SU may be wrong but it feels like the unexpected and tragic death of Kobe Bryant has overshadowed a lot of the normal hype surrounding this year’s Super Bowl.  That’s fine with me – a lot of that talk is just background noise anyway (like listening to Dick Vitale doing a college basketball game and easy to tune out).  This does set up to be one of the better games in recent years and it should be close.

SU is on record for a San Francisco win: 31 – 27.  I do like the Chiefs and Mahomes but the Niners defense will be a difference maker as well as their running game.  It’s great for the NFL to showcase Mahomes and there is a lot of sentiment to have Andy Reid get his first Super Bowl championship.  Feel free to post your predicted scores here if you’d like.

SU caught the Michigan – Rutgers basketball game at the Garden yesterday along with long-time subscribers B. Levine, S. Levine and several of their Michigan classmates.  MSG was rocking – huge Rutgers turnout as they finally have put together a competitive basketball team.  It was technically a Michigan home game but there were many more Rutgers fans.  Great atmosphere and an exciting game.  SU was grateful to see Michigan in person although this is definitely a transition year for the team as they seek to be a bubble team for the NCAAs.  Rutgers is good – very athletic – and undefeated at home this year.  All good for the Big Ten.  Now Rugers just needs to get their football team on the same footing.  The Big Ten is a slogfest with the top teams struggling to win on the road.  And the NCAAs are set up for a wide open tournament which is ideal.

SU woke up early to catch the Australian Open finals with Djokovic pulling out a 5-set win over Dominick Thiem.  Interesting match as Djokovic had an energy lapse for a set and a half but somehow rallied from behind win his 17th major.   But the younger players are clearly ready to break though and SU says it will be someone in the Thiem, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev group for 2020.  Men’s tennis is really set up well now for the next several years.

On the women’s side, it was great to see an American take the title with Sophie Kenin.  She is fierce.

Finally, pitchers and catchers (and metal trash bins in Houston) are just about ready to report.  Lots of research on the Astros’ hitting stats for 2017.  The numbers are striking for the home games vs. the road.  Someone even watched videos of every home game and charted the number of trash bangs vs. hitting/wins and losses.  Pretty striking and pretty obvious.  And, of course, those stats can’t pick up the buzzer-aided at bats.  The Astros also showed a huge drop-off in strikeouts in 2017 vs. 2016 – especially at home.  It does feel like this story will have legs well into the 2020 season.