By Ron Wynn The Tennessee State Tigers will be part of March Madness after all. They will participate in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, and there’s a historic aspect to their inclusion. For the first time since they joined Division 1, the John McClendon Classic will serve as a site for one of the opening rounds beginning Tuesday. The Tigers finished 18-15 this season, and reached the quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament. It’s the sixth time they’ve won at least 18 games,m and they also tied the school record this season for most home wins with an 11-3 mark. In addition, this…
Author: Ron Wynn
Soccer, or what the rest of the globe calls football, is easily the world’s most popular sport. Only the Summer Olympics rivals The World Cup as a global sporting competition. In most nations premier athletes are identified and steered to soccer at increasingly young ages, just like football and basketball prospects in America. But the USA, at least when it comes to men’s competition, has always lagged behind the rest of the world in terms of soccer, both from a playing and popularity standpoint. But now Major League Soccer (MLS) feels it is changing things. The league celebrated the start…
There are so few Black head coaches at bigtime football schools that the handful who hold those positions are always under extremely close scrutiny. The pressure to succeed, while high for coaches at any major institution, doubles for Black coaches, whose record will be used as a measuring stick that can either help or hurt peers seeking similar jobs. That is grossly unfair. It is also reality. But new Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker faces more challenges than usual. First, he left behind ruffled feathers among media members in Colorado, where he’d only coached one season. His 5-7 mark wasn’t…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — An otherwise encouraging Canadian road trip took a downturn Saturday, as the Nashville Predators failed to hold a two-goal lead and dropped a 3-2 decision to the Edmonton Oilers. They had already won the two previous games, and another victory would have vaulted the Predators into the second wild card spot. Things started well. Craig Smith opened the scoring at the midpoint of the opening period. Then Nick Bonino continued his season-long standout play, scoring his 17th in the second period. The Predators seemed to be in good shape ahead 2-0. But that didn’t…
By Ron Wynn For the second time in three years, a former pro athlete has won an Oscar, though this time he comes from the world of football Former NFL wide receiver Matthew Cherry won the Oscar for best animated short film Sunday night, and took time to remember the late Kobe Bryant, who won an Oscar two years ago. Cherry also wrote the story about a Black father who’s trying to do his daughter’s hair for the very first time. The film is seven minutes long, and was financed through a Kickstarter campaign. “’Hair Love’ was done because we…
The Houston Astros last week made a move they hope can restore a semblance of integrity to their organization and perhaps help them move forward in the wake of the electronic sign stealing scandal. By extension MLB also hopes it can bring the game some much needed positive publicity after weeks of bad stories. The Astros named Dusty Baker their new manager to replace fired AJ Hinch, who lost his job in the scandal along with general manager Jeff Luhnow. At 70, Baker becomes MLB’s oldest manager. He is a three-time National League Manager of the Year. Despite a 97-65…
It has thus far not been a stellar NBA season. The injury-driven demise of the league’s previous glory team the Golden State State Warriors, coupled with the loss to injuries of such marquee names as Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, has triggered a sizable drop in TV ratings. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver seems to have dropped, at least for now, proposals for a midseason tournament replacing the All-Star game and changes in playoff seeding, though he says the league may explore these ideas again at the end of the season. But for now, with the NBA about to…
By Ron Wynn CBS’ decision to air the Grammy Awards earlier than usual didn’t pay off as well as they hoped, though it certainly did enough to give CBS a comfortable edge for Sunday Night viewing. Sunday’s show, which ran three hours and 40 minutes, was the earliest a Grammy telecast had been presented in seven years. It drew, at least in the preliminary numbers available at press time, 16.54 million viewers and a 4.7 rating among adults 18-49 in the fast national ratings. These are the earliest — and least accurate — figures available. The adjusted numbers are reported…
Sometimes tragedies occur involving people whose loss transcends their particular occupation or profession, and that certainly was the case this past Sunday when news began spreading of the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of five people, including longtime Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant. Bryant had become a transcendent figure both during his 20-year career and in his days after the NBA. Sadly. he and four others died in the crash at a remote field 40 miles northwest of central Los Angeles according to stories in both Reuters and the Associated Press. Though no names were released of the…
Steven Canals has previously struck creative gold for FX with the drama “Pose.” It spotlights the ballroom culture of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and was the first show Canals created along with Ryan Murphy. Besides earning multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and getting a breakout Emmy win for main star Billy Porter, it’s earned Canals a lot of attention and exposure in Hollywood. That’s now resulted in a new deal with Disney’s 20th studios. The new pact, announced this week in the Hollywood Reporter, will allow Canals to continue overseeing “Pose” for FX, while also developing new projects for…