1. Now THIS is some college basketball content that’s in my wheelhouse. While some of you pour over your brackets, I poured over this compilation of the favorite musical artist of the 68 head coaches in this year’s NCAA tournament.
You can’t have a Big Dance without some epic music. So I’m bringing it back. I asked all 68 coaches in the men’s NCAA Tournament to name their favorite band/musical artists. The answers are incredible. Here are their picks, + the stories behind them🎸🎤⤵️ https://t.co/RPRMzmLvMs pic.twitter.com/qbUxDK4wnH
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 19, 2024
Some observations: Michael Jackson got the most mentions with four and you can push it to five if you include Michigan State’s Tom Izzo going with the Jackson Five.
Jay Z, Luke Combs and The Eagles were the only artists to get three mentions.
The Beatles, considered by many people, to be the greatest band of all time only got one mention, while the biggest thing today, Taylor Swift, also only got one nod.
The lack of Big East teams in the tournament clearly hurt Billy Joel, who got no mentions. I was also surprised no coach gave a nod to The Rolling Stones.
Bruce Springsteen, who is seemingly the favorite of every sports writer in America, just got two mentions.
The person who deserves the most credit for his selection is Washington State coach Kyle Smith, who named Digital Underground as his favorite musical artist of all time. That’s quite an appreciation of The Humpty Dance.
2. I did not know until shortly after 8 a.m. today that the MLB season had started, with the Dodgers and Padres playing in Korea.
I’ll take full blame here for not being on top of this, but only Major League Baseball would be ridiculous enough to start its regular season at 6 a.m. ET and 3 a.m. local time for the two teams involved in the game.
And it appears that it wasn’t just me who was unaware of the national pastime’s Opening Day.
Did you know that the Padres and Dodgers were playing in the first game of the regular season before this morning?
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) March 20, 2024
This just makes me sad for the sport.
3. NBC announced today that it will offer a RedZone-style show for the Olympics. And the two NFL RedZone hosts will be part of NBC’s effort.
Scott Hanson, Andrew Siciliano, Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila will serve as hosts of the Gold Zone a whip-around show, which will stream live on Peacock during the Summer Games in Paris. Gold Zone will stream live on Peacock from 7 a.m. ET – 5 p.m. ET each day from July 27-Aug. 10.
4. Good Morning Football’s Jamie Erdhal announced today, before departing the show for maternity leave, that she will remain as host of the show when it moves this summer from New York to Los Angeles.
“I will see you from LA,
but now I’m gonna go have a baby.”@JamieErdahl says goodbye to the NYC studio 🏈🍼 pic.twitter.com/MY3HDIVef3
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) March 20, 2024
5. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton dropped a brutally honest quote on Monday about the sports gambling boom, saying, “To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m a prop.”
I also asked #Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton specifically about speaking to a sports psychologist, and he noted in his response how sports betting has consumed a lot of his social media.
“To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m a prop.“ pic.twitter.com/6f2a0vEuiK
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) March 20, 2024
Haliburton’s quote would’ve been great on its own, but then the NBA went and announced this yesterday.
The NBA is adding live betting to NBA League Pass.
Viewers will be able to see betting lines on the screen in real-time, select the bet they want to place, and then be taken directly to FanDuel or DraftKings to place it.
It feels like every league will do this in the future. pic.twitter.com/O7zJkcCFHW
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) March 19, 2024
6. The latest episode of SI Media with Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN NFL analyst, Dan Orlovsky.
Orlovsky gives a breakdown of his unbelievably busy schedule, talks about how the NFL owns most of the sports calendar and shares his thoughts about the wild free-agency spree that took place this week.
Orlovsky also reveals that his ultimate goal is to call top games each week and whether he feels like networks have a bias against putting him in that role since he wasn’t a superstar player. He also weighs in on his relationship with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Mike Greenberg and Dan “Big Cat” Katz.
Orlovsky also shares some of his famous food takes, talks about what it’s like to have triplets and much more.
Following Orlovsky, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include Aaron Rodgers as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, the NFL Network moving Good Morning Football from New York to Los Angeles, Tiki Barber vs. Saquon Barkley, Love Is Blind and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Here’s something from the good old days when Opening Day was special and important.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
