"The Stack" 2-14-17
Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies have won 100 consecutive games. They beat South Carolina 66-55 in a pretty hard fought game to accomplish the unthinkable. This is one record that will probably never be broken unless it's Auriemma himself winning 100 straight again.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The Stack is back on this Tuesday and love is in the air. Ugh! OK, enough of that. We don’t have a whole lot to discuss. We are as I’m sure you know by now big into college basketball so that is where the majority of the headlines will be coming from here over the next month-and-a-half or so. We’ll sprinkle other sports in there as well of course, but today is another heavy dose of college basketball so let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Tuesday, February 14th:
UConn wins 100th straight game
The UConn Huskies women’s basketball team has added another impressive feat to an already extensive and accomplished resume. They have now won one hundred straight games. They beat South Carolina 66-55 Monday night, but it wasn’t easy. South Carolina came to play and led in the first half and into the second half, but plenty of easy missed shots doomed them. That and UConn just knows how to turn it on when they need to and they make clutch shots. Gabby Williams was sensational putting up a double-double with 26 points and 14 rebounds. There will be plenty of people out there that dismiss this accomplishment winning one hundred games in a row, but in a sport in which the competition is getting better and the recruiting is getting more difficult, UConn finds ways to keep winning. That is a major credit to head coach Geno Auriemma and the culture he has instilled at UConn. He is a winner. No one else has ever done something like this before. The target is squarely on their backs, but that doesn’t seem to bother them. Even as South Carolina stayed within striking distance late into the third quarter, you knew UConn was going to go on a little run and stretch the lead out. They did just that. One hundred straight victories is quite the accomplishment. Congrats to UConn. Well deserved!
Baylor upset, Kansas survives
Baylor and Kansas both received one seeds Saturday from the selection committee. That may not last long. Baylor got bounced by Texas Tech in Lubbock Monday night 84-78. After coming so close to beating Kansas on Saturday, Texas Tech needed this one badly in hopes of getting a possible at-large selection. This was a good win for them and is just the type of loss that those of us who don’t believe in Baylor have been waiting for. I’m very dismissive of them being a one seed. They are bound to disappoint in the tournament. They could still be a one seed, but I don’t think I will be picking them to go very far.
Kansas also nearly lost for a second time at home this season, but made a New England Patriots-esque comeback over West Virginia who had an Atlanta Falcons-like meltdown. They were up by 14 points on the road with two-and-a-half minutes to play in the game and somehow found a way to lose the lead and go to overtime where Kansas would eventually win 84-80. The Mountaineers offense or lack thereof couldn’t do anything the final couple of minutes. They couldn’t inbound the ball. They couldn’t dribble. They couldn’t make free throws. All of these things contributed to this awful loss. Kansas did everything correctly down the stretch to force overtime and win the game. They should be commended for that. This game does nothing to change my mind on Kansas, but perhaps further strengthens my thoughts on West Virginia that they are poised for another early exit in the tournament this year. What a game this one was in Lawrence last night.
Jerry Sandusky’s son charged with child sexual abuse
From the “We should have seen this coming, but am still stunned it happened” section, former Penn State assistant coach and scum of the earth Jerry Sandusky, his son Jeffrey, age 41, was charged on Monday with sex crimes involving two underage girls. The details of the story are disgusting and can be found here if you feel so inclined to read them. Shouldn’t this guy have known any better? I guess like father, like son. Now this piece of scum can go rot in jail for an extremely long time. Obviously the Sandusky family has some members that can’t be trusted. What an awful thing to have happen. When you first read the headline you think to yourself, “No way, that can’t be right. He wouldn’t be that stupid would he?” Yes, Jeffrey Sandusky apparently was and now he will be doing time once a trial happens and a jury finds him guilty. It would be hard at this point to believe anyone will find him innocent. It just makes you shake your head and almost laugh out loud that this happened again within the Sandusky family. This is not a funny matter, but how in the heck can this guy be so dumb? He’s probably very sick. You have to be what he did to these two girls just like what his father did to all of those boys. Still, you almost can’t believe it happened. It did though.
Coming up later this week: Reaction to top headlines in the sports world
