Now that we have escaped that madness called March, peace and calm has transcended on the world of sports. Or has it? Here are the top five reasons that April is a better, crazier month of sports.
5. Spring Football: This is a football school after all. The Bison have been having spring practices for over a week now. The seniors are gone, and the time has come for the next guys to step up and show their stuff, including at the Green and Gold game April 23. The journey for a six straight national championship starts now.
4. The Masters: The one weekend that makes me want to go to Georgia. Augusta is a sight to behold, and nothing says spring like the flowers and the green fairways at the course. This year saw Jordan Spieth take the lead, as he did last year when he won after leading wire to wire. It was a foregone conclusion he would claim the green jacket again. Except for seven reasons, all on the par 3 12-hole. That quadruple bogey gave the win to Danny Willet, an Englishman who may not have even been there, but his wife gave birth to his first son one week early.
3. Baseball is back: And doesn’t it feel great. There is something normal about the ballpark being busy. The sound of the ball hitting the mitt and the crack of the bat. Someone buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks. It’s a time when anything is possible; the Twins could still finish with over 100 wins after all. Maybe this is the year that the Cubs break the curse of the Billy Goat. Plus, it is looking good for the Bison to make the Summit League Tournament again this year.
2. Playoffs: Both NBA and NHL, it’s crunch time. Questions will be answered. Can the Warriors continue their dominance? Will San Antonio crush their dream season? Does anyone care about the Eastern Conference; much less think they can win the title? What about the NHL? Can the Minnesota Wild actually win a playoff series? Will the Chicago Blackhawks prove again that they are made for the playoffs? Can the Washington Capitals break the curse of the President’s Trophy? Who knows, but the journey of crowning champions has begun. Speaking of champions…
1. The Most Unlikely Champions Could be Crowned: 5,000 to 1. That was the preseason odds of Leicester City to win England’s Premier League. To put that in perspective, they were five times more unlikely champions than the Philadelphia 76ers this year, and it is the same odds of Elvis being alive. In an era where soccer teams in England’s top league are assembled for hundreds of millions of dollars, the Foxes have done it at the cost of one Manchester City midfielder.
By all means, they shouldn’t even be in the league, after pulling the greatest of great escapes to stay in the Premier League, winning seven of their last nine last season. That streak continued on. They have lost only three times this season. Led by Jamie Vardy’s 21 goals, Riyad Mahrez’s 11 assists, Kasper Schmeichel’s 14 shutouts, this group of rejects, nobodies and overlooked players are three wins away from what could be “the biggest Cinderella story, not just in (soccer), but in all of sports” in the words of NBCSN’s Arlo White.