Happy Monday everyone! Our first football-less weekend was not short of intrigue as we have a few stories from different corners of the sports world. From Kevin Durant to Jordan Spieth, today’s “Weekend Recap” has you covered. While the actual games didn’t quite match the spectacle of the weekend, it was still a good one nonetheless. So let’s dive right into the recap.

Kevin Durant’s Return to Oklahoma City

The story of the weekend featured Kevin Durant making his long-awaited return to Oklahoma City after joining the Golden State Warriors last summer. We haven’t seen a crowd like that since LeBron’s return to Cleveland as a member of the Heat. The scene in OKC could best be described as a social experiment on a national stage.

Yes, Durant left for a better team and essentially took the Thunder’s title hopes with him. So I understand the venom from the crowd on Saturday night, but I just hope that eventually the fans in OKC understand what Durant meant to that franchise. He legitimized the Thunder in Oklahoma City, and validated that city in the NBA. It could be a lot worse considering the Oklahoma City Thunder used to be known as the Seattle Supersonics, but I digress.

As for the game, it pretty much went like the previous meetings between these two teams. Golden State dominated once again, winning the game 130-114. Durant is now 3-0 while averaging over 30 points per game against his former team. I think we can all agree this is far from a rivalry and more one team with a personal issue with its former star. By the way, Russell Westbrook telling Durant that “he’s coming” down 20 in the second half was actually laughable.

NCAA Reveals the Preliminary Top-16 Seeds Ahead of Another Wild Weekend

College fans got a small glimpse into the collective mind of the selection committee this weekend with the first reveal of the top-16 seeds. Right now, Villanova would be the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament while undefeated Gonzaga is currently the fourth #1 seed despite being the top-ranked team in the AP Top 25 (I guess I’m not so crazy after all). Kansas and Baylor rounded out the top seeds in this first look of the top part of the bracket.

There were a couple of interesting takeaways from the selection committee’s preliminary rankings aside from the top line of the bracket. The ACC had five teams among the top-16 while the Big Ten had a whopping zero. This is interesting for two reasons.

First, the ACC could set a new record for the most teams from one conference to make the tournament. Its no secret that the ACC is the best conference in college basketball since Big East was raided a few years ago, but it will be interesting to see if that record will fall next month. The second reason concerns the Big Ten because this could mean the conference is in danger of not having a team in the top-16 for the first time since 2003 if these rankings hold up over the next few weeks.

As for the action on the court this weekend, we got a ton of excitement once again. #1 Gonzaga rolled over #20 St. Mary’s in its last true test of the regular season. The Bulldogs are now 26-0 and finishing the regular season undefeated is now very realistic (ESPN BPI gives Gonzaga a 90+ percent chance of winning its final four games). #3 Kansas survived a scare at Texas Tech 80-79, while #18 Duke avoided an emotional letdown against Clemson 64-62.

Of course not everyone made it through the weekend unscathed. Saturday saw #14 Florida State lost 84-72 at Notre Dame and #22 Butler fell at Providence 71-65. That was just an appetizer for Sunday’s madness. #7 Wisconsin was upset at home by Northwestern 66-59 giving the Huskies a resume-making win in its bid to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. #25 SMU ended #11 Cincinnati’s 15-game winning streak (the 2^nd longest streak in men’s basketball this season) 60-51 to take control of the AAC.

The game of the weekend though was Virginia Tech’s double-overtime victory over #12 Virginia 80-78. The Hokies erased a 14-point halftime deficit to notch its biggest win of the season, and strengthen its tournament resume. Virginia had a chance to win the game in the first overtime, but in a strange twist of fate, the layup attempt by London Perrantes got stuck on the rim. You just have to love college basketball sometimes.

Jordan Spieth Picks Up a Historic Win at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am

The incredible run of the young guns in golf continued at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am this weekend. Jordan Spieth cruised on Sunday, shooting a final round 70 en route to a four-shot victory. It is the seventh consecutive tournament won by a player in his twenties. Spieth entered the day with a six-shot lead, and never had his lead get smaller than three shots.

It was the first win of 2017 for Spieth and his ninth career PGA Tour title. That puts him in exclusive company as the 23-year old became the second youngest player in PGA Tour history to win nine-tournaments. The youngest player to do so is Tiger Woods.

Spieth’s dominant run over the weekend is a welcome sign as we make our way towards The Masters. This was Spieth’s first 54-hole lead since his collapse at Augusta National last season. If this is the type of play we can expect to see from Spieth, he very well may be adding the second green jacket to his trophy case that eluded him a year ago.

This week the PGA Tour heads to Riviera Country Club for the Genesis Open, which will feature potentially the best field of players so far in 2017.

That’s it for me today as I head to Richland with the SNJ Today crew for St. Augustine vs. ACIT, that you can watch on SNJToday.com. I’ll be back tomorrow with another edition of “Heat Check” to give my pre-All Star weekend power rankings. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.