It was almost too perfect of a finish for such a storied rivalry, as tonight’s Duke-North Carolina game ended on a buzzer-beater, after a strange and wild 15-second sequence.

Carolina carried a double-digit lead into the second half, in what seemed like a game they were most likely on their way toward wrapping up. Then, in the final few minutes, Duke stormed back, cutting the game to three points. This is where the drama began, and where Carolina big man Tyler Zeller probably began to wish he had just stayed home and not suited up tonight.

With Duke down by three points and less than 15 seconds to go, Zeller tipped a 3-pointer into his own basket. The officials discussed the call and eventually gave Duke two points, not three. Down by one, they then fouled Zeller to stop the clock, putting him on the free-throw line. He made the first one, but missed the second, which then lead to this Austin Rivers moment…

Yes, that was an incredible finish. Especially for Rivers, who had a game-high 29 points, with six threes. Not so much for Zeller, though.

Video via CJ Fogler

Tonight at the Chicago Bulls-New Orleans Hornets game, Will Ferrell had the pleasure of announcing the starting lineups for both teams prior to the start of the game. As you would imagine, he didn’t hold back, tipping us all off to some little-known “facts” about each player.

My favorite probably had to be the one about Carlos Boozer, who apparently still lives with his mother. Go figure. The Derrick Rose fun fact was pretty good too. Take a look at the Bulls starting lineup, as they get the visitors treatment from Mr. Farrell. (Note: the video is four minutes long, but you only need to watch the first minute):

Next up was the home team, New Orleans, who interestingly enough have good taste in music but poor taste in food. Thankfully, the quality of this video is much better than the quality of basketball played by the Hornets tonight, who scored just 67 points in a losing effort. Watch:

[video via Entertainment Weekly]

Try as you might, it’s hard not to be impressed by him, especially since the’s helped lead the Knicks to their third straight win. He posted 23 points and 10 assists, picking up his first career double-double and topping the 20-point mark for the third straight game. Yes, there’s plenty of hype surrounding Lin right now — excuse me, I believe it’s called “Linsanity” — but you can’t argue with his success. Check out his cross on Wall:

[via The Big Lead, photo via Frank Isola]

Might this be the best defensive play of the season? Or, is it possible that Milwaukee Bucks’ big man Drew Gooden has something else going on? Yup, it appears as if he’s afraid of the basketball. Surely the ball don’t lie, but as far as I know it don’t bite either. Then again, this is Milwaukee, home of the “beast.” It’s possible that there’s something we don’t quite know about basketball in the the great state that once ruined Todd Day’s draft day. [SB Nation, via Reddit]

The winning bid for Reyes’ hair went for $10,200, as some 50 people placed bids in a span of five days. According to the auction description, Reyes hadn’t cut his hair since 2007. And, thankfully, after inking a $106 million contract, he handed off the $10k to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in South Florida, as opposed to pocketing what would essentially amount to pocket change for him.

The unfortunate news is that the winning bidder will remain “anonymous.” So, keep an eye out for some dude with a monocle hanging framed dreads in his foyer.

Either this is some Andy-Kaufman-level performance art, or in late January, a video uploaded to Youtube of a bunch of guys running around a field with a giant novelty soccer ball and shooting each other with tasers is the genuine article. There’s certainly a detailed enough set of rules to make it seem real. Oh, and also their uniforms have blinking lights, apparently. They say not to try it at home (obviously). Another place you shouldn’t try it: anywhere, ever. [Reddit/The Big Lead]

Even Coach K couldn’t have known quite how true those best wishes would become. Of course, even without Jordan, things turned out okay for his program, too. (Yes, this made the rounds a while back, but we just saw it today and couldn’t resist.)

[h/t Andrew Sharp via Russ Bengtson]

We’re just one week removed from national signing day for high school prospects, and you know what that means: time to start looking forward to next year’s signing day! Today, to help you do just that, Rivals released its initial list of the top 100 players in the high school class of 2013. As we were looking over this list, though, something jumped out at us even more than these players’ talents: their names. True, recruiting always provides for some good fodder in this area, but these seemed even better than usual. With that in mind, our 10 favorites from the list. Photos from Rivals unless otherwise noted:

With a last name like “Tenpenny,” he should really be wearing a monocle and top hat everywhere he goes. Including the football field. (He would wear the top hat on top of his helmet.)

Other names just sound cool. This is one of those names. Can’t you just picture him smoothly running around the field like a deer, leaving defenders tripping over themselves in his wake?

Wordplay potential: endless. Which position do you think he will likely end up playing? Which school will he likely choose? Will you likely punch me in the face if I do any more of these? (Yes.)

Apologies, Vernon. Rivals seems to have misplaced you. The lacrosse all-name team is here. (Photo via)

The name says “Laremy Tunsil.” We keep seeing “Laramie Tonsil,” which would be Wyoming’s finest oral surgery practice, or something.

Another one that just sounds smooth, but would be improved exponentially if he wound up at Missouri. Why? He’d then be Mizzou’s Mizzell. Make it happen, Gary Pinkel.

Heh-heh. Butt.

A mouthful for any announcer who has to say that name – he has the rare combo of “initials first name” and “Jr.” affixed on the end. Add “Levenberry’ in the middle and there’s really a lot going on here.

This, we assume, is his favorite website.

This one’s nothing short of sublime. He’s a defensive end! Dee Liner is literally a d-liner! There hasn’t been a name this fitting since Dustin Lineback. And just think – this list was only from the top 100 players in the country. Factor in the eventual classes of all FBS teams, and this could be the best name year yet. (We can dream.)

Above photo via Shutterstock, by Aspen Photo

But. And there is a “but”: if Bird could play with any player in the NBA right now, it would be the psychotically competitive Kobe Bryant, since one would assume a Bird-Bryant pairing would lead to more championships than a Bird-Bron pairing (both “Bird-Bryant” and “Bird-Bron” would be fun to say, though). Bird also acknowledges that he’d have to sit Bryant down at some point during their run and tell him not to shoot as much.

And yes, “Larry Bird Telling Kobe Bryant Not To Hog The Ball” is a top-flight hypothetical conversation, one that I assume would contain lots of stare-downs. A clip of Bird’s conversation with Simmons is here:

You’ve been hearing a lot about supermodel/Tom Brady’s wife Gisele Bundchen these last few days. There was that email she sent urging her friends and family to send positive vibes Brady’s way. There were those photos of her consoling Brady after the crushing defeat. And, infamously, there was that video of her (literally) cursing her huband’s receivers’ subpar performance. (Not to mention what the New York Post had to say about it afterward.) It’s awfully tough to get away from Gisele…and Giants running back Brandon Jacobs is tired of it. Tired enough that he said this:

“She just needs to continue to stay cute and shut up.”

And it wasn’t long before Jacobs started getting verbally decapitated for that remark. People said things like this and this and this and this and this and this. And of course, Jacobs had it coming for saying that: you don’t say something that condescending and not get called out on it.

Rick Chandler of Off the Bench, though, noted that Jacobs isn’t the only one who’s about had his fill of Gisele (though others are being a little more diplomatic about it). Jacobs’ teammate Osi Umenyiora, for example, said that “she’s supposed to stay out of things like that,” while also noting that weighing in on football matters is her “right.”

We have to say: Gisele deserves a break here. It’s not like she went in front of a bunch of microphones and TV cameras and blamed the receivers with the explicit intent of everyone hearing about it. She made a comment and it happened to get picked up. Plus, of others have pointed out, she wasn’t entirely wrong. Brady’s throws – in particular, the now-infamous toss to Wes Welker that could have all but sealed the deal – weren’t always on the mark, but Welker knew after the game he should have had it anyway. Gisele wasn’t saying anything a lot of other people weren’t thinking. Why so much hate, people?!

Photo via

Ah, the New York Giants victory parade. A time to revel in a shared feeling of victory among fellow fans. A time to take the kids out of school so they can enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A time — BRO, ARE THOSE GIRLS GONNA FIGHT?

[Guyism]

You’re a Patriots fan. It’s February 5th, 2012, at 11 p.m., and you’ve just watched your team lose to the New York Giants for the second time in five years. You’ve just seen Tom Brady’s last-second hail mary attempt land harmlessly in the endzone, and that team from New York celebrate on a field covered in confetti — again. The guests at your Super Bowl party have all filtered out of your home, but you’re still sitting there in a haze of post-game disappointment. What do you do?

You look at porn. Lots and lots of porn.

According to a press release from Pornhub, there was a marked spike in web traffic from Massachusetts to porn sites following the Patriots’ Super Bowl 46 loss to the Giants. Via SI.com’s Jimmy Traina:

According to the statisticians from PornHub, right after the heartbreaking New England loss, Massachusetts natives flocked to the site, with a 22% spike at 11PM (EST) and a 33% spike at 12AM (EST), while New York went only up 16% and 32%, respectively.

That 32% spike for New York in the 12AM hour is telling. It means they waited a little longer than New Englanders to go for the porn, but they eventually ended up there, too. Which kind of brings new gravity to the whole “Are those sad tissues or happy tissues?” question.

