Gonzaga had won a national-best 41 straight home games heading into last Saturday's tilt with BYU, but the run came to a sudden and unexpected end. The Bulldogs may have suffered an additional loss, too, give that they are battling for NCAA Tournament seeding position. On the subject of jostling for postseason spots, the Dallas Mavericks are on a steady decline down the Western Conference standings.

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Gonzaga . Not only had the Bulldogs won 41 in a row at home, but they had also taken care of business in 56 consecutive contests against unranked opponents at McCarthey Athletic Center. BYU was one such opponent, but the Cougars never trailed (the first visitor in the last 125 Gonzaga home games to accomplish that feat) en route to a 73-70 upset. Tyler Haws, an 89 percent shooter from the charity stripe, missed two late free throws that proved to be especially critical when Gonzaga pulled within 71-70 with 2.6 seconds remaining. Eric McClellan clearly tried to miss the second of two free throws trailing 71-69, but he accidentally made it, and BYU finished off the night's scoring with two freebies of its own. The Zags, now projected by Joe Lunardi to be a No. 2 seed, are +1600 to win the National Championship.

Dallas Mavericks . The plan when trading for Rajon Rondo was to soar into the upper echelon of the Western Conference. Instead, the Mavericks are a modest 3-3 since the all-star break and have lost two in a row (at Atlanta, where they squandered a double-digit lead, and then at Brooklyn on Saturday). Dallas, which had been battling Houston for the No. 3 spot in the West and would have enjoyed home-court advantage in round one if the playoffs had started last week, now registers at sixth in the conference standings. The Mavs also have rough road games on this upcoming week's slate at Portland and Golden State. They are +1200 to reach the NBA Finals.

Arizona Coyotes . Rondo thought he was making an upgrade in the workplace when he was dealt from Boston to Dallas. Keith Yandle knows he is upgrading his workplace. Arizona shipped the 28-year-old defenseman to the New York Rangers on Sunday in exchange for young talent and multiple draft picks. Yandle was the Coyotes' leader with 41 points this season. His team, however, was-and still is-20-36-7 and in third to last place in the entire NHL. The Rangers, on the other hand, are 38-17-6 and in the Eastern Conference's fourth spot, just two points back of the Metropolitan Division-leading Islanders. They are +450 co-favorites to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Chris Sale . You would have to sell the manliness of Sale's injury that will likely sideline him from what would have been an Opening Day start for the White Sox. The 25-year-old southpaw did not even want to discuss what happened, but his general manager obliged. According to Rick Hahn, Sale came down "awkwardly when he got off the back of his truck" while unloading items at his spring training residence in Arizona. A veteran of five seasons, Sale went 12-4 in 2014 with a miniscule 2.17 ERA. He is expected to be out of all action for three weeks, so whether or not he will be in game shape by April 6 is unclear. The White Sox "over/under" season win total is 83.

Manchester City . "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is not about Man City, but you wouldn't know it based on how things have been going for the club. Last week was especially bad for the Sky Blues, who took one step-or a leg, if you will-toward Champions League elimination before seeing their English Premier League title chances fade. They lost the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 showdown against visiting FC Barcelona 2-1. Five days later, City dropped an EPL match at Liverpool by the same 2-1 margin. Thus, it remains five points back of first-place Chelsea despite having played one more match. Chelsea can extend its lead to as much as eight points when it faces West Ham on Wednesday. The Blues are -153 favorites to win the match.

Travis Kvapil . Speaking of unfortunate events, Sprint Cup drivers are wasting no time finding all kinds of ways to miss NASCAR races in 2015. Kurt Busch was suspended for the season-opening Daytona 500 (and beyond) after allegedly committing domestic violence against an ex-girlfriend whom he alleges to be a trained assassin. Kyle Busch could not run in the 500 because he suffered a compound leg fracture in a crash one day beforehand. Week No. 2 in Atlanta saw Kvapil's No. 44 car-and its accompanying pickup truck and trailer-stolen from a hotel parking lot early Friday morning. The car was found on Saturday on the side of a random road in Loganville, Ga., but by then Kvapil had already missed qualifying. Jimmie Johnson won the race and is a +450 favorite to win the Sprint Cup.

Novak Djokovic . Given the rate at which Djokovic and Roger Federer have been going head-to-head (exactly five times in each season since the start of 2009, aside from 2013), the Serb will have more opportunities to draw closer to Federer in their overall series. But you never know, what with the Swiss being 33 years old. Federer improved to 20-17 lifetime against Djokovic by prevailing 6-3, 7-5 in the final of last week's ATP tournament in Dubai. The world No. 1 had seven break points-including two set points in the second set-but converted none. Federer has now won two straight and four consecutive sets at Djokovic's expense since their classic 2014 Wimbledon title match. Djokovic is +150 to win the French Open this spring; Rafael Nadal is a +120 favorite.

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