STARTING FIVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Frozen

The weekend’s box office No. 1, as most of America girded itself for the chilliest temperatures in years, was Disney’s “Frozen” ($20.7 million). Meanwhile, both NFC wildcard games were played in sub-freezing temperatures and decided in identical fashion: the visiting team’s kicker nailed the game-winning field goal as time expired. Never easy to do, but even more difficult when the mercury reads below 20 degrees.

Oddly enough, neither home team, Philadelphia nor Green Bay, called a timeout at the end to freeze the kicker (New Orleans’ Shayne Graham or San Francisco’s Phil Dawson.)

2. Yacht C.K.

Jerry Seinfeld and Louis C.K. go out for what appears to be a three-hour cruise on the latter’s vessel, right past the home offices of Medium Happy, and refrain from making a single Gilligan’s Island (or Love Boat) joke. Odd. It’s the season premiere of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.

The Acura MDX ads (narrated by Seinfeld) that bookend the episode are worth your price of admission (“I thought they said noon”)…which, is of course, free.

Two more observations: 1) I expected Seinfeld to play up more the fact that his guest writes, produces and stars in his own eponymous sitcom based on his life in Manhattan. Where’d he get that idea? 2) Am I wrong or is the boat that is shown in the Daily News article different than the one in which Louis C.K. and Jerry are sailing? What’s up with that?

3. A-L-_-_-_-_-A

A terrific trivia question, courtesy of Mike & Mike this morning. What state or province (<—hint) has won four championships in four consecutive years? The answers, of course, are the state of Alabama (Tide, Tigers, Tide, Tide, 2009-2012) and the province of Alberta (Oilers, Oilers, Flames, Oilers, 1987-1990). If the Tigers win tonight, Alabama would become the first state since New York (Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, 1949-56) to win at least five consecutive championships.

Key quote to remember for tonight’s game:  “I’m going to have say, ‘Guys, where in the rulebook still says we can’t blow out every team that we play?’ In the championship games, Alabama blew out Notre Dame last year.”

That’s Florida State QB Jameis Winston….who’s fantastic. But the only adversity he has faced this season is off the field. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if this contest is close in the fourth quarter.

4. 137?

The Denver Nuggets score 44 fourth-quarter points against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center last night in a 137-115 victory in what had to be Paul Westhead Appreciation Night. Denver had five players score between 17 and 21 points and shot 12 of 29 from beyond the arc, while the Swaggy P’s shot 3 for 21 from outside the circle.

The Lakers will be without Kobe Bryant at least all month while the Clippers, who found themselves trailing San Antonio at halftime on Saturday night 70-35, will be without Chris Paul for at least six weeks. I’ll be sending my friend Arash Markazi a “Hang In There’ kitty poster later today.

5. Austin Strong

Texas names Louisville coach Charlie Strong as its successor to Mack Brown. Apparently, the Longhorns feel that adjectives (Royal, Brown and now Strong) make the best football coaches.

A columnist at the Fort Worth-Star Telegram, Gil Lebreton, opines, “It’s as if the Longhorn Network fired Leno and hired Arsenio.”

Then, later in the piece, Lebreton cautions us that “Comparisons with Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin unfortunately may be unavoidable. But please don’t go there — a coach is a coach.”

Oh, okay. We wouldn’t want to race-bait.

FWIW, Mack Brown was 35-12 in his last four seasons at North Carolina before accepting the Texas job. Strong was 37-15 in his four seasons at Louisville, before accepting the Texas job.

Also, Strong becomes the first African-American head coach of a Texas men’s program, though I did not hear Michael Wilbon bullying the university about its dearth of black head coaches all week.

Reserves

The holidays are over. Now, as Tom Hanks put it so well, bring on the “celebrity mule train.”

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Stephon Tuitt has declared for the NFL draft. The first round could see anywhere from one to three members of Notre Dame’s 2011 defensive line (Tuitt, Louis Nix and Aaron Lynch) selected.

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So, “midget” is not a derogatory term, particularly when it is the name of a football play.

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The Colts, who rebounded from being down 38-10 early in the third quarter to winning 45-44 (and you kind of sensed it would happen the entire time) are downright bi-polar. Victories over Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and Kansas City (four of the league’s top six teams, at least) during the season and blowout losses to St. Louis and Arizona. Also, the Andrew Luck Club trailed Houston, the league’s worst team, 21-3 at halftime but recovered to win.

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Pilot Error

Maybe it would have been easier on this dude if he had just crashed.

The Bank

Balance: $910

Friday: Took Clemson plus 3.5 points, for $20, in the Orange Bowl. Won.

Tonight: Four BCS bowls down, four underdogs have won outright. I don’t know if Auburn and Gus Malzahn can pull off the sweep, but I like the Tigers to cover at plus 9.5. Let’s put $40 on War Eagle and take the 9 1/2 points.

Remote Patrol

BCS National Championship Game

No. 2 Auburn vs No. 1 Florida State

ABC 8:30 p.m.

You are by no means perfect, BCS, but I will miss you. And I know that you are better than what lies ahead. Here’s the always entertaining Jason Gay with his thoughts on the subject.