Tag: Tony Bennett

Virginia’s First Four loss would be more shameful if it weren’t par for the course

I would like to say UVA should be better than this, but I don’t believe that.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Gooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us here at FTW today. We appreciate you.

I’m sorry if you watched that stinker from Virginia on Tuesday along with the rest of us. If you didn’t? Bless your heart. I’m glad you were able to spend your time productively.

Virginia lost to Colorado State 67-42 in a battle of 10 seeds. Well, honestly, calling it a “battle” is probably putting a bit too much spin on it. This game wasn’t very competitive at all. The Cavaliers only scored 14 points on five made field goals in the first half. It’s a wonder UVA even finished with 42.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

This does nothing to diminish the good Colorado State basketball team on the other end. That team deserves a spot in the tournament earned it. I just wish UVA didn’t make it so easy for them.

Fans had no choice but to wonder if the committee got it wrong by picking them. Today, it’s very clear they did. We’d all rather have watched Robbie Avila do literally anything on the basketball court with Indiana State than what we saw.

The worst part is that I’d like to be surprised by this result. But I’m not. It’s become par for the course.

Tony Bennett has built a successful program at Virginia over the last 13 seasons. He’s had a ton of tournament success and, obviously, the 2019 championship goes a long way.

But here’s a wild stat for you: Since 2018, UVA only has six NCAA tournament wins. All six came from that 2019 title run. Every other year the Cavaliers have bowed out in the round of 64. Now we’ve got a First Four loss. It’s not quite worse, but it’s still pretty bad.

Tony Bennett is the guy at UVA. He’s not going anywhere. But it’s very, very clear that he’s got a lot of work to do to fix this.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

Betting big on Caitlin Clark and Women’s Basketball

Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Hate her or love her, there’s no question that Caitlin Clark has changed the future of women’s basketball for the bettor. Did you catch that double-entendre? I sure hope so.

Our Ben Fawkes did some digging into Clark’s impact on sports betting in women’s basketball, and, yes, it’s as significant as you think it is. Here’s more from Ben:

“Clark has also led to an increase in betting interest across the 38 legal U.S. betting states, both on Clark and on women’s college basketball writ large. For several sportsbooks, that’s meant offering individual game props (e.g. Clark over/under total points) on women’s college basketball games for the first time, as well as an expanded menu of women’s games to wager on.”

DraftKings, in particular, shared that betting on NCAA women’s hoops is up 14 times year-over-year by handle and 13 times year-over-year by bets placed. Fawkes spoke with DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello, who told him that Clark is directly linked to this increase.

“She’s the primary reason why handle has gone up,” Avello told FTW. “We’ve done props on her scoring in individual games, breaking Pistol Pete’s record. All of it has added to the women’s handle.”

Clark is a catalyst for women’s hoops in so many ways. The only thing left to see now is if she can bring this same fervor to the next level when she finally makes her jump to the WNBA.

I’d bet on that going well, too.

READ MORE: How Caitlin Clark fueled the rise of betting on women’s college basketball

Seoul Series Forever

(Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Did you wake up early enough to get a glimpse at the MLB Seoul Series in South Korea? It was a treat.

This morning’s game (or tonight’s game if you’re reading this from South Korea) was the first of two games between the Dodgers and Padres in Seoul, South Korea. It’s the first MLB game ever played in the country and, yes, though the regular season technically hasn’t started yet, these games do count as regular season wins and losses.

That’s good news for the Dodgers, who won the first game 5-2. We saw Shohei Ohtani’s first hit as a Dodger—a single in the third inning against Yu Darvish.

Ohtani also blasted a foul ball through the roof of the stadium they were playing in, which doesn’t count for anything but is still incredibly impressive.

Not only was there a ton of fun baseball being played, but South Korea also spoiled us with epic performances from aespa. Fun times!

Can baseball always be like this? Please and thanks.

Next game: Thursday, March 21 at 6 a.m. ET. 

Quick hits: Why Caleb Williams will be different for Chicago … Our staff March Madness picks … and more

— Robert Zeglinski paints the picture on why Caleb Williams won’t fail like every other Bears QB prospect has.

— Here’s Blake Schuster with all of our picks for the men’s NCAA tournament.

— Christian D’Andrea is coming to us with the Rhode Island Scumbag’s key to betting on the tournament. Good luck.

— I could never hit a pitch from Yu Darvish. I already knew that, but this video confirms it. Charles Curtis has more.

— Here’s Candace Parker on the big hurdle Caitlin Clark will face going to the WNBA. Meg Hall has more.

— Cory Woodroof has more here on the Jets trapping themselves into depending on Aaron Rodgers to lead them to glory.

Thanks so much for reading, folks. Hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter. Tap in tomorrow for more! Until next time. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

Twitter rips Tony Bennett in upset for not having Virginia use a foul before NC State’s game-tying 3

Why didn’t he have Virginia foul??

Virginia got taken down by NC State in an intense overtime game in the 2024 ACC tournament, and it’s head coach Tony Bennett who’s taking the heat.

With the Cavaliers up 58-55 and with just seconds to go, Isaac McKneely missed a free throw, and the Wolfpack’s Michael O’Connell launched a three at the buzzer that banked off the glass, rattled around and went in to force overtime. NC State went on to win and advance.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

So what did Bennett do? It’s what he didn’t do, actually — Virginia had fouls to give and could have perhaps fouled as the ball was coming up to stop the clock and reset everything.

Bennett’s explanation, as you’ll see below, was to NOT foul when O’Connell was getting close to pulling up for three, which made sense:

Fans were mad:

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Five takeaways from Duke’s blowout 73-48 win over Virginia

Five takeaways from Duke’s dismantling of the Virginia Cavaliers.

