NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz: 1) UCLA won 10 titles in 12
years from 1964-75, the others won by Texas Western in 1966
and North Carolina State in ’74. Name the 10 schools that lost to
UCLA during this stretch. [10 different ones.] 2) Name the
seven schools that have appeared in 30 or more NCAA
tournaments including this one. Answers below.
*Congratulations to Bode Miller for capturing the overall World
Cup ski title, thus becoming the first American to accomplish the
feat since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney won in 1983.
Great stuff…and now all eyes will be on Miller at next winter’s
Olympics. Talk about pressure.
**Sunday was a great day for the Irish, as Padraig Harrington
finally won his first PGA event after Vijay Singh missed a 2 ½-
foot putt in sudden death. And Ireland’s Des Smyth won his first
Champions Tour title. Sunday is a big party night in many of
Ireland’s small towns (ahem…I know from vast experience) and
I can just imagine the celebrations afterwards.
***As for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, I said after
last year’s title game that the 2004-05 season was all about Wake
Forest so you can’t expect me to change my tune now. And we
caught a break with the bracketing, that’s for sure. I’m just
scared to death of the second round game. Otherwise, we’ll
reach the Final Four.
To me, this was the least controversial Selection Sunday ever.
When 17-11 Notre Dame presents a mild surprise for not
receiving a bid, you know all the truly worthy at-large teams got
in.
Here’s my take on the brackets. The only potential big first-
round upset (#13-#16 seeds) that I see is Penn over Boston
College. Among the #12 seeds, as much as I like Villanova they
caught a tough break in drawing #12 New Mexico…I say ‘Nova
goes down.
And my Final Four…Illinois, Wake Forest, UConn and Syracuse
Wake wins it all!
Stuff
–What an incredible weekend of college basketball; one close
conference tournament game after another. But there’s no doubt
which was the most dramatic (if you could select just one), that
being Louisville’s 75-74 win over Memphis as freshman Darius
Washington could hit only one of three free throw attempts, after
time had expired, thus costing the Tigers a shot at the NCAAs.
Washington had made a series of great plays to get Memphis into
position to win but then he choked, pure and simple.
–Sports Illustrated ranked the ten biggest first-round upsets in
NCAA history.
10. VMI 81, Tennessee 75…1976
9. Hampton 58, Iowa State 57…2001
8. Valparaiso 70, Ole Miss 69…1998
7. Coppin State 78, South Carolina 65; Tenn.-Chattanooga 73,
Georgia 70…1997
6. Weber State 76, North Carolina 74…1999
5. Austin Peay 68, Illinois 67…1987
4. Princeton 43, UCLA 41…1996
3. Cleveland State 83, Indiana 79…1986
2. Richmond 73, Syracuse 69…1991 [Richmond was the first
15th seed to win a game since the tournament expanded to 64
teams in 1985.]
1. Santa Clara 64, Arizona 61…1993
[I’d have to say my own favorite was Princeton.]
–Country Music’s Greatest
I was channel-surfing the other day and saw some of CMT’s
countdown of its Top 100 country songs of all time. You can
find the entire list on CMT.com, but here is the top 50.
50. Independence Day…Martina McBride
49. I Can’t Stop Loving You…Ray Charles
48. Boot Scootin’ Boogie…Brooks & Dunn
47. Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)
…Loretta Lynn
46. Desperado…The Eagles
45. Guitars, Cadillacs…Dwight Yoakam
44. When I Call Your Name…Vince Gill
43. Delta Dawn…Tanya Tucker
42. El Paso…Marty Robbins
41. Sweet Dreams…Patsy Cline
40. Hello Walls…Faron Young
39. Make the World Go Away…Eddy Arnold
38. Breathe…Faith Hill
37. King of the Road…Roger Miller
36. Will the Circle Be Unbroken…Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
35. D-I-V-O-R-C-E…Tammy Wynette
34. Harper Valley P.T.A. …Jeannie C. Riley
33. Always on My Mind…Willie Nelson
32. Rhinestone Cowboy…Glen Campbell
31. I Walk the Line…Johnny Cash
30. I Hope You Dance…Lee Ann Womack
29. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry…Hank Williams
28. Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)…Alan
Jackson
27. Fancy…Reba McEntire
26. The Gambler…Kenny Rogers
25. Folsom Prison Blues (Live)…Johnny Cash
24. The Chair…George Strait
23. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain…Willie Nelson
22. Wide Open Spaces…Dixie Chicks
21. Okie from Muskogee…Merle Haggard
20. I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow…various artists
19. Hey, Good Lookin’ …Hank Williams
18. Take Me Home, Country Roads…John Denver
17. Hello Darlin’…Conway Twitty
16. I Will Always Love You…Dolly Parton
15. Forever and Ever, Amen…Randy Travis
14. The Dance…Garth Brooks
13. Coal Miner’s Daughter…Loretta Lynn
12. Amarillo by Morning…George Strait
11. Blue Moon of Kentucky (live)…Bill Monroe
10. Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys…
Waylon Jennings
9. Behind Closed Doors…Charlie Rich
8. Galveston…Glen Campbell
7. I Fall to Pieces…Patsy Cline
6. Friends in Low Places…Garth Brooks
5. Your Cheatin’ Heart…Hank Williams
4. Ring of Fire…Johnny Cash
3. Crazy…Patsy Cline
2. He Stopped Loving Her Today…George Jones
1. Stand by Your Man…Tammy Wynette
All in all, probably a better list than some of the ridiculous rock
top 100 or 500 ones floating around out there. But I’m
disappointed Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” isn’t even in
the top 100 on this one…or “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” I
mean, c’mon, both of these are better than freakin’ “Rhinestone
Cowboy.” Finally, “El Paso” should be top ten.
–Great piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal by Nancy Ann
Jeffrey on “Trophy Overload” in youth sports. As a 46-year-old
who participated in my youth, I can remember receiving only one
trophy for a baseball league championship that my team won.
From 3rd through 8th grade that would have been out of 12 teams
in baseball and basketball. But as we all know, today it’s far
different as everyone gets some hardware for just showing up.
What a farce. As one marketing consultant told Ms. Jeffrey:
“What we’re dong to these kids, it’s wrong. We’re softening
them up.”
But, it appears the adults running these shows are finally wising
up and across the country there is a new movement to limit
trophies to winning teams. [‘Short’ trophy company stocks.]
A psychologist offered, “If you are going to get an award
anyway, the message is you don’t really have to try your best.”
And while I haven’t seen the film “The Incredibles,” one line in
it is from a father, “They keep inventing new ways to celebrate
mediocrity.”
–The PGA Tour is facing a big controversy over the recent IMG
/ Ford Motor Co. outing prior to Doral that involved Vijay Singh,
Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, each player
received a fee of as much as $150,000…and in return the four
then agreed to play at Doral.
Now appearance fees are a fact of life in tennis, as well as for
overseas golf tournaments because in many instances it’s thought
to be the only way to draw a crowd by having the best players
possible in a tournament field.
But golfer Davis Love III, a member of the PGA Tour’s policy
board, said “The players I’ve talked to are very upset about it,
because, one, they don’t want it to happen, and, two, they didn’t
like the way it did happen.”
The four noted players aren’t at fault, according to Love, but
IMG, the agent for all four, is.
Golfer Fred Couples countered, “People want to see the best
players. If it came down to paying six guys to come, I just don’t
know why that would be wrong.”
But as Steven Wines of USA Today reports, Love says
“appearance fees hurt tennis by raising doubts about the
motivation of players receiving the guaranteed money. Golf
shouldn’t repeat the mistake.”
“You don’t want to restrict a player’s income,” Love added.
“But you also don’t want there to be any appearance of
something funny going on to try to get guys to play in
tournaments. A guy misses the cut and you say, ‘All he came for
is his appearance money.’”
But according to GolfWorld, IMG is already telling tournament
directors it will organize similar events to the Doral outing this
year. The magazine obtained a copy of a letter being sent out by
the management giant.
