[Posted: 9:00 AM ET, Wednesday]
Masters’ Runner-Up Quiz: Name the following who finished second at Augusta since 1970. Initials…G.G., D.P., R.F., D.S., B.C. Answer below.
Louisville 82 Michigan 76
Steve Politi / Star-Ledger
“This is what college basketball needed. This was the perfect championship game to end an imperfect season, a 40-minute reminder that the sport can still be great beyond all the nonsense on and off the court.
“This was what everyone needed after a week of those ranting and raving Mike Rice clips dominated the airwaves, after a season spent lamenting the steady decline of the sport, after so much anger directed at the NCAA and its hypocrisy.
“The college game has no shortage of problems, and that won’t change with one magical night.
“Still: You would never know it at the Georgia Dome on Monday, where a record 74,326 fans – a full 60,000 of them stuck in terrible seats and not caring one bit – witnessed a thrilling and well-played game that’ll go down as…well, let Jim Nantz handle that one.
“ ‘Folks, you just watched one of the greatest championship games in history,’ the CBS play-by-play man told the crowd before presenting Louisville the championship trophy. ‘Congratulations.’
“Yes, college hoops needed Louisville 82, Michigan 76….
“It needed (coach Rick) Pitino, who nearly bottomed out after a whirlwind of a sex scandal, to continue his second act by becoming the first coach to win titles with two teams. Pitino was announced as a Hall of Famer earlier in the day. One of his racehorses won the Santa Anita Derby. His son Richard was named the Minnesota head coach. Yeah, it’s been a good couple weeks.
“ ‘What he was able to come back from was pretty remarkable,’ Richard said on the Georgia Dome court…..
“College basketball has problems. Make no mistake about that. But this was a reminder that the college game can still be great. Monday night, it had Louisville vs. Michigan, and the biggest winner was the sport itself.”
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“This is exactly what you want out of a championship game, all of it, every bit of it. You had a No. 1 seed and a No. 4 seed, but on the final Monday of a season that’s just trivia, Louisville and Michigan were separated by a whisker, by a sliver, by a hyphen. That’s all. That’s it.
“ ‘Two great basketball teams,’ Louisville coach Rick Pitino said, ‘trying to play a great game.’
“Forty minutes of basketball reduced to one final-minute sprint to the end: Louisville trying to hang on, trying to make the seconds melt away so they finally might be able to make Michigan go away….
“This 82-76 victory didn’t have a buzzer-beater, didn’t have one particular image we’ll see 30 years from now, no Lorenzo Charles moment, no Christian Laettner moment. Instead it was a tower built of many moments, a series of interchangeable heroes.
“There was a Michigan freshman named Spike Albrecht, who nearly hijacked the whole tournament by falling out of the sky to toss in 17 first-half points….
“But the Cardinals had their own secret weapon, a sniper named Luke Hancock, a tough kid who has spent so much of his college career in pain and in traction, both of his shoulders nearly ruined, playing now for his gravely ill father, Bill, who managed to make it to the Georgia Dome to watch his son win the Most Outstanding Player Award after scorching the nets for 22….
“ ‘The sun will come up tomorrow,’ said Michigan coach John Beilein, providing one final dollop of perspective. ‘If my players aren’t smiling, I’m going to make them smile.’
“No worries about the other side. There were smiles aplenty. Great team. Great game.
“Too bad we couldn’t make it best-of-3.”
Lastly, on Luke Hancock, who made all five of his 3-pointers… from Andy Katz / ESPN.com:
“Hancock grabbed the moment, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The points, the trophy and the title won’t solve his father’s illness. But Bill Hancock was there to witness his son’s greatest athletic achievement. The memories Luke Hancock has, he owns them forever. And in a week in which he showed his maturity and compassion for the sports world to see, he was more than the most outstanding player of a two-game event; he was a true mensch – a person with integrity and honor when it mattered most.”
Tidbits:
–Michigan coach John Beilein made a huge mistake down the stretch, admitting he didn’t know what the foul situation was.
“I thought we were in the 1-and-1. It’s a coaching error. That falls right on me.”
Dan Wolken / USA TODAY
“With Michigan trailing 78-74, it appeared the Wolverines got a key stop with 52 seconds left when Peyton Siva missed a runner. But Michigan freshman Caris LeVert stepped on the baseline while securing the rebound, turning the ball back over to Louisville and seemingly forcing an immediate foul situation – especially with Michigan only having five team fouls.
“Instead, Michigan tried to play defense and force a turnover, wasting 13 precious seconds before center Gorgui Dieng got fouled. To Beilein’s surprise, however, that was only the Wolverines’ sixth team foul. By the time they committed the seventh and put Louisville at the foul line, just 29 seconds remained. Luke Hancock made both free throws, extending the lead to 80-74.
“Wasting those 23 seconds proved to be crucial, as Michigan got back within 80-76, but had only 14 seconds left to come back. Siva’s free throws with 12 seconds left iced the game.”
–For the record, Sports Illustrated’s preseason Top Ten for 2012-2013 was….
1. Indiana
2. Louisville
3. Kansas
4. Kentucky
5. N.C. State
6. Michigan
7. Ohio State
8. Duke
9. Florida
10. UCLA
11. Syracuse
–Scott Gleeson / USA TODAY
The 2013-2014 Top Ten
1. Kentucky…think the recruiting class….easily one of the best ever… “The Sensational Six.”
2. Duke…despite losing a ton, another big recruiting class, plus transfer Rodney Hood enters the picture.
3. North Carolina…dependent on James Michael McAdoo, Reggie Bullock and P.J. Hairston returning.
4. Michigan State
5. Florida
6. Arizona
7. Marquette
8. Syracuse
9. Memphis
10. Louisville…Lose Peyton Siva, and Russ Smith is going out, plus, it appears, Gorgui Dieng.
11. Wichita State
15. Oregon…might go all-in with Duckwear next season.
—Clark Kellogg, Monday night…
“He is flowing like he’s never flowed before.”
“It’s a volcanic eruption of epic proportions.”
“Seeing it was absolutely beyond description.”
And the world continues to ponder a question bigger than the North Korea riddle…just how the heck did Clark Kellogg get his job in the first place?!
–Congratulations to the Lady Huskies of UConn, 93-60 winners over the Lady Cardinals of Louisville in the women’s NCAA championship.
For UConn and Coach Geno Auriemma it was their eighth title, thus tying Tennessee.
Ball Bits
—Commissioner Bud Selig created a 17-member diversity task force to study and address the lack of African-Americans in Major League Baseball.
Only 7.7 percent of the players on the 25-man opening day rosters were African-American, according to USA TODAY (the New York Times has a different figure). Several teams, including the San Francisco Giants, had none.
According to new research by the Society of American Baseball Research, the highest percentage was 19 percent in 1986, as noted by the Times.
But a USA TODAY Sports study says the peak was 27% in 1975, which makes more sense, from what I remember…not having killed that brain cell as yet.
–The other day I noted the brutal performances by some of baseball’s top hurlers on Sunday, but posted before the San Francisco game was wrapped up.
This was an historically bad day so I wanted to add Matt Cain’s performance…plus I’ve included the ERAs for the five for their first two starts, and then after Monday’s Mets 7-2 win over the Phillies, ace Roy Halladay’s.
Stephen Strasburg…5.1 IP…6 ER (Reds win 6-3)…4.38 (current ERA)
R.A. Dickey…4.2…7 (Red Sox 13-0)…8.44
David Price…5.0…8 (Indians 13-0)…8.18
Cole Hamels…5.2…8 (Royals 9-8)…10.97
Matt Cain…3.2…9 (Cardinals 14-3)…8.38
Roy Halladay…4.0…7 (Mets 7-2)…14.73
I mean baseball fans know how long it takes to get an ERA down from such lofty levels. It ain’t easy.
I’ll say that among Dickey, Price, Hamels, Cain and Halladay, Cain finishes the year with the best ERA…3.20.
It is also increasingly looking like Halladay is finished. In his eight starts going back to Aug. 31, Doc has allowed 36 earned runs in 38 1/3 (8.45 ERA), pitching more than five innings only three times.
So here are some of your other EXCLUSIVE projections for the 2013 baseball season based on the initial sampling through games Tuesday…as compiled by our crack staff and our Commodore computer, which as Jeff B. notes in Connecticut, somehow continues to shut down his neighborhood’s power when it overheats.
Roy Halladay will finish 1-22 with a 9.98 ERA.
R.A. Dickey will go a Jack Fisheresque 8-24, 6.24.
Stephen Strasburg will shake off his bad outing and go 23-3, 2.65.
The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, currently 2-0, 0.00, 16 strikeouts….will finish 2013 with a sterling 29-1 record, 0.13 ERA, 320 strikeouts. Some will call this the greatest season ever by a pitcher.
But the Mets’ Matt Harvey, also 2-0 (0.64) with 19 Ks in just 14 innings, will finish the year 30-2, 1.04, 345 strikeouts. At one point, Harvey will fan 18 consecutive hitters, shattering Tom Seaver’s mark of 10. [In that particular contest, Harvey will strike out 24 of 29 batters he faces…one hit, one walk.]
The Angels’ Josh Hamilton, .138, 0 home runs, 3 RBI….we can now say will finish at .132, 2 home runs, 17 RBI.
The Angels’ phenomenal Mike Trout, now .281, 0-0, will finish at the same mark, with 3 homers and just 8 RBI. Most will label this the sophomore jinx. I’ll concur.
Washington’s Bryce Harper will buck the sophomore jinx, however. Harper, currently at .379 with 3 homers and 5 RBI, will go on a historic tear shortly, batting .790 over 42 games and finish the year at .450 with 78 homers and 194 RBI.
Mets catcher John Buck, who has already clubbed 4 homers while driving in a league-leading 14 and batting .393, will take his power #s up to 35 HR and 78 RBI in the first 50 games before being replaced by rookie sensation Travis d’Arnaud. Buck will be waived. D’Arnaud will hit .145 with 2 homers and 5 RBI in 110 games.
Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton, .154 with 0 HR 0 RBI, will finish the season with 4 HR, 5 RBI….quite a comedown from his 37 homers in 123 games for Miami last year, I think you’d agree.
Atlanta outfielders B.J. Upton and Jason Heyward, currently with a combined 2 HR 3 RBI, will finish the year with 42 HR (respectable), but just 45 RBI (not so much so).
40-year-old Yankee hurler Andy Pettitte, now 2-0, 1.20, will move his record to 12-0 by his 41st birthday on June 15, but then his arm will fall off in a gruesome outing at the bandbox formerly known as the New Yankee Stadium.
Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Russell Martin, off to a 1-for-21 start at the plate, .048, will go six-for-420 (a record-worst of .014). They’ll rename his performance “the Martin line.”
I told you Seattle made a great move in obtaining former Washington OF/1B Michael Morse. He has started off with six home runs. He’ll finish the year with 132.
Baltimore’s Chris Davis, who had a Major League record 16 RBI in just his first four games, but has only one the last three (again, thru Tuesday), will end up with only 42 RBI for the year.
On the team front….
The Astros, 2-6, will indeed finish 38-124. The Angels, 2-5, will finish a highly disappointing 48-114, especially given their payroll.
Atlanta, 7-1, will finish 138-24, despite the lack of production from B.J. Upton and Jason Heyward. [B.J.’s brother Justin, currently with six home runs, will finish with 98 and obviously carry the team.]
And with the Mets at 5-3 and Yankees at 4-4, no reason to change my predicted yearend records.
Mets 76-86
Yankees 75-87
The Masters…and Golf Ball-bits
–OK, gotta stick with my pick from awhile back…43-year-old Angel Cabrera, who played well in Houston two weeks ago, but has recorded only seven top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour since his 2009 Masters victory. [He was T-14 in Houston.]
–I was reading Golf Digest and a bit with Butch Harmon who had the following:
“What you don’t know about Phil Mickelson, because he never complains, is the extent to which that psoriatic arthritis has hurt him. On Thursday of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, [caddie] Bones Mackay and I were waiting for Phil in the parking lot. Amy calls and says Phil is going to be late getting there, that he’s in a lot of pain and is having difficulty walking. Sure enough, when he shows up, he can barely get out of the car. He explains what the deal is: He has terrible pain running down his legs to his ankles, then back up all the way to his hands. Phil says, ‘Can you walk with me? Don’t let the photographers take pictures of me like this.’ We surround him and hide his limping. He gets to the range, and every swing is agony. To make a long story short, if Phil had shot even par on the back nine on Sunday [instead of 39], he would have tied for the lead. Beneath that soft Southern California young man is an incredibly tough guy.”
–Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal had a piece on the health of the game of golf, despite Tiger’s absence from the No. 1 slot until he won at Bay Hill. As in:
“Tour revenues rose to a record $1.11 billion last year, compared with $1.02 billion in 2010. The tour’s new nine-year television contract with NBC and CBS, signed in 2011 when Woods was tumbling down the rankings, will pay an average of about $800 million annually, a 33% increase over the previous deal, according to one person with knowledge of it.
“The PGA Tour now has title sponsors for all 42 of its tournaments, each of them paying $6 million to $12 million, depending on the event. Last year, FedEx Corp. extended its deal through 2017 to provide at least $35 million a year in prize money, and tens of millions more in advertising, for the season-ending FedEx Cup championship.”
And that, Johnny Mac, is why we have to put up with FedEx Cup standings updates in the third round of the fourth event of the year.
Anyway, because the PGA Tour is a nonprofit organization, all its excess cash goes to charity and in 2012, the tour donated $130 million, surpassing the previous high of $125 million in 2010.
Prize money this year will reach a record $298 million, up from $278 million in 2008.
And I have to admit I was surprised by this one. “CBS has seen television viewership for golf rise steadily. Audiences for final-round coverage of tour events averaged 3.5 million in 2012, 46% higher than in 2010. So far this year, an average of 4.1 million viewers have watched final-round coverage of the network’s three tournament broadcasts. NBC’s audiences grew to 3.4 million viewers last year, from 2.3 million in 2010.”
As for Woods’ participation in tournaments and the ratings, “In 2012, his participation in a final round boosted viewership by 60%, compared with 118% in 2009.”
I suspect if Tiger keeps up his super play this last bit will rise back to 100%.
–For you golf junkies out there, the “Dufnering” campaign is great stuff.
–What David Feherty did not say as an emcee at the recent Tavistock Cup event.
Tiger “finally has met someone who goes downhill faster than he did.”
Nope, he didn’t say it…except off-camera.
NBA Action….it’s Fannn-tastic! [sort of…]
–My New York Knicks wrapped up their first Atlantic Division since 1994 in whipping Washington on Tuesday as Carmelo Anthony had his fifth consecutive game of 35 points or more (shooting .611 from the field over this stretch).
Melo also learned he has the NBA’s top-selling jersey since the start of the 2012-13 season, and the Knicks top the list in team sales for the same period.
LeBron fell to No. 2, followed by Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose.
—Bernard King was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and in reviewing his career, 1978-93, with long stints off for injury and drug and alcohol rehab, it’s pretty amazing looking at some of his shooting percentages, including three seasons where the small forward shot .566, .572, and .588 from the field while averaging 23.2 ppg, 26.3, and 21.9 in those years, respectively. For his career, King averaged 22.5.
–I didn’t know this had happened until I read the story by Adi Joseph in USA TODAY, but former NBA star Spencer Haywood, who played mostly in the 1970s, had been told he had been elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame.
“This is so embarrassing,” Haywood told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “My stomach has been so bad I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. This isn’t a punch in the stomach. It’s below the stomach.”
Haywood says “someone from the NBA” told him he had made the cut. His agent leaked the report out, as well, to Fox Sports Network, which led the Hall to tell him the bad news in advance of Monday’s announcement.
There is some question as to whether the source was really from the NBA, especially since the Hall and NBA operate independently.
Haywood did average 20.3 points and 10.3 rebounds over 844 games. His best seasons were his first six, including his rookie year when he averaged 30.0 points and 19.5 rebounds(!) a game for the ABA’s Denver Rockets.
He was an exciting player in those days, but then he found his way to New York and with the Knicks he picked up the moniker Spencer Driftwood.
Nonetheless, I kind of liked the guy.
—Marty Blake died. He was 86. As general manager of what is now the Atlanta Hawks from 1954 to 1970, Blake drafted the likes of Lenny Wilkens, Zelmo Beaty, Lou Hudson, Jeff Mullins and Pete Maravich.
Later, he was the NBA’s director of scouting for 30 years, where he specialized in finding talent at small colleges; players like Dennis Rodman (Southeastern Oklahoma State) and Scottie Pippen (Univ. of Central Arkansas).
When the ABA and NBA merged in 1976, Blake, known as the ‘human database,’ was contracted for by the unified league. In the early 1970s, he began an annual event called the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in Virginia that focused league execs on players like Pippen, Rodman, Dave Cowens, Tim Hardaway, John Stockton and John Lucas, giving these future stars their first chance to shine in front of scouts.
Blake was born in Paterson, N.J.
Stuff
—Division I Men’s Hockey Frozen Four…April 11…
Quinnipiac vs. St. Cloud State
Massachusetts-Lowell vs. Yale
I’ll go with the St. Cloud State Huskies because I’m guessing they drink the most beer. [Very scientific.]
Of course in all honesty, Quinnipiac’s story is amazing. Their coach is Rand Pecknold, who got the job in 1994 and was paid a salary of $6,700. The team had to practice at a rink in Hamden, Conn. at midnight. Pecknold had a full-time job teaching history at Griswold High, 71 miles from Hamden. Needless to say his schedule was insane. [Naps from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.]
Quinnipiac was Division II at the time and lost 12 of its first 14 under Pecknold, including back-to-back losses to Alabama-Huntsville by a combined 18-1 score.
Pecknold vowed not to quit and eventually got an office….a converted janitor’s closet….and Quinnipiac went Division I in 1998. A new arena with separate facilities for hockey and basketball was opened in 2007.
And now they’re in the Frozen Four.
Oh, and Pecknold’s salary is also big time…a reported $300,000. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all.
As for Yale, it’s their first Frozen Four since 1952. [Dave Caldwell / Wall Street Journal]
–The Washington Post’s Mike Jones reported:
“The glowing reviews of Robert Griffin III’s recovery from knee reconstruction continue.
“Roughly two weeks after team physician James Andrews described Griffin as ‘superhuman’ in his recovery efforts, Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan added more praise for the quarterback.
“Friday evening in an interview with NFL Network, Shanahan said he expects Griffin to make an unprecedented comeback from January’s surgery to repair a torn ACL, LCL and meniscus.”
Then again, everyone will reevaluate come late summer. In the next few days, Griffin is expected to begin running on the field.
RGIII’s jersey is the highest-selling in NFL history (official sales from the NFLShop.com site only going back to 2006).
Brett Favre in 2009 and 2008 is second and fourth all time, while Peyton Manning in 2012 is third.
–Great line from a review of “Mad Men” by Hank Stuever of the Washington Post, who in describing Don Draper and his wife, Megan’s, trip to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in the opening scene last Sunday (circa late 1967 for those of you who don’t watch the show):
“Their bliss is not uneasy or tense; they are free, by comparison, of the same ennui the writer Joan Didion once experienced at that same hotel beachfront, also in the late ‘60s, when she wrote: ‘We are here on this island in the middle of the Pacific in lieu of getting a divorce.’”
–We note the passing of original Mousketeer, Annette Funicello, 70, who died of complications from multiple sclerosis. Walt Disney’s current CEO, Bob Iger, called Ms. Funicello “a true Disney legend.”
Following the “Mickey Mouse Club,” Funicello had top-40 hits and starred in Disney and beach-party movies, most famously with Frankie Avalon in “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.”
Funicello was born of Italian heritage in Utica, N.Y. As a child she moved with her family to Southern California, where she took dance classes. Walt Disney himself recruited her for the “Mickey Mouse Club” when she was 13 after watching her perform in “Swan Lake.”
As she aged, the studio sent her on dates with Avalon, Bobby Darin and other stars. In a memoir, she disclosed a teenage romance with Paul Anka, who wrote the song “Puppy Love” for her. I totally forgot that.
In the mid-1960s, Funicello left Hollywood for the life of a typical American housewife, having married her agent, 12 years her senior, in 1965.
Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” strip marked the occasion by showing Linus howling, “I can’t stand it! This is terrible! How depressing…ANNETTE FUNICELLO HAS GROWN UP!”
Oh, those were simpler times in so many respects.
Funicello reappeared a decade later in peanut-butter commercials that I remember very well. “It’s hard to beat Skippy!” she would say, playing off her role as a mother with three kids. [Her marriage ended after 17 years in 1982, after which she remarried.]
Sadly, after a reunion film in 1987 with Avalon, “Back to the Beach,” she was diagnosed with M.S.
–So I’m looking up the weather in my favorite part of the country, South Dakota’s Black Hills, as Deadwood was hammered by 20+ inches Tuesday/Wednesday, and I stumbled on the mountain lion hunting season.
I’ve told you in the past when I’ve been out that way how I would never hike alone in the Black Hills because I’d be worried I’d get devoured by a cougar.
Well the Rapid City Journal says there are an estimated 300 in the area! When the hunting season ended on March 31, “only 61 lions had been killed…a far cry from the 100 lions or 70 females limit, and fewer than the 73 lions killed in 2012.”
A New York-based cougar biologist who follows lion management in the Black Hills, John Laundre (he does his own, I’m imagining) said, “It basically means the lion population has crashed.”
“Lion hunters say the reduced lion harvest was due to poor snow conditions in the Black Hills (Ed. before Tuesday’s storm, of course) that made it more difficult to track lions and that there still are a lot of mountain lions in the Hills.”
The Game, Fish & Parks Commission wants a population between 150 and 175.
Next time I’m there, even if I’m just pumping gas, I’ll be sure to have my Swiss Army knife with me…with the corkscrew.
Top 3 songs for the week 4/11/87: #1 “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (Starship) #2 “Lean On Me” (Club Nouveau) #3 “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (Aretha Franklin and George Michael….good lord…what a duo…)…and…#4 “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” (Genesis) #5 “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (Crowded House…would be a sign of the times today…kids moving back with parents…grandparents moving in…I’m moving in with my beer…) #6 “Come Go With Me” (Expose…Kiawah, South Carolina? Sure…I’ll make the tee time…) #7 “Sign ‘O’ The Times” (Prince) #8 “Midnight Blue” (Lou Gramm) #9 “Let’s Go!” (Wang Chung) #10 “The Finer Things” (Steve Winwood…mailed this one in….)
Masters’ Runner-Up Quiz Answer:
G.G. …Gibby Gilbert, 1980 (Seve Ballesteros winner)
D.P. …Dan Pohl, 1982 (Craig Stadler)
R.F. …Rod Funseth, 1978 (Player)
D.S. …Dave Stockton, 1974 (Player)
B.C. …Bruce Crampton, 1972 (Nicklaus)
Talk about heartbreak, Tom Weiskopf finished second four times from 1969-75 (69, 72, 74, 75).
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
