Michigan State got off to a slow start in its Sweet 16 matchup against Oklahoma on Friday night in Syracuse, N.Y.. but the Spartans eventually gathered themselves and defeated the Sooners 62-58 to earn a spot in today's East Region final against Louisville.
The reason for the sputtering beginning?
Spartans Coach Tom Izzo placed the blame on Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell.
The night before the game, the team went to see the new release staring Hart and Ferrell, Get Hard, rather than study game film.
"I probably caused the problems in the first half," Izzo said after the game. "Instead of grinding it in some film, we went to a d*** movie. We did it just to try to break up the day. I had to find something that was a little light. I didn't want anything too deep. This wasn't too deep. I kept seeing the commercials."
Izzo said he had sat with Hart at a Connecticut game last year and met Ferrell years ago, leading him to think sending his team to a movie starring the two could be good karma.
"'I said this could be a good omen, so they went," Izzo said. "I said if we lose, we'll never do it again. If we win, hell, we might go to the movies tomorrow. I don't know."
More madness
You don't have to wait until next weekend for the Final Four.
While the top college basketball programs are whittling their way down to next week's semifinals in the NCAA Tournament, the Final Four for college chess is taking place this weekend.
The President's Cup -- also known as the Final Four of chess, an homage to its more famous cousin -- is usually scheduled on the same weekend as the men's basketball championship and has been held each year since 2001, pitting the top four teams from the annual Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in December.
The competition was moved up a week this year because of a scheduling conflict with the U.S. Chess Championships, which begin this week in St. Louis and will include some of the college players competing this weekend.
This year the college chess tournament is being held at the Olympic Room on the 10th floor of the New York Athletic Club.
Unlike in basketball, the Final Four of chess is a round-robin competition in which each four-player team (with up to two alternates) gets a crack at all its rivals. At the end of the weekend, the team with the best record is the winner.
"It is a short competition," Susan Polgar, a former women's world champion who is the coach of top seed Webster University of St. Louis, told the New York Times. "In shorter competitions, there is more randomness."
Although the tournament shares the name of the basketball competition, the similarities end there.
There are no screaming fans or large crowds, only a handful of people watching in silence so as not to break the players' concentration. Cell phones are turned off, and a player who forgets to do so can be forced to forfeit. Bystanders who break the cell phone rule are shown the door.
There are also no cheerleaders, bands or mascots -- at least during the competition. Texas-Dallas, a research and engineering university, had a large pep rally Tuesday for its team, the No. 2 seed.
Pickled Trout
Satirical sports website sportspickle.com on why no one should select Los Angeles Angels outfielder and former Arkansas Traveler Mike Trout for their fantasy baseball team: "Through his first three seasons in the majors, Trout's numbers stack up with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. All those guys are dead. You can't get a bigger red flag than that."
Sports quiz
When was the first NASCAR race held at Martinsville Speedway?
Answer
1949, NASCAR's first year. The winner was Red Byron.
Sports on 03/29/2015