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Olympics: LIV golfer calls out PGA Tour players on South African team olympics,liv,golfer,calls,out,pga,tour,players,on,south,african,team,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-news,liv-golf

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This past Monday, the International Golf Federation released the golfers who will represent their home countries at the 2024 Olympics in Paris later this summer. That list includes seven LIV Golf players who will represent their nations.

Then, on Thursday, ahead of the LIV Golf Nashville event, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, and Dean Burmester—all South African players—detailed what it felt like not to make the South African Olympic team. PGA Tour players Erik van Rooyen and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will represent the country instead.

Grace felt strongly that the Olympic committee got it wrong.

“These are the two guys [Burmester and Oosthuizen] that should be representing South Africa this year,” Grace said ahead of the Nashville tournament.

“I think that’s maybe a good call for each country to pick or try to get their own solution on how they get the criteria right for guys to qualify. But the system at this stage is not very accurate. We all know that. We all talk about it, week in and week out, but these should be the two guys probably representing South Africa.”

Burmester won his first LIV Golf title in Miami earlier this year. Not to mention, he has three other top-10 finishes. The worst performance came at LIV Las Vegas, but for the most part, he has played well.

At the two major championships, Burmester tied for 12th at the PGA Championship. He then captured 69th place at the U.S. Open last week.

Oosthuizen, meanwhile, has two runner-up finishes this year at LIV Adelaide and LIV Jeddah. Two more top-10s followed suit at Mayakoba and Miami. While he has been successful, the Olympics are not high on his radar.

“I grew up with the four majors being your main events, and I don’t really see the fit of professional golfers playing golf in the Olympics,” Oosthuizen said.

“I had the opportunity to go to one of the Olympics and pulled out at the end. It was more getting scheduling-wise getting everything—I think it was close to a major, and that was my main focus always, majors, so the Olympics didn’t fit into my schedule that year.”

Oothusizen represented his country at the World Cup and in the Presidents Cup before, so missing the Olympics is not a big deal to him. Regardless of tour affiliation, he wished the two participants good luck.

“I hope the boys play well and that they perform well, and it’s still going to be a strong South African team playing,” Oosthuizen said.

Burmester followed suit, praising van Rooyen and Bezuidenhout for their performances. Van Rooyen has one runner-up finish, three top 10s, and seven top 25s. As for Bezuidenhout, he has second place at the American Express. He also has three top 10s and nine top 25s. Bezuidenhout was solo fourth at The Memorial in one of his most recent starts.

“Christiaan and Erik are going to do South Africa proud, and they’ve also played some great golf in their own right,” Burmester said.

“I think Louis and I look like Olympians, first of all,” Burmester said. “It would be an honor to go to the Olympics and represent your country. I think it’s the field we have, and those two guys are going to have that opportunity, so it’s super special, and we can only wish them well.”

Taking the high road and wishing two of their fellow South Africans luck in Paris is the proper way to handle it. While they did not get chosen to play in the Olympics, it seems they understand why.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Brooks Koepka’s son gives Bryson DeChambeau amazing dig brooks,koepka,s,son,gives,bryson,dechambeau,amazing,dig,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-news,liv-golf

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Ahead of LIV Golf Nashville, Brooks Koepka, his wife Jena, and their son Crew attended an event alongside Bryson DeChambeau.

Of course, social media cameras were there and caught one of the cutest disses DeChambeau would get. He tried to give Crew a fist bump, but the baby did not care. Koepka and Jena laughed with DeChambeau as Crew gave him the cold shoulder.

“Like father, like son,” DeChambeau said in the video. Smash GC also captioned the video with the quote, “The only person to ignore Bryson DeChambeau this week… Crew Koepka.”

DeChambeau has been a hot commodity since he won on Sunday, but little Crew did not want any part of the reigning U.S. Open champion.

However, the dig felt playful and not serious at all. Everyone laughed and played it off like it was no big deal.

Koepka and DeChambeau have not always been friends, though. They were bitter rivals for a while. Various memes about the whole ordeal kept golf fans entertained for years. From the Koepka eye roll to people calling DeChambeau ‘Brooksy’—among so many other things, this feud was one for the ages.

But since joining LIV Golf, they have made up and become at least acquaintances. Kopeka, who also has two U.S. Open wins, congratulated DeChambeau on Sunday for his big victory at Pinehurst No. 2.

They are the two LIV Golf players to have won major championships since leaving the PGA Tour. Crew Koepka may not be a fan yet, but give DeChambeau some time.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Joe Mazzulla jumping off a duck boat roof on a torn meniscus is most unhinged moment of Celtics’ parade joe,mazzulla,jumping,off,a,duck,boat,roof,on,a,torn,meniscus,is,most,unhinged,moment,of,celtics,parade,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-playoffs,nba-playoffs-powerhouse-2024,dot-com-grid-coverage

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Anyone unfamiliar with Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has certainly become more aware of one of the NBA’s strangest characters in the wake of Boston’s championship celebrations.

Mazzulla, likely the only head coach in the league who had to be told by his bosses to stop trying to block opposing player’s shots this year, has taken over the internet in the wake of the Celtics’ title celebrations. In addition to carrying the championship trophy around the city to various restaurants, Mazzulla went on an absolutely bonkers celebratory podcast tour that included him breaking down how he would plan to rob a bank, among other wild anecdotes.

Mazzulla has done it all, including coaching the Celtics to banner No. 18, on a meniscus he has apparently needed surgery on since tearing it in March during a loss to the Hawks, because of course he did. After all, this is a man who once tried to turn down health insurance while working in the G League because he “didn’t have time to get hurt.”

Well, he certainly put that mindset to the test during the Celtics’ championship parade, jumping both off the roof and out the window of the duck boat carrying him multiple times — again, on A TORN MENISCUS THAT WILL REQUIRE SURGERY — to celebrate with fans:

Mazzulla’s son even got in on the fun, showing he’s well on track to matching his father’s delightfully chaotic energy:

Perhaps fittingly, all this comes on a day the governor of Mazzulla’s native Rhode Island has officially dubbed “Joe Mazzulla Day.” That was obviously in the works before Friday, but after watching Joe Mazz at the parade, it would be hard to call the day anything else.

Toto Wolff rips ‘conspiracy theorists and lunatics’ at F1 Spanish Grand Prix toto,wolff,rips,conspiracy,theorists,and,lunatics,at,f,spanish,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

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It is rare to find a dull moment in Formula 1.

With the grid in Barcelona for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, reports emerged Friday of an email blast to numerous F1 journalists from an insider purporting to have information regarding Mercedes sabotaging Lewis Hamilton, ahead of his move to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season. That email was sent following the Canadian Grand Prix, which saw George Russell finish third, and Hamilton fourth.

In the interest of full disclosure, SB Nation has not received this email and is therefore unable to independently verify the content contained therein. According to this report from Reuters, the email “[h]eadlined ‘a potential death warrant for Lewis’, it accused Mercedes of ‘systematic sabotaging’ of Hamilton, his car, tyre and race strategy and mental health.”

Speaking at the FIA Press Conference Friday, Mercedes Team Principal indicated he was given clearance to “go in full force,” and the team boss did just that.

“Yeah, so it’s not from a member of the team. When we are getting these kind of emails, and we’re getting tons of them, it is upsetting, particularly when somebody is talking about death and all these things,” began Wolff. “So, on this particular one, I have instructed to go in full force.

“We have the police inquiring it. We are researching the IP address. We are researching the phone, all of that, because online abuse in that way needs to stop. People can’t hide behind their phones or their computers and abuse teams or drivers in a way like this,” continued Wolff. “I don’t know what some of the conspiracy theorists and lunatics think out there. Lewis was part of the team for 12 years. We have a friendship. We trust each other. We want to win this. We want to end this on a high. We want to celebrate the relationship.”

Wolff then made it clear that even if you did not trust him on that point, the team is still trying to win a Constructors’ Championship, which requires both Hamilton and George Russell performing well.

“And if you don’t believe all of that, then you can believe that we want to win the Constructors’ World Championship. And part of the Constructors’ World Championship is making both cars win. So to all of these mad people out there… take a shrink.”

The Mercedes boss also received backing during the FIA Press Conference from long-time friend — and Hamilton’s next boss — Frederic Vasseur. The Ferrari Team Principal called such allegations “irrational” given Mercedes’ quest for a title.

“Yeah just on this one, and I’m putting my relationship with Toto aside, how you could imagine that a company with 1,500 people working night and day, pushing like hell to bring upgrades, and for you it’s not enough, but bringing upgrades each races, we could kill one of our cars or damage one of our cars? This is completely irrational and nobody in the paddock could do something like this,” declared Vasseur. “We are fighting for the championship. Each weekend we are trying to score one point more than the other one. How you could imagine that we say ‘OK, that Lewis, we don’t want to score points anymore with him’. For me it’s completely irrational and completely out of the scope of the person who are doing my business.”

Wolff also addressed recent comments on social media that have turned largely negative regarding the relationship between the two Mercedes drivers.

“So first of all, I’m not reading any comments. I don’t have social media. And I think it’s important to protect oneself by doing so. And I’ve commented about this many times before, there will always be people that have their laptop on the chest in their bedroom and just typing away.,” started Wolff. “And if people feel like they’re abusing, want to abuse and hit out and hide behind a made-up Instagram account or anything else, that for me is… Come up, say who you are, and we’ll take the criticism and discuss, but don’t hide.

“And there seems to be lots of irrationality also, because we want to be successful. We want to be successful with the most iconic driver the sport has ever had. The privilege that we had to work with Lewis as an incredible driver, a great personality, that goes through the ups and downs like any other like any other sports person. I totally respect the reasons for him going to Ferrari. There is no grudge. There is no bad feeling.”

The Mercedes boss then outlined how the matter is being handled internally.

“The interaction we have in the team is positive. And so every comment from the outside of what is going in the team is just simply wrong. But there’s always a limit. I mean, if emails are being sent or telephone numbers are being used for these messages, then for me, the joking stops,” outlined Wolff. “And we will pursue it, whether that is successful or not. But there are limits to certain things. And obviously, online abuse is not only something that happens to us or to the team or to the people, it happens badly to Lewis, badly to Lewis, and to George.

“And therefore, people should, and we’ve seen Max [Verstappen] speaking out about it and Kelly [Piquet, Verstappen’s partner]. People that abuse are cowards, because they hide. So whatever is going on out there with social media, with all the good things that it provides, and all those people that have been given a platform, that’s just the negatives that come with it. I have no feelings to someone that abuses for the reasons I just said before.”

Both Hamilton and Russell addressed some of the social media commentary on Thursday, with the seven-time champion declaring the team needs “support not negativity” from fans. Verstappen and his partner Piquet also took to social media in recent weeks to blast rumors about their relationship, with the F1 driver calling the “falsehoods” on social media “insane and ridiculous.”

Returning to Mercedes, the team addressed some of the social media rumors during Thursday’s media session at the Spanish Grand Prix. “I think they know if you look over the years, we’ve always been a strong team. We’ve always worked really hard together,” said Hamilton at the team’s Thursday media session in Barcelona. “I think we need support, not negativity, and I wasn’t actually aware that George was experiencing negativity.

“George has done nothing but his best every single weekend and is delivering for the team, so he can’t be faulted at all,” continued Hamilton. “Of course, there can always be things done better within the team, and that comes through conversation, through communication, and that’s something that we are consistently working on. But we’re all in the same boat. We’re all working hard together. We want to finish on a high and feel that we owe that to our long-term relationship that we’ve had.”

F1 Academy Spanish Grand Prix: Abbi Pulling delivers a qualifying sweep f,academy,spanish,grand,prix,abbi,pulling,delivers,a,qualifying,sweep,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

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Heading into the third race weekend of the 2024 F1 Academy schedule, the biggest question was whether anyone could catch Abbi Pulling.

During Friday’s qualifying session, the answer was no.

The Alpine driver swept qualifying on Friday and will start both races up front at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. However, Pulling certainly had to work for those pole positions, as several drivers put themselves on provisional pole position throughout the session.

Track evolution was a massive part of the story. As time wound down in the qualifying session the sun was doing the same in the sky, and the lap times began to tick down lap-by-lap. With two minutes to go Pulling was atop the timing sheets and on provisional pole, but several drivers were still on the track looking for those critical tenths — or more — to catch Pulling at the top of the timing sheets.

Ultimately, however, they could not.

Haas driver Chloe Chambers came closest, just 0.059 seconds behind Pulling’s fastest time. Nerea Martí, the hometown heroine, qualified third.

Doriane Pin, recovering from the rib injury that kept her out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will start fourth. Bianca Bustamante, who enters this F1 Academy weekend sitting fifth in the standings, will start in that position in the first race.

“That was a nailbiting one, wasn’t it?” radioed in Pulling to her team following the session.

As for the second race, Pulling will be again starting up front. Under F1 Academy rules, the fastest time in a qualifying session sets the grid for the first race, but the starting order for the second race is set by each driver’s second-fastest time. Chambers will start third, with Pin in P3 for the second race this weekend, which takes place on Sunday.

Here are the full qualifying results:

F1 Academy Race 1 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Position Driver Team Time
Position Driver Team Time
1 Abbi Pulling Alpine 1:41.396
2 Chloe Chambers Haas +0.059
3 Nerea Martí Hilfiger +0.133
4 Doriane Pin Mercedes +0.384
5 Bianca Bustamante McLaren +0.525
6 Tina Hausmann Aston Martin +0.597
7 Hamda Al Qubaisi Red Bull +0.727
8 Lia Block Williams +0.837
9 Jessica Edgar American Express +0.838
10 Lola Lovinfosse Charlotte Tilbury +0.980
11 Emely de Heus Red Bull Ford +1.023
12 Maya Weug Ferrari HP +1.049
13 Amna Al Qubaisi VCARB +1.099
14 Carrie Schreiner Sauber +1.106
15 Aurelia Nobels Puma +1.359

F1 Academy Race 2 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Position Driver Team Time
Position Driver Team Time
1 Abbi Pulling Alpine 1:41.544
2 Chloe Chambers Haas +0.076
3 Doriane Pin Mercedes +0.255
4 Nerea Martí Hilfiger +0.378
5 Hamda Al Qubaisi Red Bull +0.704
6 Lia Block Williams +0.720
7 Tina Hausmann Aston Martin +0.725
8 Bianca Bustamante McLaren +0.771
9 Jessica Edgar American Express +0.776
10 Lola Lovingosse Charlotte Tilbury +0.834
11 Emely de Heus Red Bull Ford +0.982
12 Carrie Schreiner Sauber +1.012
13 Maya Weug Ferrari +1.017
14 Aurelia Nobels Puma +1.346
15 Amna Al Qubaisi VCARB +1.468

The Brewers have refused to leave the top of the NL Central the,brewers,have,refused,to,leave,the,top,of,the,nl,central,sbnation,com,front-page,mlb,dot-com-grid-coverage

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Back in spring training when we were previewing each division, my view of the National League Central Division was that it was anybody’s game where anybody could win. That was also to say that this probably would be the end of the two-season run as NL Central champions for the Milwaukee Brewers. Here’s my reasoning below:

If they’re going to do it again in 2024 then it’ll be a bit of an upset because it appears that they’ve fallen right back into the pack after the offseason that they had. Corbin Burnes is in Baltimore now and Brandon Woodruff is likely to miss the entire season as he recovers from shoulder surgery. They also lost their manager to their rivals on the North Side of Chicago, as the Cubs snatched away Craig Counsell almost immediately after his contract with the Brewers expired. That’s a lot to lose in a division that’s as wide open as the NL Central is.

Well, here we are in mid-June and it’s looking like this division may not be as wide open as I had expected it to be. While there are still plenty of questions as to whether or not any of the other four teams in the NL Central will have what it takes to go on the type of run that could propel them into the Postseason, it’s obvious who currently has the massive upper hand when it comes to winning the division. As it turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same — manager Pat Murphy’s Milwaukee Brewers once again look like they’re the class of the NL Central.

Heading into this season, the Brewers were only given the third-best odds from FanGraphs to win the division at 18 percent. They were given a 30 percent shot to make the Postseason, which is a perfectly fine chance to have going into any season but it was definitely a bit low for a club that had made it to the Postseason in five of the past six seasons.

