 1 for a 2027 second and 2028 third, done.

News Item – Red Sox Stories to Watch

Roman Anthony: Will he live up to what runaway imaginations have him becoming?

The Outfield Jumble: They’ve got five guys to play the outfield and DH. Can Alex Cora find enough at-bats for everyone or is a trade coming?

Aroldis Chapman: At 38 can he possibly be as good as last year (32 saves, 1.17 ERA and 67 k’s in 43 innings)?

Most Intriguing Prospect to Follow – Justin Gonzalez: Is the 6’6”, 272-pound 19-year-old mountain of a man more Aaron Judge or Wily Mo Peña? What’s most appealing are his New Age stats (that are actually useful) like his percentages on strikeouts and hard contact to at-bats. He starts his Year 2 in AA. Keep an eye on him.

News Item – Predictions for Red Sox

70 – combined homers from Anthony and Abreu.

180 – K’s from 15-game-winner Sonny Gray to make it a record five teams he’s done that for.

275 – league-leading K’s Crochet whiffs on his way to winning the AL Cy Young Award.

Sports 101 Answer: The four with 3,000 career hits and no 200-hit seasons are Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson and Yaz.

Final Thought – Red Sox Season Prediction – 92-70: I might be talking myself into it, but they’re gonna be better than last year’s 89-win team. If you’re going to Vegas to bet, you should know I missed my Red Sox predictions in each of the last two years by one win because of the outcome of each season’s final game. Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story — NCAA Tournament or WBC: Take your pick. Office pool brackets all over America say the tournament is the single biggest participation sports event in the U.S., and after 20 years the World Baseball Classic finally got some real traction this time, likely because electric Shohei Ohtani has become the Babe Ruth of the 21st century drawing card and many of the 13 Red Sox in the WBC did such big things.

Sports 101: How many of the eight to win basketball’s Triple Crown — Olympics gold plus NCAA and NBA titles — can you name?

News Item — WBC Update: With USA headed to the title game as I write this it’s been a captivating event. Here are a few highlights:

• Despite making the final out as Japan was eliminated, Ohtani hit .462 with three homers and seven RBI in 13 WBC at-bats.

• Jarren Duran’s three homers in 15 at-bats tied him with Ohtani and KC’s Vinnie Pasquantino for most homers in the WBC.

• Wilyer Abreu hit the three-run homer to put Venezuela ahead for good as it upset Japan to make the semifinals.

• Beep, Beep, Beep Award: U.S.A. backed into the knockout round. After seeing them on the bad side of arguably the biggest upset in WBC (8-6 loss to Italy) they needed the Italians to beat Mexico just to make Round 2. Phew! That got manager Mark DeRosa off the hook for his gigantic mistake of so not knowing WBC rules he used a this-game-doesn’t-matter starting line-up in that critical Italy loss because he somehow thought U.S.A. had already clinched a spot in Round 2, which they hadn’t.

• KevinTeel, the catching prospect Boston traded to get Garrett Crochet, hit .667 overall for Italy.

• Roman Anthony’s two homers knocked in the game-winning runs in wins over Mexico and the huge win over the Dominican Republic.

News Item — Alumni News — Rick Pitino: If you’ve been wondering what happened to Little Ricky since slinking out of Boston — three jobs and two (at least) major scandals later, he’s revitalizing St. John’s basketball, who knocked off UConn 72-52 to win the Big East title, sending him to his 25th NCAA Tournament.

The Numbers:

10 – out of 10 rating for Bill Lee’s very entertaining talk at last week’s Manchester Boys & Girls Club fundraiser.

40 – most ever freshman points scored in a Big 12 Tournament game, scored by Brockton, Mass.’s A.J. Debansta in BYU’s 105-91 win over Kansas State.

127 – consecutive games when Shai Gilgeous Alexander scored at least 20 points, to move him past Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up — Boston Legacy FC: For Boston’s return to Women’s Pro Soccer Sunday. It came in a 1-0 loss to defending champion NYC’s Gotham FC before an astonishing Gillette Stadium crowd of 30,231.

Thumbs Down — Patriots in Free Agency: Have no idea what they’re doing. Did little to fortify the glaring OL problems with an injury-prone, under-achieving Jets castoff, replaced Stefon Diggs with a guy who caught 30 fewer balls for 200-plus fewer yards and let the best pass rusher walk.

Prediction — Not quite informed enough to fill out an entire NCAA’s Women Tournament bracket, but I’ll take UConn for title number 13.

