The St. Louis Cardinals are in a wide-open National League Central battle for the 2020 season, they are the reigning division champions and believe they have a good chance to do the same thing this year. Their pitching staff, led by one of the best in the league, Jack Flaherty should be pretty solid. Their defense is unmatched with an all-star second baseman, Kolten Wong and they feel as though their offense has improved from last year’s inconsistent performance at the plate. The team didn’t have a busy offseason in terms of new players in positions or trades, so this season will prove if they’ve done enough to see if they can win the division for the second consecutive year. Last year, they made the postseason and made it as far as the National League Championship series where they lost to the Washington Nationals. As mentioned with the little to no changes this offseason, it is going to be up the team if they can perform at the plate and rack in the runs to prove their playoff worth. In order for this to happen, players need to stay healthy and the stars of the team need to begin to step up. Paul Goldschmidt, Dexter Fowler, and Matt Carpenter have all shown plenty of upside at the plate and how well their averages can be. These are the players that are the heart of lineup and the team can heavily rely on for getting on base and producing great at bats. Opening day for the team will be a big test, with the starting lineup being just about the same as last year it will be all about improvement whether it is on the mound, on the field defensively, or at the plate offensively. The Cardinals are a solid team and could make another playoff run this year.

March Madness is the one of most viewed sporting events every single year. It consists of the best sixty four basketball teams in all of college basketball, one team coming from every conference in division one. These games get so much attention and hype leading up to them and the performances of both teams in the game never disappoints, they are all fighting for what they have always been dreaming about, a national championship. Making the tournament can label a team as a solid one but making a run and winning games in the tournament makes them elite. A lot of smaller schools come into the tournament as the underdog to their opponent and still walk away with a win and move onto the next round. These smaller schools and their athletes do not have any pressure to go out and win, they are not favored too, so they just go out there and play their best ball possible and shock the world. Winning March Madness and being crowned a national champion is a dream come true for all athletes and marking themselves as the best team in college basketball in the respective year. This tournament brings fans of college basketball and competitive sport in general all together to watch the best teams in the country fight for that title. It is disappointing this year that the tournament was cancelled due to the corona virus, there will be no upsets, no buzzer beaters, no stars having their shining moments, and no one being crowned the champion. There was no other choice for the NCAA to do, they had to do what was right and protect the athletes and coaches, it is bigger than basketball. I am already looking forward for next year’s tournament and cannot imagine the anticipation it is going to have due to there not being one this year.

The Big Ten is one of the power five conferences in college basketball and has players that can be labeled as the best in the country on about every team. This creates a buzz around the conference tournament and shows the players and coaches how much it means to win it. This year ten out of the fourteen teams were projected to make the NCAA tournament, this number of teams in the field just shows how deep and how tough the conference was this year. The race for the conference title this year was crazy and made every single conference game have huge importance. Wisconsin, Maryland, and Michigan State all tied with the best conference records of fourteen and six. Wisconsin won the tiebreakers and were to take the one seed in the conference tournament, leaving Maryland to take the second seed, and Michigan State taking the third. The Illinois Fighting Illini finished fourth overall in conference one game back of the three tied up top with a record of thirteen and seven in conference play. These top four seeds were to receive the double bye in the conference tournament. Out of the conference, about seven or eight of them were locks but a few were fighting for a bid in March Madness and the conference tournament was crucial to make their case, teams such Indiana and Purdue were really relying on the tournament. The cancellation of March Madness and this tournament was also huge for seniors and big players to show the country who they really were and improve their stock for the NBA draft. A big name, Ayo Dosunmu, a sophomore guard out of Illinois promised Illini nation he wouldn’t leave until they achieved national attention and they danced. They did receive plenty of attention, but unfortunately no one danced this year. Instead of proving himself in the conference tournament and March, NBA teams must look at what he did his freshman year and the regular season this year. It is up to Dosunmu now whether or not we wants to declare for the draft. The Big Ten conference tournament is place where teams and players can really show who they are and what differences they can make, but unfortunately that did not happen this year as college basketball was cancelled as a whole.

The Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team went on the road and took on the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday March 5, 2020. The Fighting Illini are ranked twenty-third in the nation and Buckeyes sit at nineteen, so this was set up to be a very good Big Ten matchup. These teams are both in the same conference, the Big Ten, which can be considered the deepest conference in college basketball this year. Illinois’ conference record was twelve and six and the Buckeyes were ten and eight. Both of these teams are fighting for higher seeds in the conference tournament and also for a good win to make their NCAA tournament resume better before March Madness begins. The Fighting Illini came out firing and played a really good first half, they lead by seven points at the half in Columbus. The second half was a completely different story, Illinois’ offense just seemed to shut down while the Buckeyes only improved. Ohio State outscored the Illini by fifteen points in the second half and ended the night with another tally in the win column after defeating the Illini by the final score of seventy-one to sixty-three. The Illini fall to twelve and seven in conference play but still solidify themselves as fourth place in the conference. On the other side, with the win the Buckeyes improve their record to eleven and eight in conference play and move up to fifth place in the conference. Both of these teams are fighting for that double bye in the conference tournament, which only the top four teams receive, so this win was crucial for the Buckeyes. Ayo Dosunmu led the Illini in scoring with twenty-one points and Kaleb Wesson led his Buckeyes with nineteen. With only one game left for both teams in the regular season, that double bye is what both teams are aiming for, as well as a higher seed for the NCAA tournament. As an Illini fan, it should be very exciting as both of these teams will be playing in late March, they are both capable of making deep runs into the tournament.

The Evansville Thunderbolts are a hockey team in the city of Evansville and they are part of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). Players on the Thunderbolts and other players around league are doing their best to make it to the big boy league, the National Hockey League (NHL). The Thunderbolts last game was on Saturday, February 29^th with the game time of seven fifteen in the evening. In this matchup, Evansville was the home team and their opponents, the Quad City Storm were looking to catch a win away from their home ice. The game was set to be a good one for the fans to see. Zane Jones tallied the first goal of the game at the twelve twenty mark in the period and Tyler Brower buried another halfway through the period at about the eight minute mark. Quad City bounced back and their very own Vincent Beaudry put them on the scoreboard with six minutes left remaining in the period. After the first period of the game, Evansville came out on top with a one goal lead at two to one. In the middle period of the game, neither player on either side of the puck could get one to the back of the net and the score remained a two to one lead for the Thunderbolts. In the last period of the game Quad City got two power play goals, one coming a minute in the period and the other coming with ten minutes left. In between both of these goals, Noah Corson of the Thunderbolts put in the teams third goal. At the end of regulation, the game was knotted at three and overtime still was not enough time for a goal to be scored. At this time in hockey, they go to a shootout. Not one player for Quad City netted a goal and two skaters for the Thunderbolts did, winning their team the game with the final score of four to three.

The NBA All-Star Game is a very exciting game for professional basketball fans and all the players around the league. This game consists of the best players in the league, coming from the Eastern and Western Conference. This year the game was hosted in Chicago in the home of the Chicago Bulls, the United Center. The game was a little bit different than it has been in the past years, with the recent passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi the game was played for them. Kobe has left a remarkable impact on the NBA as a whole and was a great role model on and off the court, his death led to the whole worlds mourning. In their remembrance, all the members of Team Lebron wore the number twenty-four and everyone on the opposing team, Team Giannis, wore the number two. Kobe was twenty-four all his career and left a mark on the number in the league and Gigi’s basketball number has been number two. The game was a very thrilling one as it was neck and neck all the way down the stretch of the game. At halftime of the game, Team Giannis was leading Team Lebron by the score of ninety-two to eighty-three. It was dead even in scoring in the third quarter as both teams tallied forty-one points. In the final quarter of player Team Lebron outscored Team Giannis thirty-three to twenty-two meaning Team Lebron won the 2020 All- Star Game by the score of one hundred and fifty-seven to one hundred and fifty-five. It was a great atmosphere for the game and playing the game for Gigi and Kobe Bryant and their families made it even better. Kobe’s death shocked the NBA world and the NBA and all the teams and athletes went about it in a very professional manner.

