Sports, Sports, And More Sports

The only complaint coming from this corner about Saturday’s men’s college basketball game between No. 6 Kentucky (9-1) and No. 7 North Carolina (10-1) is that they both can’t lose. If you want to see Kentucky’s stars, catch them now. They might turn pro before New Year’s Day.

Snark aside, that’s a pretty good matchup. It’s on CBS at 5:30 p.m. ET.

That’s only one part of our eclectic Weekend TV Six-Pack. After a tough slog, you need to put that heiner in the recliner soon…

Start the weekend off right with a good Friday night fight. HBO has, at 10 p.m. the last (or so he says) match of Bernard Hopkins’ lengthy career. Hopkins, 51, meets Joe Smith Jr. in a light heavyweight bout. Hopkins hasn’t fought in two years.

There are five televised college football bowl games on Saturday, along with the NCAA Division II championship game between North Alabama and Northwest Missouri State at 4 p.m. on ESPN2. We’ll make this a la carte here – pick two games (the menu also includes such dumplings as the Celebration Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl, the Camellia Bowl) and let me know how that works out.

The NFL, which is hardly overexposed with Sunday’s day-long fiesta, Monday nights and Thursday nights, drops in Saturday evening with the Miami Dolphins playing the New York Jets (8:30 p.m., NFL Network). The Dolphins will have Matt Moore at quarterback in place of the injured Ryan Tannehill as they continue to push for their first playoff berth since 2008.

We’ll take the New England Patriots at Denver Broncos for Sunday (4:25 p.m., CBS). The Broncos are the only team against which Tom Brady has a losing record (and he’s 2-7 at Denver). As his revenge tour (remember the Deflategate suspension?) continues, Brady takes no prisoners.

Happy viewing. Watch diligently. There might be a quiz Monday.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman