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The Strike Zone

Tracking the week's news both inside and outside the confines of cool

OUTSIDE

Since when did putting Los or El in front of an NBA team's name constitute any sort of tribute?

Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed is erecting a statue of Michael Jackson outside of his soccer team's stadium. Because that's what owners do.

Probabilities expert Nate Silver's insightful NCAA Twitter feed and blog for The New York Times.

Guess whose NCAA bracket scored better—by far—than all 437 entries in the SI pool through 32 games....

Charlie Davies's moving return to the pitch: He netted twice in his MLS debut last Saturday.

Jimmy Fallon to Tiger Woods: "It's been a year and a half since you were on the show. What have you been up to?"

Under Armour is designing a computerized jersey for English soccer's Tottenham Hotspur that will show players' heart rates and temps on TV.

Big month for baseball nerds: Both Facebook and AppleTV started streaming MLB games.

Nets fever: Get it!

Did Adrian Peterson, who would make more than $10 million in '11, really compare pro football to slavery?

The Heat is dead. No, wait. The Heat is alive. Beware, zombie Heat!

Bracket-busted.

Artist Michael Kalish's stunning Muhammad-Ali-made-out-of-speed-bags sculpture at Nokia Plaza in L.A.

Madden—unlike your fantasy football league—is lockout proof. EA says it'll make the video game in '11, season or no season.

Being Bobby Knight: The General appeared to doze off during a talk show—that after he apologized for saying "chickens---" on-air and saw his son canned by Texas Tech.

And you thought morning talk TV had nowhere to go but up? Michael Strahan auditioned to replace outgoing Regis Philbin.

Torii Hunter tweeted 10 times on March 15. Four of them were about breaking wind.

LOW

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JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (HUNTER)

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JOHN BIEVER (PETERSON)

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ANDREW COULDRIDGE/ACTION IMAGES/ZUMAPRESS.COM (TOTTENHAM)

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GEORGE ROSE/GETTY IMAGES (JACKSON)

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COURTESY OF EA SPORTS (MADDEN)

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WWW.CUBEME.COM (SCULPTURE)

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JERRY LAIZURE/US PRESSWIRE (KNIGHT)

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ERICK W. RASCO (BASKETBALL)

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TWITTER.COM (TWITTER BIRD)

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LLOYD BISHOP/NBC (WOODS)

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LUIS M. ALVAREZ/AP (DAVIES)

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DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES (RICK PITINO)

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ANDREW H. WALKER/GETTY IMAGES (STRAHAN)

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YOUTUBE.COM (NETS FAN)

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PETE SOUZA/THE WHITE HOUSE (BARACK OBAMA)

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RHONA WISE/REUTERS (LEBRON JAMES)

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