“IMG will secure 5 Tour professionals, who will join an intimate
group of 6 foursomes on Monday afternoon. It is IMG’s
intention to secure 5 players, focusing on those who traditionally
have not played your tournament – these professionals will look
favorably upon staying for the tournament, which would enhance
the strength of field.”
The PGA Tour then responded to GolfWorld, citing the
following regulation:
“Neither players, nor other individuals acting on such players’
behalf, shall solicit or accept any compensation, gratuity or other
things of value offered for the purpose of guaranteeing their
appearances at any PGA Tour co-sponsored, approved or
coordinated tournament.”
IMG included a ‘Play for Pay’ price list for the Monday outings,
all IMG clients, of course.
Tier One ($100,000-$200,000): Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio
Garcia, Retief Goosen, John Daly and Davis Love III.
Tier Two ($50,000-$100,000): David Duval, Todd Hamilton,
Chris DiMarco, Charles Howell III, Luke Donald, Mike Weir,
Stuart Appleby, K.J. Choi, Jesper Parnevik, Ben Curtis, Fred
Couples and Jim Furyk
I agree with Love. The integrity of the sport can easily be
compromised, though any fan also knows there are a ton of
golfers each week who are more concerned with the money than
actually trying to win.
–According to the New York Daily News, Mark McGwire’s
name came up several times in a large-scale FBI investigation
into the anabolic steroids industry back in the early 1990s.
“Two dealers caught in Operation Equine told the Daily News
that a California man named Curtis Wenzlaff provided Canseco
and McGwire, among others, with illegal anabolic steroids. One
informant in the case says Wenzlaff injected McGwire at a gym
in Southern California on several occasions, and established
‘arrays’ of performance-enhancing drugs.” [Michael O’Keeffe,
Christian Red & T.J. Quinn]
What will happen at this week’s congressional hearing? Stay
tuned.
–Yuck…Dr. Bortrum passed along a piece out of Science
magazine on the plight of the Tasmanian devil, an animal I wrote
of two years ago when I toured Tasmania and a game preserve
there. It seems they are dying off because of a facial cancer that
comes about during their fights over food. They bite each other
and this affliction, devil facial tumor disease, takes over. Up to
one-half of the 150,000 devils that lived in Tasmania 10 years
ago may have been lost in this manner. You have to see these
animals, about the size of a beagle, to appreciate just how vicious
they are but it would be very sad to lose them.
–Uh oh….bad news if you’re a prairie dog. The governor of
South Dakota just signed a bill that gives ranchers more
ammunition to go after these nasty, disease-carrying rodents.
They look cute, but they’re incredibly destructive and cover
some 1.8 million acres in 10 states. Ranchers can now poison
them on private land as well as on some public property.
Save the Tasmanian devil…crush the prairie dog, I say.
–I recently wrote that a 2,000-lb. buffalo can clear an obstacle
six feet in height. So Harry K., who hails from the Great White
North, wrote in.
“Back in the 60s, there was a ‘commune’ of hippie back-to-the-
landers up near Earlton (about 30 miles north of my home town
of Cobalt) that had a couple of buffalo on the farm. [Hell, as far
as I know, there are still a bunch of Vietnam era draft dodgers
living up in the woods in these parts.] Anyway, one day one of
their bison, a full-grown bull, decided to go for a walk. He
walked through the fence (I guess he could have jumped it, but
hey, why exert yourself when you can walk right through it
without even noticing?) and went on a rambling rampage through
farmers’ fields for miles, scaring the hell out of a lot of dairy
cows in the process. By the time they caught up with the poor
beast, he was being pursued by a posse of police, Ministry of
Natural Resources agents, hippies, and darn near every local with
a 4X4 and a gun rack. They finally ended the beast’s bid for
freedom by shooting it with a tranquilizer gun. Unfortunately,
no one had figured out what to do with a heavily sedated 2,000-
lb. critter (OK, everyone grab a leg and on three, we’ll toss him
on the truck) and ultimately it had to be killed.”
[Hey, I didn’t say this tale had a happy ending!]
–This just in…courtesy of Monday’s Los Angeles Times.
“Monterey Bay’s great white has victimized two other sharks!”
The female great white is just 5 feet, 6 inches long, being less
than a year old, but it has already killed two soupfin sharks – one
4 feet in length, the other 5 ½ feet – in its aquarium enclosure.
“Aquarium officials say that in both cases, the great white
appeared to have been spooked by soupfin sharks that swam too
close. Both times, the white shark bit near the tail of the nearby
soupfin.”
The aquarium is in a bind because it wants to return the shark to
the wild, but soon it will be too big to move. So I’m thinking,
when this one is finally released, we’ll have to monitor its
movements by the hour, know what I’m sayin’? [Source: Irwin
Speizer / LA Times]
–We note the passing of 1946 Heisman Trophy winner Glenn
Davis at age 80. Davis and Doc Blanchard comprised college
football’s greatest backfield pairing while the two attended
Army. [Blanchard won the Heisman in ’45.]
Davis, one of the game’s real speed merchants, was known as
Mr. Outside, while Blanchard, the fullback, was Mr. Inside.
Each was an all-American three times. Over the period 1944-46,
as both were playing together, Army compiled a 27-0-1 mark.
But what I didn’t realize is that Davis still holds the collegiate
record for average per carry, an astounding 8.26 yards, as he
accumulated 2,957 yards in three seasons. Davis was also
perhaps West Point’s greatest all-around athlete. In addition to
his exploits on the gridiron, he was a star baseball player, a great
sprinter and he played on the basketball team.
–Wayne Coffey has authored a book, “The Boys of Winter,” on
the 1980 upset of the Soviet hockey team by the Americans at
Lake Placid. One thing we learn is “After the Russians cleared
out of their rooms in the Lake Placid Olympic Village, cleanup
workers found 121 empty vodka bottles in the dropped ceiling of
their unit, the detritus of despondence.”
But as Carl Schreck of the Moscow Times points out in a review,
author Coffey doesn’t answer the following.
“When were they drinking the vodka? The night before the
game with the United States? Coffey indicates that they were
boozing from depression after the loss but gives no evidence for
such a conclusion….It’s tempting to wonder whether a collective
wicked hangover from the night before the game was to blame
for one of the greatest upsets in the history of 20th-century
sports.”
–The British Beer & Pub Association is combating an 18 percent
decline in demand for beer with a drive to persuade women to
drink it. So, they’re promoting special long-stemmed glasses
from which women can drink “thirds,” it being about a third the
size of a pint glass. I can’t say I’ve met too many women who
like drinking out of a pint glass so I see the blokes’ point.
Incidentally, in Britain 36 percent of women drink wine but only
14 percent drink lager. [Stefanie Marsh / Times of London]
–I found this hard to believe, but for the first time in 136 years of
recorded weather history for New York City, this winter marks
the third in a row where at least 40 inches of snow have fallen.
[42.6 inches last year, 49.3 inches 2002-03.]
–According to a poll of 227 NBA players for Sports Illustrated,
Tim Duncan is ranked as the smartest, capturing 25%. Jason
Kidd was rated second with 21%.
–Since I’ve been slamming the rap music industry, it’s only fair
I note that 50 Cent and The Game set aside their feud the other
day in Harlem and, together, presented the Boys Choir of Harlem
with $253,000 ($150,000 from 50 Cent, the rest from The
Game).
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/14/70: #1 “Bridge Over Troubled
Water” (Simon & Garfunkel) #2 “Travelin’ Band” (Creedence
Clearwater Revival) #3 “The Rapper” (The Jaggerz)
NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) UCLA’s record
stretch from 1964-75.
1964…defeated Duke, 98-83
1965…defeated Michigan, 91-80
1967…defeated Dayton, 79-64
1968…defeated North Carolina, 78-55
1969…defeated Purdue, 92-72
1970…defeated Jacksonville, 80-69
1971…defeated Villanova, 68-62
1972…defeated Florida State, 81-76
1973…defeated Memphis State, 87-66
1975…defeated Kentucky, 92-85
2) 30 or more tournament appearances including 2005:
Kentucky (47), UCLA (39), North Carolina (37), Kansas (33),
Indiana (32), Louisville (32), Syracuse (30). [Duke is making its
29th appearance this year.]
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
