Billy Murray has been at the center of several high-profile sports odysseys in the past few years, becoming the unofficial hypeman for the Cubs' curse-breaking World Series win and taking on the role of Xavier zealot during last year's NCAA tourney. This year, however, Murray is taking his fandom back to its roots, going Full Bill in the stands following his adopted hometown of Charleston's dramatic Dance-clinching three in overtime of the CAA Championship on Tuesday night. Let's get jubilant:
https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/971213021002559488
For Charleston, this is a huge deal. The school haven't made the tourney since 1999, when masked crusader and long-retired NBA star Rip Hamilton led UCONN to the national championship. For Murray, meanwhile, this is business as usual. The dude lives to sit in the stands and shout himself hoarse with a Bud in one hand and a crappy hot dog in the other. Sometimes Eddie Vedder shows up, but the most of the time it&#0..

For nearly two centuries, Easter has reigned as humanity’s freakiest holiday, one that commemorates both a man’s actual honest-to-Him resurrection AND — and I feel like this part never gets enough attention — his ability to roll enormous boulders away from cave mouths. I mean, ascension is great, but moving house-sized stones around? Come on! Sure, it’s not “coming back from the dead,” but it’s still a power that would garner some pretty serious Likes if anyone else did it.
Yet though resurrection is “meaningful” and “revelatory” and “the basis for a religion practiced by literal billions,” it proved not quite enough to hang on a holiday on, so we did the only logical thing: Invent a berserk B story involving a mystical rabbit that breaks into children’s houses and leaves food-esque candies that bear the consistency and flavor of wrestling-mat stuffing. We then involved a subplot about eggs—which are not produced by bunnies, even in creationist textbooks — and called it a day. Actually..

The Wright State Raiders knocked off the Cleveland State Vikings on Tuesday night to earn the Horizon League's automatic NCAA bid. It's the program's third trip to the Big Dance, and first since 2007. But you're not reading this post because of the Raiders' win. It's how they celebrated it that's noteworthy.
Wright State freshman Ryan Custer was injured in an off-campus party last April, an accident that left him motionless in a pool. Custer underwent spinal cord surgery, putting the forward in a wheelchair. Despite the paralysis, Custer has remained with the program, and according to coaches and teammates, been an integral part of the team's success.
“If you ask anybody on our team who is the best teammate or the closest friend, two-thirds of the guys would probably say him,” Wright State director of basketball operations Nick Goff said to WCPO. “And that’s a freshman on the basketball team.”
Following the team's victory, the team went over..

PARIS (AP) Evian Championship organizers will increase the prize money at the women’s golf major to $4.1 million in 2019.

A first increase of $200,000 will be implemented this year, with an extra $250,000 added from 2019.

Organizers say the increase is aimed at strengthening the event’s ”position just behind the U.S. Women’s Open as the second-largest purse of the five majors in the women’s Grand Slam.”

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The tournament will also move from its current September date to a July date from 2019.

At the inaugural Evian Masters in 2000, players competed for $1.8 million. When the event became a major in 2013, the prize money was increased to $3.25 million.

Fantasy Golf Podcast: The little-known reason why you should pick Tiger Woods at the Valspar Championship

Tiger Woods' former coach, Hank Haney, gives his take on the most famous construction project in golf

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) Whatever was said between Jack Nicklaus and USGA chief executive Mike Davis didn’t show up in the annual report on driving distance.

Nicklaus has said for nearly half his life that the ball goes too far, an opinion based more on the 415 golf courses his company has designed than the record 18 major championships he won. He believes the culprit is the ball, not the clubs used to hit it or the players swinging them.

Two weeks ago, Nicklaus sounded an alarm that change might be on the way.

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”I had dinner with Mike Davis, and Mike said, `We’re getting there. We’re going to get there,”’ Nicklaus said at the Honda Classic.

Nicklaus said he figured that would mean another 10 years of research, but that Davis told him the USGA was getting closer to agreements with the R&A ”to do something and be able to help.”

After two weeks of anticipation, the governing bodies delivered data that showed an average gain of 3 yards across seven tours wor..

ElsaLadies and gentlemen of the American workforce, stop me if this one sounds familiar: On Wednesday afternoon, Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson reported that the New England Patriots, following the offseason departure of Matt Patricia, are prepared to roll without a defensive coordinator in 2018, instead handing defensive coordinator duties to current linebackers coach Brian Flores…who will remain linebackers coach. In other words, Flores just got the ol' more work and no promotion treatment, and for once we actually feel a pang of sympathy for a member of that writhing snake pit of an organization. Here's what Robinson had to say on the move (or lack thereof):
The move mirrors New England’s grooming process of Patricia, who was given defensive play-calling duties for the Patriots following the 2010 departure of Pees, New England’s former defensive coordinator. Patricia’s title was not officially promoted to defensive coordinator until 2012…Despite the move not being..

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) Jordan Spieth feels as though he has been playing catch-up all year.

Spieth had a memorable offseason when he proposed (successfully) to longtime girlfriend Annie Verret. What suffered were his preparations for a new year after a bout with mononucleosis. He lost weight. More importantly, he lost time.

That’s one reason he was on the fence about his schedule leading up to the Masters. Spieth didn’t firmly decide to play in the Mexico Championship until the last minute, and that briefly made him rethink whether to play the Valspar Championship, which he won three years ago.

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Ultimately, he did both.

”I was trying to figure out what was the best strategy to be as rested and prepared for Augusta,” Spieth said. ”I just wasn’t sure. I haven’t had a whole lot of rest.”

His December can be understated, much like the time it took Dustin Johnson to fully recover from his back injury before the Masters last year.

Spieth is playing his sixth..

Mitchell LaytonThe first thing most of us think of when it comes to March Madness is the brackets, the upsets and the buzzer beaters. All of those aspects are well and good, but it's the under-appreciated parts of the NCAA Tournament that also make it so great, namely, a heavy dose of the legendary Bill Raftery.
Now, I know what you're thinking, “it's just not the same when he's not with Gus Johnson,” and you may be right, but you're also wrong, because the duo frequently calls Big East Conference games for FOX Sports throughout the season. It's obviously not the tourney, but it's going to have to suffice for the time being until CBS finally comes to their senses and pays whatever amount they want for Gus Johnson to come back, scream his lungs out and PUT THE MADNESS INTO MARCH (GOAT YouTube compilation — tell me I'm wrong).
Anyway, back to Raftery, who has been calling college basketball games for CBS for over 30 years. This season he'll b..