In March...
Baylor University's freshman phenom Brittney Griner, a 6-foot-8 center who holds the NCAA women's single-season blocked shots record, punched Texas Tech's Jordan Barncastle during a game, breaking her nose. Said head coach Kim Mulkey, "While she looks like this big, big woman out there, she's really a kid when you're around her, and we forget that." (3/3)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault, the second such accusation made against Roethlisberger, of a female college student at a Milledgeville, Georgia, nightclub. On whether Roethlisberger was drunk the night in question, the club's manager Rocky Duncan said, "You see a lot at a bar. Was he the drunkest person I ever met? No. Did he have a buzz? Probably." (3/5)
Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Matt Cooke levelled Boston Bruins center Marc Savard with a blindside shot to the head that rendered Savard unconscious for fifteen minutes and required him to be wheeled off the ice on a stretcher. Addressing attempts Cooke has made to get in touch with him, Savard said, "Yeah, he has tried, and he has tried to get my phone number and stuff like that. But from what happened, I really don't, right at the moment, have any interest in talking to him, that's just how I feel." (3/7)
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman, a rookie 22-year-old Cuban defector who signed a six-year, $30 million contract in the off-season, debuted in his first spring training game against the Kansas City Royals. On Chapman's two-inning performance, Joe Posnanski wrote, "Watching [Rick] Ankiel trying to hit Chapman was somewhere between comedy and tragedy; you got the sense that if Ankiel faced Chapman 100 times, he would strike out 100 times." (3/8)
The University of Connecticut women's basketball team broke the consecutive win streak of 70 games, set by the Huskies earlier in the decade, with its 71st straight victory, over Notre Dame during a semi-final match in the Big East Conference Tournament. Said head coach Geno Auriemma, "And I guess it's better that we break our own record. I wouldn't want to break somebody else's record." (3/9)
Los Angeles Clippers general manager Mike Dunleavy was fired a month after being relieved of his duties as head coach. Dunleavy was getting a haircut, packing for a scouting trip, and golfing the afternoon the announcement was made. (3/9)
Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly suspended starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, a potential preseason Heisman favorite, for the 2010 season. Masoli pleaded guilty to stealing a couple of laptops and a guitar from a campus fraternity. (3/12)
Manny Pacquiao defeated Joshua Clottery in Cowboys Stadium in front of the third-largest indoor crowd in boxing history. Said promoter Bob Arum, "Fourteen years ago [Pacquiao] was sleeping in a cardboard shack in the Philippines and tonight he puts 51,000 people in this palace in Dallas." (3/13)
Formula One racing's season commenced at the Bahrain Grand Prix won by Fernando Alonso of the Ferrari team. Echoing complaints that rule changes were to blame for a dull race, past champion Michael Shumacher said, "That's the action we're going to have with this kind of, unfortunately, environment of race strategy." (3/14)
Soccer star David Beckham underwent surgery for a torn Achilles tendon, an injury that rules him out of World Cup in South Africa, effectively ending his international career. Britain's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy commemorated Beckham's injury in verse that referenced the Trojan War myth. (3/15)
Tiger Woods announced he will return to golf to play at the Masters Tournament. Less than a week later in his first public interviews since finishing a stint at sex treatment facility he expressed regret for compulsively cheating on his wife blaming his behavior on straying from Buddhism. (3/16)
A day after Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington admitted to cocaine use during the 2009 baseball season, Washington admitted to amphetamine and marijuana use during his playing days, 1977-1989. Said general manager Jon Daniels, "I think there's a distinction between what people do in their youth versus later in life." (3/18)
Major League Soccer and the MLS Players Union struck a deal for a new labor contract lasting five years, thus avoiding a potentially strike by the players. Said Sounders FC general manager Adrian Hanauer, "And that's when a good agreement is reached, when both sides are happy about some parts and maybe feel like they didn't get everything." (3/20)
The University of Minnesota-Duluth defeated Cornell University in the hockey final's of the women's Frozen Four by a score of 3-2, a game that lasted until the final minute of the third sudden-death overtime period. The Duluth Mayor Don Ness proclaimed Friday, March 26th, "Coach Shannon Miller Day" in honor of the fifth national championship coached by Miller at the school. (3/21)
The NFL instituted several rule changes including an postseason overtime rule that allows both teams possession of the ball unless the first team scores a touchdown. Also changed was a 21-year prohibition on stadiums using video boards to encourage fans to make noise; the only constraint is phrases like "Raise the Roof" or "Pump It Up" cannot be displayed in the fifteen seconds leading up to the snap of the ball. (3/24)
Florida International University running back Kendall Berry was fatally stabbed outside the school's recreation center. Said head coach Mario Cristobal, "Kendall had an infectious personality... It's a shame to lose such a young life to an act of senseless violence." (3/25)
Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas received a suspended sentence of 18 months and ordered by the court to serve 400 hours of community service and spend 30 days in a halfway house on charges related to bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. Said head coach Flip Saunders, "In the conversation I've had with [Arenas] I think he's aware that he did something that was very stupid." (3/26)
Butler University defeated the Kansas State, 63-56, to advance to the school's first ever Final Four appearance in the men's NCAA basketball tournament. On his decision to pursue coaching in the first place, head coach Brad Stevens said, "It probably wasn't a smart decision, but it looks pretty good now." (3/27)
University of Texas-El Paso hired Tim Floyd, who resigned from USC last season amid allegations of recruiting violations, to fill the men's basketball head coaching vacancy. Said Floyd, "And I just said, 'Bob, I want to come.' And we didn't talk dollars, cents, whatever. Bob, I would like to talk to you about that as soon as this is over." (3/30)
In April...
NCAA men's Final Four semi-finals are 4/3; the final is 4/5. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play the first game of the season on 4/4; opening day for the remainder of the MLB is 4/5. NCAA women's Final Four semi-finals are 4/4; the final is 4/6. NCAA men's Frozen Four semi-finals are 4/8; the final is 4/10. PGA's The Masters tournament starts 4/8. The NHL's playoffs start 4/14. The NBA's playoffs start 4/17. The NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, more commonly known as the Draft, starts 4/22, debuting a new format that stretches over three days and begins in primetime as opposed to over two days and in the afternoon.
[Cian spends his days in photos and his nights advancing the cause of the Einsteins... well, most nights anyway. If you like the magazine, he would really like it if you joined our mailing list.]
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