Sonny Giuliano Articles - Page 2

The 2024-25 college basketball season has been one in which Purdue Boilermakers point guard Braden Smith has been able to step out of the very large shadow of Zach Edey, the two-time National Player of the Year award winner who was the plodding catalyst of Purdue’s run to the National Championship Game last season. Smith […]

Earlier this week, ahead of the NCAA Tournament regional semifinal games to be played on Thursday and Friday night, I took on the nearly impossible task of setting out to rank the ten greatest Sweet Sixteen games of the 21st Century. Little did I know that when I set out to do the same with the […]

The 2025-26 season will be LeBron James’ 23rd year in the NBA and his eighth with the Los Angeles Lakers, doubling his time with the Miami Heat and extending one season longer than his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now of course, a statement like this one assumes that LeBron, who turned 40 years […]

For the last three NFL seasons, no single play, scheme or philosophy has garnered as much attention as the Tush Push, the borderline unstoppable version of the quarterback sneak that the Philadelphia Eagles popularized during the 2022 season. With the Eagles running this play with a near 90 percent success rate over the last three […]

Under new head coach Mike Vrabel, the New England Patriots were bound to make no shortage of roster changes ahead of the 2025 season. With tons of money to spend and a new regime coming in with the intention of returning the six-time Super Bowl champions to the top of the NFL, new faces were […]

The Duke Blue Devils didn’t trail for the final 32 minutes of their game against the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday night, earning a 100-93 Sweet Sixteen victory on the back of a masterful performance by Cooper Flagg, and thus continuing their march toward a National Championship that many around the country have believed would be […]

As the Texas Tech Red Raiders spent the majority of the 2nd half of Thursday night’s Sweet Sixteen matchup with the Arkansas Razorbacks chipping away at a double-digit deficit, 2nd-year head coach Grant McCasland continued to preach one defiant message to his team. “In the huddle, Coach kept saying, ‘We’re going to find a way to […]

For the second consecutive year, the Duke Blue Devils are on their way to the Elite Eight, holding off the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet Sixteen to secure a 100-93 win over the Big 12 Tournament runner-up. The big story coming out of Thursday night’s game shouldn’t come as a huge surprise… in what was […]

The BYU Cougars’ unexpected run to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament ended on Thursday night in the Sweet Sixteen at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide, who shattered tournament records for both three-pointers attempted (51) and three-pointers made (25) in their 113-88 win. For BYU, even a disappointing ending to the season offers […]

If you thought that the New York Giants were finished with their offseason pursuit of a new starting quarterback after they signed not one (Russell Wilson), not two (Jameis Winston), but three (Tommy DeVito) different QBs to their roster over the last month, you were sorely mistaken. Now under normal circumstances, the hodgepodge collective of […]

The list of players who have played against the Duke Blue Devils as many times as Arizona Wildcats guard Caleb Love has is not a long one. Already, the graduate senior has gone head-to-head with the bluest of college basketball’s blue bloods nine times, and on Thursday, March 27th, Love will take the court for […]

When the West Virginia Mountaineers hired Darian DeVries away from the Drake Bulldogs on March 24, 2024, the assumption was that the successful mid-major coach would likely be around in Morgantown for the long haul. However, less than one full year later, DeVries decided that West Virginia was not the place he belonged, hopping on one of […]

Since he took over as Chicago Bears general manager in January 2022, Ryan Poles hasn’t been shy about making far more aggressive moves than others in his position would be willing to make. Whether it was trading away potential franchise cornerstones — Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith — to recoup draft capital and cap space, […]

With the opening weekend of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in the books, we’re now on to the Sweet Sixteen, where the National Championship dreams of eight programs will stay alive for at least another 48 hours. And to celebrate these excellent two nights of hoops we have ahead of us, it makes sense to look […]

It wasn’t too long ago that Quinn Ewers arrived at the college level as one of the most decorated and accomplished high school quarterbacks. The assumption was that in time, Ewers would develop into a bonafide superstar, and that held true when he started his career in Columbus at Ohio State, and then when he […]

We’re now officially deep into the month of March, and the Aaron Rodgers free agency saga remains ongoing, which given all we know about the peculiar 41-year-old quarterback, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rodgers has at least flirted with the idea of joining the New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, and Las Vegas Raiders, but now […]

It’s been 12 years since the UNLV Rebels, who were once arguably the most powerful college basketball program on the West Coast, have even made an NCAA Tournament appearance. In that time four coaches have come and gone, and now the Rebels, who could potentially soon be making a move to the new-look Pac-12, are […]

With the NFL Draft over a month away and the start of training camps just about four months out, there is still plenty of time for all 32 across-the-league teams to address their biggest roster needs before the start of the 2025 regular season. But even in just the first few weeks of the offseason, […]

The opening two rounds of the 2025 NCAA Tournament have come and gone, and now as we fast approach the second weekend of the Big Dance, only 16 teams remain out of a tournament field that once consisted of 68 schools that dreamed of cutting down the nets in San Antonio, Texas on Monday April […]

After an eventful 96 hours of NCAA Tournament action — which for me included six games at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio — it’s time that we crown some winners and losers of the opening weekend of March Madness. Friends, let’s not waste any more time. We’ve got a lot to cover! Loser – 1st […]

Before he even stepped foot on campus at Duke University, Cooper Flagg was already being hailed as a generational prospect. The combination of size, skill, approach, athleticism, and appreciation for both the history and nuances of the game of basketball resulted in lofty comparisons that have ranged from Kevin Garnett to Anthony Davis to Shawn Marion […]

For the first two months following the conclusion of the 2024 NFL season, the Las Vegas Raiders were considered a threat to select one of the top two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, whether that be trading up in order to pick Miami’s Cam Ward, or sitting tight and using the 6th overall pick […]

If you thought that a random late-season matchup between the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets would be overshadowed by a full Saturday slate of NCAA Tournament games, you assumed correctly, but that doesn’t mean that Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton wasn’t going to use that game as an opportunity to carve out an impressive little […]

The Gonzaga Bulldogs’ streak of consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances ended at nine on Saturday night after a loss to the top seed in the Midwest Region, the Houston Cougars, whose streak of six Sweet Sixteen appearances is now the longest in the country. The Zags, who never led in the 81-76 defeat, continued to push […]

The Auburn Tigers’ opening game of the NCAA Tournament against 16-seed Alabama State provided some cause for concern, as the top overall seed was pushed for one half by their clearly inferior in-state opponent, but on Saturday night, in a game against an opponent who had every reason to believe they could hang with the […]

The 2025 offseason hype surrounding the Chicago Bears is predominantly due to the newfound pairing of second year quarterback Caleb Williams and first-year head coach Ben Johnson, who comes to the Windy City after a successful stint as the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions. But on the opposite side of the ball, there is […]

When the New York Giants made the decision to sign former 1st overall pick Jameis Winston on Friday, it could’ve been looked at as a move that potentially put an end to the quarterback hunt that the Giants set out on to begin free agency. But it turns out the Giants may view Winston the […]

For about 30 minutes of action on Friday night, it appeared as if the Michigan State Spartans, the 2-seed in the South Region, weren’t prepared for the challenge that the Bryant Bulldogs were ready to provide in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Sparty led by just 5 points at halftime and only managed […]

Boise State Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty burst onto the national scene during the 2024 season, rushing his way to a 2nd place finish in the Heisman Trophy vote and the 2nd-most rushing yards in a single-season in college football history, just 27 yards shy of Barry Sanders’ long-standing record. Predictably, Jeanty decided to forego […]

In theory, every game in the NCAA Tournament is supposed to be played on a neutral court, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Top seeds are generally placed in regional sites that are geographically favorable. Impartial members of crowds often get behind underdogs and turn neutral site matchups into road games for favorites. And […]

The 2002 comedy film Van Wilder follows a seventh-year senior by the same name who seemingly expresses no interest in ever graduating from college. The film itself is crude and stupid and it’s likely aged horribly, which is exactly what you’d expect from an early 2000’s comedy with a plot such as this one. And the only […]

Senior quarterback Carson Beck has yet to be able to step on the field since announcing his decision to transfer from Georgia to Miami, but he’s already made a fantastic first impression on his Hurricanes teammates. Beck’s leadership and humility and commitment to building relationships with his new teammates have been lauded by folks in […]

The 2024-25 NBA season is winding to a close, and with March Madness officially underway, it’s about the time in the calendar where we begin looking at the teams outside of the NBA title picture and start to wonder, what the hell do they have going on? It’s not uncommon that what most of these teams have […]

It’s been less than a year since former NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski stopped dropping Woj Bombs in order to become the general manager of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, and it’s still a decision that seems baffling. Sure, Woj is a St. Bonaventure alum, and yes, life as the preeminent NBA news breaker had […]

It wasn’t unexpected that there would be fallout from the Indiana basketball program’s decision to move on from head coach Mike Woodson and replace him with former Drake/West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries. A fresh crop of faces, including Tucker DeVries, the son of the Hoosiers new head coach, are expected to arrive, and there […]

Among the many aspects of March Madness that annually makes it the NCAA Tournament the best postseason in all of sports is the possibility that an unforeseen star will emerge and take on the role of Cinderella. No, not a Disney character who was horribly mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters before eventually emerging as […]

I’m sure that over the last 72 hours, ever since the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed, you’ve made a concerted effort to inbreathiate as much March Madness content as possible. What you’ve likely noticed is that the majority of that content leads you to the same place… where Duke, Auburn or Florida is being picked […]

Well friends, it’s time for the NCAA Tournament. It’s time for the best theme in all of sports to become a month-long ear-worm. It’s time for Masters commercials and it’s time to watch one Thursday morning episode of The Price Is Right. It’s time for hundreds of memorable mini-moments to eventually give way to One […]

Hello friends, and welcome to a “Sonny’s been stuck on the runway at Tampa International Airport for two hours thanks to lightning” edition of Bracketology here at ClutchPoints. But hey, I don’t want to make this entirely about me, because after five months of college hoops action, we’ve finally arrived at Selection Sunday, and that’s […]