[Hot Clicks]

This has been around for a couple months now, but it just came to our attention this morning, from The Score. This young man’s effort: admirable. The result: less so. Of course, for a second we were worried the failure was going involve this guy hitting himself with the hammer, so…it wasn’t that bad, we guess.

If we were Kendrick Perkins, we’d probably be tired of hearing all about Blake Griffin’s huge dunk over us. So it comes as no surprise to us to hear, via Yahoo’s Marc J. Spears, that Perkins indeed wasn’t a fan of some of the hyperventilating excitement that followed the play. And somehow it surprises us even less to hear who, exactly, Perkins had a problem with: LeBron James. Of course he did.

“You don’t see Kobe [Bryant] tweeting,” Perkins said. “You don’t see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you’re an elite player, plays like that don’t excite you. At the end of the day, the guys who are playing for the right reasons who are trying to win championships are not worrying about one play.

“They also are not tweeting about themselves talking about going down to No. 2. I just feel [James] is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him.”

Yes, we just said we understand Perkins being tired of all the excitement about him being dunked on…but we do have to disagree about the “elite player” stuff. LeBron, whatever else you might think of him, is an elite player. Well, actually, more than that – he’s the best player. And you can still get excited over one play and still want to win it all. Remember Dirk Nowitzki going crazy over that one play last season? Things turned out pretty well for the Mavs.

As for Kobe not tweeting? Yeah, he’s probably too tunnel-visioned for that stuff. (The Jordan one doesn’t work quite as well since back when he was a player, he didn’t exactly have the option to tweet.) And as far as LeBron desperately wanting attention/to be liked: duh.

Give Perkins credit for this, though: he didn’t back down, and says that, put in the same situation again, he’d do the same thing:

“A lot of people are afraid of humiliation or don’t know how to handle embarrassment or would even get embarrassed. I don’t care…That’s my job. How will my teammates look at me if next time I just back out the way and just let him dunk when I’m supposed to be defensive-minded, a shot-blocker?”

Good for him. Not changing his game for anybody, which we imagine the Thunder are happy about. One question, though: he says he won’t get embarrassed. Will he get sad?

[Photos via John Korpics for ESPN, Reddit]

David Lee became the first Warriors power forward to have a triple-double since Chris Webber in 1993, but how he got that final assist is definitely worth a second look.

Monta Ellis was in the midst of a career high 48 points, also tying the NBA high for this season, when this 2 man play between Lee and Ellis gave Lee the assist needed to get him his triple-double. Ellis makes the play with his finish, but the pass from Lee was perfect – hitting Ellis in stride and just over the outstretched arm of the defender.

If you’re looking for a new way to show just how big of a hater you are, why not try your hand at the newest fad to sweep the nation, known simply as “Bradying.” Thanks to a photo depicting a defeated Tom Brady from this weekend’s Super Bowl, we are now able to put a name the lazy act once commonly known as “sleep sitting.” Now, you’ll never have to explain yourself when you fall asleep while sitting on the ground at the airport waiting for your flight. “What, me sleeping? No, I was Bradying.” Awesome. Now if only we can get a bunch of Playboy Playmates to “Brady.” [Bradying]

Along with the playbook, Rowell found a pair of size-16 cleats belonging to lineman Kris Jenkins, a nameplate that also belonged to Jenkins and a Pro Bowl playbook with the name, yup, you guessed it, Kris Jenkins displayed on the front. Hmm, I wonder who might have gotten rid of his playbook?

Another bit found in the trash bag were some sensitive financial documents belonging to some of the team’s star players. I mean, really, these things were just sitting in someone’s house and this person was pretty much getting ready to trash them. Wow.

Rowell did the honorable thing, about a week after he found this lot of Panthers swag, and returned the playbook and documents to the team. You have to imagine he could have made some nice coin selling either, but I suppose he did the right thing. He did, however, hold onto Jenkins’ cleats. Yeah, those will come in handy… never.

[WCNC.com, via @CardboardGerald]

New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, a now two-time Super Bowl champion, helped to commemorate Sunday’s victory over the New England Patriots by giving each of his teammates a personalized gift.

Opting for a more classy celebratory offering, Tuck bought personalized bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch. Each bottle is engraved with the player’s name on it and the words “Super Bowl XLVI Champions.” How about that. Check out the Jason Pierre-Paul bottle:

In honor of what some are calling one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history, Tuck gave Giants wideout Mario Manningham a bottle with the words “The Catch” engraved on it. Tuck said that he wanted to do something special for his teammates as a way to thank them for the hard work and effort they put into becoming, now, for many of them, two-time champions.

I’m no expert gift giver, but you have to figure this one is much cooler than the special offering some smug Pawn Shop owners left for Wes Welker in Boston this morning.

The internet – especially given the immediacy of tools like Twitter – is really, really good at making fun of things, and quickly. For better or worse, a whole lot of things get made fun of on a constant basis – enough so that when you see snark being slung, it hardly registers. But sometimes something comes along that stands out. Sometimes a development emerges and you think, “Wow, that’s going to get hammered.” Earlier today, we had just such a development: the widespread discovery of a CBS Sports fantasy baseball app called Baseball Boyfriend.

If you click that link, look at the page, and say, “That can’t be real,” you’d be forgiven…and we doubt you’d be alone. The weirdly large text. The spare design. The abbreviation “BBBF.” The name “Baseball Boyfriend.” But when reading that link, you can click through to here. This is the real deal, people…and it can be yours for just $2.99. Why is its existence so odd? Let’s start with the description on CBS’ apps page:

Baseball Boyfriend is a single draftee fantasy sports mini game designed for girls. Pick your boyfriend for the season, dump him if he can’t perform and pick up a new BBBF.Boyfriends earn you points daily. Girl with the most points at the end wins.

Well, we’re already in trouble. Any sports entity attempting to specifically cater to women (though there have been many) is a risky proposition – due in large part to the danger of appearing sexist. And when your sports entity catering to women describes itself in terms like, “Once you go through your little black book and pick out your player,” “Choose Your Stud,” “If he stays past noon, he’s your BBBF for the night,” and looks like the image at the top of this post…then people start to wonder whether something like this could even exist.

And once they know it does indeed exist, they’re relentless. That making-fun-of tendency of the internet we talked about before came out in full force. There were women appalled by the apparent sexism. There were men appalled by the apparent sexism. There were those who took advantage of the joke opportunities provided by today also being the day that Prop 8 got overturned. Still others just devoted their entire Twitter feeds to making fun of it.

And it’s not tough to see why. In fairness, Baseball Boyfriend’s description does say this:

Baseball Boyfriend doen’t replace your current fantasy baseball experience or simplify it in any way. It’s a side game that you can play at the same time. While you are playing in your normal league, can can have a Baseball Boyfriend off to the side. To play, you’ll need to be a part of a CBSSports fantasy baseball league.

So it’s for people who are already playing, not something someone dreamed up because they thought delicate female minds couldn’t handle the rigors of true fantasy baseball. But still…that design. The “Choose Your Stud.” Oh, and the fact that even though the number of women playing fantasy baseball is significant enough that someone thinks a product marketed specifically to women playing fantasy baseball could sell enough to make money, that apparently they still need their fantasy experience enhanced by something “girly.”

Plus…that name. “Baseball boyfriend.” How can’t you make fun of that?

The best assorted links from across the web (and what you should watch on TV tonight) for Tuesday, February 7th. If you’d like to see something on SportsGrid, send it to tips@sportsgrid.com. Here’s our starting five.

1. THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THERE WILL EVER BE A MORE AWESOME MOMENT IN THIS KID’S LIFE: This is Chris Snee’s son. Chris Snee is married to Tom Coughlin’s daughter. So, not only did dad win a Super Bowl, grandpa did too. Also: confetti angel. There is no possible thing that could be greater for a kid than making a confetti angel on the field after dad and grandpa won a Super Bowl. [Buzzfeed]

2. CALLING ALL ECCENTRIC BILLIONAIRES WITH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOTBALL TEAMS: You can bid on an astroturf field on eBay for the low, low price of $500,000. [eBay]

3. WES WELKER: TORTURED. An online pawn shop is trolling Wes Welker after his costly Super Bowl drop by placing “900 lbs (8,000 bars) worth” of Butterfingers in Boston’s Copley Square with a sign that says “Thanks Wes Welker.” For the record: Welker probably should’ve made the catch, but that wasn’t a good throw from Tom Brady. [ThePostGame]

4. ADRIAN PETERSON: Excited about laser therapy! Because it penetrates deeper! [Twitter]

5. NOT SPORTS RELATED, STILL IMPORTANT. A shark the size of a school bus is terrifying. Can you imagine if this was a man-eating shark the size of a school bus? That would be extremely terrifying. Terror! [Drew Magary]

WHAT’S ON TV: Florida at Kentucky (ESPN, 7 p.m.); Jazz at Pacers (NBATV, 7 p.m.); Thunder at Warriors (NBATV, 10:30 p.m.); Justified (FX, 10 p.m.); Iron Man (FX, 8 p.m.), Major League (MoMAX, 8 p.m.), Tin Cup (GOLF, 8 p.m.).

AND, FINALLY TONIGHT: “Dramatic interpretations of Facebook conversations between middle-schoolers” is fantastic. [Reddit]

Wow. Some might see the most devoted Giants fan they’ve ever seen in their lives. Some might see the dumbest Giants fan they’ve ever seen in their lives. Other might think they’ve found one of the most devoted trolls of their lives. Perhaps all three are true. We also looked at that video and saw a devoted/dumb Giants fan/troll who maybe didn’t expect everyone – or, more to the point, that one guy in particular – to get that pissed. He knows now.

It’s not to excuse the punch to the back of the head while he’s facing the other direction – as much as Salsa Guy was provoking the crowd to get madder and madder, it didn’t get physical until the punch. It still wasn’t cool. But can anyone say they watched that clip and were surprised at what happened? Let Salsa Guy’s successful trolling be a warning: if you troll too successfully, you may never want to troll again.

[h/t Keith]

Jimmy Kimmel is a fan of unimaginably cruel stunts — he once famously asked parents to tell their kids that all of their Halloween candy had been eaten. But this latest concerted effort to get members of the same family to tear each other apart, in which he asks someone to pull the plug or turn off the TV before the deciding play of the Super Bowl, is really pushing the limits of what the average person can put up with. The last play, by the way: Tom Brady’s hail mary pass that ended up landing incomplete. Can you imagine being a Patriots fan — at a party no less — and your friend’s significant other shuts off the TV as that pass is in the air? That is grounds for a divorce on the spot.

Yes, that’s Wizards center JaVale McGee running back on defense… while his team still has the ball. The failed alley-oop puts a nice little bow on things, as well.

[SB Nation]

Steve Weatherford is quickly turning into one of our favorite Giants. We loved him for being that excited (and cursing that clearly) about going to the Super Bowl, and now that he’s actually won it, he’s outdone himself. Every player, we’d imagine, enjoys being part of a victory parade. Few enjoy it to this extent:

We can forgive him for not saying anything especially interesting in that clip. Why? Well, he’s marching along the parade route wearing his helmet and playing a bass drum. What more could you want? We sort of want good things to keep happening to the Giants just to see how Weatherford responds to them. Our suggestion, Steve: if you’re ever lucky enough to be in another one of these parades, take the crash cymbals and violently clang them repeatedly while you run through crowds of people in a haphazard fashion. You’ll get away with it.

[h/t, screencap by Mike Tunison]

NBC went to one of their reporters in the crowd to gauge the fan reaction to the festivities. A young lady, who had another young lady on her shoulders, was asked which players she was excited to see this morning. Her answer? Mark Sanchez, quarterback of the New York Jets.

Right city. Wrong team. Video here:

[World Star, Spade Ltc Vasquez]

This was inevitable. Sure, they’d just gone to the Gisele well, but that only made this one more necessary. Athletes. Supermodels. Both major celebrities. The Super Bowl. Cursing. New York-Boston. New Yor winning over Boston and giving them a chance to make fun of the Boston side of things. This was everything the Post has ever wanted and more. Here’s what we imagine their newsroom looked like as these Gisele stories and photos kept pouring in:

We wouldn’t be totally shocked if Rob Schneider were really there, actually.

[h/t Richard Deitsch, photo via Newseum]

The Giants are your Super Bowl champ-eens, meaning they get a big fat victory parade in New York’s Canyon of Heroes. But what to do if you’re at work? Or away from a TV? Fear not: you can watch the live stream of the Giants’ Super Bowl parade online.

After defeating the Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl 46, the Giants returned home — without Eli Manning, who stopped at Disney World for a parade of his own (he looked like he had quite a time). Eli has rejoined his team for this morning’s parade, which reportedly caused the surrounding PATH trains to be full of grown men painted red and blue.

Video of the live stream can be viewed here:

Also, multiple outlets are carrying the live stream of the parade:

- FOX NY’s live steam

- NBC New York’s live stream

- ABC New York’s live stream

- NY1′s live stream

Maybe, maybe not — we’re not going to judge. Maybe this is just Gronk’s way of letting off some steam. But what most radio show callers in Boston will be talking about today is how nimble Gronkowski (and his sprained ankle) looked on the dance floor, after hobbling around Lucas Oil Stadium in Super Bowl 46.

Gronk’s apparent jubilance stands in stark contrast to Tom Brady’s complete despondency following the Pats’ Super Bowl loss to the Giants. And this, again, is something that people will talk about. Video of him Party Rocking here — it’s a miracle he didn’t decapitate someone on the dance floor in that first video.

[The Nosebleeds]