NCAA Basketball Championship Quiz: 1) With South Dakota State making the field this year, the first time ever a team from the state made it, name the only state that has never had an entry; excluding Alaska which has no Div. I teams. 2) Name the top three states in number of times reaching the tourney. [For example, if Iowa and Iowa State make it, that counts as two. If they do it again, it’s up to four.] Answers below.
March Madness
So once again we learned the conference tournaments mean virtually zero, except Michigan State’s win over Ohio State gave MSU a #1 seed and OSU a #2. [No. 1 ranked Kentucky, No. 2 Syracuse, No. 3 Kansas, and No. 4 UNC all lost this weekend, with 3 of the four retaining #1 seeds.]
Look, when the big controversy at the end of Selection Sunday is whether Drexel got screwed as Iona got a surprising bid, you know you have too many teams; or rather far too few worthy ones.
Now your editor at the start of the season had the following Final Four:
North Carolina, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and Baylor; UNC winning it all.
At least all four made the field and thus I have to hang with them, until they play each other.
So your EXCLUSIVE Sweet Sixteen…where I guarantee 14 of 16 will be correct or I refund your subscription…is…
Kentucky vs. Wichita State
Baylor vs. Duke
Memphis vs. Louisville
Murray State vs. Missouri
Syracuse vs. Vanderbilt
Florida State vs. Ohio State
UNC vs. Temple
San Diego State vs. Kansas
And a Final Four of
Kentucky vs. Memphis
Syracuse vs. North Carolina
North Carolina over Kentucky
Granted, I’m betting with my heart more than my head in the case of Murray State and San Diego State, my adopted teams of the past two years because alma mater Wake Forest has sucked.
Murray State got screwed royally in getting just a 6-seed, but they don’t have an impossible task to win two games.
And San Diego State, also a 6-seed (where they should be), can certainly handle North Carolina State and Georgetown, but only if James Rahon hits two 3s in each contest…that’s my marker. I’ve never seen a guy regress like Rahon has this year in terms of his shooting and in the Mountain West title game, which I watched Saturday, he was 0 for 8 from the field.
–Boy, Notre Dame sucked wind down the stretch and went from a 4- to a 7-seed.
—UConn should feel very fortunate to get a 9.
–The biggest game for the ACC in terms of where they can help their reputation is No. 10 Virginia vs. No. 7 Florida. Go UVA!
–Johnny Mac…sorry your UNC-Asheville Bulldogs drew Syracuse. As Tony Soprano said of this one, “Whaddya gonna do?”
–Great to see St. Bonaventure back in the tourney.
–Sorry, Jimbo. Lehigh is not going to beat Duke, but many a beer will be drunk later, regardless of the outcome.
–I tried to stomach the Louisville-Cincinnati Big East championship game Saturday night and it was painful. It was also a painful reminder that the Big East’s failure to keep track of football, which helped lead to the departure of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC, has killed what was hands down the best basketball conference in America.
“Billing the game, Louisville Coach Rick Pitino proclaimed, ‘Conference USA has come to the Big Apple.’ [Ed. Louisville and Cincy last meeting in the Metro Conference final in 1981; Metro being the precursor to Conf. USA.] That notion will be even more true as stalwart programs like Syracuse and Pittsburgh exit…and ones like Houston and Central Florida enter.”
The conference has to pray that St. John’s, Villanova and UConn come roaring back, along with Georgetown, to keep the interest alive in the New York metro area. Rutgers and Seton Hall performing well would obviously help as well. Maybe the addition of Temple works, too. The potential is still there to have a lot of excitement come Big East tourney time each season, but it sure as heck didn’t happen this year.
Then again, how many of you really got fired up over any of the major conference tournaments this past week?
–Illinois coach Bruce Weber was fired after going 210-101 in nine seasons, with six NCAA tournament appearances, including a loss in the Finals to North Carolina in 2005. But after starting this season at 15-3, the Illini lost 12 of 14. ESPN is reporting that VCU coach Shaka Smart is now the No. 1 target. Can’t say I’d blame Shaka if he left, even though he signed an 8-year deal to stay at home after guiding the Rams to the Final Four last year. Or does Butler’s Brad Stevens make the move? Meanwhile, Tom Izzo said it was a disgrace Weber was fired.
–I still can’t believe Pitt’s awful season, 17-16, 5-13 in Big East play. As for Wake Forest, we improved from 8-24, 1-15, to 13-18, 4-12 this year. Oh joy. I watched our ACC tourney game against Maryland and it was typical of the entire season. We got off to a solid start, looked pretty good, were up 28-23, and lost 82-60…or a 59-32 run by the Terps. On to football….cough cough.
[The Deacs were mentioned in a USA TODAY article the other day for having average attendance decline 3,200 since 2008; part of an overall problem in college basketball.]