Sports 101 Answer: The basketball triple crown winners are Clyde Lovellette, Bill Russell, KC Jones, Jerry Lucas, Quinn Buckner, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Anthony Davis.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Jayson Tatum: It wasn’t exactly Larry Bird coming back out into the Garden after being knocked out cold in a ’90s playoff game vs. Indiana. But there was a definite glad-to-have-you-back vibe from the crowd as Tatum returned after 10 arduous months of rehab on his Achilles. Next best after that was him going for 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in an easy 120-100 win over Dallas as he spent 27 minutes knocking off some obvious rust. Which thankfully shut down the handwringers before they could get started saying the return of the Celtics’ best player could somehow be a bad thing.

Setbacks are the next concern. But assuming there aren’t any beyond routine stuff, the Celtics have 20 games to fine-tune before the playoffs begin. Their chances of winning title 19 took a big leap forward last weekend.

Sports 101: How many of the 12 NBA players to play at least 20 seasons can you name?

News Item – Red Sox Spring Training Update: The Sox start the week with an uninspiring 7-8 pre-season record. The good: Jarren Duran started hot as a pistol by hitting .583 in Week 1 with three homers, six RBI and 18 total bases. The bad: Bad but not alarming was that Garrett Crochet and Rudy Suarez had identical 5.79 ERAs in their first two starts. The ugly: The overall team ERA in the first 15 games was 6.56.

News Item – Pats Cut Stefon Diggs: The somewhat surprising move frees up $16 million in cap space and eliminates a guy known for his diva-ness, who caused off-the-field issues. But he also caught 85 passes for 1,013 yards so they now have a big hole at possession receiver.

News Item – 2026 NFL Year Begins Today: With the arrival of the new business year the Patriots are now on the clock for fine-tuning their 2026 team. Here’s a snapshot for what lies ahead.

• Needs – (1) Dynamic edge rusher. (2) Dramatic improvement of the offensive line. (3) A game-breaking take-the-top-off-the-D receiver. (4) After the release of Diggs, a reliable go-to for the first-down receiver.

• Cap Room – $59 million.

• NFL Draft – April 23-25.

• Draft picks – Pick 31 in Round 1 and 11 overall.

• Discussed Big-Name Need-Filling Players – Trades – WR AJ Brown. Free Agents – DE Trey Hendrickson, WR Mike Evans and lesser-knowns like Indy’s Alec Pierce (21.3 ypg) and NYG’s Wan’Dale Robinson (93 receptions for 1,014 yards).

News Item – WBC: Biggest highlight so far was (of course) Shohei Ohtani hitting two homers in his first game. And locally that would be Sox utility infielder Nick Eaton leading off his first game for Great Britain with a home run.

The Numbers:

29 – losing margin at home for the Celtics vs. Charlotte.

100.4 – miles per hour Sox rookie Payton Tolle threw during a three-inning, seven-strikeout stint vs. the Yankees last week.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – The Celtics: For outperforming expectations in the wake of losing Tatum for the first 60 games and four key players for financial reasons.

First Time Ever Happened – Trae Young: I’ve never heard of a guy being ejected from a game before he even played one second for his new team, which is what happened to Young in the first game he was to play for Washington after being traded there while injured a while back. After finally getting healthy he ran on the court during a scuffle with Detroit and was ejected before getting into his first action for the Wizards.

Sports 101 Answer: The 20-year NBA vets are Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Robert Parish, Vince Carter, Udonis Haslem, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford, Chris Paul and newest in the club Kyle Lowery.

Final Thought – What Should Pats Do?

Key Strategy – If they are to capitalize on Drake Maye’s uncanny bomb’s-away accuracy they need guys who can open deep like Pierce and an OL who can give them time to get open.

What They Should Do: Given what N’Keal Harry (12), Ja’Lynn Polk (12) and Kyle Williams (11) delivered in catches as rookies after being drafted in the first, second and third rounds respectively, the Pats brass instead should get their receivers in free agency or trades for guys they know, not hope, can play in the NFL. Giving up a second-round pick for Philly’s speedy AJ Brown makes sense, though 25-year-old free agents Pierce and Robinson offer better financial terms and long-term on-field success prospects while saving draft capital for other fillable needs. Patriot Nation is now hoping Eliot Wolf can pull off another A+ retooling like a year ago when he hit on Will Campbell (solid till getting hurt), TreVeyon Henderson and kicker Andres Borregales, who were among eight rookie contributors, along with several free agent hits like Diggs and Milt Williams. They’re on the clock.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – The Spaceman Landing At Boys & Girls Club: There have been many adjectives — feisty, clever, inventive, one of a kind and (always) entertaining — used to describe Red Sox lefty Bill Lee. On Wednesday, March 11, he comes to the Manchester Boys & Girls Club on Union Street to give his unique views on everything from pitching in Boston against the Evil Empire to even global warming. It will be fun.