Saturday was a fun time in Cameron. Everything went right for the Duke Blue Devils as they dismantled Tony Bennett’s UVA team 73-48 as the Blue Devils kicked off March.

From the opening tip, it was apparent that Duke was more focused, prepared, and simply the better team. Kyle Filipowski was dominant, Tyrese Proctor was as well, and the Blue Devils put together one of their most complete performances of the season.

It was a magnificent showing and shows that if Duke has officially turned the corner and is playing their best basketball like this as the next few weeks go on, they’ll give themselves the chance to extend their season into April.

It’s time to share our five takeaways from the easy win.

Scouting Report: Everything to know about Virginia ahead of Saturday’s game

The Blue Devils try to keep pace with UNC atop the conference, but they may need to end Virginia’s tournament hopes to do so. Here’s a quick primer ahead of the ACC Tournament Final rematch from a year ago.

Duke fans might already have one eye on the rematch with North Carolina next weekend, but the Blue Devils need to win an ACC Tournament Final rematch with Virginia first.

Head coach Jon Scheyer’s team has every reason to feel confident in itself right now, the injury to freshman Caleb Foster notwithstanding. The Blue Devils have won 17 of their last 20 games. They beat Virginia by 10 points to win the ACC Tournament last season. They get the home Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd behind them.

However, as is always the case for a Tony Bennett-coached team, the Cavaliers are nothing like any squad Duke has played to this point, and they have their backs to the wall.

Here’s a quick preview of what to expect in Saturday’s game.

Duke remains steady at No. 9 in latest AP Poll

After two relatively stress free wins last week, Duke remains at No. 9 in latest AP Poll.

After winning both of their games last week in an attempt to bounce back from the loss to their Tobacco Road rivals, Jon Scheyer’s Duke Blue Devils remained at No. 9 in the latest AP Poll released Monday afternoon.

Duke dispatched Notre Dame at home 71-53 to complete a season sweep of the Fighting Irish. They followed up with an 80-65 home win over a Boston College team led by All-ACC big man Quinten Post.

As the calendar inches closer and closer to March, Duke is trying to round itself into form and begin playing their best basketball at the right time.

At the top of the AP Poll, Connecticut and Purdue serve as the two best teams in the nation, respectively. UNC‘s home loss to Clemson for just the second time ever cost them their spot at No. 3. That now goes to the Houston Cougars, who moved up since Kansas lost against their in-state rivals, the Kansas State Wildcats on the road.

Marquette and Arizona are your fourth- and fifth-ranked teams as both saw themselves rise three spots from last week’s poll.

Kansas is now sixth, while Hubert Davis’ team is now seventh. All-American candidate Dalton Knecht and the Tennessee Volunteers are now eight after Texas A&M drilled them on Saturday evening.

T. J. Otzelberger and the Iowa State Cyclones round out the top 10, giving the Big 12 three schools in the top 10.

Tony Bennett and the Virginia Cavaliers join the Blue Devils and Tarheels as the only ACC teams represented in the top 25.

Duke, Virginia, and UNC are in a tense battle for ACC supremacy, with the Tar Heels holding onto a one-game lead over UVA and a 1.5-game lead over Duke. UVA and UNC are set to play each other toward the end of February, while Duke is set to host both Virginia and UNC in March as their final two home games to close out this ACC regular season.

Micah Shrewsberry, Kebba Njie, Matt Zona speak during ACC Tipoff

Hear from a team that figures to have many challenges this season.

Notre Dame is facing a challenging season with a new face and a mostly new roster. [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] fielded questions about that during the ACC Tipoff on Oct. 25 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alongside him were [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag], a transfer who came over with Shrewsberry from Penn State, and [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag], one of the few returnees on this year’s Irish.

Here is what they had to say:

Lady Gaga posts a beautiful Instagram tribute to Tony Bennett: ‘I will miss my friend forever’

This was so beautiful.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett formed such an incredible bond late in the career of the all-time great singer before Bennett died at 96 earlier in July.

Gaga spoke about how Bennett helped save her when she felt down in her career, and their two albums and many performances showed they really did love working together and being friends.

On Sunday, Lady Gaga posted a long, beautiful tribute to Bennett on Instagram. She spoke about him as a friend, how she’ll never forget him, and how he helped “keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight.”

And there’s more about loving your elders: “Don’t leave them behind when things change.”

Check out the entire post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvWSTtoMJNs/

See Tony Bennett’s extravagant Super Bowl 29 Halftime Show performance with Patti LaBelle

This was quite a show.

The year was 1995.

The San Francisco 49ers were in the middle of dismantling the upstart San Diego Chargers at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, with Steve Young well on his way to throwing six touchdown passes — three to Jerry Rice.

And at halftime, it was quite a show to take in.

MORE: The 10 best Tony Bennett songs of all time

Patti LaBelle, Arturo Sandoval, Miami Sound Machine and the late, great Tony Bennett performed in quite a spectacle of a show, including Bennett who showed up in a white suit and sang Duke Ellington’s classic Caravan.

It’s fantastic. Go enjoy it:

5 beautiful Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga moments, including when she said he saved her

The two formed a beautiful friendship.

Of course we’ll never forget the legendary Tony Bennett for his solo career that spanned so many decades.

But for a whole generation of fans, it was his pairing with Lady Gaga that so many people loved.

They met in 2011, recorded The Lady Is a Tramp together, and then the two superstars did two albums — Cheek to Cheek and Love for Sale, packed full of American Songbook classics.

MORE: The 10 best Tony Bennett songs

She’s spoken with so much reverence and love for Bennett as their friendship over the years. So let’s look back on some of their best moments together: