1992-93 NCAA B-Ball Quiz: ESPN is premiering a show on Michigan’s Fab Five this coming Sunday, March 13, so let’s look at the 1993 title game when North Carolina defeated Michigan. Name the starting five for both teams. Answer below.
Cry Me A River
The Miami Heat lost another at home on Tuesday, 105-96 to Portland, and have fallen to 43-21 and a pathetic 14-19 vs. teams .500 or better.
But it was after Sunday’s 87-86 loss to the Bulls, again at home as both LeBron and Dwyane Wade missed last second shots, that Coach Erik Spoelstra said something he is likely to long regret.
“This is painful for every single one of us to go through. There are a couple of guys crying in the locker room right now. It is not a matter of want.”
Why the heck did Spoelstra say that and expose his players that way? This wasn’t after a Game 7 for the NBA title, it was a freakin’ regular season game, for crying out loud (no pun intended). And as you are all well aware by now, the comment then exploded across the universe and is now making its way around the Kuiper Belt. Aliens yet to be discovered by us, but observing the goings on here, are licking their chops.
“@#$% &*^% ! #$@!” [“These earthlings are so weak! What pushovers!”]
“Inside our locker room, we stick together; we’re like brothers,” Wade said. “We win together, we lose together. Outside, the Miami Heat are exactly what everyone wanted, losing games. The world is better now since the Heat is losing.”
Damn right, Dwyane. You are supplying the rest of us with reasons to smile and be optimistic amidst an otherwise depressing world.
It’s yet to be determined just who was bawling their eyes out, but Chris Bosh is a leading candidate, having admitted he “came close.”
But now Bosh is bitching about his role in the offense. It doesn’t help that the Heat acquired guard Mike Bibby for the rotation, even though it’s been apparent for some time that Bibby blows.
“The NBA’s trade deadline has passed. The All-Star Game is already forgotten. The playoffs are still a ways off. In short, early March is a bit of a dead spot in the NBA. Sure, sometimes the league’s best-hyped, most liberally star-studded and most fulsomely covered team drops four games in a row [now five] to playoff-bound peers. But it’s a mid-to-late-season losing streak, not a huge deal. It’s not like the Miami Heat players were in tears about it or anything. Wait…sorry, this just in: It’s apparently exactly like that.”
“Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra relied on a tried and true method Monday to try to defuse the story he started about some of his players weeping…Blame the media….
“On Monday after his players became a laughingstock among other NBA teams, the embattled coach backtracked and said nobody was ‘whimpering’ in the locker room.
“He blamed the press for blowing what Spoelstra called ‘Crygate’ out of proportion….
“Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy shot back at Wade’s tongue-in-cheek comment that ‘the world is better now’ because the Heat are losing rather than cruising to an NBA title.
“ ‘I do chuckle a little bit when they complain about the scrutiny they get,’ said the ex-Heat coach. ‘My suggestion would be if you don’t want the scrutiny, you don’t hold a championship celebration before you’ve even practiced together. It’s hard to go out yourself and invite that kind of crowd and celebration and attention, and then when things aren’t going well, sort of bemoan the fact that you’re getting the attention.’”
Here’s the bottom line. Miami now stands at 1-for-16 on game-tying or winning-shot attempts in the final 10 seconds of regulation or overtime this season. [Another story puts it at 1-for-18.] The success rate of 6% is far worse than the league average of 24%. LeBron himself is 1-for-7. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
One of the two or three most disingenuous people on the planet, Tiki Barber, announced that at age 36 he’s returning to the NFL.
“There was a better chance of Tom Coughlin calling up Frank Gifford – who happens to be 80 – to coax him out of retirement than the Giants coach letting Tiki Barber walk back into the Big Blue locker room and poison it again.
“The Giants quickly put an end to any speculation about them being the landing spot for Barber’s longshot comeback bid by announcing that they will cut him the second a new collective bargaining agreement is signed and the waiver wire is back in business.
“ ‘Somebody might give him a tryout. Nobody is going to give him any money,’ one GM said Tuesday night. ‘I wouldn’t even acknowledge it. I would rather read the cartoons. What running back plays at 36? Who wants to bring a guy in for one year?’
“Barber will be 36 next month and has been out of football two years longer than Muhammad Ali was out of boxing before he made his comeback. Barber’s last game that mattered was in a wild-card playoff loss to the Eagles at the end of the 2006 season. One year later, the Giants won the Super Bowl without him.
“It’s sad that Barber is going to try to play again. This isn’t Brett Favre waffling every year or Roger Clemens showing up halfway through a season. Barber retired much too soon and has missed the last four NFL seasons.
“He walked right off the field and into the NBC studios and was supposed to be a star on the ‘Today’ show and the network’s NFL pregame show. Neither of those gigs lasted long. Then came word last year that he was splitting with his wife Ginny while she was pregnant with twins – he already had two children. His most high-profile media work lately has been doing webcasts for Yahoo!”
Yes, Barber did retire too soon. His last two years were his best; 1,860 and 1,662 yards rushing. Myers and others imagine that despite his personal difficulties it’s not necessarily a money issue but rather he’s simply bored. The thing is he’s reviled in many circles for a reason. Tiki is a jerk, and as Ginny would add, a dirtball. Plus…
“Barber didn’t just burn all his bridges back to the Meadowlands, he torched them. If his Giants career had ended differently, he not only would have been loved by Giants fans forever as their all-time leading rusher, but the Giants might even have given him a chance now.
“He so alienated the organization with his consistent criticism since retiring, however, that it wants no part of him.”
College Basketball
Men’s AP Poll
1. Ohio State
2. Kansas
3. Pitt
4. Notre Dame
5. Duke
6. UNC
7. San Diego State
8. BYU
9. Purdue
10. Texas
–9 Big East in Top 25. But with Villanova flaming out against South Florida in the Big East Tourney, blowing a 16-point halftime lead to boot, ‘Nova doesn’t deserve an NCAA bid. As I write, I’d also say Marquette is a question mark so the Big East may only receive 9 bids for the Big Dance, not 10 or 11.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond has this tidbit for you heavy gamblers out there. According to Daniel Fabrizio of Sportsinsights.com, there is a contrarian approach to use.
In March or April, following is how college basketball teams fare against the spread when they are 16+ point underdogs and are bet against by at least 60% of the public.
2004…8-8 record against the spread
2005…9-2
2006…9-3
2007…3-4
2008…12-18
2009…14-7
2010…6-5
Note to my readers age 10-and-under…be careful with this.
Women’s Poll
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Baylor
4. Tennessee
5. Xavier
19. Marist
–Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, we have long been told, is above reproach, a class act. But now we’ve learned he’s no different from the rest. He’s a primo dirtball and liar.
“At this point, the book appears closed on Ohio State players Terelle Pryor, Dan ‘Boom’ Herron, DeVier Posey, Solomon Thomas and Mike Adams. Those five Buckeyes football players have been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season as punishment for selling and bartering OSU memorabilia to Columbus tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife; they were also ordered to repay the sums they received. The school reportedly found out about the illegal memorabilia dealing in early December, the story broke later that month, the players played in the Sugar Bowl – a controversial decision in its own right, at the time. The self-imposed penalties seemed to signal that the whole affair was something like over.
“But on Monday, the story resurfaced thanks to allegations that could be even more damaging to the program. Yahoo’s Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel reported that Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel – he of the upright bearing and world-class sweater-vest collection – knew about the malfeasance in April, eight months before it surfaced.
“Simply knowing about a NCAA violation and not reporting it is itself a NCAA violation, and the accusations against Tressel carry some serious penalties. ‘If Tressel failed to inform (A.D. Gene) Smith of the Ohio State compliance department about the players’ dealings with Rife, he could be charged with multiple NCAA violations including unethical conduct, failure to monitor and a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance,’ Robinson and Wetzel write. ‘In general, a coach is required to act on, or pass along reasonable information about possible rule violations for further investigation.’”
Yahoo has built a sterling reputation on this kind of investigation.
Well, Ohio State has decided to suspend Tressel for two games and fined him a hefty $250,000. The coach then made a very public apology.
