Football-Free

No football. None. The Super Bowl is over and the Pro Bowl, which used to cure our hangover, is now played before the Super Bowl. Gah!

We must find other reasons to park the heiner in the recliner. And so we will. Your Weekend TV Six-Pack (lite version, without football) is ready…

There’s plenty of college basketball and we always like when ranked teams duke it out (except Duke). So we’ll recommend No. 2 Villanova at No. 24 Xavier on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Fox. If you like No. 2, you’ll like No. 1 (get your mind out of the gutter). Unbeaten and top-ranked Gonzaga visits No. 20 St. Mary’s at 8:15 p.m. Saturday and that’s on ESPN. Sunday pairs more ranked teams: No. 11 Cincinnati at No. 25 SMU at 4 p.m. on ESPN.

If you like the pro game better, you can get a good look at the Golden State Warriors as they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder and the unstoppable Russell Westbrook. ABC shows this one at 8:30 p.m.

The PGA Tour is at Pebble Beach, which should be lush and lovely. But it began in the rain on Thursday and temperatures aren’t getting much above 60. We’ll see about the scores. CBS televises at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

And finally … hey, how’d a hockey game sneak in here? The Montreal Canadiens, who lead the Atlantic Division, visit the Boston Bruins (if they can get through the blizzard that hit the northeast) on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m on NBC Sports Network. The Bruins fired Stanley Cup-winning coach Claude Julien on Tuesday; replacement Bruce Cassidy debuted with a victory on Thursday and the Bruins are in the playoff chase after missing the postseason the last two years.

Football-free. So sad. But we do what we can with what we have. Watch with joy in your heart and your feet on the ottoman.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman