{"id":2380,"date":"2021-03-18T18:55:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2021-03-18T18:56:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T18:56:00","slug":"sports-wrap-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Wrap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>By William Hathaway, Jr.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four play-in games, a total of 64 teams will take to two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium and Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the first time in 30 years, Rutgers will be in the tournament, where the at-large scarlet Knights will take on Clemson in the Midwest Region. Also, head coach Rick Pitino will lead #15 Iona against #2 Alabama in the East Region, while Knicks legend Patrick Ewing leads the Big East Conference Tournament Champion Georgetown Hoyas against UNC Greensboro who is 21-8 on the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, the big story of the big dance is if #1 overall ranked Gonzaga. who is 26-0, can run the table and become the first undefeated National Champion since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers. Ironically enough, Rutgers made its only Final Four that season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While RU and Iona are two local squads doing their part to represent the local area, Seton Hall and St. John\u2019s missed out on the festivities. Also, in the biggest surprise of this year\u2019s tournament, there is no Duke or Kentucky participating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joining Gonzaga in the top seed bracket are Illinois, Baylor and Michigan. Meanwhile, the women\u2019s tournament top seeds are Connecticut, Stanford, South Carolina, and NC State. As with the men\u2019s team, the Rutgers ladies are also in the hunt for the National Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, due to COVID-19, there are \u201cstand by\u201d teams that could end up playing should there be a team unable to compete due to the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By William Hathaway, Jr. The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four play-in games, a total of 64 teams will take to two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium and Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. For the first time in 30 years, Rutgers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sports Wrap -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sports Wrap -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dhiren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dhiren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dhiren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447\"},\"headline\":\"Sports Wrap\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\"},\"wordCount\":269,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"SPORTS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\",\"name\":\"Sports Wrap -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447\"},\"description\":\"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Wrap\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"A Household Name Since 2000\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447\",\"name\":\"Dhiren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dhiren\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/author\/dhiren\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sports Wrap -","description":"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sports Wrap -","og_description":"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...","og_url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/","article_published_time":"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dhiren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dhiren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/"},"author":{"name":"Dhiren","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447"},"headline":"Sports Wrap","datePublished":"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/"},"wordCount":269,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","articleSection":["SPORTS"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/","url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/","name":"Sports Wrap -","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-18T18:55:35+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-18T18:56:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447"},"description":"The NCAA Tournament is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak cancelled last year\u2019s March Madness. After four...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","width":1200,"height":1600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/18\/sports-wrap-29\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Wrap"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/","name":"","description":"A Household Name Since 2000","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f69131e831675efd4ba4b98f969b1447","name":"Dhiren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02ccf560a84ce57bf8c0a8aab93f554ef5dacb18a99fa1dba61de74b6cbf1c9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dhiren"},"url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/author\/dhiren\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/William-Hathaway-Jr.-Photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions\/2381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localtalkweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}