–The FBI is investigating allegations of point shaving involving suspended Auburn guard Varez Ward, as first reported by Yahoo Sports. In a game Jan. 25 at Arkansas, Ward played only one minute after coming up lame with what was described as a quadriceps injury. Auburn lost by three that night. Arkansas was favored by 9.5.
In a Feb. 7 loss to Alabama, Ward scored three points and committed a team-high six turnovers in 17 minutes. The Crimson Tide won by 18 after opening as a 5.5-point favorite.
The school was first alerted by a player who voiced suspicions to an assistant coach and Auburn immediately reported it to the FBI. Ward was suspended by the school on Feb. 25 and did not appear the rest of the way.
So we’ll see where this goes. Auburn appears to have done everything right in this instance.
Peyton Manning…Mark Sanchez
So it’s down to Denver, Arizona and Miami for Peyton Manning, perhaps Kansas City as well; this as the Jets and Redskins made other plans. Some say the Broncos would unload Tim Tebow if they signed Manning. Tebow would be foolish not to try and stick around and learn a thing or two under Peyton were Manning to settle on Denver. Take a pay cut if he has to. Plus it’s not as if Peyton is guaranteed to remain healthy.
The Jets signed Mark Sanchez to an extension and the Skins made a huge move in trading for the No. 2 pick in the draft so they can select Robert Griffin III.
Sanchez received a 3-year extension that essentially pays him $2.75 million more than the $17.75 million in base salaries and bonuses he was due in 2012 and 2013, but while they now have him under contract through 2016, only the next two seasons are guaranteed and they picked up some cap space. Ergo, the pressure on Sanchez these next two seasons is huge. Now the Jets need a qualified backup and the thinking is they’ll go for Miami’s Chad Henne with former Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano now New York’s offensive coordinator. I have no problem with this…but if Boise State QB Kellen Moore is available in the middle rounds of the draft, the Jets would be foolish not to take him! I’m tellin’ ya, Moore is a steal in rounds 4-6, as now projected. Let him learn the system for two years as a 3rd-string QB and if Sanchez blows, he’s your guy in 2014. And that’s a memo.
But wait…there’s more! Folks in these parts are constantly comparing Eli Manning’s rough start in the NFL to Sanchez’ first three years, so let’s take a look.
TD-INT-completion percentage-QB rating
Year 1…6-9, 48.2, 55.4
Year 2…24-17, 52.8, 75.9
Year 3…24-18, 57.7, 77.0
Year 4…23-20, 56.1, 73.9…but then he won the Super Bowl
*In his first three seasons, Eli was 20-21, including 0-2 in the playoffs.
Year 1…12-20, 53.8, 63.0
Year 2…17-13, 54.8, 75.3
Year 3…26-18, 56.7, 78.2
Year 4…?????
*In his first three seasons, Sanchez is 31-22, including 4-2 in the playoffs.
The thing is, Manning didn’t really get his act together until Year 5 (aside from the Super Bowl run), and the last four seasons his completion percentage has been 60%+, for starters, while his QB rating has been 85+ all four years.
So will Jets fans, knowing the contract situation, give Sanchez a break this year if he has a mediocre season on a team that goes 8-8? No freakin’ way.
“The Jets have babied Sanchez and the contract could cause more resentment in a locker room that is not 100% behind him. So, it didn’t help after he got the new deal when Sanchez said, ‘I’m going to be the starting quarterback for the next few years here, and that’s exciting. It gives the team just a reminder that I’m the leader of this team and I’m excited to get back, and I’m going to be working my tail off these next few months to become the best possible starting quarterback that this franchise can have.’
“The contract doesn’t make him a leader. Leadership is earned. Which brings to mind something former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer said in 1986: ‘Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.’
“The issue for the Jets: Can Sanchez bring them home?”
As a Jets fanatic, I’d be ecstatic if we just made the playoffs. The team simply isn’t that good.
As for Washington, in a gigantic move…and massive risk…the Skins traded their first-round picks (2012, 2013, 2014) and their second-round pick this year to St. Louis, to gain the right to draft RG3.
“Some will characterize the Washington Redskins’ trade for the No. 2 overall pick in April’s NFL draft as a return to high-profile foolishness. When football teams struggle, every armchair GM thinks getting a hotshot quarterback will fix everything.
“Such plans are often short-sighted, but this is a case when the right move was also the most obvious. With one bold action, Mike Shanahan has potentially done more to restart the Redskins than he could have accomplished with five years’ worth of draft choices.”
Shanahan is 6-10 and 5-11 in his two seasons in Washington.
“All of a sudden, the what-has-he-done-without-John-Elway talk started again.
