NCAA Basketball Quiz: 1) Who were the last two schools to win the championship after entering the tournament unranked? 2) Who is the only player to average 40 points per game in tournament play, career, minimum six games? Answers below.
8. Michigan State
12. Wake Forest
9. Texas A&M
10. Ohio State
For the record, since I picked North Carolina to win it all at the start of the season, I’m certainly not changing my mind now, though I’ll admit the Tar Heels didn’t make the run at the Celtics and Lakers I thought they would.
Last year I picked the Final Four correctly (though not eventual champ Kansas) and, brilliantly, had Davidson in the Elite Eight. Last year was also the first one with four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four.
So this year I’m going with…Wake Forest, Memphis, Pitt and UNC. Memphis-UNC title game…Tyler Hansbrough cutting down the last strand.
[President Obama has a Final Four of Louisville, UNC, Memphis and Pitt; with Carolina taking the title]
Now the only reason why I’m picking Wake is I’m confident they get off to a good start against Cleveland State. But now, even a great Wake supporter like Seth Davis is suddenly waffling on whether the Deacs can win their first game! Just a few days ago, Davis had Wake in the Final Four! Don’t abandon us now, Seth! Seth? Seth? [Drat…can’t reach him.]
If you define a big upset as a 13-seed or lower, I only have one, 13-seed Portland State defeating Xavier. I do have No. 11 VCU winning two games before losing to Duke. And I have No. 7 Clemson and No. 6 West Virginia in the Elite Eight.
Kids, these are tough economic times so don’t bet the bank on my picks. And it’s not like you can raid your parents’ college accounts set up for you because there’s nothing left in them. [Sorry, it’s just time you faced the facts. Take up a trade…start paying attention in metal shop.]
On the issue of the mid-majors, which received just four at-large berths, down from 12 in 2004, the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon commented.
“What the (selection) committee wants, its actions tell us, is the college basketball equivalent of the football bowl season. That is to say a postseason for the biggest schools to hoard all the money and have all the exposure, which will lead to a greater recruiting advantage and more wins, no games on the road against mid-majors and continually higher seeding in the tournament (or a better bowl game). It’s the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, and an organization made up of institutions of higher learning ought not be so intellectually dishonest. But this is what we’ve come to expect from college football, and now increasingly college basketball.
“There’s no acceptable reason that Arizona, having lost five of its final six games, should have been included in the field of 65 teams ahead of San Diego State, whose RPI ranking was 35, or ahead of Saint Mary’s, which went 26-6 and won 13 games away from home, even if the Gaels were blown out by Gonzaga in their conference tournament. You don’t even need stats sometimes; the eye test will tell anybody who watches games night-in, night-out that the Big Ten didn’t deserve seven bids….
“But the committee members, increasingly, crunch the numbers, emerge and try to convince us conference affiliation has nothing to do with their decision-making, which means some of the members are lying either to themselves or to us, and either way they’re hurting the tournament….Please don’t insult me with the excuse, ‘Well, Saint Mary’s couldn’t win the whole tournament.’ Neither can Arizona…or Wisconsin.
“The best summation I’ve seen on this point came from Niagara Coach Joe Mihalich, who told the New York Times: ‘The beauty of this tournament is not Oklahoma State playing Clemson. It’s George Mason going to the Final Four. It’s Butler. It’s Davidson. It’s Siena or Niagara getting an at-large bid. That’s the charm of the tournament.’
“The NCAA apparently, doesn’t give a damn about charm, or inclusion, or even fairness….
“It’s much the same thing we’re seeing in football bowl games where the BCS doesn’t really want to see Boise State upset Big 12 powerhouse Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl because the BCS is acting as a lobbying agent for the big conferences and their schools.”
To get you in the mood for baseball and Opening Day, I just picked out a slugger from the 1960s and early 70s, big Frank Howard, “Hondo.”
Frank Howard was one giant of a man, 6’7”, 255 lbs. by most accounts, who was called the strongest man ever to play major league baseball by Ted Williams, Howard’s manager late in his career. From “The Biographical Encyclopedia of Baseball”:
“Other legendary strongmen of baseball are known for their towering home runs, but Howard’s most ferocious hit might well have been a single. He once smashed a screaming line drive 390 feet against Fenway Park’s center field fence; the ball rebounded so quickly that it was in outfielder Reggie Smith’s glove before Howard could reach first base.”
Howard was an All-America at Ohio State in both basketball and baseball. He once had 32 rebounds in a game but as a result of his prowess on the diamond, he garnered a $108,000 contract with the Dodgers.
Howard hit 37 home runs in his first year of Class B ball before being called up by the Dodgers late in 1958. In 1959 he was The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year after hitting 43 homers, and then in 1960, after starting out with AAA Spokane, Howard was soon brought up and went on to become N.L. Rookie of the Year in clubbing 23 homers and driving in 77.
Former pitcher Johnny Klipstein told the following story for the book “We Played the Game,” edited by Danny Peary.
“Big Frank Howard was brought up by the Dodgers at the end of 1958 when we were in Wrigley Field. He had played football at Ohio State and was 6’7” and about 250 pounds. He was frightening looking and the strongest guy I ever saw in baseball – including Ted Kluszewski – but he was mild and meek and called everybody Mister. He hovered over everyone but would say, ‘Okay, Mr. Reese,’ or ‘Okay, Mr. Hodges.’ (Manager Walter) Alston started him in right field against the Cubs, but he came up with a charley horse in about the fifth inning and had to be taken out. So Hodges and Reese jokingly got on him, ‘This is your first time in the big leagues and you only stayed out there four innings. We don’t do that in the big leagues.’ Frank thought they were serious and said apologetically, ‘I didn’t want to come out, but my leg really hurt.’ But they kept after him for a couple of innings. When Pee Wee left the dugout to bat, Gil went over to Frank and said, ‘Look, we’ve been putting you on. When Pee Wee comes in next inning I want you to grab him and pick him up and put him against the wall, and tell him ‘If you ever open your mouth to me again, I’ll put you right through that wall.’’ Frank said, ‘Oh, Mr. Hodges, I couldn’t do that to Mr. Reese,’ But all the guys talked him into it. Well, here comes Pee Wee. He walks by Frank and mutters, ‘I don’t know about you, Frank.’ Suddenly Frank grabs him by the shirt and puts him up against the wall, and says, ‘Mr. Reese, don’t you ever say another word or…’ Pee Wee’s eyes were as big as golf balls and he was pleading. ‘Put me down, Frank.’ He thought Frank was going to kill him. The bench was in stitches.”
Following Howard’s Rookie of the Year season in 1960, “Hondo,” so named after a John Wayne flick, suffered through a sophomore jinx in ’61 but in 1962 rebounded with 31 home runs and drove in 119.
But then he had a number of so-so seasons, including after being traded to Washington in a seven-player deal that brought pitcher Claude Osteen to L.A. Howard then began to come into his own and hit 36 homers in 1967, before he really hit stride, 1968-70, when he hit 44, 48, and 44 roundtrippers, leading the A.L. in ’68 and ’70, and drove in over 100 each season. In ’69 and ’70 he also drew a ton of walks (102 and 132; not coincidentally, Ted Williams had become manager) and had on-base percentages those two seasons of .402 and .416.
For his career, Howard ended up with 382 HR and 1119 RBI, while batting .273.
But a few weeks back I read an interview with Howard for Sporting News, as told to Stan McNeal, concerning Howard’s spectacular stretch in 1968, best known as The Year of the Pitcher, when Howard nonetheless hit 44 homers (with only two others in the A.L. having more than 30). The major league’s 2.98 ERA remains the lowest in the past 90 years, yet in one stretch in mid-May, Frank Howard got hot…real hot…10 home runs in 20 at-bats over a six-game stretch.
“I don’t go around beating my chest, but if people bring it up, you can take off and have some fun with it,” Howard said in looking back.
“Two weeks before that streak, I had been on a pretty good tear. Two or three hits a night with a few homers, few doubles, even a triple. Then the very next week, I couldn’t buy a base hit. After about a week of euphoria and a week of misery, you start talking to yourself. This is a game that can humble you in a hurry.
“For whatever reason, the week after that slump, golly, I got hot. Detroit came to Washington, I hit one off Denny McLain on Friday and got shut out Saturday. Then, I think, it was two on Sunday, off on Monday, two, one, two, one and two. Believe it or not, on Sunday, in my last at-bat in the first game of a doubleheader, I hit a line drive that was about 6 inches from the top of the fence. I got a double.
“Most big men are going to have a little longer swing than normal and, as a result, are going to be streaky hitters. Me being 6’7”, there’s more of a hitting zone to cover. But that week, my swing was shorter, and no question I was seeing the baseball better. Everything was in sync.”
After retiring in 1973, Howard became a coach and managed the Padres in 1981 and the Mets in ’83, before returning to coaching.
Meanwhile, I mentioned recently that one player today that I’m a fan of is 6’6” slugger Adam Dunn, who is a left-handed Frank Howard and now calls Washington home after signing as a free agent. Dunn is about the only thing the Nationals have going for them and he should be a popular fixture in D.C.
But the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell harkened back to Howard in a column on March 1.
“Long ago in RFK Stadium with my parents, I watched a heckler ride Howard, bellowing, ‘Hondo, my hero – you big bum. If you hit a homer, I’ll eat this newspaper.’ He’d hold up a page of newspaper, have another beer and howl as Howard struck out. Three times. The fourth time up, Frank connected. The fan, delighted, theatrically tore the paper in long strips and ate them. Our section loved it all, including the strikeouts that were, in a way, part of a Hondo home run.”
Ah, memories. When my buddies and I get together to talk baseball, I always love to say the hardest hit ball I ever saw was Willie McCovey at Shea and a line drive that hit the center-field flag pole flush…and that ball was still rising when it did so.
–Seven teams in the NCAA basketball tournament had perfect 100% graduation rates for a most recent period: Binghamton, Florida State, Marquette, Robert Morris, Utah State, Wake Forest and Western Kentucky. Some observations.
As a Wake alum, I’m beyond being proud of our academic record. I want a Final Four, first and foremost. Just don’t care about the other stuff any more. It also needs to be noted that the graduation rates apply for those entering school between 1998-99 and 2001-02 and requires them to earn a diploma within six years. Ergo, I’d be curious what will happen at Binghamton going forward because the school’s image has taken a hit or two with the kinds of athletes they are bringing in recently.
[The lowest grad rates were at Cal State Northridge (8%), Maryland (10%…yikes), and Portland State (17%)]
Separately, USA TODAY’s Del Jones reports on a PayScale study (PayScale supposedly having the largest database of salaries in the world) that shows of all 65 teams in the tournament, the median annual salary of Duke alumni who graduated 5 to 15 years ago is $102,000, the best. Runner-up is Cornell at $91,700, followed by Southern Cal and California. The worst-paid grads 5 to 15 years out of college? Alabama State, $41,800, followed by Morehead State…which is kind of ironic seeing as these two were in the play-in game, won by Morehead State.
–The Star-Ledger’s “Bracket Boy” on NJIT, which went 1-30, and didn’t make the field of the NCAA tournament.
“But the Highlanders beat Bryant, which beat Yale, which beat Oregon State, which beat USC, which beat powerhouse UCLA. So, in a sense, the worst team in Division I almost beat UCLA. ‘To heck with Kevin Bacon!’ BB says. ‘The six degrees of NJIT is much more fun.’”
–So I’m going through a box of old stuff back home last weekend and for some reason I saved the television schedule for 1971 (when I was 13) from a TV Guide. Yes, even then I knew my calling would be to write Bar Chat. Some kids my age wanted to be doctors or lawyers or a professional athlete. I wanted to write on shark attacks. To the young ones in my reading audience, follow your dreams. I’m a classic example of fulfilling them.
ABC…8:00 Getting Together 8:30 Movie of the Weekend 10:00 The Persuaders
CBS…8:00 All in the Family 8:30 Funny Face 9:00 New Dick Van Dyke Show 9:30 Mary Tyler Moore 10:00 Mission: Impossible
NBC…8:00 The Partners 8:30 The Good Life 9:00 Saturday Night at the Movies
ABC…8:00 The FBI 9:00 The Sunday Night Movie
CBS…7:30 The Sunday Night Movie 9:30 Cade’s County
NBC…7:30 The Wonderful World of Disney 8:30 Jimmy Stewart 9:00 Bonanza 10:00 The Bold Ones
[Prior to 1971, on Sundays we had the favorites Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Time Tunnel]
ABC…8:00 Nanny and the Professor 8:30 Local 9:00 Monday Night Football (movies otherwise)
CBS…8:00 Gunsmoke 9:00 Here’s Lucy 9:30 The Doris Day Show 10:00 My Three Sons 10:30 Arnie
NBC…8:00 Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In 9:00 Monday Night at the Movies
ABC…7:30 The Mod Squad 8:30 Movie of the Week 10:00 Marcus Welby, M.D.
CBS…7:30 The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour 8:30 Hawaii Five-O 9:30 Cannon
NBC…7:30 Ironside 8:30 Sarge 9:30 The Funny Side
CBS…8:00 The Carol Burnett Show 9:00 Medical Center 10:00 Mannix
ABC…8:00 The Brady Bunch 8:30 The Partridge Family 9:00 Room 222 9:30 The Odd Couple 10:00 Love, American Style
CBS…8:00 The Chicago Teddy Bears 8:30 O’Hara, United States Treasury 9:30 The Friday Night Movie
NBC…8:00 The D.A. 8:30 NBC World Premiere Movie
Now for the younger folks, I have to explain a few things. The shows moved around, so like in the case of the Wednesday lineup, I watched all three when they appeared on other nights. All in the Family, for example, was mostly Saturdays and then Monday nights. I remember Adam-12 being on Fridays sometimes. But, otherwise, the Friday lineup was outstanding.
The above was also before The Bob Newhart Show arrived on Saturdays. And you have to understand that before the advent of cable and showing movies without interruption, the films that were displayed on TV in my day were super chopped up. See those 90-minute movie slots? That means a two-hour flick was edited down to about 66 minutes when you added in commercials. Or, sometimes you’d have parts one and two on consecutive nights. The Saturday and Sunday night movie slots, though, were huge. That’s where we grew up watching films like “The Train,” “The Great Escape,” and “Ben-Hur.”
I had also forgotten they screwed around with the prime-time schedule on Tuesday, for some reason.
And of course all the above was subject to the Mets schedule, as well as the Knicks (always Friday night) and the Rangers (Saturdays). There was no such thing as weekday college football or college basketball. Only weekends for both. Back in my day, Eddie Einhorn was starting the first cable sports network and in the New York area that meant a lot of college basketball with the likes of Manhattan, Fordham and even NYU. Remember Charlie Yelverton? The Fordham Ram could fill it up. Or Billy Campion?
I also have to add that people just stayed up later in those days. I’ve noted on more than one occasion that I’ll forever be grateful to my parents for letting me watch Johnny Carson’s monologue each night. I was a young kid and wasn’t going to bed until midnight. Heck, I learned about the birds and bees watching Johnny (only half-kidding…remember Carol Wayne, guys?…of course you do).
–Let’s face it…Alex Rodriguez is one interesting character. Here he’s supposed to be quietly rehabbing from hip surgery in Denver, away from New York’s bright lights and the media, yet he just can’t help himself. The day he found out Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts was writing he had tested positive in 2003, A-Roid was sitting down for an interview and photo shoot with Details magazine. You’ve probably seen some of the photos, just released, but while the magazine suggested poses, he could have turned them down. Noted the editor in charge at Details, “The picture of him kissing his reflection is very revealing. Is he in love with himself or is he kissing something goodbye?”
But even a few days later when A-Rod called the magazine with some nervous issues (such as not revealing his favorite Madonna song in the final copy), he never brought up steroids. The magazine hits the stands shortly…in time for Opening Day!
–Goodness gracious…did you see this? Scientists speculate that the most fearsome marine animal ever, what is being dubbed Predator X, a pliosaur, had a bite “with a force of 33,000lb per square inch compared with T. rex’s 3,000lb per square inch. Alligators have the strongest bite today at about 2,500lb per square inch.” [Lewis Smith / London Times]
The fossils of Predator X were dug up last summer from the permafrost on Svalbard, a Norwegian island near the North Pole. “Analysis revealed that it was a turbo-charged swimmer.” Very cool. Probably would have nipped Michael Phelps at the wall in that one race in Beijing. But I digress.
Researchers at the University of Oslo have collected 20,000 fragments and it’s believed the jaws were 10 feet long. Dr. Jom Hurum said: “It was the most ferocious hunter ever. It’s like a turbo-charged predator. This is a very, very large carnivore.”
“The turbo-charge feature of (Predator X’s) hind flippers was identified in tests by John Long, of Vassar College, New York, using a four-flippered robot called Madeline.”
I imagine Mr. Long could have some fun causing panic in the Hamptons using Madeline, don’t you think? Might come in handy during a slow news day.
By the way, earlier research at the Natural History Museum in London has showed that the pliosaur had a brain the same shape and proportion as the great white shark, regarded as today’s “perfect killing machine.”
–The Journal had a blurb that LeBron James was switching his summer basketball camp from Cleveland to San Diego this year…a sign he’s looking west when he becomes a free agent after next season? James said the move was made just to give West Coast kids a shot.
–New Jersey Nets forward Sean Williams, who has a checkered past, including in his young NBA career, was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief Monday after an altercation with a clerk at a cell phone store near Denver. According to police, “Williams had a verbal altercation with the clerk, and picked up a computer monitor and threw it. The monitor and other equipment were broken.” Williams was then taken into custody.
Separately, it seems pretty clear Nets coach Lawrence Frank is on his last legs. It’s been a miserable season.
–The Associated Press obtained the Coast Guard’s report of the deaths of two NFL players in the Gulf of Mexico; Oakland linebacker Marquis Cooper and free agent Corey Smith. Christine Armario:
“Around 5:30 p.m., the report said the group ran into trouble: Their anchor was stuck. (Lone survivor Nick) Schuyler told investigators that he believed it was caught in a coral reef. They tried to free it, but water filled the boat and it capsized.
“Tossed into the frigid water, the men managed to grab their life vests. Schuyler said they held on to the boat for four hours. But as the night wore on, their will to survive appears to have weakened and the effects of hypothermia were likely setting in.
“Schuyler told the Coast Guard that one of them ‘freaked out’ and took off his life vest and disappeared that night.
“Another one of the men started getting unruly and throwing punches later. Schuyler told the Coast Guard the second man also took off his life jacket, dove under the water and was never seen again. The third man thought he saw land nearly two days after the boat capsized and decided to swim for it.”
The bodies of the three were never found. It also needs to be noted that Schuyler has changed the account a few times, but the Coast Guard obviously feels there is some validity to the account that they themselves wrote up.
–The New York Mets opened their box office at the new Citi Field and there were only nine fans there. Oh yeah, I’d say the economy will impact baseball attendance in a big way over the course of the season. When single-game tickets became available online, though, yours truly did snap a few up, the only game I am likely to attend the next ten years…May 9 vs. Pittsburgh, of course. [Recall….I’m close to becoming a Bucs fan, especially if the Mets choke again.]
–Meanwhile, the World Baseball Classic is testing the Mets as they have 16 players – the most in the sport – participating in it. As reported by the New York Post, Mets management was particularly pissed off that Mexico manager Vinny Castilla had Met starter Oliver Perez throw 85 pitches, well before he would be doing so if he were back in Mets camp.
Bart Hubbuch notes that when the WBC was held in 2006, “More than one in three pitching veterans spent time on the disabled list in ’06, including 14 who landed on it in April and May.”
[Sorry, still don’t give a damn about the WBC, otherwise, even after David Wright’s game-winning hit on Tuesday.]
–What a sad story involving actress Natasha Richardson, who suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident in Canada’s Laurentians and is said to be on life support. Husband Liam Neeson, who was on a set in Toronto at the time of the mishap, is by her side at a hospital in New York. Natasha is the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Richardson, the film director and producer. Neeson and Richardson have been married since 1994 and have two children.
*Wed. p.m….just learned Ms. Richardson passed away.
–We note the passing of songwriter Jack Lawrence, 96. Among his hits were “All or Nothing at All,” a No. 1 tune for Frank Sinatra in 1943, “Tenderly,” and “Beyond the Sea,” a 1948 hit that was jazzed up for Bobby Darin in 1959.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/15/69: #1 “Dizzy” (Tommy Roe) #2 “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #3 “Everyday People” (Sly & The Family Stone)…and…#4 “Build Me Up Buttercup” (The Foundations) #5 “Traces” (Classics IV featuring Dennis Yost) #6 “Crimson And Clover” (Tommy James and The Shondells) #7 “This Girl’s In Love With You” (Dionne Warwick) #8 “Indian Giver” (1919 Fruitgum Co.) #9 “Time Of The Season” (The Zombies) #10 “This Magic Moment” (Jay and The Americans)
NCAA Basketball Quiz: 1) The last two schools to enter the tournament unranked and then win it are Villanova, 1985, which entered 19-10 before going on its great run, and Kansas, 1988, which entered tourney play at 21-11. Villanova was an 8 seed, while Kansas was a 6. And I hasten to add the AP poll only had 20 slots, not today’s 25, back then. 2) The only player to average at least 40 points per game in the tourney, minimum six games, is Austin Carr, Notre Dame. Over three years Carr averaged 41.3, including 1970 when he averaged 52.7 in three games. [Carr scored the all-time mark of 61, plus 52 and 45 in those three.]
*Bill Bradley holds the Final Four record with 58 points in Princeton’s contest against Wichita State, 1965, a consolation game. The record for points in a title game is Bill Walton’s 44, when he shot an astounding 21 of 22 from the field in UCLA’s drubbing of Memphis State, 1973.
**The only triple double in a non-consolation, Final Four contest, is Magic Johnson vs. Penn in a semifinal, 1979…29 pts., 10 rebs, 10 assts.