“I am sorry and disappointed this happened. At the time the situation occurred, I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Right, Coach. And get this. A.D. Gene Smith is the chairman of the NCAA’s Div. I men’s basketball committee that selects and seeds the tournament field. Gee, you think this is kind of a distraction?!
It’s easy to forget that for all the talk of what a good guy Tressel is, he was Maurice Clarett’s coach; Clarett having been suspended following the Buckeyes’ national title win over Miami in the ’02 season for receiving improper benefits from Buckeyes boosters.
And quarterback Troy Smith had major issues with boosters that forced the team to suspend him for a ’04 bowl game and the first two games of the 2005 season.
The NCAA has yet to decide what to do in this latest instance but it’s bound to nail Tressel hard. He’s been proven to be as corrupt as the rest of ‘em.
[Regarding Sports Illustrated’s big story on the number of players with criminal records on big-time college football teams, former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt defended his program, which had the most offenders, 22. To be fair, some of the records SI came up with would not have been available to Pitt officials through normal investigative channels during the recruiting process.]
–Update: Fennville High of Michigan won its first game following the death of teammate Wes Leonard in the opening round of the Class C state tournament, 65-54. Just four players were announced during pregame introductions and only four walked out onto the court for the opening tip.
“After a dramatic pause, Leonard’s replacement, Xavier Grigg, was introduced. The crowd erupted in applause, many wiping away tears, as the game began.” [Jeff Seidel / Detroit Free Press]
Fennville played in the district semifinal Wednesday (after the posting of this column).
Special kudos to Michigan State coach Tom Izzo for meeting with the Leonard family and Fennville team. And what a touch of class by former NBA player Bo Kimble, who drove to Michigan from his home in Philadelphia to speak to both teams prior to the playoff game. It was Kimble who was Hank Gaithers’ teammate when the latter collapsed and died before the NCAA tournament. Kimble wanted to give the players some advice on how to cope with a loss such as this.
–Following are a few golf tales I’ve been meaning to throw in from a recent Golf Digest celebrating the publication’s 60th anniversary.
I always go over to see Ben at Shady Oaks when we do Colonial. A few years ago, Frank Chirkinian [the late CBS producer] said, “Maybe we’ll join you. I’ll bring Gary over, too.”
Frank introduced Gary to Ben, and they sat down with us. Ben never rushes anything. Ben takes his time.
So after a while, Hogan looked across at Gary and said, “What did you say your name was?” Gary said, “My name is Gary McCord.” A few minutes later, Hogan asked him, “What do you do?”
A couple of minutes more go by, and Hogan says, “How long have you been on tour?” And Gary says, “I’ve been on tour 16 years.”
“Umph. Sixteen years, haven’t won anything.” Went back talking to Frank and me, and then out of a clear-blue sky Ben stops, turns and looks straight at McCord and says, “What the hell are you doing on tour?”
McCord never said another word. When Gary and Frank left, I stayed with Ben a little bit just to talk. About five minutes went by, and he turned to me again and said, “What the hell was his name?”
I have read that you are a Mormon and that you don’t smoke or drink. Statistics show that the average American male smokes 37 ½ cartons of cigarettes and drinks 42 gallons of liquor a year. I would appreciate your sending me your unused 37 ½ cartons of cigarettes and 42 gallons of liquor, because I do drink and smoke.
Dick Schaap, on Joe Namath [July 1970]
The night before the pro-am portion of the 1969 National Airlines Open, the hosts held a cocktail party for the professional and amateur participants. When Joe Namath left the party, he took with him, as mementos, five stewardesses. When Frank Beard left the party, he took with him, as a memento, a National Airlines overnight bag.
–The current Golf Digest has an interesting piece on Tiger’s swing changes over the years, with photos from 1997, 2000, 2009 and 2011. It’s remarkable what a natural looking swing he had in 2000, and how screwed up it is from ’09 to today. Some say Tiger went to the changes because he felt like the old swing was what got him in trouble with his knees.
His coach from 2000, Butch Harmon, notes: “When he drove the ball in the fairway, he was nearly unbeatable. That’s what I kept trying to drive into him. But it didn’t take.”
It was after winning the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage that Woods urged Harmon to oversee another overhaul. Harmon disagreed and Tiger dumped him shortly thereafter.
Fast-forward to today and Tiger’s work with new coach Sean Foley, who says: “What Tiger was doing wasn’t efficient. He was losing tons of speed and power.”
And now Tiger couldn’t win on the Nationwide Tour, Foley.
–David Owen had a piece on the early days of Augusta National in Golf Digest. Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts felt they needed $100,000 to build their dream course and Alfred Severin Bourne, an heir to the Singer Sewing Machine Co. fortune, ponied up the first $25,000. So Roberts, who worked on Wall Street but was hit hard during the Crash, put together a prospectus with Jones calling for 1,800 members who would pay dues of $60 a year. Jones was the drawing card and in the prospectus and other solicitations promised to “give liberally of my time to the Club.”
But they made it through the Depression era and by the late 1950s, Augusta National and The Masters were both thriving.
Dwight Eisenhower first visited the club in 1948 and it became a sanctuary for him. He is the only American president to have been an Augusta National member. Richard Nixon, who once played as a guest, asked Roberts if he could join and Roberts, “without smiling, said, ‘I didn’t know you were that interested in golf’ – and that was the end of that.”
During a Ronald Reagan visit in 1983, he was a guest of member and Secretary of State George Shultz. “While Reagan was playing the 16th hole, an Augusta resident drove his pickup truck down Magnolia Lane, took hostages at gunpoint in the golf shop, and demanded an audience with the president – an incident that ended, after a long, tense standoff, without casualties.”
–Pete M. was tired of his Colgate Red Raiders being dissed the other day when I brought up Colgate and St. Lawrence’s futility this college hockey season.
So Pete pointed out Colgate is playing No. 4 (in the nation) Union in the ECAC quarterfinals, while St. Lawrence of Trader George fame is facing off against No. 3 Yale, also in the ECAC tourney this weekend.
Which means in a few days I’ll be able to diss both all over again.
–Researchers at North Carolina State and South Carolina have come up with some interesting data in evaluating traffic deaths after 271 pro and college football and basketball games from 2001 to 2008 and found that nailbiters “were much more likely to result in deaths than blowouts,” as noted in the Wall Street Journal. “But only the winning side’s fans saw the rise in deaths, which the researchers hypothesized is because of a surge in testosterone levels.”
–The other day Johnny Mac had the same simultaneous thought I had. We have never been less enthused about a spring training, ever, than this one when it comes to the New York Mets. Spring, as J. Mac said, “was the one thing that always represented hope and now we have none.”
I mean there has never been a spring where there wasn’t buzz surrounding some young player, or a player acquired in an off-season trade. But for the Madoff Metsies, the most interesting thing for us fans is just when the team will bite the bullet and eat the remaining contracts of Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez.
And then the other day, outfielder Carlos Beltran made his debut. He didn’t play the field, but DH’ed and went 1-for-3 and was able to score from second on a single, which was a major deal given the knee issues he’s struggling to return from.
Only one thing. The next day Beltran said he had pain in his non-surgically repaired knee and suddenly he is on the shelf again.
–Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby is still out following his Jan. 5 concussion and it’s not looking good for his return this year. That just sucks. And the Nashville Predators’ Matthew Lombardi has been out since the second game of the season after suffering one.
For Crosby, it was just a year ago he was Canada’s national hero for scoring the gold medal-winning goal for his country in Vancouver.
What’s so sad in his case is he was accidentally hit from behind on New Year’s Day in the NHL’s Winter Classic against the Washington Capitals. Crosby appeared dazed but played the remainder of the game.
Then, four days later, he was checked into the boards and the second hit didn’t look as bad as the first, but the Penguins sent him home the following day and he hasn’t returned since.
Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine, who suffered a number of concussions, told USA TODAY that Crosby “wasn’t healed from the first one, and that’s why the damage was greater from the second one.”
Man, your heart goes out to these guys. You just know there are days when Crosby is thinking he’d give up his cult hero status in Canada just to get his health back.
–Actress Megan Fox’s fitness trainer said she is not anorexic despite some of the pictures you’ve seen. Trainer Harley Pasternak said, “Do I worry about Megan getting too skinny? Yeah! Believe it or not she has this really fast metabolism.”
Pasternak is my personal trainer as well. We work on the beertoids, those muscles in the forearm that help one lift a beer can or bottle from the table to the mouth.
–So in my trip to California I noticed a lot of bars had Jeremiah Weed hard iced-tea drinks featured rather prominently, including at the Hog’s Breath Inn, and when I got home I asked my Beer Man, Gary, if he sold much. I love the commercials that first started running in these parts last summer, just very clever, but I haven’ tried one so Gary goes, “Here, my distributor is pushing me to sell it, have a sample.” [It always helps to be friends with your Beer Man.]
And so, sports fans, last night I pulled out the can of Jeremiah Weed and gave it a try. I think I’ll stick to beer this summer…no offense to Jeremiah.
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/5/83: #1 “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson…still looked fairly normal at this point…only slight nose shaping having taken place) #2 “Shame On The Moon” (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band) #3 “Stray Cat Strut” (Stray Cats…not a fan)…and…#4 “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” (Culture Club…despised this song…very depressing) #5 “Hungry Like The Wolf” (Duran Duran) #6 “Baby, Come To Me” (Patti Austin with James Ingram) #7 “You And I” (Eddie Rabbitt with Crystal Gayle…eh) #8 “We’ve Got Tonight” (Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton…Kenny’s face still intact) #9 “Back On The Chain Gang” (Pretenders) #10 “Pass The Dutchie” (Musical Youth…say what?…actually, go ahead and YouTube it…totally forgot this one and it wasn’t bad for this kind of thing)
1992-93 NCAA B-Ball Quiz Answer: The starting five for North Carolina was George Lynch, Donald Williams, Eric Montross, Brian Reese and Derrick Phelps. [Pat Sullivan, Henrik Rodl and Kevin Salvadori also saw decent court time.] For Michigan, the Fab Five were Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson.
Of course the game will forever be remembered for the following, as told by the editors of ESPN’s “College Basketball Encyclopedia.”
“The most indelible memory of the 1993 tournament isn’t a last-second shot or a spectacular team performance – it’s of a man in baggy shorts calling for a timeout. In the Final at the New Orleans Superdome, Michigan trailed North Carolina by two points with :11 left. Under extreme defensive pressure, Chris Webber – the lead member of Michigan’s Fab Five – signaled for a timeout the Wolverines didn’t have. Michigan was whistled for a technical, UNC (34-4) made the shots, got the ball and won Dean Smith his second national title, 77-71. The Tar Heels’ Donald Williams scored 25 points, set a Final Four record for three-point shooting percentage (71.4%) and was named Tournament MOP.
“For the first time, three No. 1 seeds (UNC, Michigan and Kentucky) reached the Final Four. The Naismith POY was Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney (22.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg). Webber was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft (by the Orlando Magic, who traded him to the Golden State Warriors for Penny Hardaway and future draft picks). In 2002, it was revealed that a booster had given $616,000 to Webber and three other Wolverines; as a result, 115 of Michigan’s regular-season and Tournament victories over six seasons were either vacated or turned into forfeit losses, essentially wiping out the Fab Five’s accomplishments. If Webber hadn’t called the illegal timeout and the Wolverines had hit a three-pointer at the buzzer instead, the forfeit of an NCAA championship would likely be considered the sport’s darkest moment.”
It’s this very last point I often forget concerning the whole episode.
[Just a note on Wake Forest that spring. This was a Deacon team led by Randolph Childress and Rodney Rogers and we won our first two NCAA tournament games before facing Kentucky in the regionals. I’ll never forget being at a meeting in Williamsburg and watching the resultant 103-69 slaughter in my hotel room. What a depressing moment…one of many if you’re a Wake fan.]
Next Bar Chat, Monday. Your editor’s exclusive Final Four picks…culminating in the ‘money shot,’ as we like to say around here.