The Southern Indiana basketball game on February the 15^th was a great one to attend as they played a very good opponent, University of Missouri St. Louis who is currently ranked number 19. It was homecoming here on campus which creates a great atmosphere itself. At halftime of the basketball game, the homecoming king and queen were announced for everyone to hear. It was a good week to be followed up by the game with events all week leading up to king and queen announcement on Saturday. It was a very good basketball game from the tip off that started the game, it was always back and forth. The arena was packed with all fans rooting for the screaming eagles and the student section was buzzing with students all participating in the craziest fan contest. Who doesn’t want to be known as Southern Indiana’s craziest fan on campus? That is a title one should love to have, and everyone was doing their best to win the contest and hopefully bring in a screaming eagles basketball win at the same time.  The eagles were up thirty-four to twenty-three at halftime and was looking very promising get a win over a ranked opponent. UMSL came out ready to play in the second half, but Southern Indiana’s game never went away. At the end of the game it was tied sixty-six to sixty-six with only four seconds remaining. Mateo Rivera, a starting guard for us knocked down his last free throw for us with four seconds remaining to give the team a one point edge. UMSL went down and tried to get the game winning shot as fast as possible and they couldn’t get it done. They did not get a shot off before time expired. Southern Indiana won the homecoming game this year over a very good GLVC ranked team to help their tournament resume.

The 54^th annual Super Bowl was held in Miami, Florida this year in the home of the Miami Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium. The two teams that made it this year were the Kansas City Chiefs from the American Football Conference and the San Francisco 49ers from the National Football Conference. Both of these teams defeated everyone they must have throughout the playoffs to make it the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the biggest game of the year for NFL fans, it is to determine the best team in professional football that year. It was a very thrilling game to watch as both teams came to play their best all-around football. At halftime of the game, it was tied at ten points a team. At halftime of every Super Bowl, there is always a big halftime show. This year, the celebrities of Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were the ones performing and putting on a show for the whole world to tune in and watch. It was a very exciting performance and put all the fans watching on their feet. Coming out of the half, the 49ers looked like the better team putting up ten points in the third quarter to take a twenty to ten lead into the last quarter of the game. Mahomes, starting quarterback for the Chiefs, and the team stepped up when it was needed most and put up twenty-one points on the board in the fourth quarter with their defense holding the 49ers to none. The Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV 31-20 and gave every fan of the Chiefs what every football fan wishes for at the beginning of the season, a Super Bowl Trophy and most importantly bragging rights. Patrick Mahomes was named the Most Valuable Player of the game and celebrated with all of his teammates after the game was complete. Every year, the Super Bowl brings football fans around the world together to watch the biggest game and in the 54^th annual game, the Kansas City Chiefs became the best football team in the league this year.

NHL All-Star weekend is action filled with all the best hockey players in the league. This year it was hosted in the home arena of last year’s Stanley Cup Champions, the St. Louis Blues. There was plenty of action for the fans that travelled to St. Louis to see, this included live concerts downtown, the skills competition, and most importantly the all-star game. The skills competition took place inside the arena. This competition contains multiple tasks including the fastest skater, goalie save streak, accuracy shooting, hardest shot, shooting stars, and the women’s three on three competition. Barzal of the the New York Islanders won the fastest skater by the time of 13.175 seconds, Binnington the goalie of the St. Louis Blues won the save streak by making 10 saves, and Slavin of the Carolina Hurricanes won the accuracy shooting by the time of 9.505 seconds. The results from the hardest shot and shooting stars include Weber from the Montreal Canadians with a shot speed of 106.5 miles per hour and Kane from the Chicago Blackhawks winning off a tiebreaker at 22 points with Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The night of January 25, 2020 Green Day was live downtown for all the fans to go watch and have a good time and take their minds off hockey for some time. The concert was then followed by the all-star game inside the Enterprise Center. This game caps off a great weekend of NHL stars from all around the world. The game ended in the Pacific conference capping off a five to four victory over the Atlantic conference in the game with a goal from Tomas Hertl with 2:36 remaining in the game and David Pastarnak was named the games most valuable player. The all-star weekend as a whole brings hockey fans together to enjoy the sport they love watching with other avid fans. It is an action packed weekend with plenty of events to attend not always pertaining to the sport of hockey and then the skills competition and all-star game to cap off an incredible atmosphere for the hockey world. People come together whether they root for the same team or not and enjoy a great hockey focused weekend. It should be a goal for every die hard hockey fan to attend an NHL All-Star Weekend.