Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Messi in full effect, Philly fans kill the hot dog & more in new HB10
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MARCH 3): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 had been blog-only but when our blog retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to (woo hoo!) the 50th edition of your Sunday sports-potpourri notes column, the new HB10:
1. INTER MIAMI: Team Messi favorite to win Champions Cup as round of 16 begins: Inter Miami underlined its status as MLS favorites with a 5-0 home spank of rival Orlando City Saturday on two goals apiece from Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, leaving the Herons unbeaten (two wins, one draw) in three games. Miami also is betting fave in the CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament as the round of 16 begins and a $5 million prize awaits the winning team. First match is Thursday at fellow MLS club Nashville.
2. PANTHERS: Florida’s NHL dream season by the numbers: 86 standings points (1st), 41 wins (1st), +54 goals differential (1st), 70.4 points percentage (1st). Panthers have won four straight, 10 of 11 and 14 of past 16 after Saturday’s win in Detroit and entering Monday’s game at the N.Y. Rangers. Sam Reinhart 42 goals (2nd),Gustav Forsling plus-39 +/- (1st), Andy Stolarz 2.02 goals against average (1st), Sergei Bobrovsky 2.35 GAA (5th). Um, do the Cats have your attention yet, Lord Stanley?
3. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Caitlin Clark makes right call for her, great one for WNBA: If leagues could dance, the WNBA would be doing a jig right now. Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark announcing on social media she is entering the 2024 Draft on April 15 is a huge lift for women’s pro hoops. She could have had a fifth college year under the COVID-19 waiver but what would be the point? She is forecast as the WNBA’s No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever and already had set the women’s major-college career scoring record. She next will surpass Pete Maravich’s Division I overall record.. The Fever finished 13-27 last year but Clark instantly will make Indy a playoff team when the new season opens May 14.
4. HEAT: As team fights to avoid play-in, has Miami lost its home-court mojo?: Heat is presently the No. 6 East seed and fighting to avoid the dreaded play-in tournament and make the NBA playoffs proper by finishing in the top six. If they don’t, blame the home court. For only the third time in 36 franchise years, the Heat has a better record away (18-13) than in Miami (16-13). That previously only happened in 2018-19 and in 1996-97. If anyone locates the team’s missing home-court advantage, please call 1-800-SPOELSTRA.
5. NFL: Combine wraps up, Draft on deck -- it’s Mock Season!: NFL Combine ends Sunday in Indianapolis as anticipation of the April 25-27 NFL Draft officially launches. That’s means it’s Mel Kiper Season! (I don’t use the “Jr.” We all know it isn’t Mel’s Dad doing the mock drafts.) Kiper’s latest mock predictably has Southern Cal QB Caleb Williams No. 1 overall to Chicago. (Anybody wanna buy a slightly used Justin Fields?) Miami picks 21st and Kiper guesses it’ll be Duke center Graham Barton. I agree interior O-line could be the target, especially if both C Connor Williams and G Robert Hunt are lost in free agency. No Miami Hurricanes in Mel’s first round. I give S Kam Kinchens and maybe DL Leonard Taylor an outside shot.
6. NASCAR: Caruth third Black driver to win national series race: Rajah Caruth at age 21 won the NASCAR Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- only the third Black driver to win a national series race in the sport, following Hall of Famer Wendell Scott and current star Bubba Wallace.. “There’s more to come, for sure,” said Caruth. Wallace called it “a monumental win for our sport!” Caruth is an alum of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, an example why it hurts that the University of Florida just disbanded its Diversity, Equality and Inclusion department as the state under Gov. Ron DeSantis continues its march back to the 1950s.
7. CANES HOOPS: UM women seek momentum, Canes men seek a miracle: Hurricanes women (18-10) close their regular season at home vs. Georgia Tech Sunday then head to ACC Tournament starting Wednesday in Greensboro, N.C. They presently are projected a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Miami’s men team (15-14) has lost seven straight entering its final two games, and may need to miraculously win the ACC tourney March 12-16 in Washington, D.C. to get into the NCAAs. After reaching the Final Four last year, Jim Larranaga’s guys have been a huge disappointment.
8. NFL: First down? Technology will soon replace old-timey chain crews: The NFL has been testing optical technology to track first downs in multiple games including the recent Super Bowl. It could be implemented by the 2025 season and replace the comically outdated use of sideline chain crews to make measurements. Tracking systems are installed in every NFL stadium and include 20 to 30 “ultra wide- band receivers,” two or three radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in players’ shoulder pads” along with RFID tags on officials, pylons, sticks, chains and in the football itself.
9. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Manziel Heisman boycott is rich: Johnny Manziel, 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, said he will not attend future annual Heisman Trophy ceremonies until the NCAA gives former USC running back Reggie Bush his trophy back. Manziel: “Doesn’t sit right with my morals and values that he can’t be on that stage with us every year. Reggie is the Heisman trophy” 1) A four-year NCAA investigation found that Bush and his family accepted cash, travel expenses and a home in the San Diego from agents hoping to sign the star. 2) Manziel citing “morals and values” is LOL, given his past controversies.
10. MLB: Doggone Philly fans again show they’re frankly awful: Philadelphia sports fans have booed Santa Claus. They’d boo the kitten being rescued from a tree. But now they’ve gone too far! They’ve killed America’s beloved dog. The Phillies have done away with their popular Dollar Dog Night promotion because too many boozy fans preferred throwing their hot dogs as projectiles over eating them. Philly fans? The absolute wurst!
Other most recent stuff from me: Born to fail? Bronny James, Charlie Woods and the impossible footsteps of LeBron and Tiger // Dolphin Tyreek Hill’s past off-field issues don’t mean he’s guilty in the latest // The Florida Man Games: A sort-of Olympics, but with dumb events and non-athletes // Bamboo Tree parable, ‘Papa’ lift rookie Jake Knapp to unlikely PGA Tour win // Playoff expansion great for college football, hugely more pressure for Cristobal, Hurricanes // What to expect of Inter Miami as Messi Year 2 kicks off with win? Absolutely everything // Previous HB10 // And my latest podcast:
