In this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, the magazine will review Monday’s NCAA Championship game in which SI decides to bring back Jim Nantz’s silly pun for the cover. In addition, SI has results of a readers poll on the NFL lockout. For what else is in the print issue as well as in the electronic tablet edition, we have the preview of this week’s copy right here for you.
Exclusive Survey: What Do Fans Think of the NFL Labor Dispute?
UConn’s Drive to Survive: From Unranked Afterthoughts to National Champs
The Designated Hitter As We Knew It Is a Dying Breed
Inside 76ers Coach Doug Collins’s Beautiful Mind
Stanley Cup Playoff Preview: It’ll Be a Flying Finish for Philly(NEW YORK – April 6, 2011) – Sports Illustrated surveyed NFL fans to get their opinions on the current labor dispute and potential disruption of the 2011 NFL season. So what did they have to say (page 16)?
• Nearly half of fans (44%) say they would have less future interest in the NFL after a delayed or canceled season.
• More than half of fans (53%) expect a full NFL season without replacement players in 2011, but if replacement players are used 63% will still watch.
• With a disrupted NFL season, college football would gain more attention from 57.3% of NFL fans. Major league baseball and the NBA would receive more attention from 45.3% and 37.3% of NFL fans, respectively.
• What would fans miss most if the season is disrupted? 41.8% said watching with friends and family and 40.7% said following a team. Only 5.2% said fantasy football is what they would most miss and only 1.3% said betting on games.
The survey was conducted by noted research group M&RR and polled 314 random NFL fans ages 18 and older. It has a margin of error +5.5 percentage points.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: UCONN’S DRIVE TO SURVIVE – TIM LAYDEN
The Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, Kemba Walker of UConn, soars on the cover of the April 11 issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands now, with the billing Top Dogs. It is UConn’s ninth cover overall, and Walker is the first Husky to grace the cover three times. To download a high-res JPEG of the cover, click here.
UConn limped into the Big East tournament with a 9–9 conference record and missed out on a first round bye. Rather than have his team rest and regroup, coach Jim Calhoun scheduled practices on each of the two days before their opening game. As Calhoun told the team before the first practice (page 42): “Don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Don’t quit on yourselves. We’re not supposed to be playing on Tuesday night. It’s a slap in the face for this program. So for the next two days, we’re going to get back to who we are.”
Recalling those practices, forward Alex Oriakhi says: “We went after it. The coaches told us, ‘Forget about the X’s and O’s.’ We did defensive drills, rebounding drills. One-on-one box-out drills. Three-on-three drills defending the post. It was intense. They were some of the toughest practices we had all year.”
To read the full online version of UConn’s Drive to Survive, click here.
On the Tablet: A fully interactive gigapan shot of Reliant Stadium during the tip-off of Monday’s title game in addition to video highlights of the most shining moments from this year’s Final Four.
BASEBALL: THE DH IS GOING, GOING … GONE? – ALBERT CHEN
The designated hitter used to be one of the most productive and well-paid positions in baseball. Now, in an era that values run prevention and lineup flexibility, it is a dying breed—and players will do anything to avoid being pigeonholed as one. Says Adam Dunn, who signed a four-year, $56 million deal to be the White Sox’ DH (page 52): “Let’s be honest. Being a DH these days—it’s like having one foot out the door. You’re one step from the retirement home.”
Says Mariners DH Jack Cust: “I hear all the time about how much guys can’t stand it. It’s not that DHs don’t make what they used to. It’s harder than people think it is. Guys would rather have the day off than have to do it.”
To read the full online version of Going, Going … Gone?, click here.
On the Tablet: A slideshow of eight sluggers who have spent the most time at DH.
NBA: DOUG COLLINS IS THE SIXER FIXER – MICHAEL ROSENBERG
In his first year back on the sideline following a Hall of Fame broadcasting career, Doug Collins has coached the Philadelphia 76ers into the Eastern Conference playoffs. Portrayed as a human DVR, Collins remembers details of every basketball game he has ever played or coached in. As he describes it (page 58): “Once I started coaching I couldn’t sleep, my mind just wouldn’t shut off.”
An older, wiser Collins is putting together perhaps the best coaching performance of his career. Point guard Jrue Holliday says: “There’s been times when we’ve messed up and he handled it well. He says if he were younger, then he would have just killed us. My career is going in the right way because of him, because he’s here.”
To read the full online version of Sixer Fixer, click here.
On the Tablet: Find out what Doug Collins was like as a player in this video detailing his story—with a focus on his tenure with the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS: EXPECT A FLYING FINISH FOR PHILLY
EASTERN CONFERENCE
- Philadelphia Flyers: Only question mark is in goal, where rookie Sergei Bobrovsky will be tested.
- Washington Capitals Improved defense has the NHL’s third-best penalty kill, up from 25th in 2009–10.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
- Detroit Red Wings: Deep lineup should thrive with return of injured playmaking center Pavel Datsyuk.
- Vancouver Canucks: Prowess on both power play and penalty kill make Vancouver team to beat in West.
On the Tablet : The Canucks have the best collection of pests in the West. Watch video of one of them, Maxim Lapierre, in action during last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
Champagne, Diamonds and Gunshots in the Dark – Thomas Lake
New Year’s Eve will never be the same for the family and friends of Darrent Williams, who played defensive back for the Broncos before he was murdered in 2007. The Oklahoma State product had just finished his second season and was caught up in a lifestyle that many professional athletes become accustomed to. Williams was traveling home from a party with teammates and friends when their limo was shot at 17 times. One of the bullets struck Williams and killed him almost instantly (page 72).
The accounts of why this happened went unexplained for more than three years. Senior writer Thomas Lake insightfully lays out all the events that led to Williams’s death. After a series of skirmishes between members of the group Williams was with and two local gang members, it all came to a head when Williams broke up an altercation between his friend and teammate Brandon Marshall and the gang members. In a case of mistaken identity, the gang members followed Williams’s limo—believing it was Marshall’s—and opened fire when they got the chance.
When asked in court if he remembered the night, Marshall responded, “I think about it every night.”
To read the full online of Champagne, Diamonds and Gunshots in the Dark, click here.
POINT AFTER: HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? – PHIL TAYLOR
Senior writer Phil Taylor (@SI_PhilTaylor) has an idea for a new game show called We Hope You’re Not Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. The objective: Parents and sports executives compete to see who tried to slip the most blatant violations and ethical misdeeds past the NCAA, the public or both. The contestants include Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, recently fired Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker and Cam Newton’s father, Cecil (page 84).
To read the full online version of How Low Can You Go?, click here.
THIS WEEK’S FACES IN THE CROWD
Missy Franklin (Centennial, Colo.) – Swimming Bryan Zemba (Bridgewater Corners, Vt.) – Skiing
Jaret Canney (Somersworth, N.H.) – Ice Hockey Michelle Browning (Houston) – Gymnastics
Malia Tate-DeFreitas (Steelton, Pa.) – Basketball James Jones (Philadelphia) – Basketball
And we’re done. I’ll head to linkage next.
