Stanley Cup Goes South. Again.

The Florida Panthers should have won the NHL Stanley Cup a week ago when they led the Edmonton Oilers 3-0. But the Oilers won the next three games to tie the Final and go to a Game 7. The Panthers won the Cup Monday, avoiding the embarrassment of being only the second team to lose it after taking a 3-0 lead. The Detroit Red Wings were that team in 1942, losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Oilers were the latest Canadian-based NHL team since 1993 to lose the Cup. But Connor McDavid, the league's best current player not to win Lord Stanley, got a nice consolation prize in being awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. A prize McDavid declined to accept in front of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and a celebrating Florida crowd. Can you blame him?

In this decade, the Stanley Cup has resided in the NHL's warm weather outposts of Tampa Bay and Las Vegas. With the Panthers claiming the Cup for the first time in franchise history (they date back to the 1990's), one of the world's oldest championship trophies is again a Florida resident. Canada is so jealous. 

NBA Three Pointer: Celtics, Wolves and the TV Deal.

From the three-point line:

1. The Boston Celtics won their 18th NBA title Monday before the home folks at TD Garden, dispatching the Dallas Mavericks in five games. The Celtics were the best team all season, and there was little dispute over their worthiness to be a champion. Dallas? The way the Western Conference playoffs went, with new teams playing that could never have competed with Boston, let's thank the Mavs for coming out like they did.

2. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who had not been a serious playoff contender for two decades, finally became one this season. Led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, the Wolves came within one game of the NBA Finals before losing to Dallas. Any chance of future success with a team like this (given their history) depends on two factors: (A) Staying together and staying healthy, which is where they have had problems in the past, and (B) Clearing up their ownership squabbles, starting with an arbitration dispute between current owner Glen Taylor and the two men he sold a chunk of the Wolves to: former baseball star and current entrepreneur Alex Rodriguez and businessman Marc Lore. We should know by Fall, if ever.

3. The NBA is almost ready to announce a new television deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video, once all the details are worked out.  What's missing is TNT, which might lose the games starting in 2025 after a few decades. But what basketball fans are worried about is what's going to happen with "Inside the NBA", the wraparound show that includes Shaquille O'Neal, host Ernie Johnson and lightning rod Charles Barkley that's been considered a better reason to watch TNT than the games themselves.  Well, Barkley's just announced that he's hanging up his mic after next season. But few people believe him. So however it comes out, the NBA will have a lot more platforms to play their games on.

College Basketball: Teams, Not Superstars, Win Titles

 March (and April) Madness is done for this year, and we get another example of the old bromide "There's no I in Team".

Caitlin Clark, who had been setting records left and right in women's (and men's) college basketball for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, ended her collegiate career in losing the NCAA national championship to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday 87-75 in Cleveland.

The Gamecocks, who had gone undefeated the entire season, won this game with Tessa Johnson's 19 points and Kamilla Cardoso's 15 in keeping the Hawkeyes' chances to a minimum.  Clark ended up with 30 points.

The Gamecocks had been pretty much flying under the radar as a Dawn Staley-coached team all season, while all we heard about is the greatest bumper crop women's basketball had ever produced: Clark, Paige Bueckers of Connecticut, Angel Reese of Louisiana State, and JuJu Watkins of Southern California.  Together they packed the stadiums, seen their profiles rise in commercials due to NIL money and sent TV ratings to record highs during the tournament.  Eighteen million of you watched the championship game on ABC Sunday afternoon.  That's second only to the NFL and the Olympics.

Now what? Clark is off to the WNBA, where she might end up being just another player in a league full of one-time college phenoms like herself OR she can become the change agent the league needs.  As for women's college basketball itself, they've had a big year.  But they still have a long way to go.

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One of the reasons the women's game is not yet on a par with the men's game is this:  The women's championship game was played in an NBA arena on a Sunday afternoon on network TV.  The men's championship was played in a domed NFL football stadium in Arizona on a Monday night on cable TV.

 In that stadium, the University of Connecticut won its second consecutive national title with a 75-60 win over Purdue University, led by efforts from the Huskies' Tristen Newton, Stephon Castle, Cam Spencer and Donovan Clingen.  No school since Florida 15 years ago, and Duke before that, had ever won back-to-back titles.  So clearly the Huskies' Dan Hurley knows how to coach, right?

Fourteen million saw this game on TBS Monday night despite the fact that (1) there was hardly any buzz outside of the respective campuses, and (2) it had a late tipoff in the East so there could be a long introduction and, once the game ended, "One Shining Moment".

So for this season, anything the boys did, the women did better.

Super Bowl 58: Love (and the Chiefs) Conquers All

 In the other city that never sleeps, Las Vegas hosted an event that could have gone all night.  Taylor Swift flew all the way from Tokyo as if she were Santa Claus or an Amazon package being tracked to be with the one she loves in his shining moment.  Usher performed a stellar show worthy of the Strip with guests such as Alicia Keys, H.E.R. and Ludacris.  And the football game was pretty good, too.

The Kansas City Chiefs needed overtime to beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22, and claim the Vince Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl champions for the fourth time in franchise history (three in this decade), and second in a row--not done since the New England Patriots in the 2000s.  Patrick Mahomes, the QB who threw to Mecole Hardman in the end zone for the winning score near the end of OT, won his third Super Bowl MVP.  And America got to see Taylor and Travis Kelce of the Chiefs in locked embrace as the confetti flew.  Storybook finish.

The Chiefs as AFC West champions made their way through the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens to win the conference title.  The 49ers as NFC West champions defeated the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for their conference title.

Back to Taylor 'n Travis for a moment.  We think it's great that the biggest pop star so far in the 2020s was able to make the time to cheer on her boyfriend from her suite at football stadiums in spite of her busy schedule.  The NFL, which hardly needed the exposure, seems grateful for all the Swifties who came aboard to discover for themselves what football is about.  Like any relationship, though, you have to wonder how long Taylor 'n Travis is going to continue.  If they don't, will all those Swifties find something else to do besides watching football?  How will the NFL survive without them?

Other Super highs and lows:

• It's been reported that 126 million of you watched the big game on CBS.  That's a big relief to a TV industry awaiting the return of its scripted shows after a long autumn of delays caused by striking writers and actors.
• CBS analyst Tony Romo, whose booth performance has been dissed by fans and critics alike, managed to make it through the game without saying something stupid.
• Beyonce tried to break the internet--again in a Verizon ad.  Arnold Scwarzenegger plays a State Farm insurance agent turned action hero. More talking infants. And Jesus apparently had a foot fetish.  Otherwise, the commercials were not great this year.

 Super Bowl 59 will be in New Orleans next year.  Mahomes has pointed out that the Chiefs can be the first team to win three straight championships.  Uh huh, and maybe the love story can continue for another season.  Just say yes.