Sports 101: Name the four winningest lefties in Red Sox history.

News Item – Celtics Update: Helped by starting with low expectations after Jayson Tatum’s injury and three bigs departing for financial reasons they’ve been overlooked all year. But somehow they’re 40-20 and far better than I thought they’d be. The latest examples were a win by 37 points over the “no, we’re not tanking” Brooklyn Nets when they shot 66.7% from the field and got a whopping 77 points from the bench, and an easy 114-98 one over the Embiid-less 76ers.

News Item – Celtics Thoughts:

• Outside of Jaylen Brown’s career year, the biggest reason for their success is they’re allowing a league-low 107.4 points per game.

• I liked Neemias Queta even in his rawest form a year ago. But never saw Sunday’s 27-point, 17-rebound in just 22 minutes explosion he went for vs. Philly.

• Derrick White: The Celtics guard’s 1.5 blocks per game ranks ninth in the NBA, putting him ahead of 7-footers like former 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson, Myles Turner, and teammate Queta as well as several others.

• Love rookie Hugo Gonzalez’s defensive toughness and hustle while compiling a team-best +17 over opposition per 100 possessions (per Boston Globe). But with him shooting only 31% on shots beyond 4 feet he still has a need to grow offensively.

• I’ve often been very critical of Joe Mazzulla, but he deserves much credit for having them play as well as they have so far.

News Item – Alumni News:

• Al Horford left for Golden State because they supposedly had a much better chance to compete for a title than the dismantled Celtics. Except now the C’s have the East’s second best record, while if everyone below them weren’t tanking for draft position GS would have a tough time holding on to their play-in slot after losing Jimmy Butler for the year.

• Luke Kornetis averaging 7.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per in 22.1 minutes of PT while helping the Spurs to have the NBA’s second best record.

A Little History – Bill Lee: He won 110 games in 10 MLB seasons and had three seasons with ERAs of under 3.00. His 1975 season was his peak, as a key cog for Boston’s World Series team when he was 17-9 with a 3.90 ERA. But to those of us rooting for that team in the Bronx, he was a Yankee-killer, the leading evidence being 12-5 vs. the New Yawkas. He also was in that major 1976 brawl after a play at the plate, where he tore a ligament in his left shoulder while fortifying his beloved status in Red Sox Nation.

The Numbers:

27 – million dollar one-year deal given to ex-Sox lefty Chris Sale by Atlanta.

33.4 – NBA-leading ppg by Luka Doncic. Imagine how good he’d be if he ever got in Larry Bird-like shape.

43.5 – second-highest vertical leap ever recorded by a linebacker at the NFL Draft Combine, by Ohio State’s Sonny Styles. For context, the greatest basketball leaper I’ve seen was David Thompson, whose VL was 44 inches.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – U.S. Men’s Hockey Team: They went from the ultimate high of winning gold dramatically to sad me-first behavior by accepting a White House invite after the President treated the women’s team like second-class citizens during their invite. They should’ve had the back of their same-sport Olympic teammates. Sad behavior, fellas. Booooooooo!!!!

What A Stupid I Yam Award – Me: Thanks to reader Chuck Furciniti for pointing out there have been three lefties in Sox history who’ve won at least 17 games three straight years. Not two as I said last week. The third is Mel Parnell, who won 25, 18 and 18 from 1949 to 1951.

Sports 101 Answer: The four winningest Red Sox lefty pitchers are Parnell (125), Jon Lester (110), Lefty Grove (105) and Lee (94).

