The Week That Was | NFL & College Football Recap & Predictions | NBA Outlook | Remembering Paul Tagliabue, Michael Ray Richardson & Lenny Wilkens

The College Football Season is coming down the stretch with only 3 weeks left in the season for most of the teams in college football this year. There were 2 major upsets in the ACC where unranked Wake Forest went on the road against #14 Virginia and won by score of 16-9. Virginia was a red hot team winning 7 in a row with an 8-1 record looking like the top of in the ACC Conference but this loss at home it is not the case.

Unranked California went on the road against #15 Louisville and won in overtime by score of 29-26. Louisville Cardinals looked on the surface as a clear cut favorite to possibly represent the ACC but it is wide open in the conference where the talent is so spread out any team can win this ACC see what happens down the line. Meanwhile Quarterback Fernando Mendoza of Indiana had a Heisman moment leading the offense to a game winning touchdown drive by throwing a touchdown pass to Wide Receiver Omar Cooper Jr who able to keep himself in the end zone with his exquisite footwork which resulted in a 27-24 win for #2 Indiana.

Moving forward there are big games this week keep eyes on Friday's matchup between Clemson and Louisville. Then Saturday there are a plethora of great games to seek your teeth into like Notre Dame vs Pittsburgh/Oklahoma vs Alabama/Iowa vs USC/Utah vs Baylor/Texas vs Georgia/TCU vs BYU.

Pittsburgh over Notre Dame 

Alabama over Oklahoma 

USC over Iowa

Baylor over Utah 

Georgia over Texas 

TCU over BYU 

NFL Outlook:

The NFL games last week was interesting how about those New England Patriots who won a big game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning by score of 28-23. Quarterback Drake Maye of New England Patriots is playing well including the running game of Treyveyon Henderson who ran for a 69-yard touchdown. The Patriots are solid on the defensive end and can possibly win the division. Who would have predicted that especially with Buffalo Bills losing to the lowly Miami Dolphins by score of 30-13.

The Patriots are now 8-2 and the Bills are currently 6-3. Keep eyes on this division race in the AFC. Moving forward there are big games this week in the NFL 

keep eyes on matchups like Lions/Eagles,Bills/Buccaneers,Chargers/

Jaguars/,Seahawks/Rams,Broncos/Chiefs.

Lions over Eagles 

Bills over Buccaneers 

Chargers over Jaguars 

Rams over Seahawks 

Chiefs over Broncos

NBA Outlook:

The NBA Season is in full swing so far in November and what stands out is the Oklahoma City Thunder are not resting on their laurels. The Thunder are now 12-1. The Thunder recently beat the red hot Los Angeles Lakers by score of 121-92. Shai Gilgeous Alexander had 30 points and 9 assists. In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons are atop the conference with a 10-2 and currently on a 8-game winning streak after beating the Chicago Bulls by score of 124-113. The catalyst was Paul Reed who had 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

This week was a plethora of passings in the sports world starting in the NFL where former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue passed away at the age of 84. Tagliabue was a great NFL Commissioner that brought forth labor peace during his tenure replacing and feeling the shoes of a Pete Rozelle who preceded him. 

From 1989 to 2006, Tagliabue held down the fort who also was a native of Jersey City, New Jersey where he was born in 1940. He was also a lawyer for the NFL. There were 4 new franchises that were added to the NFL under Tagliabue. He moved Super Bowl 27 to California due to the state of Arizona not recognizing Martin Luther King as a state holiday. He took a hard stance against it. In 1989 Tagliabue established the World League of American Football. He finally got his due being inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

In the NBA world two gentleman passed away Michael Ray Richardson who was 70 years old when he passed away this week was heralded the next Walt Frazier when he was drafted by the Knicks in 1978 out of the University of Montana as the 4th overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft.

Despite showing flashes of brilliance in the NBA what sidetracked him to being a greater NBA player was the substance abuse that he dealt in his basketball career. On February 25th 1986, NBA Commissioner David Stern banned Richardson for life due to testing positive for cocaine use for the third time leaving behind what could have been. Richardson in 2024 was able to share and tell his story by writing a memoir called Banned.

Finally Lenny Wilkens passed away this week at age 88 spanning a plethora of decades in the NBA from being a great NBA player to a great NBA head coach but underrated and unheralded maybe because he played in the shadows of Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. He even finished runner up in the MVP race behind Wilt Chamberlain in 1968. He was one of 5 people to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and head coach alongside Bill Russell, John Wooden, Bill Sharman and Tommy Heinsohn.

He played for the St Louis Hawks from 1960-1968 this was his longest tenure of his playing career in the NBA. On the coaching aspect, he was great as well winning and turning the Seattle Supersonics into a NBA championship team in 1979. He turned around the Cleveland Cavaliers to a perennial NBA title contender during the late 80s and early 90s but could get past Michael Jordan and the Bulls dynasty of the 90s which they would win 6 titles in a 8-year span.

Wilkens won 1,322 games as a NBA head coach. During the 1994-1995 NBA season while he was an Atlanta Hawks head coach, he set a record for the most wins by an NBA head coach in the regular season on January 6th 1995 surpassing Red Auerbach for 939th win as a head coach.