Masters Quiz: Name the six foreign winners of The Masters in the 1980s and 90s. Answer below.
UConn’s Amazing Run
If you had told me that DeAndre Daniels would go 4-for-14 from the field and finish with just 8 points and 6 rebounds, I would have said no way the Huskies prevailed 60-54 over Kentucky Monday night, UConn’s fourth title since 1999.
But while Shabazz Napier had the kind of game you would have expected, 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, it was Ryan Boatright who was the real star. 14 points on 5-of-6 from the field, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and another lockdown defensive performance, this time on Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison, after earlier shutting down Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin and Michigan State’s Gary Harris.
UConn was up 30-15 with six minutes to go in the first half, Kentucky cut it to 35-31 at intermission, but then the Wildcats couldn’t get over the hump in the entire second half. James Young’s 20 points, 7 rebounds, kept them close, but the rest of the team did little and showed their lack of experience, or say they were intimidated.
But for Kentucky coach John Calipari, he can point to foul shooting as a major reason why he came up short in a national championship game for a second time. Kentucky hit just 13 of 24 attempts, while Connecticut was 10 of 10. Back in 2008, when Coach Cal was leading Memphis, they fell to Kansas when Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose missed key free throws down the stretch. Memphis went 12 of 19 while Kansas was 14 of 15 in a game that Kansas won in overtime.
“Richard Hamilton and Ray Allen, NBA veterans and former Connecticut standouts, were standing 15 feet from podium as the Huskies – their Huskies – celebrated atop the podium at AT&T Stadium while confetti fell from the rafters.
“Connecticut, a 7-seed that lost to Louisville three times during the regular season by a combined 55 points and finished third in the new American Athletic Conference, had just won the national title by defeating the rumbling Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 on Monday night. ‘Man, just imagine if you’d gone to Las Vegas three weeks ago and…,’ Hamilton said.
“Few outside Storrs, Conn., thought the Huskies would be here. Of the 11 million-plus people who entered a bracket into ESPN.com’s Tournament Challenge, .016 percent had the Huskies and Wildcats facing off in the championship.
“But UConn coach Kevin Ollie, who represents a new breed of young relatable coaches, thought this was attainable. And his players believed him when he told them they could win a national championship a year after the NCAA blocked the program from the postseason due to APR (Academic Progress Report) failures.”
Kevin Ollie. What a story. 13 years in the NBA, but with 12 teams. Just two years an assistant to Jim Calhoun. But as Ray Allen said, “Every day, you saw these guys being inspired. You saw them out there playing with so much passion.”
“Shabazz Napier was lying in his hotel bed late Sunday, a little restless, a lot anxious, trying to figure out what he would say 24 hours later when CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz put a microphone in his face because he already knew CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz would be putting a microphone in his face 24 hours later live on national television.
“ ‘Because I knew we were going to win,’ Napier said.
“So the senior guard from Connecticut, the star of this NCAA Tournament, thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and he finally settled on making a point about the Academic Progress Report ban that prevented the Huskies from competing in last season’s NCAA Tournament. Napier has long believed the ban was equal parts ridiculous and unfair, and he wanted to make that clear to the world. So that’s what he did.
“ ‘I wanna get everybody’s attention right quick,’ Napier said to a championship-game record crowd of 79,238 and an audience of millions watching on television. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you’re looking at the Hungry Huskies. …This is what happens when you banned us!’
“Nantz then told Napier he had been named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
“One Shining Moment, indeed.”
“Connecticut had everything working against it. The men’s basketball program was banned from 2013 postseason play for previous teams’ academic lagging. Huskies coach Kevin Ollie was in only his second season and first NCAA tournament as a head coach. UConn was smaller than nearly every team it played in the postseason….
“ ‘He played that team exactly how they had to play to have success,’ Kentucky coach John Calipari said of Ollie.”
What they did was shut down Kentucky’s big men, particularly Julius Randle, holding him to 10 points and 6 rebounds.
What a year. UConn started the season No. 18 in the Associated Press poll but dropped out of the top 25 twice and then had that Louisville blowout by 33 in its last regular-season game. They got what they deserved…a 7 seed. Now they are the first such seed to win a national title. No wonder Huskies fans will be pinching themselves for months.
–As Harvey Araton of the New York Times put it, when it comes to Connecticut’s struggle to get an invite into a major conference: “The Big Ten blew it when it took Rutgers over Connecticut starting next season. Beyond the misguided belief that it was buying its way into the New York City market, what was it thinking?”
Araton adds: “Not that long ago, Connecticut thought it was headed for the Atlantic Coast Conference but was said to have paid a price for the former coach Jim Calhoun’s scandal-ridden men’s program and its putrid graduation rates. (Athletic Director Warde) Manuel said Ollie’s mandate had been to clear the stench, to raise the academic bar. Now Connecticut’s mediocre football team is said to be the deterrent.
“Of course, the Big Ten accepted, in Rutgers, an equally undistinguished football team, a bad men’s basketball program and a declining women’s team. Rutgers has also produced a string of administrative embarrassments – the latest being an audio recording of Julie Hermann, the athletic director, telling students it ‘would be great’ if The Star-Ledger, the Newark-based newspaper, went out of business.
“Beyond wishing unemployment on people, she reportedly told this to journalism students who might soon be, you know, looking for work at a newspaper.
“Is common sense a prerequisite for the Big Ten? It supposedly wanted a foothold for its network in the New York area, but the former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese always said that, outside St. John’s, Syracuse and Connecticut were by far the biggest draws in New York….
“Ollie’s upstarts took over Madison Square Garden in the New York regional.”
–Manhattan basketball coach Steve Masiello is being given a second chance. The school completed an investigation into whether he had graduated from college or not, following South Florida having rescinded its offer for him when it discovered he had not received a degree from Kentucky as Masiello had claimed.
So Manhattan will take Masiello back as soon as he completes his degree requirements at Kentucky, which should be this summer. [He is about 10 credits shy.] Technically he is on unpaid leave.
It turns out Masiello took part in his Kentucky graduation and enrolled in summer courses to finish his degree afterward but “never followed through,” according to Manhattan president Brennan O’Donnell.
Masiello is one lucky guy, but what a difficult situation for him in terms of dealing with his players, recruiting, the press, etc. In a statement he said, “I understand that I am very fortunate to have the chance to remain here.”
–Former Kentucky star Rex Chapman tweeted before Monday’s title game that it was a done deal…John Calipari was going to become the Lakers’ next head coach. Chapman didn’t cite any source and everyone involved, including Calipari and the Lakers, strongly denies this.
Calipari was 72-112 in three season with the NBA’s Nets in the late 1990s.
–No surprise…Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart is entering the draft. He averaged 17.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists this season.
—Alonzo Mourning and Mitch Richmond were voted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, along with college coaches Nolan Richardson and Gary Williams. I feel sorry for Spencer Haywood, not as much because he missed out a fourth time as because there were some stories I saw over the weekend that said he was getting in.
–Finally, congrats to the Lady Huskies, who claimed their record ninth NCAA women’s hoops title, 79-58 over Notre Dame. Both had entered the contest undefeated. UConn coach Geno Auriemma is 9-0 in NCAA Finals and surpasses former Tennessee legend Pat Summit, who won 8.
It was also UConn’s fifth perfect season at 40-0. No other women’s team has more than one. The students in Storrs need to get back to their studies after all the partying of the past few nights.
Golf Balls
–Ah, The Masters…a tradition unlike any other…though sans Tiger this time.
Thursday, the most delicious threesome, bar none, is Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy. All under 25…all hoping to be the next ‘big one.’ But it’s the first Masters for Spieth and Reed, so no local knowledge on the greens.
—Rory and Adam Scott are the two favorites at 10-1. Jason Day is 12-1.
–Golf World had some interviews with various old-timers. Following are a few thoughts from Chi Chi Rodriguez.
“I won at Tallahassee in ’79 after not winning for six years. I used a putter I bought for $2 out of a barrel in the pro shop. I played a practice round with Pete Brown on Tuesday, and he found a four-leaf clover and gave it to me. I put it in my money clip. That night I had pizza. The next day I was low pro in the pro-am. It was pizza the rest of the week.”
“Negativism is the sister of failure. If you’re negative, you fail. America has become a negative country. It’s because our leaders are lawyers. The leaders should be business people. Lawyers are necessary for different things, of course, but they go to school to learn how to win arguments. America is divided now, probably more than it has been since I first came on tour.”
“I got out of some speeding tickets. I carried my driver’s license in my golf bag, which was in the trunk, and an extra dozen balls. Most of the troopers played golf.”
Don January:
“I gave away the ’61 PGA to Jerry Barber. I still can’t believe what went on that last day. He hit eight inches behind the ball while it was teed up. Twice! Holed it blind from [50] yards. On the last green, he sinks it from 60 feet, down and up and over a ridge. I’m rehearsing my acceptance speech. Dumb. Going into the playoff, Jerry said we should split the pot. I said, ‘Not today, Jerry.’ I shot 68 and got beat. Bogeyed the last hole again. I didn’t sleep for six months.”
“Six of us started the senior tour: Bob Goalby, Dan Sikes, Gardner Dickinson, Sam Snead, Julius Boros and me. Our attorney set it up so we were going to own it. Each of us put up $50,000. I got a deal from Frontier Airlines to sponsor us on TV. But I knew if it became a viable thing, we were going to get into a pissing match with the PGA Tour over TV rights. So I told [Commissioner] Deane Beman maybe all of this needs to be under one umbrella. Fortunately, it worked.”
“I smoked for 45 years. Worst mistake I ever made. I finally managed to quit. Of course, once I quit, I gained 50 pounds. Haven’t smoked for 25 years, but I have a hell of a time trying to breathe now. Got emphysema real bad. It’s a shame we have to be so stupid when we’re young.”
–I posted my last column before the conclusion of one of the LPGA’s majors, the Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif. 19-year-old Lexi Thompson captured her first big one (but already her fourth career title), a rather impressive bogey-free, four-under 68 in the final round for a three stroke victory over Michelle Wie. I can’t believe that Wie is still just 24.
Thompson, by the way, is not the youngest winner of an LPGA major. Morgan Pressel was 18 years 10 months 9 days when she won the same event in 2007.
–The three-part documentary of Arnold Palmer’s life, “Arnie,” airs Sunday-Tuesday on the Golf Channel, 10:00 PM each night. [Gonna have to watch Sunday’s at another time… “Mad Men” debuts, plus you have “Game of Thrones.”]
Ball Bits
—Ryan Braun broke out Tuesday night in Philadelphia, 3 home runs and 7 RBI in the Brewers’ 10-4 win. Booo! Boooo!
“Marlins pitching wunderkind Jose Fernandez may be Exhibit A as to why teams are so reluctant to give up picks 11 through 30 in order to sign free agents to big-money deals. Fernandez, it is hard to believe now, was pick No. 14 of the 2011 MLB Draft, which makes no sense.
“He’s easily the biggest talent in a 2011 draft that was filled with high-quality players, especially pitchers such as Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Archie Bradley, Dylan Bundy and more. But while several of them already are beginning to establish nice big-league careers, only one is the star right-hander Jose Fernandez, who just may wind up being the best pitcher in baseball – if not this year, then soon.”
Heyman points out [Mets fans may want to leave the room] that “Fernandez was chosen one spot after the Mets selected an outfielder from Wyoming named Brandon Nimmo, who didn’t even play high school baseball. Oops.”
[Cole, incidentally, was No. 1 overall and he’s a good one. Ditto the sixth pick, Washington’s Anthony Rendon. As for Nimmo, he’s a long ways off…it was a big gamble, but he’s also still very young.]
–The Mets started out 2-4 this season, the first six at home, and I was going to write about how awful they have been at Citi Field, but then the Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond beat me to the punch.
Through Sunday, the Mets have gone 105-144 at home since 2011, while a very solid 122-121 on the road over this period. [Make that 123-121 following Tuesday night’s win in Atlanta.] They are the only major league team with this split over that span.
Mets first baseman Ike Davis blames the different kinds of obligations they have at home, such as with the media and for PR purposes. “We have to do more off-the-field stuff. On the road, you just show up and play.”
Well that’s weak. For time immemorial, teams have played better at home than on the road. But the Mets are changing their home routine this season, including when meals are served, to better mimic what they do on the road.
Heck, the Mets’ first two seasons at Citi Field, 2009 and 2010, they were 41-40 and 47-34 at home, while going 29-52 and 32-49 on the road.
2011…34-47 at home
2012…36-45
2013…33-48
2014…2-4
–From an AP story: “Sean Newcomb says he doesn’t even notice them anymore – all the major league scouts pointing radar guns at him every time he winds up.
“It’s just become part of the background at Fiondella Field, like the scoreboard, which this day again has a series of zeroes next to the word ‘Guest.’
“The Hartford junior left-hander, who according to those radar guns consistently throws his fastball at 94-95 mph, leads Division I with a 0.00 ERA. He has given up just 14 hits and one unearned run in 39 2/3 innings while striking out 46 and walking 19.
“Those numbers have been attracting the scouts ahead of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft that starts June 5. Twenty-eight of them went to see him pitch seven no-hit innings last Saturday in a 1-0 win against Stony Brook.”
28?! But to digress, do you know who else went to Hartford? Jeff Bagwell.
Turns out Newcomb is an intriguing prospect. He’s 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds. He was being recruited to play football by schools such as Boston College, North Carolina State and Rutgers. His only baseball visit was to Hartford, which offered him a scholarship.
One scout, by the way, clocked him at 100 against Stony Brook. A Mets special assistant, J.P. Ricciardi, said it’s not that unusual to see a 6-foot-5 pitcher with a 95 mph fastball, but “I think it’s rare to see him in Hartford.”
Ricciardi added, “You’ve got to be able to throw strikes… He’s throwing strikes, so he’s doing a good job.” Ricciardi thought Newcomb would go in the top half of the first round.
–April 7, 1984…Dwight Gooden’s debut…a Saturday night in Houston. I remember it distinctly. Watched it with a buddy in a bar. Gooden, 19, went five innings, allowed one run on three hits, struck out five, walked two.
But as told to the New York Daily News’ Christian Red, Gooden was so nervous, around 2:30 in the afternoon (the game was at night), he went to his hotel lobby, asked for directions to the Astrodome, and walked there.
So he arrived at the stadium “only to realize he didn’t exactly know where the players were supposed to enter. So he did what any sensible rookie might do – he scaled an eight-foot fence and walked up to a security guard.
“ ‘He asked me for my ID, and I said, ‘I’m Dwight Gooden. I’m pitching tonight.’ He looked at me and asked, ‘You’re nervous, aren’t you?’ He was right. It was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been,’ says Gooden.”
Gooden turns 50 in November. There are some obvious comments to be made reflecting on his career…but this has already been said. Instead us Mets fans of a certain age will forever remember those first two unbelievably electric seasons. 544 strikeouts in 494 innings…41-13. 1.53 ERA in 1985. It was must-see television. Believe me…we didn’t miss one start.
–As reported by Joseph Santoliquito of CBS Philadelphia (passed on by Mark R.), DeSean Jackson, according to sources within the Eagles organization, including current and former players, was released for all manner of reasons, including alleged gang ties.
But mostly he was not well liked by his teammates, “was blatantly insubordinate, with temper tantrums cussing out (head coach Chip) Kelly several times in front of the team, pushed the NFL rookie coach the way ‘a child would test boundaries,’ and was more concerned with his rap label than he was about winning football games.”
Just a real Class A jerk. This is the reason why Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg, the Jets’ offensive coordinator who had worked with Reid, wanted nothing to do with Jackson.
—Joey Logano won the rain-delayed Sprint Cup race in Fort Worth on Monday, thus becoming the seventh different winner in as many races this season. For Logano it was his fourth career victory.
–My “Pick to Click” Brooklyn Nets completed a 4-game sweep of the Miami Heat this season with an 88-87 win in Miami on Tuesday.
But the story was all about the final play…a dunk attempt by LeBron James with seconds left to give Miami the win, only Brooklyn’s Mason Plumlee blocked it. James bitched that he was fouled. Looked pretty clean to me.
–Funny piece in the L.A. Times by Ben Bolch on how Chris Paul is booed in Los Angeles, because he’s not a member of the far more popular Lakers. He got booed at Dodger Stadium the other night when his image went up.
Of course it goes back to 2011, and Commissioner David Stern nixing the trade to the Lakers. L.A. is a Lakers town. Somehow it became Paul’s fault. [Of course your editor has his own issue with Paul. #JuliusHodge]
—Liverpool is seeking its first Premier League title since 1990 and is atop the standings with just five matches to play, two points ahead of Chelsea after winning its ninth in a row on Sunday.
But, Manchester City is in third, four points back, though it’s played two fewer games…and Liverpool and Man City square off this coming weekend. Gotta remember to catch this one. Looks like Sunday morning, 8:30 ET, sports fans.
Meanwhile, Everton is battling slumping Arsenal for fourth and the final Champions League berth. That’s cool.
[I’ll discuss the current Champions League situation next time.]
—Mickey Rooney passed away. He was 93. Kind of funny to think this is a guy who I’ve seen for all the years of my life, mostly as a guest on something like “The Tonight Show” or on Larry King when a fellow entertainer had died. Rooney was indeed the last of an era, his career literally spanning the history of the motion picture industry, from silent films on.
“Was there ever a more consummate entertainer than Mickey Rooney? Born Joseph Yule Jr. in Brooklyn in 1920, he was still making movies when he died Sunday, 88 years after his first screen appearance.
“His show-business career was even longer: The son of vaudeville performers, he appeared onstage at 7 months of age and never looked back. In his prime – in his 15 Andy Hardy films and his musicals with Judy Garland – he was Hollywood’s biggest box-office draw.
