By Matt Osborne, Staff Writer The NBA’s play-in tournament officially commenced last night, with the Los Angeles Lakers clinching the 7th-seed in the West by defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 110-106. In the second game of the evening, the Sacramento Kings kept their playoff hopes alive by putting together a dominant performance in a 118-94 win over Golden State. With the game between the Kings and the Warriors being contested between the 9th and 10th seeds, respectively, both teams were aware of the fact that the loser of their contest…
Category Archives: The UNPACKIN’ it Devotional
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What’s On the Line
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The Ability to Bounce Back
Continue ReadingYesterday, 27-year-old Scottie Scheffler put on his second Green Jacket in three years after convincingly winning the Masters – his ninth career tournament win overall, and his third win this year. He’s the number one golfer in the world right now and every aspect of his golf game is strong. He has many admirable qualities, but what jumps out is his ability to bounce back after a bad shot or a bad hole. As dominant as he was all weekend, he’s not perfect and still made mistakes. However, he leads the tour in…
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Patience is Required
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer After finishing as the low amateur at the 2016 Masters Tournament, Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t experienced much success at Augusta National. But that could change with DeChambeau finishing Thursday’s opening round atop the leaderboard, firing a first-round 65 in windy conditions. DeChambeau, who has long been known for his aggressiveness and “all or nothing” approach, credits much of his success in the first round to increased patience. He recently commented, “A lot of patience is required around this golf course. I’ve tried to be a little bit smarter out there…
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UConn was Hungry, Are You?
Continue ReadingWinning back-to-back National Championships in college basketball is extremely difficult, and most teams fall short. But on Monday night, UConn did just that by knocking off Purdue 75-60 and becoming the first repeat champions since Florida in 2006-2007. Having won again is impressive, but they also did so by winning all six games by 14 or more points – the first team in NCAA Tournament history! Their average margin of victory in the 2024 NCAA tournament was 23.3 points and was 20 points in the 2023 NCAA tournament. So how does a team dominate like this and…
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Do I Need to Change My Mind?
Continue ReadingThe men’s college basketball National Championship is tonight as UConn takes on Purdue in what should be an epic battle between two elite teams. We’re coming off an exciting weekend in college basketball with two Final Fours and a National Championship as the women’s game shared (or stole) the spotlight. South Carolina finished as undefeated champions knocking off Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a highly anticipated, intense matchup. Over the last few weeks, we’ve celebrated the current state of college basketball with many intriguing storylines and enjoyed the madness that March (and April) provides….
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Diverting the Spotlight
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer There’s no denying that the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament has been a huge success for the sport as a whole. With the surplus of talented teams and star players participating in March Madness, many fans have decided to follow the women’s tournament with greater interest this year. In fact, Monday night’s Elite Eight contest between Iowa and LSU was the most-watched college basketball game in the history of ESPN. Contributing greatly to the recent rise of popularity in the women’s game has been the influx…
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Caitlin Clark’s Court Awareness
Continue ReadingCaitlin Clark continues to captivate and wow the sports world as she leads her Iowa women’s basketball team to the Final Four. She’s coming off a tremendous performance against LSU where she scored 41 points, dished out 12 assists, and grabbed 7 rebounds while knocking down 9 three-pointers. Caitlin continues to set records and gain more and more fans, but what makes her such a special player? It’s obvious she’s an incredible scorer and passer, but what especially stands out is her court awareness and how it helps to make…
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How Can That Be?
Continue ReadingThe Men’s Final Four is set with NC State, Purdue, UConn, and Alabama. When considering the stories behind how these teams made it, we can’t help but ask, “How can that be?”…and all for different reasons. NC State It’s hard to believe that NC State finished the regular season losing four straight, and were the 10th ranked team in the ACC Tournament, but won five straight to win the ACC Tournament, beating UNC and Duke along the way. Then as an 11th seed in the NCAA Tournament, they won four straight including beating Marquette and Duke, and becoming…
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The Daily Refill
Continue ReadingBy Matt Osborne, Staff Writer Playing without the services of LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers were amazingly able to overcome a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-124 in double overtime last night. The Lakers’ comeback efforts were led by Anthony Davis, who scored 34 points and hauled in 23 rebounds in nearly 53 minutes on the court. Three of Los Angeles’ starters (Davis, D’Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves) played 48 minutes or more in the team’s victory on Tuesday night. With the team having to turn…
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Top Teams Put Away Their Opponent
Continue ReadingThe NCAA men’s basketball tournament has gotten off to a tremendous start with multiple overtime games, tight finishes, and one buzzer-beater from Colorado. We’ve seen some fun first-round upsets from surprising teams like Yale, Oakland, Grand Canyon, and Duquesne. As we look at the Sweet 16 teams remaining, however, the majority are top seeds and top programs. All four of the No. 1 seeds and No. 2 seeds are moving on to next weekend. Also, 12 of the Sweet 16 teams are seeded 1-4 with the other four being Gonzaga, San Diego State, Clemson,…
