The Sport Superlatives: Issue No. 14

Flau'jae proves she's the best teammate ever.

April 05, 2024

April 05, 2024

Do you love sports? Want to find a way to fit more sports into your week? We’ve got you. From keeping up with your work colleagues to impressing hot dates, our newsletter aims to keep you in the know regardless of your fandom level or the reason. That’s your business, sis!

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Best Way to Defend a Teammate: Flau’jae Johnson

In the post-LSU v. Iowa women’s basketball game press conference, LSU player Flau’jae came to the defense of her teammate and friend Angel Reese. Angel and the LSU team have been a media target since their national championship win last season in 2023.

During the press conference, Flau’jae showed us the meaning of sisterhood. She put everyone on notice about the leadership, strength and overall character of Angel that she has witnessed as her teammate. She gave Angel her flowers (which are well deserved), and we want to make sure we give Flau’jae hers as well. What an inspiration. 

The Worst Way to Avenge a Teammate: Kurtis MacDermid

Now NHL NY Rangers’ Forward Matt Rempe and New Jersey Devils’ defenseman Kurtis MacDermid have been beefing since their game in NY on March 11th. During that game, Rempe was suspended for four games after elbowing defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler.

MacDermid was not impressed and decided to teach Rempe a lesson for going after his fellow defenseman during the rematch on Wednesday April 3rd. MacDermid and Rempe were squaring off before the game could even get started. Their altercation led to an all-out brawl on the ice that resulted in the ejection of 8 players, four from each team. Not sure it was the best revenge seeing as the Devils lost. Hope they got it all out of their system.

⚾ No Hit Zone: On Monday night, Houston Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco said to rip him out of the plastic because this season, he’s going to be acting brand new and not because of his new favorite pitch: the changeup. In his first start of the season & only his 8th MLB start, Blanco pitched a no-hitter game in their Monday night game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Meaning, he sent the Blue Jays flying back to their locker room without any runs. In the first no-hitter of this year’s MLB season, Houston beat Toronto 10-0. But don’t worry in game 2 of the series on Tuesday, 4/2, Toronto got some respect put back on their name by winning 2-1. 

🏀 And Then There Were Four:  All other teams have been weeded out, and the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments are now down to the Final Four. 

UConn, NC State, Purdue, and Alabama are left on the men’s side, and UConn, NC State, South Carolina, and Iowa are all that remain in the Women’s tournament. No need to adjust your bifocals, you’re not seeing double, both UConn and NC State remain in the men’s and women’s tournaments. 

Now this isn’t shocking for UConn, considering the Husky men are the reigning champs, and the women hold the record for the most championships…ever (for women). As a matter of fact, the UConn men’s and women’s teams have made joint Final Four appearances four other times.  So, for Huskies fans, this is the earth rotating on its axis (AKA another regular degular day for y’all who skipped science class).

But for NC State, this is the first Final Four appearance for the women since 1998, and for the men it hasn’t happened since 1983. So there you have it; two totally different paths to the same goal. Well, there’s your history lesson for the week…don’t say we never taught you anything. 

Now, for the highlight of the Elite Eight….LSU vs Iowa, aka “The game watched round the world”. We’re not even exaggerating this time (and you know we love a bit of hyperbole). These ladies broke records, logging 12.3 million views and taking the crown for the most watched women’s college basketball game on record. The rematch of last year’s championship game was heavily anticipated and did not disappoint. 

Caitlin Clark scored a jaw-dropping 41 points and a record-tying nine 3-pointers to send her team on to the next round. Now don't get it twisted, Angel Reese and the LSU ladies didn’t go down without a fight…maybe we can invite them to the Final Four, too, like how Jilly-not-from-Philly Biden wanted to invite Iowa to the White House after their loss last year…No? That’s not how that works. Oh ok.

Well, the job’s not done yet. All of these teams still have two more games to play if they want to win it all, roll around in paper precipitation, and cut down that raggedy net. It will all come to a close this weekend, and if you want to bear witness, here’s the schedule:

  • South Carolina vs NC State Friday 4/5 7:00 pm

  • UConn vs Iowa Friday 4/5 9:30 pm

The championship game will be Sunday, 4/7.

  • NC State vs Purdue Saturday 4/6  6:09 pm

  • UConn vs Alabama Saturday 4/6 8:49 pm

The championship game will be Monday, 4/8.

🎾 Welcome to Miami: The Miami Open came to a close last week with American Danielle Collins taking the title with her defeat of Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina. Collins’ win comes on the heels of her retirement announcement. Collins has been open about her battle with endometriosis and the pain she deals with on and off the court. This win was the 3rd of her career. Congrats, and good luck for the remainder of her farewell tour.

Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner added another trophy to his case as he won the men’s singles competition at the Miami Open. His quick and to-the-point defeat of Gregor Dimitrov makes it three titles for him so far this season. He’s on quite the roll, and it’s good to see someone loosen the grip the Big 3 have had on the tennis world for so long.

Playing Chicken with a Mack Truck: On Tuesday, the residents of Jackson County, Missouri, said reigning Super Bowl Champs or not, they do not want more sales tax.

Jackson County voted down a proposed sales tax to fund improvements to the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead stadium. The sales tax would also fund a new ballpark for the city’s baseball team, the Kansas City Royals.

Fast and Furious: Speaking of the Chiefs, their wide receiver, Rashee Rice, was allegedly speeding like a bat out of hell in a rented Lamborghini last Saturday evening and caused quite the pile-up. We’re talking six cars involved. Rice and his Corvette-driving co-conspirator were supposedly cosplaying fast and furious on a Dallas expressway when they lost control and then fled the scene like roaches when the lights came on. Now Rice has taken to social media to apologize and indicate that he is fully cooperating with the police…but sir, they had to low-key put a BOLO out for you! Where was all this cooperation and concern when the incident occurred? We’re just glad that everyone involved made it out alive and with minor injuries.

Houston, They’re Going To Be A Problem: NFL WR Stefon Diggs has been traded from the Buffalo Bills to the Houston Texans. The Bills received a 2nd round pick in the 2025 draft out of the deal. Now Diggs had been pretty vocal about being ready for a new team. Then just one day, a mere 24 hours, a measly 1,440 minutes before the trade was announced, Diggs threw some shade on X (the artist formerly known as Twitter).  Somebody’s tweeting uncle questioned whether or not Josh Allen needed a WR to be successful, and Diggs said, and quote, “You sure ?”. Guess y’all uncle & the Bills are about to F around & find out. 

Your sports term of the week is: squeeze play.

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A squeeze play is a baseball term for when the at-bat team has a player on third base who starts to make their way to home base, so the batter bunts the ball to give the runner a chance to score a home run. This is also called and recorded as a sacrifice. 

IRL EXAMPLE: You’re out with your friends, and they’ve been trying to flirt with this cutie all night, but the cutie’s not-so-great friend has been blocking your friend from scoring. So, you take one for the team and start flirting with the friend, even though you are in no way interested, just so your friend can close the deal with the cutie. Sometimes, we have to sacrifice and take one for the team. See what we did there?

LSU may not have won the game, but our sis, Angel, stays winning! In a new Vogue feature, Ms. Reese recently announced that she will be declaring for the WNBA. She also declared that she’s the baddest because, sheesh! Don’t take our word for it, though, see for yourselves:

Here are our fav looks from the Vogue spread:

Trying to copy the Bayou Barbie’s style? We found a few pieces to help with that!

Share The Sport Superlatives with hardcore sports fans or anyone who just likes to keep a little sports knowledge on hand. See you next week!