Final Thought – Jayson Tatum: The rumors are flying that his return is imminent. A good thing, but they should not force/rush his return unless the Achilles is 100% healthy. But the notion his return could upset the surprising way the team has played in his absence is ridiculous. Would they have said that if Bird was coming back? No. Instead, with him on a likely minutes restriction, I’d bring him off the bench. Which would give them a potent three-man scoring trio — Tatum, Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vucevic — for a big edge playing against bench players.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – USA Hockey Rules: The Winter Olympics closed with a reenactment of USA’s magical 1980 “Do You Believe In Miracles” hockey game. Except both the men and women earned gold in spectacular fashion in DYBIM: the Sequel. Not the sinister Russian Red Army Hockey team this time. It was arch-rival Canada instead, whose teams were beaten in OT by identical 2-1 scores. But it was USA men’s first gold since their upset of the USSR became the greatest upset in U.S. sports history. The women’s win was most precarious. After trailing most of the game Hilary Knight tied it at 1-1 with just 2:09 left before Megan Keller’s awesome “slide the puck low by the defender and jump behind her to recover” move to slip it by the goalie for the win. The men won on Jack Hughes’ one-timer in OT.

Didn’t expect the Olympics to grab me this time. But the reminder miracles do happen sometime in sports did it again. Cue the timeless Al Michaels call, “Do you believe….”

Sports 101: Bill the Spaceman Lee, who’ll speak at a Manchester B&G Club fundraiser on March 11 (noon to 1 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Manchester Union Street Clubhouse, see bgcgm.org/speaker-series), with 94 has won the third most games by a Red Sox lefty all-time. Name the two ahead of him.

News Item – Sunday’s Celtics vs. Lakers: The C’s were 111-87 winners when MVP candidate Jaylen Brown (32) and (back to being sixth man) Payton Pritchard (30) combined for 62 points. Some observations:

1 – The broadcast pushed the rivalry thing. But given the low crowd energy and L.A. having no players Boston hates, it’s dead at the moment.

2 – LeBron looked tired, uninterested and a lot slower than he used to be. That’s a recipe for retirement.

3 – Hate Luka Doncic’s game! He’s very good of course, but also complains all the time, takes predictable shots, and barely tries on D, all of which makes him boring to watch.

4 – The white L.A. uniforms offer no connection to when L.A. was good in the 1990s, let alone the ’80s.

5 – What took them so long to do the Pat Riley statue unveiled Sunday? Just 38 years after leaving the building.

News Item – NH (kinda, sorta) All Over Olympic Hockey Dramas: Knight, who tied USA-Canada at 1-1 with 2:09 left, is a one-time Hanover, N.H., resident, and game-winning men’s star Jack Hughes is the son of my friend (and former sideline reporter on college TV broadcasts I produced back in the day) UNH Hall of Fame hockey goalie Ellen Weinberg-Hughes and one-time Manchester Monarchs coach Jim Hughes. And while Keller is from Michigan, don’t hold that against her. Because her “slide the puck low by the defender and jump behind her to recover it for the win” was an awesome thing of beauty that will be remembered forever.

The Numbers:

41 – most Olympic medals won – Norway – 18 gold, 11 silver, 14 bronze

33 – second most medals won – USA – 12 gold, 12 silver, 9 bronze

30 – third-best medal total – Italy – 10 gold, 6 silver, 14 bronze

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – UCLA Hoop Coach Mick Cronin: Nice to see someone finally hold their own player accountable for aberrant behavior, instead of blaming refs, other players or some guy in the third row. Here it was sending center Steven Jamerson to the locker room for good after a cheap shot flagrant foul.

Promotion of the Week: Talk about a guy who earned a promotion for functioning tremendously under duress. That’s young Zak Kuhr, who started 2025 as Pats linebacker coach before doing an excellent job (particularly with in-game adjustments) filling in as Defensive Coordinator for Terrell Williams during his cancer treatment. He keeps that job while Williams moves to a new role.

Thumbs Down – Roman Anthony To Hit Lead-off: Stat geeks did it again with word the Sox’ best hitter will bat lead-off. It means he’ll be guaranteed to have 160 at-bats with no one on base to knock in. Will get even worse if/when they hit the usual low OBP guys at 8 and 9. A bonehead move.

Sports 101: Jon Lester and 300-game-winner Lefty Grove with 110 and 106 respectively are the only two lefties with more Red Sox pitching wins than Bill Lee’s 94.

Final Thought – Bears Possibly Moving to Indiana: I stopped being a NY Giants fan because they moved to New Jersey for a free stadium but kept the New York Giants name. Booooo! It’ll be much worse if the NFL’s founding team abandons Chicago after 106 years, following the Indiana legislature’s vote to give a corporation worth $6 billion a free stadium. The historic franchise dubbed the Monsters of the Midway for their toughness would be going to an environmentally controlled (yuck) Dome to cause league founder George Halas to roll over in his grave and make real fans of Da Bears want to puke.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.