Now, Brewers fans can’t complain about the odds being against them since their team has surged their way into the position of being massive favorites. Heading into action on June 20, the Brewers are now being given a whopping 73 percent chance to make it three divisional titles in a row and are also being given an 86 percent shot to make the playoffs either way. Most importantly, the Brewers 44-30 and are 7.5 games ahead of the Cardinals for first place in the Central and also hold the second-largest divisional lead in the National League.

While a lot of this may have to do with the fact that the Cubs and Cardinals both have yet to really put it together like most observers expected them to, it also has to do with the fact that maybe the Brewers themselves didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to fade away into the pack. At the very least, Willy Adames and William Contreras both definitely missed the memo as both of them have been fantastic in Milwaukee’s lineup so far this season.

Willy Adames in particular has been killing it both at the plate but out in the field as well. Adames currently has a wRC+ of 118 to go with a wOBA of .336 and 12 home runs as well. If he can keep on producing at the plate at this rate, then he’ll be celebrating a career year once the season ends. Combine that with the fact that he’s currently in the 98th percentile of all fielders when it comes to Outs Above Average and you’ve got a player who has been the total package for the Brewers here in 2024. Adames has rarely had a season where he’s put it together with both his bat and his glove so it’s definitely encouraging for Milwaukee that this appears to be the year where it’s all connecting in his favor.

Meanwhile, William Contreras has simply just been mashing the ball like crazy this season. If he’s made contact with a ball, there’s a very good chance that it’s going to fly long and far and get to where it’s going in a hurry. Contreras is in the 95th percentile of all hitters when it comes to both Average Exit Velocity (93.1 mph) and Hard-Hit percentage (53 percent). Combined with his 89th percentile average bat speed and suddenly it’s easy to envision how Contreras got to a point where he’s sporting a 134 wRC+, which is second-best among all qualified catchers and only one point behind Salvador Perez for first place. While Wild Bill’s defense has taken a step back compared to where he was at last season, you aren’t going to hear anybody in Milwaukee complain about what he’s been doing with the bat this season.

Adames and Contreras haven’t been the only ones killing it for Milwaukee this season. Joey Ortiz has gone from struggling mightily in his first 34 big league plate appearances back in 2023 as a member of the Orioles to succeeding wildly as a breakout candidate for the Brewers. He might be doing it in a weird way (and for more on that, check out this article from Ben Clemens of FanGraphs) but you aren’t going to hear about anybody trying to “fix” what he’s doing when it’s working to the tune of a .369 wOBA and a 140 wRC+ so far. Brice Turang has also turned things around in a major way, though he didn’t have a change of scenery like Ortiz did. Instead, he appears to have found his footing in the bigs and is now sitting on a .328 wOBA and 112 wRC+ after struggling through 137 games with a 60 wRC+ in 2023. It also helps that Turang has been a terror to deal with on the basepaths as well, as he’s already stolen 26 bases this season.

The Brewers have also been getting positive contributions in the outfield from guys like Blake Perkins (and his 97th percentile-rated OAA) and even Christian Yelich. As it turns out, his resurgent 2023 campaign wasn’t just a flash in the pan and Yelich looks primed to improve upon a season that saw him start to look like the old dynamo that was playing MVP-caliber baseball just a few years ago. Yelich’s wOBA is currently at a lofty .394 and his wRC+ is at 157, which is easily as high as it’s been since the halcyon days of 2018 and 2019 when he was truly among the game’s elite players. While Yelich probably won’t fully return to that level again, the Brewers don’t need him to be a world-beater — they just need him to continue being what he is, which is a reliable hitter to slot into what’s been an impressive lineup for Milwaukee so far this season.

Between the high level of production that Milwaukee is getting from impact guys and the fact that they’ve already built up such a large lead in the division, it’s hard to see the Brewers messing this up as we get into the actual second half of this season. Additionally, the Brewers currently have the joint-fifth-easiest strength-of-schedule going forward at .492 while their divisional rivals in Chicago (.508 remaining strength-of-schedule) and St. Louis (.514) each have tougher roads ahead. The Pirates have a similarly-tough SOS remaining (.507) and while the Reds have a slightly-easier road ahead (.491), they also need to get their act together outside of Elly de la Cruz doing cool stuff on a nightly basis.

All this means is that the Brewers have bucked all the odds and have managed to play themselves into a very good position for another season. It’s all coming up sunshine and roses for the Brewers and the only thing that’s really gone wrong for them here in 2024 has been one of their employees getting caught failing miserably in an attempt to do assassination work as a side job. I didn’t make up a single word of that last sentence, either. I’m not going to hold that insane bit of news against the Brewers though since I believe that this squad is smart enough to not find themselves in such an incredibly hot mess. Either way, y’all should keep an eye on Milwaukee this season as they are once again right in the thick of the Postseason conversation.

Gardner Minshew’s chaotic Raiders photoshoot keeps getting better with every picture gardner,minshew,s,chaotic,raiders,photoshoot,keeps,getting,better,with,every,picture,sbnation,com,front-page,nfl,draftkings

Gardner Minshews chaotic Raiders photoshoot keeps getting better with every
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It’s been a long, long time since the Raiders had swagger at their quarterback position — but no fans expected this kind of swag from Gardner Minshew. It’s photo week around the NFL, and when the studio lights came on the QB didn’t disappoint.

This shoot had a little of everything. Well, it’s more like it had a lot of one, specific, dirtbag (but in a charming way) kind of thing.

Superhero Gardner Minshew ready to save the Las Vegas Raiders from mediocrity

Uncle Rico Gardner Minshew, who I’m pretty sure can throw a football over a mountain if he wanted to

2

Pro Wrestler Garnder Minshew who is ready to go one-on-one with The Undertaker in a steel cage

3

The Gardner Minshew who got called to school for a conference with the principal because you and your friends got caught smoking cigarettes under the bleachers during fourth period

4

Is it just me or does the entire NFL just feel more fun this year? Around the league teams are letting players be themselves more, and throwing aside the stuffy, boring sanitized normality and letting players be their brilliant, weird selves.

Don’t touch Bills players’ hair don,t,touch,bills,players,hair,sbnation,com,front-page,nfl

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The Buffalo Bills seem like they’re having fun this offseason. Despite entering a 2024 season filled with question marks, you could convince me that they’re the Super Bowl favorites just based off the vibes coming from the content they put out on social media.

However, if you learn one thing from watching the Bills’ social media content, it’s to never touch someone’s hair with some clippers and act like you gonna actually cut it.

See I feel the same way as Keon Coleman here. You’ll lose a finger trying to cut my hair and you’re not my barber. That’s disrespectful right there, because someone later also says something that I agree with: You let someone else cut your hair then you cheating on your barber. We don’t cheat around here, so that’s just not going to happen.

I appreciate everyone’s swift and decisive answers, because I absolutely agree with all of them. Don’t come near me with those clippers, man.

Men’s College World Series Finals: Texas A&M-Tennessee statistics, schedule, and prediction men,s,college,world,series,finals,texas,a,m,tennessee,statistics,schedule,and,prediction,sbnation,com,front-page,college-baseball,college-world-series,ncaa-baseball-tournament

Mens College World Series Finals Texas AM Tennessee statistics schedule and
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At the end of May 64 college baseball teams began a journey, with Omaha as their dream destination.

Now just two teams are left standing in Omaha, with dreams of NCAA baseball immortality alive.

The Men’s College World Series Finals begin on Saturday, with SEC rivals Tennessee and Texas A&M set to begin a best-of-three series to determine this season’s National Champion. When this tournament began the Volunteers and the Aggies were viewed as two of the top teams in the field, as the Aggies were the third-seeded team heading into the tournament, while the Volunteers were the top team in the field.

If history is to be our guide, the Aggies might be in a better position to win the Finals. Since the NCAA expanded to the current format the top-overall seed has won the Men’s College World Series just once, and that was Miami back in 1999, the first season with a 64-team field. More often than not the top seed comes up short, as the Volunteers did back in 2022 when they were the top-seeded team and did not even advance to Omaha.

As for teams seeded No. 3, like Texas A&M, they have won the Men’s College World Series three times. Most recently Oregon State won as a No. 3 seed back in 2018.

Ahead of the Finals getting underway, let’s take a look at each team’s path to this point, a statistical matchup between the two teams, revisit what happened the one time they played this season, and finish it off with a prediction sure to be wrong.

