TS Episode: Duke MBB to Finish Season ACC Only

The non-conference has not been kind to Duke basketball in the early part of this campaign. After losing their second non-conference game at home to a Big Ten team, the Duke Blue Devils are no longer interested in playing any more non-conference games during the regular season. No. 10 Duke is 2-2 through four games this year, losing at home to the No. 4 Michigan State Spartans and the No. 6 Illinois Fighting Illini. They only have two more non-conference games…

TS Episode: How to Shock the NBA in Five Days

James Harden is reportedly not being shy about expressing his desire to be dealt to the Brooklyn Nets. Per Farbod Esnaashari of Sports Illustrated, Harden has been "as vocal as possible" about his trade request, but the Houston Rockets believe "they have the leverage in this situation." Esnaashari noted the Rockets "weren't pleased" that Harden's trade request was leaked as early as it was. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Nov. 16 that the eight-time All-Star turned down a two-year, $103 million extension from Houston and "made it clear to ownership that he's singularly focused" on being traded to the Nets. Wojnarowski, Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne have…

TS Episode: Fantasy Football Fiasco

I've never seen anything quite like the injury situation around the NFL in Week 2, and I've been doing this Fantasy football thing for a decade now. Injuries happen every week, but we lost at least 10 potential Fantasy contributors in one week, including the top two picks in most drafts in Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley. That's going to make this week's waiver wire one of the busiest ever as everyone scrambles to find replacements, and it's going to make figuring…

TS Episode: College Football Craziness

Over the weekend, it appeared that the Big Ten's path towards a fall football season would be coming to a head. The conference's Return To Competition Task Force held a positive meeting on Saturday that outlined the safety precautions and testing regulations that need to be put in place to successfully hold a football season this year. From there, Big Ten presidents and chancellors were expected to hold a vote "as soon as Sunday" to decide on whether to reinstate the fall…

TS Episode: College Football Craziness

Nick Saban spent the second Saturday in September coaching a scrimmage, then talking to the media through an Internet connection about a game that's still two weeks away. Dabo Swinney checked in with ESPN's College GameDay using FaceTime on his cell phone -- which, inexplicably, he held, arm outstretched, the whole time -- from his team's training room. Ed Orgeron spent the first Saturday that resembled anything close to real college football doing -- OK, we're just going to assume the coach was elbow-deep in some crawfish. At least that would have offered…

TS Episode: Will Your Team Win the Super Bowl?

In advance of a 2020 NFL season in which anything and everything appears to be on the table, it only seems right to put together our annual preview of how each of the league's 32 teams could win the Super Bowl. It might seem wild when last year's winner wasn't exactly an upset, of course, but the 49ers went from a 4-12 season with the second-worst record in football all the way to within a play or two of glory. Here's what we wrote then: "The 49ers are probably the best…

TS Episode: Bad News for the Big Ten

The cries initially came swiftly. Fans grumbled, media members moaned, players groused and parents protested. The Big Ten’s Aug. 11 decision to postpone the football season indefinitely was met with a tide of negative reaction. In the weeks since, it hasn’t receded. On Thursday, eight Nebraska players sued the conference. That came less than a week after the family members of several Big Ten players descended on the league’s headquarters and staged a rally. Now, there is a movement coming from within — led by coaches and athletic administrators — to consider starting…