A Sports Filled Weekend Ahead

The college basketball season gets to the moments we’ve wait for since, well, it started. After endless tournaments in Hawaii and Alaska, mismatches between good teams and bad, conference tournaments, the First Four, regionals, the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight, we’re down to the true contenders.

If you’d care to slap your heiner in the recliner on Friday night to, you know, warm up, you can crack open your Weekend TV Six-Pack with a top NBA game. Catch the San Antonio Spurs at the Oklahoma Thunder (yes, Russell Westbrook is worth the time) at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

You’re also free to watch ESPN2’s women’s Final Four beginning at 7:30 p.m. The highlight would be unbeaten-since-forever UConn against Mississippi State at 9:30 p.m.
UConn gets to destroy the winner of the Stanford-South Carolina game on Sunday at 6 p.m. on ESPN, and we’ll put that in the Six-Pack for the sake of history. UConn has won 111 games in a row (that’s not a typo) heading to the Final Four and seeks an unprecedented fifth straight national title.

The men’s Final Four will devour your Saturday night. CBS gets this doubleheader, which matches No. 1 seed Gonzaga with No. 7 South Carolina at 6:09 p.m. and No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 3 Oregon at approximately 8:49 p.m. Approximately means you get a 15-minute bathroom break. The championship game is Monday night.

Baseball is back and those Chicago Cubs, who won their first World Series since 1908, look like favorites again in the National League. They open on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals, their NL Central rivals, at 8:35 p.m. on ESPN, which certainly will get back to its interminable New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox matchups before long.

For those who like to see the big wheels keep on turning, FS 1 brings you the NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series STP 500 from Martinsville. The race will be longer than the name.

Gorge. You earned it.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman