Apr 13, 2025; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Rory McIlroy falls to his knees in celebration after winning a playoff on the no. 18 green during the final round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
History was made over the weekend in more sports than one.
I try to lead off with Iowa State stuff, but we’re light this week as is typical for this time of year, so hang with me.
Let’s muse.
Nico Iamaleava set the NIL world on fire
The now-former Tennessee quarterback and his camp tried to pull more money out of the program’s collective after seeing the basketball portal prices blow up in one of the crazier over-the-table stories we’ve seen with NIL.
Iamaleava was making $2.4 million per year and was participating in spring practices, until a report surfaced from On3’s Pete Nakos stating that the quarterback and Tennessee were in negotiations.
Nic Iamaleava – Nico’s father – claimed that the report wasn’t accurate.
More games being played off the field than on the field. Bi7ch Nakos from @On3sports called and asked me directly, I told him I had no idea on what he’s talking about. He said his “close source” that he trusts with his life from the University of Tennessee staff gave him this
— Coach_Nic (@Nic_Iamaleava) April 11, 2025
One day later, Iamaleava sat out of the team’s final spring practice before its annual spring game, because of the contract negotiations his father – or camp – claimed were not going on. All of those negotiations, by the way, to squeeze another $1 million out of Tennessee’s collective.
A day later, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said that they cut ties with the quarterback it built its team around.
The NIL situations without guardrails in place have predictably turned things upside down in certain spots, with the most eyes being on this one.
And this isn’t even the craziest story.
Josh Pate reports here that Iamaleava was nearly held out from a playoff game because of contract renegotiation. And not only that, but there were negotiations going on elsewhere with others in the playoff.
“This stuff was happening last December during the playoffs — with this kid included, but not just this kid,” Pate said. “They were trying to get more money from Tennessee and other playoff teams before the playoffs. They were trying to leverage playoff participation.”
“The explainer was, ‘Our client is being paid X amount of money to participate in 12 games, maybe a 13th if you make the conference championship game ,” Pate said. “But you guys made the playoff. He should make money money.’ This is the kind of BS that’s happening behind the scenes right now.”
The guardrails can’t come soon enough in the ‘truly unprecedented times’ that we’ve been in for five years now.
Iowa State Softball is in the midst of a historic year
I have been a fan of coach Jamie Pinkerton since he got the job to lead the Cyclones’ softball program, which had been just straight up bad in the years I’ve been around.
Until 2019, Iowa State had only won more than six Big 12 games in a season once. In 2021, his team led by All-American Sami Williams qualified for the NCAA Tournament, which doubled the program’s all-time number of appearances in the postseason event.
It seems like everything is coming together for this group now, though.
After it got out to a phenomenal start in Big 12 play, the Cyclones went down to Stillwater this weekend to take on No. 17 Oklahoma State.
Behind the hot arm of sophomore pitcher Lauren Schurman, and a hotter bat in junior Sydney Malott – who had four home runs on the weekend – the Cyclones took two out of three and earned the program’s first road-series win against a top 25 team ever.
T2 | We’ll have what she’s having, please 😳
Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR homers for @malott_sydney this weekend‼️
🌪️🥎🌪️ pic.twitter.com/not1Z9h9Jm
— Iowa State Softball (@CycloneSB) April 13, 2025
With nine Big 12 wins already, Iowa State’s in a great spot – sitting in fourth in the standings with three series to go against conference opponents.
Oh, and each of those series will come against teams with Big 12 records below .500 in Kansas (home), Utah (road) and Baylor (home).
Big 12 Softball Standings
Mon. April 14
1. Texas Tech, 34-9 (14-1)
2. Arizona, 36-7 (13-5)
3. Arizona State, 31-14 (11-7)
4. Iowa State, 20-18 (9-6)
5. BYU, 25-12 (8-7)
6. Baylor, 21-21 (7-8)
7. Oklahoma State, 24-14 (6-7)
8. UCF, 25-18-1 (6-9)
9. Kansas, 17-20 (4-11)
10. Utah, 12-30 (4-11)
11. Houston, 20-19 (3-13)
Check out this program now — and it couldn’t be at a better time with the first of this season’s two two Cy-Hawk games coming on Tuesday, April 15 in Ames (4 p.m. ESPN+).
Haliburton and Niang in the playoffs
Two former Cyclones are headed to the NBA Playoffs this week in Tyrese Haliburton and Georges Niang.
Niang and the Atlanta Hawks will take on the Orlando Magic in a play-in game Tuesday (6:30 p.m. TNT).
Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers earned the No. 4 seed in the East and start their series with No. 5 Milwaukee on Saturday (Noon, ESPN), and here’s another reminder of how well he’s been playing with a cool stat here.
Tyrese Haliburton’s career assist-to-turnover ratio is 4.14. Here’s how he stacks up with other NBA legends through their first 5 seasons:
Haliburton: 4.14 AST/TO
CP3: 3.88 AST/TO
Stockton: 3.74 AST/TO
Steve Nash: 2.54 AST/TO
Magic Johnson: 2.48 AST/TO🎯Generational Passer 🎯 pic.twitter.com/VcHLn4Pwmp
— 🆁🆄🆂🆃🆈 (@PacersStatsMuse) April 13, 2025
Quick Hits
The Masters delivered this weekend, and I know some of y’all are reading this and saying ‘duh’ aloud, right now.
Admittedly, I probably haven’t followed golf as closely as I’ve wanted to over the last decade – I used to watch it a ton with my grandpa and was hanging on every weekend for Zach Johnson.
For one reason or another, I’ve just fell out of it with golf, and despite how much motorsports and other things I was watching on Sunday, The Masters drew me in – and it did so all weekend.
The most obvious draw being on Sunday, a.k.a. Rory McIlroy‘s biggest rollercoaster day. Somehow, every time he got down, he hit the shot to put himself back in front throughout the day.
Even if you didn’t have background on anything in the sport, you could feel the pressure – and later relief – throughout his run all the way to end.
Rory McIlroy gave everything. #themasters pic.twitter.com/Iv38QeVTbm
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 13, 2025
Sometimes you get lucky, and The Masters has done so quite a few times in my life, delivering a story as epic as that was.
I also never thought I’d see a guy take a leak during this deal. José Luis Ballester did so during the tournament on Thursday and his answers to questions about it were equally as entertaining.
“I’m like ‘I really need to pee,’” Ballester said. “Didn’t really know where to go, and since (Thomas) had an issue on the green, I’m like ‘I’m just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much,’ and then they clapped for me. Probably one of the claps that I really got today real loud, so that was kind of funny.”
“They saw me,” Ballester said. “It was not embarrassing at all for me. If I had to do it again, I would do it again.”
José Luis Ballester explained why he urinated in Rae’s Creek during today’s opening round of the Masters. pic.twitter.com/4CduoJScId
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 10, 2025
I’ve seen some on social media angry about it and to them I ask if they’ve ever done that themselves.
The guy rocks, as for the upside down logo hat – that brand has been picking up steam, and is really popular with Dallas Stars fans, so I’ve seen this style used for a few years and have usually liked it. Some designs it doesn’t work for, but you’ll have that everywhere.
I’ve also become kind of numb to people complaining about logos being upside down because of Texas fans.
One last thing, did Jordan Spieth hit this guy in the balls on purpose?
@JordanSpieth casually sack whacking a spectator with his club. @barstoolsports pic.twitter.com/hZmSgERn7S
— COLETRAIN (@beantownnahnah) April 13, 2025
I’ve got to take a minute to talk about Tony Stewart.
Already one of the most interesting characters in sports, Stewart turned to racing in NHRA Drag Racing in 2024 after marrying Leah Pruett, who was racing in the sport full-time before taking this season off for maternity leave.
He formed his own team, took a top fuel seat this year, and then on Sunday, earned his first career victory in the series in the Las Vegas 4-wide Nationals.
It added another rung to his resume which now includes:
- 1994 USAC Midget champion
- 1995 USAC Midget, Non-Wing sprint car & Silver Crown champion
- 1997 IndyCar champion
- 2002, 2005 & 2011 NASCAR Cup Series champion
- 2002 & 2007 Chili Bowl Nationals champion
- 2006 IROC & 2021 SRX champion
- 3-time World of Outlaws sprint car race winner
- 2025 NHRA race winner
That isn’t his entire resume, either. He’s got more accolades, championships and race wins as a team owner in multiple forms of racing. Each of those titles came in the top level of racing for the vehicle or form of motorsport that was being used.
That’s 31 years of success at the highest levels going back to his USAC Midget crown in 1994.
It’s time he’s talked about as one of the greatest athletes of all time, and Sunday served as the latest reminder.
By the way, anyone who says that the sports calendar cools off or gets boring after March Madness doesn’t know how to work their TV.
We’ve got the Stanley Cup Playoffs, WrestleMania this weekend, and a huge sprint car race at Knoxville all this weekend alone. Time to buckle up.
