G-MAC!
There was no shortage of wonderful sports moments on Sunday!
Opening weekend of NCAA Men’s and Women’s basketball tournament took place, and frankly, for me, don’t really care too much about it. It had its moments and all, but let’s be honest…it’s about the brackets and gambling.
Manchester City beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup (the English League Cup) 2-0. I didn’t have a horse in this race, but what did make me happy to see was the sour looks on Arsenal players faces and the look of despair on Arsenal manager, Miguel Arteta’s face.
AEK Athens finished top of the Greek Super League regular season with a convincing 3-0 win over Kifisia FC, two points ahead of rivals Olympiakos and PAOK.
Cam Skattebo made some unfortunate comments during a recent interview on “Bring the Juice” podcast about CTE and asthma. He was asked by the host whether he thought CTE was real and replied, “No, it’s an excuse.” He issued a statement of apology regarding his comments stating, “I recently did an interview and had a lapse in judgment, which resulted in me making a tasteless joke about CTE and asthma. It was never my intention to downplay the seriousness of head injuries or asthma.” Let’s cut through the bullshit. His agent and the team made him apologize. The league settled on a lawsuit in 2013 with ex-players, agreeing to pay $765 million over concussion-related brain injuries among its 18,000 retired players, agreeing to compensate victims, pay for medical exams and underwrite research. Stupid comments by the Giants running back.
Finally, we had the news of the day in college basketball on Sunday and it had nothing to do with any of the on-court play. ESPN and other sources are reporting, Syracuse University will hire current Siena College men’s head basketball coach, Gerry McNamara. According to the article, Syracuse athletic director Bryan Blair spoke to McNamara multiple times over the last week, including both virtually and in person. If (let’s be honest, when) the deal is finalized, McNamara will become the second men’s basketball coach at SU since the retirement of Jim Boehiem. McNamara would replace Adrian Autry, who failed to make the NCAA tournament in his three seasons as head coach at SU. McNamara was an assistant coach at Syracuse from 2011 to 2024, when he left to take the head coaching position at Siena College. He led the Saints to a 37-30 record over two season and reached the NCAA tournament this season, giving Duke all they could handle in their first round matchup last week.
It will be a little bit of a full circle moment for McNamara. He, along with Carmelo Anthony, led Syracuse to a national championship in 2003. Anthony’s son, Kiyan Anthony, currently plays at SU, where he averaged 8.0 points per game and 18 minutes per game. Maybe, just maybe, the Orange can get some of that magic back. Unfortunately, the days of the Dome averaging 28,000 people are long gone. Syracuse hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since the 2020-2021 season and only 5 times since joining the ACC conference. Yes, I get the college basketball has changed, but man, wouldn’t it feel good to pack the Dome again for a big game? The atmosphere would be amazing. If anyone can bring back the magic, G-MAC can!