Tennessee’s path to the Finals

The Volunteers enter the Men’s College World Series Finals with a 58-12 overall record, and went 22-8 this season in SEC play.

The Volunteers have lost just once in the entire Men’s College World Series.

Knoxville Regional

Defeated Northern Kentucky, 9-3
Defeated Indiana 12-6
Defeated Southern Miss 12-3

Knoxville Super Regional

Defeated Evansville 11-6
Lost to Evansville 10-8
Defeated Evansville 12-1

Men’s College World Series Double Elimination Round

Defeated Florida State 12-11
Defeated North Carolina 6-1
Defeated Florida State 7-2

Texas A&M’s path to the Finals

The Aggies enter the Men’s College World Series Finals with a 52-13 overall record, while they finished with a 19-11 record in SEC play.

They have yet to lose since the Men’s College World Series began.

Bryan-College Station Regional

Defeated Grambling 8-0
Defeated Texas 4-2
Defeated Louisiana 9-4

Bryan-College Station Super Regional

Defeated Oregon 10-6
Defeated Oregon 15-9

Men’s College World Series Double Elimination Round

Defeated Florida 3-2
Defeated Kentucky 5-1
Defeated Florida 6-0

Men’s College World Series Final schedule

Saturday, June 22

  • Game 1: Tennessee vs. Texas A&M | 7:30 p.m. ET | ESPN/ESPN+

Sunday, June 23

  • Game 2: Tennessee vs. Texas A&M | 2:00 p.m. ET | ABC/ESPN+

Monday, June 24

  • Game 3 (if necessary): Tennessee vs. Texas A&M | 7 p.m. ET | ESPN/ESPN+

Statistical matchup

Here is how these two teams matchup in a number of key statistics, provided by both D1Baseball.com and NCAA.com:

Head-to-head

These teams have met just once this season, back in SEC Tournament play.

In that game, back on May 23, the Aggies took an early 1-0 lead thanks to a solo home run from leadoff hitter Gavin Grahovac in the third inning. But the Volunteers chipped away over the next few innings, tying the game in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly from outfielder Dylan Dreiling. They took the lead in the fourth on a Fielder’s Choice off the bat of Christian Moore, with Dean Curley scoring from third.

In the bottom of the fifth a double from Kavares Tears brought Dreiling around to score, giving the Volunteers a 3-1 lead. Texas A&M cut that lead to just one with a solo shot off the bat of catcher Jackson Appell in the sixth.

Tears came through again for Tennessee in the seventh, with a three-run blast to left pushed the Volunteers’ lead to 6-2. The teams traded runs in the eighth, and Grahovac added another run for the Aggies in the ninth on a solo shot, but it was not enough as the Volunteers advanced by the final score of 7-4.

A prediction sure to be wrong

What is a preview piece without a prediction that is sure to be wrong?

As the old adage goes, good pitching beats good hitting. As you can see above, the Aggies have a solid staff to call on for this series, and that staff is rested and ready to go.

But the college game is a bit different these days. Watching the entire Men’s College World Series this year, you get the sense that today’s game is about what you can do at the plate. While both teams have potent lineups, Tennessee does have an advantage at the dish.

This is likely a series that goes the entire three games, and when all is said and done, the Volunteers will take home the title.

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The 2024 Formula 1 season is serving up a solid amount of drama. While the year began with concerns that Max Verstappen and Red Bull would again run away with the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships respectively, as they did a season ago, things are much tighter at the top of the table this season. While both Red Bull and Verstappen remain the favorites in those respective Championships, neither title is done and dusted at the moment.

However, the specter of the 2025 driver transfer market has hung over this entire season, kicked into gear early with the stunning announcement that Lewis Hamilton would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari next year.

The grid is in Barcelona, for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, and still almost half of the seats on the grid are open for next season. That includes two teams — Haas and Alpine — who have yet to announce any drivers for next year.

And sure, you could read what one singular F1 writer thinks could happen, or you could learn what F1 fans believe will happen. That is the approach we are taking today, looking at four drivers in particular: Carlos Sainz Jr., Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, and Mercedes driver program phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Earlier this week I posted a series of polls on Threads — shoutout to the wonderful people on F1 Threads — featuring a question on each driver:

Where will they be next year?

