Greg Cote: FAU (whooot!?) in Final Four, Hurricanes at doorstep, NHL bigotry in new Hot Button Top 10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MARCH 26): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our every-Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature had been blog-only but with our blog recently retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s major, offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. (Or think of it as 10 lil’ mini columns.) Welcome to the 10th edition of the new HB10:

1. NCAA TOURNAMENT: Yo, them Canes play a little hoops at the ‘football school,’ too: Miami’s five national championships on the gridiron between 1983-2001 define the school in athletics, but guess what? The past 20-plus years, basketball -- men and women -- has accomplished more. Now, Sunday, the No. 5-seed UM men are in the NCAA Elite Eight for the second straight year, facing No. 2 Texas. And the No. 9 Canes women are in the E8 for the first time, facing No. 3 LSU. Both Miami teams are underdogs. Nothing new there. Miami began March Madness as one of only four schools with both its men’s and women’s teams in it. Canes are the last with both still standing.

2. NCAA TOURNAMENT 2.0: FAU -- Whooooot? -- in the men’s Elite Eight: Florida Atlantic University (in Boca Raton, an hour north of Miami) is in the Elite Eight after beating K-State Saturday night. The Conference USA school was a No. 9 seed off a 30-3 regular season but is a true Cinderella. This is only FAU’s second NCAA tourney appearance ever, after a quick exit in 2002. So a program that had never won a postseason game until this month is in the Final Four. Insane. Wonderful. So’s this: Nova Southeastern (in Davie, in between Boca and Miami) completed a 36-0 season Saturday with its first Division II national championship.

3. NHL: Y’all are cowards hiding your prejudice behind Christianity shield: Florida Panthers brothers Eric and Marc Staal are just the latest NHL players declining to participate in Pride Night activities and citing religious beliefs to justify their anti-inclusive disdain for the LGBTQ+ community. “We carry no judgment on how people choose to live their lives,” they said in a statement. “Having said that, we feel us wearing a Pride jersey goes against our Christian beliefs.” Two things. One, “choose to live their lives” conveys ignorance. Two, you cannot both claim to carry no judgment against people and then admit prejudice toward them. The Bible can say whatever one wishes it to. I might choose, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34–35.) Quit using God as a shield for your own bigotry.

4. HEAT: Miami loses big one; poised to bed another dubious arena partner: The Heat’s home was FTX Arena until the crypto company went crap-to and filed for bankruptcy. Now Miami is negotiating for the place to be called Kaseya Arena, after a Miami-based software company known for being victimized by a massive ransomware attack in 2021. Whatever happened to name sponsors with names we’ve heard of? On the court, the Heat fell at home Saturday night to the denuded Brooklyn Nets, 129-100, falling from sixth to seventh in the East and putting a dreaded play-in playoff game back in play.

5. ESPN: On layoffs coming at the Worldwide Leader: Disney’s pending 7,000-manpower cut affecting ESPN isn’t out of nowhere, or a surprise. NPR’s recent slashing was brutal. The money men gave up on the Sports Illustrated brand years ago. Unless the cuts involve a franchise face like Stephen A. Smith, the collective we won’t much care. The surprise is when smaller media companies go counter-trend, like Meadowlark recently hiring away Pablo Torre, David Samson and others. Speaking of ESPN, I’m 100 percent with Mina Kimes in her Twitter beef with Jason Whitlock, but only because percentages don’t go any higher. That whole Mila Kunis/Nipgate thing that started it was exhaustingly juvenile of Boston’s WEEI.

6. MOVIES: Air: The Courting Of Free Advertising For Nike: The American sports drama film, “Air: The Courting Of A Legend,” hits theaters April 5. It’s the story of how Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan changed the sneaker business, starring Ben Affleck as Nike founder Phil Knight and Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, the Swoosh employee who recruited Jordan. Movie sounds like a free ad for Nike to us. And a cinematic aggrandizing of the corporate marriage that led to the ongoing obscenity of lotteries for thousand-dollar sneakers.

7. NBA: Why are we acting like Mario Chalmers still matters?: So retired average NBA player Chalmers, who climbed on LeBron James’ back and won two championships in Miami, says, “Nobody fears ‘Bron” now. James is averaging 29.5 points at age 38. former teammate Tristan Thompson reminded Chalmers that ‘Bron is the “best player you’ve ever been on the court with.” Chalmers, never an all-star, spent a career bathing in the shine of others ... notably the G.O..A.T. he’s now dissing in a desperate attempt to not disappear completely..

8. NICK SABAN: A reason to like him. No, seriously: OK, those TV commercials for Aflac almost humanize the man (I said almost,), but Saban earns big plus-points for quickly suspending ‘Bama defensive back Tony Mitchell after his arrest for driving 141 mph to flee police in Florida, with marijuana and a firearm sans permit in the vehicle. Better yet, Saban said, “There’s no such thing [as] being in the wrong place at the wrong time” -- an apparent (and deserved) dig at Alabama hoops coach Nate Oats, who’d used the same phrase to excuse not suspending star player Brandon Miller after he’d been connected to a shooting that killed a woman.

9. COLLEGE WRESTLING: NAIA school learns cost of cruelty: University of Cumberland in Kentucky agreed to pay $14 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a wrestler who died after an on-campus workout. Wrestler Grant Brace, 20, died in August 2020 after he and others on the team were made to repeatedly sprint up a hill as part of a “punishment practice.” Brace later complained of dehydration and died of “exertional heat stroke.”

10. SOCCER: USWNT rightly honored for off-field wins: U.S. Women’s National Team, which won the 2019 World Cup and used its stage and voice to fight for inclusion and equal pay, has been honored as one of 12 national Women of the Year winners in USA Today’s latest annual awards. “Matching their success on the field,” they wrote, “the players won in the legal arena, too, prompting Congress to pass the Equal Pay for Team USA Act.” The 2023 WWC begins July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. Team USA aims for its third straight title and record fifth overall as a narrow betting favorite over England.

Other stuff from me this past week: Canes men, women both in Elite Eight an historic watershed for UM basketball / Sweet: Hurricanes have 2 shots at elusive 1st national championship / WBC crowns Japan, proves Miami will support game. Rest is up to Marlins / Cuba stirred politics in Miami but U.S. was winner on the field / And my latest podcast: