NCAA Basketball Quiz: Name the two starting fives, one being easy, I would think, in the 1992-93 season title game in which North Carolina defeated Michigan and the Fab Five, 77-71, as the Wolverines’ Mr. X. called a timeout that he didn’t have with 11 seconds to go. Answer below.
NOTE: I was about to go to post around 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday, when word broke Tim Tebow was traded to the Jets for a fourth-round draft pick. I can’t spend the time rewriting what follows in light of this sudden development. But here’s my initial read. I came to like Tebow last season and praised him in this space. He’s just not a good fit at all for the Jets!!! On so many levels this makes zero sense.
Then, at the same time, we had the breaking story of the NFL coming down hard on the New Orleans Saints for their ‘bounty” program when Gregg Williams was defensive coordinator. Commissioner Roger Goodell lowered the boom.
Saints coach Sean Payton is suspended without pay for the 2012 season.
Gregg Williams is suspended indefinitely from the NFL.
Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt is suspended without pay for the first six regular-season games of the 2012 season.
General Manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight regular-season games, the team fined $500,000 and the Saints lose second-round picks in 2012 and 2013.
Two giant stories breaking within minutes of each other …We now resume our regularly scheduled programming …it’s 1:51 p.m. ET.
Peyton Manning
So Denver won out, leaving a mess in his wake. Manning signed with John Elway and Co. for five years, $96 million, in what seems like a fair deal for the Broncos. They are only on the hook for this year at $18 million (these numbers are so absurd…but we’ve become inured to them), after which Manning must pass a physical before the start of each succeeding year to collect. There is no signing bonus.
San Francisco, which had the most improved player in the game in quarterback Alex Smith, but offered him only three years at $8 million per as they went after Manning, now could lose not just Manning, but Smith, too, who can go anywhere. Will he come back, assuming the Niners sweeten the pot? I mean he saw Matt Flynn get a better deal out of Seattle (3 years, $26 million), and Matt Flynn has started all of two games in his NFL career.
Tennessee made a run for Manning but now goes with Matt Hasselback and Jake Locker. They’re fine.
Jacksonville has Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne. They desperately need someone exciting. Is it Tebow? [Guess not.]
Washington, when it became clear it wouldn’t get Manning, engineered the biggest trade in NFL history, according to some, in trading three first-rounders and a second pick to St. Louis for the rights to draft Robert Griffin III.
Arizona, which thought it had enough to make them attractive for Manning, re-upped with Kevin Kolb.
Miami, also thinking it had what Manning wanted, looked at Alex Smith and settled on David Garrard for one year, after Garrard had sat out 2011. The Dolphins still have Matt Moore.
All of the above are impacted in one way or another by Peyton Manning’s decision and the corollary, Tim Tebow.
Regarding Tebow, you now have the Jets. Out of nowhere, the Jets emerged as a leading candidate for his services because of his familiarity with the Wildcat formation, popularized by New York’s new offensive coordinator, Tony Sparano. But Tebow wouldn’t have a chance to start, what with the Jets’ commitment to Mark Sanchez, so you’d expect Tebow himself to want to go to Jacksonville or Miami, where he would have a chance to be the number one signal caller.
“Bringing in Tebow would be a disaster for the Jets and specifically Mark Sanchez. There is no reason to bring another circus to town when the Jets have a locker room full of sideshows.
“Sanchez, who still has a lot of growing up to do, was bent out of shape when Ryan, in an effort to shake up his young QB, gave Mark Brunell a couple of meaningless first-team snaps in practice last season.
“No doubt Sanchez would set an NFL record for pouting when 80,000 Jets fans, clad in their new green No. 15 jersey, begin chanting, ‘Tebow. Tebow. Tebow’ after Sanchez throws his first interception of the season….
“Sanchez has a reputation for being immature and has to work hard to win back the fractured locker room. That would be much harder with a polarizing figure such as Tebow looming over his shoulder.”
“The Jets should consider trading for Tim Tebow only if they are looking for a new starter at team chaplain, no disrespect intended.
“If he is truly a miracle worker, perhaps all it would take is a little Tebowing inside the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center to bring Mark Sanchez and Santonio Holmes together once and for all.
“Tebow-mania inside Rex Ryan’s Big Top?
Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie tweeted following word Tebow may become a teammate: “We don’t need Tebow. We sell out every home game let him go to Jacksonville Tampa or Miami….Our wildcat offense can be ran by (Jeremy) Kerley or Joe McKnight. We straight.”
“It disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived, the breathtaking autumn spectacle vanishing into mile-high air on a March afternoon.
“The Denver Broncos gathered for a news conference regarding a ballyhooed quarterback Tuesday, yet nobody dropped to one knee or raised his hands to the sky. There were no miracles here, only old-fashioned football men, Peyton Manning joining John Elway on a national stage filled with Hall of Fame pedigree and stocked with championship promise.
“One of the most magical, mystical runs in NFL history is indeed, resoundingly, resolutely over.
“Tebow Time is up….
“His best opportunity is to go to a place like New England where there will be no quarterback controversy with Tom Brady, and where he can be morphed into a tight end or fullback or short-yardage guy by an innovator like Bill Belichick.
“I wish it weren’t true, and maybe it won’t be. But right now, the sad irony is that for Tim Tebow to continue to exist as a contributing member of an NFL team, he probably has to stop being Tim Tebow.,,,
“Think about that. This is a guy still under contract, a guy who led the Broncos to their first division title in six years, and both (John Elway and Peyton Manning) aren’t even pretending that he’s still wanted there.
“The only thing more crass would be to immediately strip the Broncos facility walls of the Tebow action photos that were hung last season. Wait…they’ve already done that….
“Do you know that in the last five years, Peyton Manning has exactly one more playoff win than Tim Tebow? Just saying.
“I want to believe that this country’s premier sport is big enough for both Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow. I want to believe that there is room not only for skill born of ability, but skill born of inspiration, and strength born of faith.
“I want to believe that, in a sport littered with all the second chances given former convicts and miscreants and Hall of Fame quarterbacks with troublesome necks, Tim Tebow will get more than just one.”
Tebow, by the way, has cap friendly base salaries the next few years: $1.942 million in 2012, $2.266 million in 2013 and $2.590 million in 2014.
Finally, back to Manning, John Elway won his two Super Bowls after turning 37. Manning turns 36 on Saturday. All part of Elway’s thinking.
Wilpon Still Owns the Mets
Monday was a good day for Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, and another awful one for Mets fans. Our hope was that Wilpon and Katz would be totally bankrupted by the whole Bernie Madoff mess and that they’d be forced to sell the team to owners who gave a damn about the fans and had the financial wherewithal to field a winner on the field.
Instead, CEO Wilpon and team president Katz settled with Irving Picard, the trustee for the victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, for $162 million, none of which needs to be paid the next three years, and, when all is said and done, it’s possible Mets ownership will recover $178 million in counterclaims the Mets have made against Madoff. You see, ownership had accounts that made a lot of money with Bernie, and then when he crashed, there were accounts that lost a lot. The settlement is thus a far cry from the original goal of Picard’s, that being to recover $1 billion from Wilpon and Katz (and Wilpon’s son Jeff, another co-owner).
Separately, the Mets evidently paid down a lot of debt. They repaid $40 million to Bank of America, $25 million to Major League Baseball, and $100 million of other debt, though they still have $330 million or so left. [Some stories show $430 million, but they are leaving out the $100 million.]
The team was able to pay off the debt because they sold 12 minority interests at $20 million apiece, most of which were sold to insiders.
So in terms of the fans, what they have to take away is that for the next few years, Wilpon et al need to still run a tight budget, even as they also need to increase revenue, and to increase revenue you need to bring in better players, or hope there is help down on the farm, and in the Mets case they do have some promising pitchers but they aren’t going to be contributing for another year or two.
And consider this. With the departure of Jose Reyes, the face of the franchise is David Wright, who is being paid $15 million this year and has an option for $16 million in 2013. Now he’s been hurt this spring, after an injury-plagued 2011, and his production has been in steady decline. So Wright desperately needs to get off to a good start so the Mets can either get maximum trade value for him, or feel comfortable in sending a signal to the fans by exercising his option early, or even extending his contract.
But they also owe Johan Santana a staggering $24 million in 2012 and $25.5 million in 2013, and Santana hasn’t pitched since Eisenhower was president, as he hopes to come back from serious surgery. [He’s on track, but who knows what the Mets will get out of him. 12-12 with a 3.80 ERA would be about the most anyone should expect.]
Oh, and they owe outfielder Jason Bay $16 million each of the next two seasons, Bay already being a spectacular bust.
The club has lost $120 million the past two years, including $70 million last season when they were 77-85. Vegas has them at 72 wins this year from the one book I saw. I’m going with 43.
I have my own ideas on what went down between Bernie, Fred and Saul, but it doesn’t matter what I think anymore; former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo having brokered a settlement between the parties. [Actually, great job on his part from a purely professional standpoint.]
Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz are breathing a sigh of relief. Us fans are still crying.
“It is not a reach to say that over the last couple of years Fred Wilpon has made considerable efforts to convince news media folks and fans alike that he is a man of impeccable character. Consistent in his talking points, Wilpon, the Mets owner, has said time and again that beyond his consuming dedication to his team, he is a regular guy – as privileged guys go – and hardly the Madoff-enriched monster that Irving H. Picard was making him out to be.
“Referring to the now-settled lawsuit that accused him of benefitting from investments with the disgraced Bernard L. Madoff while at least suspecting Madoff was a fraud, Wilpon on Monday expressed delight in his legal vindication.
“ ‘As we’ve said from the very beginning, we are not willfully blind, we never were,’ he said. ‘We acted in good faith and we’re very pleased that this settlement bears that out. That’s important to us.’
“Interestingly, he spoke from behind a pair of dark glasses, avoiding eye-to-eye contact with a public whose compassion he sought….
“If we in New York know one thing about professional sports ownership it is that being a rascal or a rogue is not necessarily relevant to the question of consumer loyalty. And that it is far better to be bad than it is to be broke.
“If anything, Wilpon’s pleas to Mets ticket-buyers to ‘stick with us’ demonstrated a willful blindness to the bond that exists – or really doesn’t – between owners and fans. To begin with, only in the most tangential analysis is there an actual relationship between fans and owners. If there really was one, wouldn’t Knicks fans have extricated themselves from James L. Dolan instead of filling Madison Square Garden despite years of top-down behavioral dysfunction in that organization?
“The Knicks and the Rangers have managed to keep their fan bases engaged while enraged, but that is because the well-heeled Dolan has never stopped spending, and as a result hope has never been suspended, even as Knicks and Rangers fans wished for Dolan to be abducted by aliens….
“These days, fans can be as demanding and impatient as Steinbrenner ever was and they have a right, considering how owners gouge them for every last dollar in the name of serving them….
“Winning apparently clears the slate and cleanses the soul. Wilpon could spend the next few years climbing trees, saving cats and parking fans’ cars. They won’t stick with him if his team can’t play. Fans in the 21st century, often feeling like victims of another kind of Ponzi scheme, are just willfully blind that way.”
NCAA Basketball Tournament
1 Michigan State vs. 4 Louisville; 3 Marquette vs. 7 Florida
1 Syracuse vs. 4 Wisconsin; 6 Cincinnati vs. 2 Ohio State
1 North Carolina vs. 13 Ohio; 11 North Carolina State vs. 2 Kansas
*So you have 4 Big Ten; 4 Big East; 2 SEC; 2 ACC; 2 Big 12; 1 A-10 and 1 MAC.
**And Ohio becomes the first state with four schools in the Sweet Sixteen, dating back to 1985 when the tournament was expanded.
But the big story, of course, is the status of Carolina star point-guard Kendall Marshall, who underwent wrist surgery on Monday. As I write, there seems little chance he plays this weekend, but would be a probable for the Final Four should Carolina survive.
Just how they can win a contest against N.C. State or Kansas, should they manage to defeat Ohio, without Marshall, is the real issue. I mean Marshall was playing the best ball of his career and is critical to the Tar Heels’ success. You also see how critical the January loss to injury of backup Dexter Strickland was because North Carolina is now forced to go with little-used freshman Stilman White and senior Justin Watts.
–If Kentucky wins the national championship, coach John Calipari picks up an extra $600,000. He’s already earned $150,000 for winning the SEC regular-season title and by advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.
North Carolina State’s Mark Gottfried added two years to his deal, currently worth $1.2 million a season, for guiding the Wolfpack into the tournament. I imagine Mrs. Gottfried is pretty fired up.
–Update: The University of Southern Mississippi revoked the scholarships and dismissed five members of the pep band for taking part in the racially-sensitive chant directed at Kansas State player Angel Rodriguez, “Where’s your green card.” I’d say that was appropriate action. The kids can remain at school. A university official said, “The students have been forthcoming, cooperative, contrite and sincerely remorseful.” I give Southern Miss credit for acting quickly, including the interim athletic director’s trip to the K-State hotel to apologize personally after the game.
–As the Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond points out, there is no bigger choke artist on the planet these days than the Georgetown Hoyas, who “have now lost to a double-digit seed three straight years after their 66-63 defeat by 11th-seeded North Carolina State on Sunday.” The previous two years they lost to 11th-seeded VCU and 14th-seeded Ohio.
Actually, since the tourney expanded to 64 teams (now 68) in 1985, UCLA has been upset the most, losing to a double-digit seed six times, the most famous defeat at the hands of Princeton when the Bruins were the defending national champions.
–St. John’s freshman Moe Harkless declared himself for the draft. He was the Big East rookie of the year, averaging 15.5 points per game. The move was not unexpected and he’s projected as a top 20 pick.
–The Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg threw 85 pitches in his fourth outing of the spring on Tuesday. I’d say that’s a super sign the phenom is back. I also just saw he was named Opening Day starter.
And Nats’ budding superstar Bryce Harper is starting the year at AAA, where he will learn to play centerfield. He hit .286 in 28 at bats in the big league camp and while he’s overmatched thus far by lefthanders, the watch is on to see when he comes up this season. For reasons I’ve gotten into before involving money and when he becomes eligible for arbitration, the 19-year-old will probably be in Washington around July.
–The Phillies’ Chase Utley will start the season on the disabled list for the second straight year it would seem as he has problems with both knees.
—Hines Ward retired as a Steeler after 14 years.
–I didn’t want to comment on the status of Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba last time until I knew more about his condition, but, incredibly, the 23-year-old, who collapsed on the field in a match against Tottenham, Sunday, is showing significant signs of progress. Understand his heart stopped beating while on the field, efforts to resuscitate him having failed, but when he got to the hospital, his heart started up again on its own. Amazing.
–I’ll cover all the changes being made to the PGA Tour at a later date, especially when some critical details emerge. The bottom line for now, though, is that in 2013, Q School as a way of qualifying for the PGA Tour will be eliminated. It will be a vehicle for the Nationwide Tour. The official Tour season will also start in the fall, after the FedEx Cup.
–As for Tiger Woods appearing in the made-for-TV, two-day friendly, the Tavistock Cup, ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski correctly raises the issue; what was Tiger doing participating in it?
“Eight days ago at the WGC-Cadillac Championshi p in Miami, Woods limped off the No. 12 tee box after his best drive of the day. He was whisked away in a golf cart to the players’ parking lot, ducked into his Mercedes and was long gone before completion of Sunday’s final round….
“Doctors later determined Woods’ Achilles had suffered a strain, nothing more. He took it easy for five days and later announced he was fit for the Tavistock Cup….
“Not once did I seem him favor his left leg or stretch out his Achilles, as he did during that Sunday round at Doral. And when faced with sidehill, downhill or uphill lies, Woods had zero problems.”
Woods said he needed to drop out of the WGC because it was the prudent thing to do, but why then take the risk so soon after with Augusta coming up? As Wojciechowski said:
“The point is, nobody knows what’s going on inside Tiger’s mind. There’s a wall of razor wire between him and almost everyone else.
“(Former swing coach Hank) Haney worked with him for six years and yet, he writes in his book that he was afraid to ask Woods for a popsicle during a home stay….
“I don’t know whether Woods is motivated by love of the game, fear, anger or all of the above. I’ve seen glimpses of his wickedly entertaining sense of humor. I’ve seen tears, the 5,000-watt smile and the chilling, impassive stare.
“Woods remembers those loyal to him. But he absolutely commits to memory the names of those who cross him.
“Haney and (former caddie Steve) Williams crossed him. They are now persona non Tiger. Woods is Michael Corleone. Hank and Stevie are Fredo.”
—Director of shark attacks, and now Vice President of Ballooning, Bob S., first alerted me to this story, later retold by Jeff Martin and Tom Breen of the AP.
“As a fierce thunderstorm that seemed to come out of nowhere closed in, hot-air balloon pilot Edward Ristaino spotted an open field 4,000 feet below and calmly and tersely warned the five skydivers aboard the craft, ‘You need to get out now.’
“With lightning spidering across the sky and the wind rocking their parachutes, the skydivers floated safely to the ground, while the balloon was sucked up into the clouds, then sent crashing to earth. Ristaino’s body wasn’t found until Monday, nearly three days later.
“ ‘If we would have left a minute later, we would have been sucked into the storm,’ said skydiver Dan Eaton….
“(Skydiver Dennis Valdez) said, ‘We had no idea what was going on in the pilot’s head. It was only apparent to me post facto that he was definitely very nervous about the weather, rushing to get us out of there.’….
“An updraft took Ristaino into the clouds, 17,000 or 18,000 feet up, he told his ground crew via walkie-talkie. Then the storm apparently collapsed the balloon and twisted it into a streamer. In his last transmission, he reported that he was at 2,000 feet and saw trees beneath him, according to the sheriff.”
Ristaino’s body was found in the gondola “of his twisted-up craft, about eight miles from where the skydivers landed.”
As Bob S. noted, Ristaino should be a candidate for “Man of the Year.” His name has been placed in the appropriate December file for yearend consideration.
–Meanwhile, at the Buffalo Zoo on Monday morning, word went out that Koga, a 24-year-old male silverback gorilla, had escaped through an unsecured door. When Koga was confronted by zoo officials, he lashed out, leaving one female zookeeper with superficial bite wounds on her right hand and left calf, as reported by the Buffalo News’ Gene Warner.
Visitors were escorted into safe areas and the Buffalo Police SWAT Team was called in. The injured zookeeper locked herself into a cage with two gorillas who knew her well; the two offering her tea and crumpets.
So, knowing the zookeeper was safe, the animal-escape team took its time, finally using a blow pipe to immobilize Koga; the 400-pound King Kong lookalike then being dragged unconscious back into its cage.
–A 20-year-old surfer survived a shark attack off Australia’s Gold Coast when he fell off his board and landed on the shark. He was bit on the leg but able to swim to shore. The suspect was a bull shark, who was charged with assault but it’s not likely he’ll ever see jail time. Nope, he’ll end up in some Asian’s soup, I’m guessing.
But, get this. Just saw a separate article and the photo of the guy’s leg is gruesome. Further, it seems that when Billy O’Leary dragged himself onto the beach “and yelled for help…many people were wearing iPods and could not hear him.”
–Update: Guess what? Mick Jagger and Keith Richards buried the hatchet, according to the Irish Independent, but then Rolling Stone magazine says they will not tour until 2013 because they aren’t ready, according to Richards. Others say Richards’ health is a major issue. Since he suffered his head injury while on vacation in Fiji in 2006, his performances have been weak. I’d say it looks like it’s over. Drat.
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/24/84: #1 “Jump” (Van Halen) #2 “Somebody’s Watching Me” (Rockwell…we actually bought this) #3 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (Cyndi Lauper…cue Rick Santorum)…and…#4 “Footloose” (Kenny Loggins…has not aged well, the song that is) #5 “Here Comes The Rain Again” (Eurythmics… ughh…) #6 “I Want A New Drug” (Huey Lewis and the News…nothing against these guys) #7 “99 Luftballons” (Nena…I guess if you were in Germany and really wasted, this would sound alright, but not in 2012 in New Jersey) #8 “Automatic” (Pointer Sisters…you know what? Not a fan of these girls, though one of ‘em had very nice legs, but this tune is pretty good for this era) #9 “Adult Education” (Daryl Hall – John Oates…they only had about 100 songs that were better) #10 “Got A Hold On Me” (Christine McVie…OK)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: Starting fives…North Carolina vs. Michigan, 1993
Michigan’s Fab Five
Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson
Donald Williams, Eric Montross, George Lynch, Derrick Phelps, Brian Reese
To me, Lynch was the epitome of a great college player, who then went on to a have a serviceable NBA career, though never averaging in double figures.
Also during that NCAA tournament, Wake Forest, led by Rodney Rogers and Randolph Childress, had a 5-seed, beat Chattanooga, 81-58, and 4-seed Iowa, 84-78, before getting totally blitzed by No. 1 Kentucky, 103-69, as the Wildcats shot 39-63 from the field, 61.9%. I’ll never forget being at a conference in Williamsburg, watching the debacle from my hotel room. Talk about depressing.
**Mad Men is back…March 25, 9 p.m., AMC
