Case Keefer

5 days ago | lasvegassun.com | Case Keefer

Brock Bowers came away dumbfounded when the Las Vegas Raiders selected him with their top pick in last year’s NFL Draft at No. 13 overall. The tight end out of the University of Georgia had barely spoken with the silver and black throughout the draft scouting process, and didn’t consider the team one of his likely landing spots. Taking Bowers added to a decades-long trend of the Raiders surprising with unforeseen picks on draft night.

1 week ago | lasvegassun.com | Case Keefer

It’s funny to look back now and remember that the Vegas Golden Knights’ rise to a perennial NHL power in their initial Stanley Cup Playoffs run was fraught with skepticism. The still-beloved 2017-2018 “Golden Misfits” team that won the Western Conference wasn’t supposed to be postseason-ready. Those Golden Knights still stand as one of the most surprising Stanley Cup Final participants in recent memory.

2 weeks ago | lasvegassun.com | Case Keefer

Rory McIlroy stands alone in having put together the strongest season on the PGA Tour so far this year. There’s a strong case to be made that fellow 35-year-old veteran Russell Henley has been better than everyone else. Henley won the Tour’s most recent “signature event,” the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, and was in contention in another, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, before finishing fifth behind the winner McIlroy.

2 weeks ago | lasvegassun.com | Case Keefer

In the little more than two seasons since the Raiders moved on from longtime face of the franchise Derek Carr, they’ve started six different quarterbacks. Now Las Vegas sees a path to sticking with one for at least the next three years. New coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Spytek introduced their handpicked passer, veteran Geno Smith, Monday morning at Raiders’ headquarters in Henderson shortly after signing him to a contract extension that runs through the 2027 season.

2 weeks ago | lasvegassun.com | Case Keefer

Houston was the first and only future bet to win the NCAA Tournament that I wrote about this year. Star Cougars guard L.J. Cryer was the first and longest future bet to win the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player that I wrote about. I played Houston +5 against Duke in Saturday’s Final Four pick’em column. I therefore had to be loving Houston’s furious rally from down seven points to stun Duke outright in the second national semifinal, right? Not so much.