Wednesday night, Duke freshman guard Austin Rivers nailed a three-point field goal, as time expired, giving the Blue Devils an 85-84 victory over archrival North Carolina. The son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers (Doc was in attendance at Chapel Hill’s Dean Smith Center for Austin’s big shot) was named the 2011 Naismith Prep Player of the Year during his senior year of high school in Winter Park, Florida, prior to arriving on the Duke campus.

New York Giants chairman and executive vice president Steve Tisch is the only man in the world to possess both a Super Bowl ring and an Academy Award.  One week shy of turning 63-years-old, the son of late hotel proprietor and Loews Corporation owner Bob Tisch, has once again successfully climbed his way to the top of the NFL mountain, after the Giants’ 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.  

Steve Tisch’s second NFL championship is the latest addition to a résumé that also includes an Oscar for serving as a producer on the 1994 megahit Forrest Gump.

As the sports and entertainment world continues to gather in Indianapolis for all the festivities surrounding Super Bowl XLVI, without question, the number one place to rub elbows with your favorite athletes and celebs is the legendary St. Elmo Steak House.

Established all the way back in 1902, St. Elmo has long stood as one of The Circle City’s prime dining destinations. When combining the restaurant’s history with its very centralized downtown location, it’s no wonder that St. Elmo has been bumping with activity throughout Indianapolis’ week in the world spotlight.

While much attention has been given to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s brand new 22,000 square foot home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, far less fanfare has resulted from the news of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s newly renovated 3,555 square foot condo in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Our guess is that the understated younger brother of Peyton Manning is just fine with that.

Unlike Brady, who is of course married to supermodel Gisele, Eli Manning has settled down with college girlfriend Abby McGrew. The couple met on the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.

Super Bowl XLVI will be played Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Unlike the spread out nature of the last two Super Bowl logistical layouts, in the sprawling metropolises of Dallas/Fort Worth and South Florida, the condensed geography of Indiana’s capital city allows for far less time spent in transit between one base of operation to another.

Stadium

Wednesday, first-year Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown appeared as a guest on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.” The former Cleveland Cavaliers head man was asked to discuss the differences involved with coaching LeBron James, as compared to Kobe Bryant.

“LeBron is a guy that is more youthful, likes to have a ton of people around him, in terms of his teammates and joking around, almost like a practical jokester at times. There’s a side of him that likes to laugh and laugh with his teammates,” explained Brown.

“Kobe is more businesslike in such that let’s get done with what we need to get done and let’s move on,” added the 2009 NBA Coach of the Year.

In other words, LeBron is interested in camaraderie, goofing around with friends/teammates, as well as winning NBA championships.

In the days since the Giants 29-14 victory over the Jets on Christmas Eve, the once very cordial rivalry between New York’s two NFL teams has escalated into an all out shooting match. Precipitated in large measure by the bombastic talk of Jets coach Rex Ryan, both the players and fans of Gotham's franchises now possess a far greater disdain for one another, then at any point in history.

A post on the official Giants Twitter page (@Giants) provided the latest salvo in this hotly contested war of words.

Monday night’s BCS National Championship Game may have generated tremendous interest in the states of Alabama and Louisiana, but the same cannot be said for the rest of the United States.

The Alabama victory over LSU drew a national rating of 14.0. This figure represents the second lowest viewership level in the 14-year history of the BCS. The 2012 rating was down eight percent from last year’s Auburn vs. Oregon matchup in Glendale, Arizona.

The lowest rated BCS National Championship Game remains the 2002 Rose Bowl battle between Miami and Nebraska.

The highest rated BCS game was the legendary 2006 Rose Bowl involving Texas and USC.

Christmas Day, the NBA regular season finally debuted with a slate of five games. The riveting day of hoops included late game heroics from Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, a ring ceremony/butt whooping in Dallas and Chris Paul’s Clipper debut at Golden State.

In addition to these impressive on court feats, the league’s 2011-2012 premiere also involved a remarkable achievement at the broadcast table, centered around the idea of witnessing a historic rematch and the coaching debut of a very close friend.

Friday, Barry Bonds was sentenced to two years probation, 250 hours of community service, a $4,100 fine and 30 days house arrest for obstructing justice in the federal government’s case against alleged steroid use in sports. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to sentence baseball’s all-time homerun leader to 15 months in prison, but the San Francisco based judge went the route of leniency when considering Bonds’ plight. Bonds now has 14 days to file an appeal with the court.

If the terms of the sentence are upheld, Bonds will be forced to serve 30 days of hard labor at his 11,448 square foot mansion in the Beverly Park gated neighborhood of Los Angeles.