Where should they be next year?

Here are the supremely scientific results.

Carlos Sainz Jr.

By an large, there is every expectation that Carlos Sainz Jr. is headed to Williams next season. Williams team boss James Vowles has made it clear that Sainz is his top driver target, and while Logan Sargeant is in that seat at the moment and Vowles has outlined that Sargeant can still keep that spot, it seems an uphill battle.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, an overwhelming majority of respondents believe that Sainz is headed to Williams. 84% of those who voted indicated that Sainz would be with Williams next year, followed by 12% of votes for Sauber/Audi, and 5% of votes for Mercedes.

However, should Sainz be headed to Williams?

That vote was much closer.

Williams was still the winner when it came to that question, with 44% of the vote. However, the big gainer was Mercedes, as 31% of respondents believe Sainz should be headed to the Silver Arrows. Sauber received 25% of votes.

Valtteri Bottas

Next up? Valtteri Bottas, who is in the last year of his current deal with Sauber. Sauber already announced that Nico Hülkenberg would be joining the team for next season, ahead of the organization becoming the Audi works team in 2026. Pairing a German driver in Hülkenberg with a German team certainly seems like a good fit.

But will Bottas be his teammate?

According to 42% of respondents, Bottas will remain at Sauber next season. Interestingly enough, “Other” led the way with the second-most votes, clocking in at 16%. A return to Williams could be in the cards — if Sainz ends up elsewhere — while teams mentioned in the “Other” category included Haas and Alpine.

As for where Bottas should land, Sauber was again the winner, with 50% of respondents picking his current team as his 2025 home. On this question “Other” was the clear second-place vote getter, with Haas and Alpine again mentioned as possibilities.

Esteban Ocon

So this was fun …

The four options listed for Esteban Ocon for next season were: Haas, Mercedes, Sauber/Audi, and “Other.”

Haas was the winner for the first question, with 49% of respondents indicating that Ocon would move to Haas next season. However, a close second was “Other” with 30% of the vote.

And many of those respondents indicated that Ocon would not even been in Formula 1 next season.

Then came the true stunner of this exercise. When asked where Ocon should be next season 56% selected “Other,” with the majority of those respondents replying on Threads to indicate that Ocon should be out of F1 entirely.

Will the people get it right?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

We conclude with the young phenom, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. By every indication he is being fast-tracked to F1, with the FIA even adjusting their rules in recent weeks to allow drivers under the age of 18 to be granted a dispensation to drive on the grid before their 18th birthday.

Antonelli turns 18 in August.

The FIA even tweaked the rule that requires drivers on the grid to have a driving license in their home nation. Antonelli is from Italy, where the driving age is 18.

Now, Antonelli might not see the grid this season — although the door is now open to that happening sooner rather than later — but will he be on the F1 grid next year?

And should he be?

A large majority of respondents, 79% to be exact, believe Antonelli will be driving for Mercedes next season. That does seem to be where he is headed, with reports consistently surfacing that Toto Wollf wants to move in a new direction at Mercedes. The Silver Arrows boss discussed that in Montreal, addressing the decision to make it clear they were moving on from Sainz as an option.

“I think first of all, Carlos deserves a top seat,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. “He’s done a fantastic job. But for us, we’ve embarked on a route now to say, ‘You know what, we want to reinvent ourselves a little bit, going forward.’ Kimi Antonelli definitely plays a part in that.”

But should that part begin in 2025?

Most respondents to the poll do not believe so.

According to 59% of respondents, Antonelli should remain in F2 next season, rather than make the leap to F1 after just one season in F2 and skipping F3 altogether.

Of course, it is fair to offer some caveats. This is just a very small sample size of around 80 respondents per question. Not exactly an overwhelming selection of voters. Furthermore the formatting of the questions could be tweaked, as the question about where each driver “will” land received many more votes than where they would land. We can blame he poll designer — the undersigned author — for that failure in sampling.

Still, the votes come from a very knowledgeable fan base, who follow the ins and outs of F1 on a daily — if not hourly — basis.

Will their votes hold true over the next few months?

We will know soon enough.