In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
The Baylor Bears became the first college basketball team to ever compile a 40-0 record and win the national championship. Brittney Griner's 26 points and 13 boards helped her team to an 80-61 victory over Stanford Notre Dame, and earned the undefeated Bears a permanent place in the history books. "Alright, just say it," said the Washington Wizards. "You think they could beat us too, right? Just say it, damn you!"
There are nine undefeated teams left in college hoops, from top-ranked Syracuse all the way down to Murray State, but the Baylor Bears might be the most interesting. Scott Drew, son of long-time Valparaiso coach Homer Drew and brother of March Madness hero Bryce Drew, has been the coach since 2003, and his program has not lacked for excitement. After four years near the bottom of the Big 12 heap, he broke through in 2007-08 with an NCAA berth. The next year, his team made the NIT championship and lost. Then, in 2010, Baylor had its best year to date, reaching the Elite Eight and losing in a thriller to eventual national champion Duke. After a bit of a hiccup last season, Drew has perhaps his best Baylor team to date.
Robert Griffin III should win the Heisman Trophy. From Baylor’s first game this year, when he shredded Gary Patterson's vaunted TCU defense for 359 yards and five touchdowns, Griffin has consistently been the best performer in college football. He’s only a couple of yards shy of 4,000 for the season, he's set an NCAA record for passing efficiency, and the former track star has rushed for 644 yards and nine touchdowns just for good measure. (Keep in mind "track star" isn't just a way to say he's fast; Griffin is literally a track champion.) Oh, sure, stats are stats — what matters is whether he's a winner, right? Well, he won nine games at Baylor, a team that hasn't done that since 1986. But is he clutch? Oh yeah, that. He's clutch.
1. The University of Maryland, College, Park, Md.
OK, so I’m a stodgy white male who is fast approaching middle age, and I get that this college football uniform fetish is not geared toward uptight souls like me, and that it is fueled by apparel companies and the attention economy and all the highfalutin’ sociological jujitsu that corporations utilize to help brainwash large segments of the population into purchasing energy bracelets. But here is a question that should be posted in every high school locker room in America: If a school can only generate interest using togs that resemble the end result of a Project Runway challenge in a Department of Transportation warehouse, is that really a school worth attending? Not every teenager is so capricious that we can only hold their interest by … OMG BLAKE LIVELY! … I mean, as I was saying — what was I saying?
