The Replay: Notre Dame, Paul George, and the NCAA

Every Friday, we post up The Replay, our sports review. It’s mostly fouls and airballs.

» Anybody But Kentucky: Notre Dame advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in 36 years. Now the Irish are the only thing standing in the way of undefeated Kentucky’s waltz to yet another Final Four and a shot at surpassing the accomplishments of the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers (college basketball’s last undefeated team). Ugh. So, here’s how it breaks down: Notre Dame has Touchdown Jesus and a history of upsetting No. 1s/ending win streaks (most notably UCLA’s 88-game run in 1974), while Kentucky is really, really good—and godless. This is basically like the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team against the Soviets—if the Russians’ coach had juice to rep a line of haircare products—and a Notre Dame win would be akin to sweet, beautiful (yet buck-toothed) Megan coming out of nowhere to nab Don Draper in Season 4 of Mad Men.

» To PG, or Not to PG? That’s the question (Will Paul George return this season?) that’s dogged the Pacers over the last week or so. The Star‘s Gregg Doyel shared his thoughts this week, while the rehabbing star was either considering a career switch or playing video games—it wasn’t clear from his Instagram hastag hash.

» Swing and Miss? Governor Mike Pence signed into law a bill LGBT advocates fear will lead to discrimination. The move prompted a harsh response in the court of public opinion, including a surprisingly strong statement from NCAA president Mark Emmert, whose organization is headquartered in Indianapolis: “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees,” he wrote. In the world of sports, they call that a “brushback pitch.”

» Now Read This: Former North Carolina coach Dean Smith, who died last month, left his former players a little surprise.