“Desperation is often the tinder that sparks the most blazing trades in sports history. A few times in your life, there is a jump-off-Niagara-Falls deal so brave and so risky that, the instant you hear it, you know it will be debated for decades, maybe even generations. Add Robert Griffin III to the list.
“The Washington Redskins just paid the highest price in history for a chance to grab an unproven college player. In the NFL, future draft picks are far more precious than money…The St. Louis Rams have them now and, with drafting competence, may turn them into four remarkable standouts, or, if they choose, as many as 10 useful players.
“Maybe the Redskins and their fans will, eventually, feel about this electric, exciting news the way Broncos fans still rejoice at the memory of getting John Elway from the Baltimore Colts for Mark Herrmann, Chris Hilton and a draft pick that became somebody named Ron Solt.
“Or they may grin the way Cowboys fans still get a tingle recalling Jimmy Johnson’s inspired 18-player deal in 1989 that sent Herschel Walker to the Vikings for five players and six draft picks. Those 11 pieces were eventually transformed into Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Russell Maryland and others that formed the dog-to-dynasty leap in Dallas in the ‘90s.
“Derring-do and desperation don’t always equal dumb. Sometimes, ‘at any price’ can be a bargain. From physical talents to football temperament, from classroom intelligence to responsible ebullient character, it’s hard to imagine a quarterback on whom you’d rather risk your future than RG3. These days, everybody’s supposed to say ‘Yea’ or ‘Nay,’ in real time. Put me down for ‘Yea.’ This gives the Redskins a chance to be special again within two or three years. It’s exciting.”
Bounty Hunting, cont’d
“On Saturday nights during the 2009 NFL season, Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, the lightning-rod leader of a feisty unit, would stand in front of his men holding white envelopes filled with cash – bonuses for their performances the previous week. As Williams called up player after player, handing them envelopes with amounts ranging from $100 for a special teams tackle inside the opponents’ 20-yard line to $1,500 for knocking a foe out of the game, a chant would rise up from the fired-up defenders:
“Many players would do just that, to beef up the pot and make the stakes bigger as the season went on. The NFL alleges that by the time New Orleans reached the NFC Championship Game against the Vikings on Jan. 24, 2010, the stakes had risen to the point that middle linebacker and defensive captain Jonathan Vilma personally offered a $10,000 bounty to any player who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the game.”
During the Vikings game, after Favre was helped off the field with a badly sprained left ankle, “An on-field microphone directed toward the sideline caught an unidentified defender saying, ‘Pay me my money!’”
Commissioner Roger Goodell will come down exceedingly hard on the Saints’ franchise, as he should.
–Did Tiger Woods reinjure his Achilles? From a statement Sunday night, it appears that way as Tiger withdrew in the fourth round at the WGC event at Doral, won by Justin Rose over Bubba Watson, Rose’s fourth career PGA Tour title.
Officials at CBS are depressed as hell because Tiger’s presence at Augusta guaranteed record ratings, especially if Phil or Rory was in the hunt. It certainly appears Tiger won’t be playing for a while.
–I feel awful for Minnesota Timberwolves phenom Ricky Rubio, who suffered a season-ending injury, a torn ACL, on Friday. I’ve written how great it was for the NBA that Rubio had gotten off to such a strong start in his career and it obviously helped resurrect the T’Wolves’ franchise. It’s just sad.
I mean seriously, I’m wracking my brain trying to come up with another NBA player I’d feel this badly for and I can’t. Even Tim Duncan. He’s had his Hall of Fame career, he’d just retire. Kobe? Stuff happens. Any member of the Knicks? Jeremy Lin, I guess. LeBron? Not gonna go there…wouldn’t be prudent.
–Back to LeBron, since I’ve slammed him it’s only fair to make note that he sank a clutch three in regulation to tie the contest up for Miami on Saturday as Dwyane Wade then hit a buzzer-beater in overtime vs. Indiana.
–Suddenly, the Knicks have lost five in a row and are 18-23, with the Garden crowd booing the team’s lackluster performance on Sunday vs. the Sixers. The D’Antoni death watch is back on. Linsanity is history. Glad I didn’t buy his jersey. I’ll stick with my Murraywear for now, thank you.
–Oh brother…thank you, Ryan Braun. Ken Belson / New York Times:
“Lawyers for Ryan McBean and D.J. Williams, two of the three Denver Broncos suspended for violating the NFL’s drug policy, are likely to file a lawsuit in state court in Colorado as soon as Monday in an attempt to overturn the rulings.
“The players contend that the league-appointed drug test collector mishandled their urine samples and that the arbitrator who heard their appeals violated protocol in several ways.”
The two players’ attorneys “said neither player tested positive. Instead, they were suspended on suspicion of providing nonhuman urine samples.”
McBean and Williams were suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2012 regular season. “The suspension is ‘based on a specimen that the NFL acknowledges did not contain steroids or any illegal substance,’ Williams said in a statement.
“Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the NFL, said there was no merit to the allegation that the drug collector mishandled the samples.”
–Detroit Lions defensive end Ndamukong Suh has major issues, off the field, let alone on the field. In December, Suh lost control of a car and crashed into a drinking fountain and tree in Portland. Then on Thursday, he was pulled over for speeding…as in 91 mph in a 55 mph zone.
–Canadian skicross racer Nik Zoricic was killed when he crashed into nets on the side of the course in Grindelwald, Switzerland in what all agree was a “freak accident,” much the same way that Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke crashed and died during halfpipe training two months earlier. Both were 29. Zoricic suffered “severe neurotrauma.”
—Lindsey Vonn became the first American to clinch four overall World Cup titles Friday by winning a giant slalom race (her 52nd individual career victory). Annemarie Moser-Proell won six overall titles in the 1970s and Luxemburg’s Marc Girardelli has five. Vonn previously won three straight, 2008-2010.
–New Jersey has a scholastic athlete, Edward Cheserek (St. Benedict’s Prep, Newark), who had the top indoor time in the country for the mile this winter, 4:02.21 (by ten seconds) and the top in the 2-mile, 8:43.16 (by 27 seconds). As Ronald Reagan would have said; not bad, not bad at all.
–The Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. sold all 30,000 of its available spots in 2 hours 41 minutes, the fastest sellout in the history of marathon events in the U.S. That’s 30,000 at $92 a pop, which as I noted awhile back is very reasonable these days.
–Umpire Harry Wendelstedt died. He was 73. Wendelstedt had a 33-year major league career, and as one obituary put it, “He was also one of the game’s most unassailable on-field authorities.” Some say he should be in the Hall of Fame. I say, how the heck can an umpire be enshrined in Cooperstown? The game is not supposed to be about them. If they’re doing a good job, they are invisible, and Harry Wendelstedt was hardly invisible.
–Pretty funny…a waiter at the Angus Barn in Raleigh, N.C., was fired after posting a receipt of a meal he served Peyton Manning when Manning was working out at Duke as part of his rehab. The bill was for $739.58 (Manning entertaining a number of buddies), and Manning threw in $200. The owner, Van Eure, said, “This goes against every policy we have. It’s just horrible.”
Oh, c’mon. No harm, no foul, Van. Suspend the guy for two nights instead. He just gave you major free publicity.
–From Sports Illustrated: 226’ 10”…distance traveled on Feb. 26 by a paper airplane thrown by former Cal quarterback Joe Ayoob, breaking the world record by nearly 20 feet.
–We note the passing of Jimmy Ellis, lead singer of the Trammps, who died at the age of 74. The group got its name singing on street corners. As manager Edward Cermanski put it, “The police called them tramps. So they said they wanted to be high-class tramps, with two ‘m’s’ in the name.” The boys were best known for “Disco Inferno,” which I was surprised to see peaked at just No. 11 on the Billboard pop charts. The song was used as background for an extended John Travolta dance sequence in the movie “Saturday Night Fever.” The soundtrack for the movie won a Grammy for album of the year and so the Trammps received one, as did every performer on the disc. Jimmy Ellis was born, and died, in Rock Hill, S.C.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/14/81: #1 “9 to 5” (Dolly Parton) #2 “Keep On Loving You” (REO Speedwagon) #3 “Woman” (John Lennon)…and…#4 “The Best Of Times” (Styx) #5 “I Love A Rainy Night” (Eddie Rabbitt) #6 “Crying” (Don McLean) #7 “Rapture” (Blondie) #8 “The Winner Takes It All” (Abba) #9 “Hello Again” (Neil Diamond) #10 “Celebration” (Kool & The Gang)*
*I woke up in the middle of the night, after first posting BC, and it hit me…hadn’t added a Top 3! Sorry, thus rushed through it without the usual hard-hitting analysis.
NCAA Basketball Championship Quiz Answer: 1) Maine is the only state never to have a Division I tourney entrant. North Dakota has just one. Hawaii has four. With the University of Vermont making it again this year, that makes five for them. Delaware has just five. New Hampshire has seven. 2) Prior to the awarding of bids for this year’s tourney, California led with 189; Pennsylvania was next with 176; and North Carolina third with 167. Then you had Texas, 147; Kentucky, 140; Ohio, 137; Indiana, 132, and New York 130. It’s a big drop-off from there to Tennessee, 94; Illinois and Utah, 88; and Oklahoma, 80. Kansas had 73, Michigan 68. Again, before all this year’s entrants were announced. [Source: Wall Street Journal, which they calculated from NCAA data.]
