Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Houston, we have a miracle. Plus Messi, Panthers, torpedo bat & more
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (APRIL 6): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column -- back from a two-week holiday -- brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 99th edition of your HB10:
1. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Houston stuns Duke as men’s, women’s NCAA title games next: A chalky, Cinderella-free March-into-April Madness ends today/Sunday for the women and Monday for the men with two top-seed finals. Sunday in Tampa, Paige Bueckers tries to deliver No. 2 UConn’s first championship since 2016 while coach Dawn Staley seeks a second straight title for No. 1 South Carolina. Monday in San Antonio, No. 1s Houston and Florida try to end long title droughts, with the Gators last reigning in 2007 and the Cougars having never won it all. Houston’s miracle rally Saturday night -- or was it Duke’s epic collapse -- spices the sport’s real Final Four.
2. INTER MIAMI: Team Messi under gun Wednesday in CCC leg-2: Inter Miami is an unbeaten 4-0-1 in MLS and hosts winless Toronto tonight/Sunday. (League has barred Lionel Messi’s personal bodyguard from being on the sideline. Seriously? With all Messi has meant to MLS, they should allow his personal chef there if he wished.) A bigger match looms Wednesday in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals. Miami lost leg-1 at Los Angeles FC 1-0 despite Messi playing the whole game and now must win leg-2 by enough in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday night to reach the semifinals. The CCC would be a major trophy as the Herons aim to dominate 2025, including an MLS Cup title, in what could be Messi’s final season. Team has been mum the strategy with Messi. Me? I’d sit him Sunday to unleash a rested star Wednesday.
3. PANTHERS: Depleted Cats lose 4th straight but clinch playoffs near: Champions Florida -- still missing Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov to injuries and Aaron Ekblad to a suspension -- lost a fourth straight game Saturday (longest skid since November) are are 4-8 in past 12 games. Still, the cats are 44-32 and clinched a sixth straight playoff berth. Panthers are back on ice Sunday seeking health and momentum as the postseason nears.
4. HEAT: Arison, Fowles in Hall of Fame; Miami seeks home court for play-in: Heat majority owner Micky Arison and Miami born-and-raised former WNBA star Sylvia Fowles were among inductees Saturday into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, well-earned for both. Arison’s Heat are 35-43 with two straight losses but have cinched a play-in spot. Only four games are left in the regular season starting Monday. Heat’s game at Wednesday could determine which hosts the April 16 must-win play-in.
5. MARLINS: ‘Torpedo bat’ phenomenon has Marlins ties: MLB’s “torpedo” bat, a phenomenon sparked by Yankees’ home run surge, was developed by Aaron Leanhardt, a former MIT physicist and former Yankees analyst and now a Miami Marlins’ field coordinator, to maximize contact and power. Meaning the low-spending , minor-league-quality Marlins, given no playoff shot and pegged for another 100-loss season, have surprised early, jumping to a 3-1 start and now 5-4 entering Sunday’s game in Atlanta before three straight at the Mets. Reality: Still no playoff shot. Upside: Apparent potential to avoid abysmal and maybe strive for mediocrity?
6. NFL: King Sport enters 21st Century. Farewell, chain gang: Not a ton got done at NFL spring owners meetings in Palm Beach. League couldn’t even agree to abolish the tush-push and tabled it. But King Sport did finally vote to use Sony’s “Hawk-Eye” technology as the primary way to measure what’s a first down -- replacing the outmoded “chain gang.” Six cameras will be uses to track the ball’s position. Said the NFL: “Sony’s virtual measurement technology will serve as an efficient alternative to the process of walking chains onto the field and manually measuring whether 10 yards have been met.” Deal with it, fellow humans: We’re becoming unnecessary.
7. PRO(ISH) BASKETBALL: Ice Cube’s Big3 league coming to Miami: South Florida is big with the fringe leagues. Unrivaled, the offseason league started by WNBA stars, just finished its inaugural season played solely in Miami. Now Big3, the men’s 3-on-3 pro hoops league cofounded by rapper Ice Cube and mostly featuring retired NBA players, has announced it will have city-based teams for the first time since its 2017 startup --with Miami one of eight markets. Look for a June 29 rollout at (rather ambitiously) Kaseya Center, home of the Heat.
8. TENNIS: Record crowds marked Miami Open’s 40th year: The Miami Open drew a record 405,448 spectators to this year’s 40th annual ATP/WTA event that saw 19-year-old Czech Jakub Mensik stun the men’s field and top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka win the women’s side. Event moved from Key Biscayne to Hard Rock Stadium six years ago. It was good for commerce, but many of us still miss the lush ambiance the tournament left behind.
9. CELEBRITY: David Beckham celebrates turning (almost) 50: Retired soccer heartthrob-turned-Inter Miami part owner David Beckham turns 50 May 2 but was a month early lavishing himself with an exclusive black-tie party at Cipriani, a tony Miami Italian restaurant where bottles of Dom Perignon Brut flow at $335 a pop. With wife Victoria and their kids, guests featured his team’s star players including Lionel Messi along with retired NFL icon Tom Brady (there solo, not with supermodel squeeze Irina Shayk) and basketball great Shaquille O’Neal. Victoria wrote on Instagram, “What a way to begin the first of many birthday celebrations for David!” Because the rich and fabulous can never be celebrated enough!
10. GOLF: Black-hat LIV Golf wraps event at Doral on Sunday: LIV Golf, of course, is the renegade alternate pro tour funded by Saudi money that lured a handful of PGA Tour stars and mostly little known soul-sellers and helped fracture professional golf. Its players are turncoats whose legacies are forever stained. Their money is dirty. Doral’s Blue Monster demeans itself. I don’t care who wins.
Special mention: Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead retired Saturday at age 33, ending a 12-year NFL career, the last three in Miami with two Pro Bowls. I’d call him not certain but a possible-to-likely Hall of Famer.
THE LIST: NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY: The championship history of the last schools standing in the men’s and women’s NCAA championship games:
MEN: School / Final Fours / Championships
Florida / 6 / 2, last in 2007
Houston / 7 / None
WOMEN: School / Final Fours / Championships
UConn / 24 / 11, last in 2016
South Carolina / 7 / 3, last in 2024
Other most recent stuff from me: Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders will own NFL Draft. But are they franchise QBs? There are doubts // NCAAs crescendo with exciting Final Fours, but college basketball is broken. Let’s fix it // To owner Bruce Sherman of low-hope Marlins: Spend more on payroll, or sell team // After Miami Heat’s lost season, urgency this summer will be Riley’s epitaph to write // Dolphins’ 18-month decline, quiet offseason heap pressure on Tua, coach, GM in ‘25 // Unraveling NFL free agency mysteries: Aaron Rodgers’ next team ... and Zach Wilson to Dolphins!? // New Hurricanes coach Jai Lucas’ job: Make Miami college hoops matter like never before // Previous HB10 // Poll Dance: Ovechkin-Gretzky // A tribute to Miami sports legend Jimmy Johnson as he retires from Fox TV // Must-win MLS season for Messi, Inter Miami a tough climb, as opening 2-2 home draw shows // 15 years later, Dolphins Cancer Challenge is the life-saving legacy of Jim Mandich // Rivalry! Politics! Power shift? NHL is ice on fire with U.S.-Canada in 4 Nations final // Young, low-budget Marlins open spring as biggest underdogs in Miami sports history // What Eagles win tells teams like Dolphins, plus Super Bowl winners & losers // Unprofessional Jimmy Butler quit on Heat, ruined his legacy in Miami // Our Top 10 biggest Miami/South Florida sports stories of 2024 // And my latest podcast:
