Final Four, the Royals, 2 matches for KC Current and a Sporting roadie: The Next Play
Next weekend promises to deliver one of the best sports events of the year: the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
This year’s setting: New Orleans, a stone’s throw from the famed French Quarter, college basketball’s last teams standing squaring off for semifinal games Saturday and the national championship game Monday, April 4.
This time of the year is pretty sweet for a sports fan, right? We get the Final Four, a team hoisting a trophy for the natty, and then it’s full-on baseball time. I know we do a lot of cheerleading in this space, by the very nature of previewing upcoming events, but you’ve gotta admit that it doesn’t get much better than that.
Here’s a look at what’s ahead this week for the Kansas City sports scene and beyond.
NOLA, here they come
As noted already, the city that’s synonymous with Mardi Gras plays host to its sixth Final Four, and first since 2012, with the final three games of the 2021-22 men’s basketball season set for Saturday and Monday, April 4.
This year’s venue is the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and the times for the games will be set after this weekend’s last Elite Eight games are played. The final ones include Kansas against Miami today.
Not to overlook the women’s Final Four, the national semifinals (Friday) and final (Sunday, April 3) are also on deck this week. Those games will be played at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Back to the road for Sporting
After playing Real Salt Lake at home this weekend, Sporting Kansas City is back on the road next Saturday for a showdown in Vancouver against the Whitecaps.
The road hasn’t been kind to Sporting this season: You might’ve read how Peter Vermes’ squad has lost all three away matches it’s played thus far in 2022. Injuries have had a lot to do with that, so it will be worth watching the team’s health in the days leading up to the game, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Central on Saturday.
Current prognosis: KC plays 2x
It’s a big week for women’s pro soccer in Kansas City, with the KC Current playing not once but twice over the next seven days.
The two NWSL Challenge Cup matches are set for Wednesday at Houston (game time 7:30 p.m.) and — wait for it — in Kansas City on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Racing Louisville FC.
Yep, after playing their first three matches of the 2022 Challenge Cup on the road, the second-year Current finally gets to suit up for a home game in its own stadium, which for this season is Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan. (They’re building that cool new stadium downtown along the riverfront, but it won’t be ready until 2024.)
We trust fans of the teal and red will be out in force for Saturday afternoon’s showdown against a team that KC tied in Kentucky to open the season.
Certainly not least, the Royals
As we mentioned at the outset of this lookahead for the final week of March/first week of April, opening day is drawing near.
Thus, the Royals are in full-on build-up mode this week, with just nine games remaining on their Cactus League docket. They play the Cubbies at 4:05 p.m. today (Sunday) and games follow every day but Saturday — an off-day — until their final spring tuneup on Tuesday, April 5 against the Brewers.
On Thursday, April 7, it’s opening day and the first meeting of a four-game set against the Cleveland Guardians (we’re still getting used to that one) at good ol’ Kauffman Stadium.