Welcome to November! What’s on deck this month? Football and basketball and hockey, Oh My! Seeing how the NBA kicked off their season last week, let’s start today with this cool (or shall we say, another cool) ad for LeBron James. This time Nike takes us through a pre-game speech called “Together.” Enjoy y’all!

QUIPS FOR THIS WEEK

Baseball

As you likely already know, the San Francisco Giants are your World Series Champions. The Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in captivating fashion in Wednesday’s winner-takes-all Game 7 in Kansas City. So, how did they do it? It’s not that it wasn’t a full team effort, but it came down to the incredible heroics of pitcher Madison Bumgarner. MadBum (as they say) came into the game in the 5th inning and pitched as reliever through the 9th, and you couldn’t take your eyes off him. After he stepped on the mound, the Royals couldn’t get another point on the board. This is not to say the Royals didn’t give it their all, they just happen to come up against a pitcher who will go down as one of the best post-season pitchers of all time.

In other news, it’s not surprising that Madison Bumgarner was the World Series MVP. To put this in perspective, the left-handed 25-year-old from Hickory, NC has put on a show in more than one post-season, including the last two World Series victories for the Giants. Is the best yet come? Other teams better hope not!

Let’s talk history. With this win, the San Francisco Giants have now won their 3rd World Series title in 5 years. That’s dynasty level in baseball, and very very impressive even if it’s not perfect. Congrats to the Giants! Will they repeat next year? They don’t seem to favor the odd years, but time will tell. We miss you already, baseball!

Lastly, in off-season news, the Chicago Cubs have hired Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays to be their new manager. There has been some talk of alleged tampering, but Maddon’s agent denies these claims.

NFL

‘Tis the season for the annual Tom Brady-Peyton Manning match-up of the 2014 football season. This time, we saw Tom Brady lead his New England Patriots over the Denver Broncos 43-21 in the oh so snowy Northeast. Both teams now have 2 losses a piece.

What else happened in Week 9? The Arizona Cardinals (now a sneaky good 7-1) defeated the Dallas Cowboys, who were playing without Tony Romo (who sat out with a back injury) 28-17, the Minnesota Vikings got the victory over RG3 and the Washington Redskins 29-26 while the St. Louis Rams picked up the win 13-10 over the San Francisco 49ers after a last second (actually 2 seconds) fumble by Colin Kaepernick. The Philadelphia Eagles also picked up another win against the Houston Texans 31-21, this time with Mark Sanchez as their QB after Nick Foles left the game with a shoulder injury.  Finally in Sunday night football, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated rival the Baltimore Ravens 43-23 in a game where Ben Roethlisberger had 6 touchdowns.

In off the field news, sources tell ESPN that Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings is in talks to take a plea agreement for a case involving child abuse in Texas. The story is still developing.

Monday Night Football features an intriguing match-up between the New York Giants and the Indianapolis Colts. 8:30pm — Get ready!

College Football

Week 10 was full of big games in college football. In the biggest match-up of the weekend, #4 Auburn (now #3) defeated #7 Ole Miss (now #12) 35-21 in Oxford, MS after a fumble towards the end of the game. The other team in Mississippi, #1 Mississippi State, picked up the win 17-10 against Arkansas after picking off the Razorbacks’ quarterback late in the game. The rest of the teams in the Top 5 also got big wins in Week 10 as #2 Florida State beat #25 Louisville 42-31 on Thursday and #5 Oregon crushed Stanford 45-16 on Saturday.

Outside the Top 5, #24 Duke also got the victory 51-28 over Pittsburgh with a last minute touchdown in double OT.

What do these results mean for this week’s rankings? Auburn moved up and now the new Top 5 features: Mississippi State (still 8-0), Florida State (also still 8-0), Auburn, Alabama and Oregon.

What to watch next week? #4 Alabama at #19 LSU and #16 Ohio State at #8 Michigan State should be pretty great games next Saturday. Stay tuned!

NBA

Yay, the NBA is back! This makes some of us at the Team SQ headquarters very happy. And it’s been an interesting start to the season to say the least. What do we mean? See below:

Injuries: After an electrifying performance in their season opener, Russell Westbrook broke his hand in the second game of the year against the LA Clippers. This means the Oklahoma City Thunder will be without Westbrook and Kevin Durant for at least 4 weeks. Derrick Rose injured his ankle in last week’s overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (who bounced back after losing their hyped home opener to the New York Knicks) and sat out against as his Chicago Bulls beat the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night 106-105. The injury is not serious, but he is taking precautions and will play again soon.

Signings: Ricky Rubio signed a 4 year $56 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves while the Golden State Warriors signed Klay Thompson to a contract extension rumored to be around $70 million over 4 years. Oh, and the Cleveland Cavaliers signed longtime vet Anderson Varejao to a new deal, too.

Standout performances: Do you like to dance? We prefer to boogie. Speaking of, Boogie Cousins put on a show with 34 points and 17 rebounds as the Sacramento Kings gave the LA Clippers their first loss of the year on Sunday night 98-92. Also, Carmelo Anthony scored his 20,000 point in a 96-93 New York Knicks win over the Charlotte Hornets. Oh and earlier last week, Anthony Davis had 26 points, 17 rebounds and 9 blocks for the New Orleans Pelicans (we like to call them the Pellies) in a win (101-84) over the Orlando Magic. He’s 21, y’all. Also this is not a game time performance, but this unreal shot by Steph Curry shows why he remains awesome.

College Basketball

Never fear, college basketball is almost here! Teams will be playing exhibition games this week and the season officially kicks off in mid-November. The first pre-season AP poll was released on Halloween with the following in the Top 10: Kentucky, Arizona, Wisconsin, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Florida, Louisville, Virginia, and Texas. Can the season start already???

The preseason women’s basketball rankings features: UConn (not surprising, last season’s champs are good again), South Carolina, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Texas A&M in the Top 5 AP rankings.

In off the court news, after a scary car accident involving Indiana sophomore Devin Davis and freshman Emmitt Holt, Indiana reports that Davis is doing much better and his condition was improving as of Sunday evening.

Other

Congrats to all of those who competed in the New York City Marathon! Including tennis player Caroline Wozniacki who celebrated finishing the race with her friend and fellow tennis star, Serena Williams.  And a special congrats to the amazing winners of the race, Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany, both of Kenya!

Jimmie Johnson got the win in Texas at the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship on Sunday. Oh yeah, and there was a brawl.

Finally, in all things EPL, Manchester City defeated Manchester United 1-0 after a goal by Sergio Aguero.

 

JUST FOR FUN

Are you afraid of dinosaurs?
The Phoenix Suns’ Halloween prank involved a baby T-Rex that was almost as tall as the players

 

STORIES FOR INSIGHTS, COOL FACTOR + DEBATE

 

Lauren Hill
She scored four points playing for Mount St. Joseph in her first college basketball game
The most inspirational part of the story? She has inoperable brain cancer

One-and-done
Getting used to losing great players after one season
What will Duke’s freshman class of players bring to the court?

It hurts
Losing by one run… it’s heartbreaking
The outcome of the KC Royals’ run for the World Series

The Bumgarner half of the story
Madison Bumgarner, the best post-season pitcher
The star of the San Francisco Giants accepted the World Series MVP award, and his family is so proud

Moves like Jagger
The unique ways basketball players express themselves on the court
Check ‘em out – some of these moves are beautiful (and others are sort of silly)