Weekend Warrior
The Rundown: Weekend Wrap Up Edition - No Adults Allowed
Not in the mood to adult today? We’re right there with you on this Monday. We’ll help you get ahead of those fast typing, sports talking colleagues with today’s Rundown. So go ahead and have that donut with your coffee – you can be an adult tomorrow.
We like the ones with sprinkles,
The Last Night’s Game Team
NCAA BASEBALL (COLLEGE)
- Underdogs prevail. The College World Series championship series is set and features two unlikely opponents. University of Arizona and Coastal Carolina, who both rose up from the loser’s bracket to make it to the finals, will play a best-of-three series starting tonight (7 pm EST, ESPN) to determine the champion.
NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing)
- Full steam ahead. In his last season as a driver, Tony Stewart snapped his 84 race winless streak on Sunday with a win in Sonoma. Until this weekend Stewart had not won a race since June 2013. In August 2014 Stewart killed another driver who was walking on the race track in a non-NASCAR, dirt track race and hasn’t been the same since. Now he has something to look forward to as he’s in the mix for the championship.
PGA (PROFESSIONAL GOLFERS' ASSOCIATION)
- Time to regroup. The PGA tour has cancelled its upcoming tournament the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia (scheduled July 7-10) due to massive flooding. This is the first time since 2009 that the PGA has cancelled an entire tournament. Professional golfer Bubba Watson lives on the course at Greenbrier and he shared photos of the devastation.
Soccer
- Things got Messi. Defending champions Team Chile and Team Argentina played in the championship for the Copa America Centenario title yesterday. After 90 minutes of regular play and 30 minutes of extra time the two teams were still tied at a big fat zero. Next up penalty kicks. The first kicker for Argentina was Lionel Messi, arguably the best player in the world. Scary right? Well he missed his shot. Argentina missed another penalty kick while Chile did not. Team Chile emerged as the winners of 2016 Copa America Centenario.
A frustrated Messi indicated in postgame interviews that he will retire from the Argentinian national team.
- Not quite on the medal stand. Team U.S.A. lost to Columbia 1-0 in Saturday’s third place game, finishing in fourth place in the Copa America Centenario.
Overtime
- When TCU (Texas Christian University) played Coastal Carolina in the College World Series over the weekend, proud alum Jake Arrieta (TCU) and his Chicago Cubs teammate Tommy La Stella (Coastal Carolina) made a bet. The bet was that the loser would have to get a tattoo of the opposing school's mascot. What could go wrong there? Coastal Carolina beat TCU two game in a row to make it to the championship series. Arrieta better be ready to become lifelong friends with the mascot, a chanticleer.
What is a chanticleer you ask? We didn’t know either. It’s a fierce rooster out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Wow look out for the fierce roosters. What school’s mascot makes you go hmmm? Tell us in the comments or on Twitter.
Sideline stat
- Rising above the Brexit chaos, Wimbledon starts today. The tournament is one of the four major tournaments in professional tennis. The grueling tournament finishes July 10th. Pete Sampras was the last American man to win Wimbledon in 2000 and Serena Williams won last year for the ladies.
Coaches’ Corner
- What does it mean end the match in penalty kicks? Many soccer matches can end in a tie (aka a draw) but matches such as a championship game must determine a winner, therefore a tie is not acceptable. If both teams are still tied in an elimination game after regulation time and extra time (120 minutes of play total - that’s a whole lot of running around) they then resort to penalty kicks. In the first round, each team selects five players to kick. The teams alternate kickers who go one-on-one with the opposing goalie in an attempt to score a goal. The team that scores the most goals wins. Getting technical here, if after the first round the teams are still tied, five new players are chosen and the process repeats until a winner is determined. Learn more here.
The Rundown: Weekend Preview Edition - Win or Go Home
Break out the pool towel and the sunscreen because it’s not only a big weekend poolside but a big weekend in sports. It’s win or go home in the College World Series finals, Copa America soccer tournament finals and Euro 2016 soccer tournament. We’ll just have to wait and see who’s in and who’s out.
No Brexit here,
The Last Night’s Game Team
College World Series
- Batter up. The College World Series tournament is down to the final four teams who will play each other today for a possible trip to the final game. University of Arizona will play Oklahoma State University (3 pm EST on ESPN2) and Coastal Carolina will play TCU (Texas Christian University) (8 pm EST on ESPN). Arizona and Coastal Carolina have one loss in the double elimination tournament, therefore they will have to beat their respective opponent twice to advance to championship.
NBA (National Basketball Association)
- I choose you. The NBA draft took place in Brooklyn last night. The first two picks went as expected, sending LSU freshman Ben Simmons (#1) to Philadelphia 76ers and Duke freshman Brandon Ingram (#2) to Los Angeles Lakers. Check out who your favorite team drafted here.
NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing)
- I can’t turn right. After a Father’s Day weekend break, NASCAR returns Sunday to Sonoma, California (3 pm EST on Fox Sports 1). Sonoma is unique course in that it is one of two road courses on the schedule. A road course is different then the traditional oval course that only has left turns. The road course has multiple turns (like real life driving) that must be navigated carefully.
NHL (National Hockey League)
- What happens here doesn’t stay here. Add professional sports to the list of entertainment options in Las Vegas. The NHL officially announced that Las Vegas will be the home of a new team for the 2017-2018 season. It will be the 31st team in the league and will be owned by Bill Foley, a financial services tycoon, who will pay a $500 million expansion fee. The Las Vegas team does have new digs (T-Mobile Arena on the strip) but it does not have a name yet. We could think of a few winners. Share with us what you’d name them. (PG names of course. Come on, they do have kid friendly activities in Vegas. Sort of).
Soccer
- Win or go home. The next round of Euro 2016 begins on Saturday. One side of the bracket has teams with a combined zero championships. While the other side is full of soccer powerhouses with a combined 10 championships (Team Germany, Italy, Spain, France and England). The underdog Iceland takes on England this weekend. This is Team Iceland’s first time playing in a major tournament and they’re a little excited about their success. Check out the announcer’s call on this goal. It’ll make your day.
- Win or go home, part two. In Copa America Centenario news, Argentina takes on defending champion Chile on Sunday in the championship game (8 pm EST on Fox Sports 1). Team U.S.A. will take on Columbia on Saturday in the third place game (8 pm EST on FX). These games are a little different because they can’t end in a tie. So if a game is tied after 90 minutes of regular play, there will be two-15 minute extra periods. If it’s still tied, then the teams will resort to the always exciting penalty kicks to determine a winner.
- Oh excuse me. The Swedish professional league is making headlines for an unexpected reason. During a game Adam Lindin Ljungkvist had already received one yellow card. He then received another yellow card for “unsportsmanlike behavior,” passing gas too loudly. Two yellow cards in a game equal automatic ejection from the game. In Ljungkvist’s defense he said he has an “upset tummy.” Hooliganism we say!
Overtime
- Famed sports writer Bill Simmons debuted his new sports talk show on Wednesday on HBO. One of his first guests was mega actor and big New England Patriots (NFL) fan, Ben Affleck. Affleck went on a bit of a profanity laced tirade when he was asked about “Deflategate” involving is team and beloved quarterback Tom Brady.
Sideline stat
- In last night’s NBA draft, 15 of the first 30 draft picks were foreign basketball players. That stat set the record for the most foreign players ever taken in the first round. This list includes the number one pick, Ben Simmons, who is Australian but played at LSU.
Coaches’ Corner
- Today we let you be the coach. Former NBA player, Shaquille O’Neal, doesn’t have a spread in ESPN The Magazine’s annual body issue. So he took it upon himself to photoshop his head onto Dwayne Wade’s body (current NBA player and featured athlete). Hilarity ensues. So we ask you, who wore it best? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter @lastnights_game.