“And he could do it all: comedy, drama, musicals, Shakespeare. Unfortunately, his short stature and youthful face made for a slow and difficult transition from teen superstar to adult actor. Even so, at age 59 he pulled off a huge comeback on Broadway and around the nation with the old-fashioned musical ‘Sugar Babies’ that led to new roles and acclaimed performances in film and television.
“Less well known is his Army stint in Europe during the Second World War. There Ike awarded him a Bronze Star for traveling through combat territory to take his show to the men on the front lines of the fighting.”
Oh, Rooney had his issues…8 marriages (which is what I remember most, growing up), too much drinking, an addiction to pills and gambling (he loved the track).
But as Valerie Nelson of the L.A. Times wrote: “When such leading actors of his generation as Cary Grant and Anthony Quinn were asked who was the best actor in Hollywood, they both immediately named Rooney.”
Sadly, there is already a problem with Rooney’s estate…he had only $18,000 and left it to a stepson. Also, while he had a burial plot, there is a disagreement as to where to put him.
—Jamaican Olympic medalist sprinter Sherone Simpson has been given an 18-month drug ban after testing positive for a banned stimulant. A Jamaican anti-doping panel voted unanimously that Simpson was “negligent in all the circumstances,” after she alleged a supplement provided by her Canadian trainer was responsible for the positive test.
Simpson won silver in the 100m at the Beijing Olympics and 4X100 relay silver at the London Games. She tested positive competing in the Jamaican national championships in June 2013.
It’s long been known the Jamaican drug-testing program was a shambles, but national officials are doing their best to clean it up. Obviously, you hope for the good of the sport, Usain Bolt is clean. Track would die if Bolt ever tested positive.
–Five-time Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe of Australia is “quite sick” in a Sydney hospital after contracting two infections following surgery on his shoulder. The Australian newspaper reported the 31-year-old would never swim again, certainly at least competitively. “Thorpedo” won three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and two in Athens four years later.
–Some stories just really tick you off…like the following from Nina Golgowski / New York Daily News:
“A Minnesota man has agreed to pay $4,400 in restitution and fines after carving his and his wife’s names into Montana’s centuries-old Lewis and Clark monument as a personal ‘monument of love.’”
“Outraged park officials at Pompey’s Pillar are now hoping to successfully scrub off the deeply inscribed names left by Cole B. Randall on Oct. 10 near Captain William Clark’s own 207-year-old signature.
“Officials say the 24-year-old’s vandalism, for which he was charged last week, also impacted other historic signatures on the sandstone – some dated more than 100 years ago.”
The idiot works for the Bureau of Land Management, too.
“ ‘We are hopeful that some of the damage to our historic treasure will be fixed,’ said Monument Manager Jeff Kithcens. ‘However, the carving by Mr. Randall was so deep and severe that we are limited in what can be done.’
“Randall told investigators that his act was inspired by his newlywed’s cancer scare while honeymooning in October and finding a potentially cancerous lump on her breast.
“In an email to the Star Tribune, he confessed the act was ‘definitely stupid and misguided.’”
Clark’s inscription is the only remaining physical evidence of Meriwether Lewis and Clark’s historic journey from St. Louis to the Pacific, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
Needless to say, Randall’s name will feature prominently in my yearend awards.
–The PBS “Great Performances” documentary on the Dave Clark Five was superb. It is being replayed on Friday night. I guarantee you’ll love it. As a major DC5 fan myself, I’ve long told you of Dave Clark’s brilliance as a businessman, aside from being a kickass musician, and you get to see this other aspect in the production. Plus the music is awesome. [Bruuuuce fans will love it as well.]
Top 3 songs for the week 4/13/85: #1 “We Are The World” (USA For Africa) #2 “One More Night” (Phil Collins) #3 “Crazy For You” (Madonna)…and…#4 “Nightshift” (Commodores) #5 “Material Girl” (Madonna… yup, she was hot then…) #6 “I’m On Fire” (Bruce Springsteen) #7 “Rhythm Of The Night” (DeBarge) #8 “Lovergirl” (Teena Marie) #9 “Obsession” (Animotion) #10 “Missing You” (Diana Ross…heading back to the 60s…)
Masters Quiz Answer: Foreign winners, 1980s/90s.
1980, 83: Seve Ballesteros
1085, 93: Bernhard Langer
1988: Sandy Lyle
1989, 90, 96: Nick Faldo
1991: Ian Woosnam
1994, 99: Jose Maria Olazabal
