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Bar Chat

02/16/2012

New York Is Pumped

NCAA Basketball Quiz: 1) …an annual question…Name the only three players in NCAA Division I history to average 40 points per game for a season. 2) Who is the only ACC player to lead the nation in rebounding? [Since 1952]…the next two are admittedly very hard…think small. 3) Name the last player to score 30 points per game in a season at Division I. 4) Name the last D-I player to lead the nation in scoring two consecutive seasons. Answers below.

The Legend of Lin

I’m posting this before Wednesday night’s Knicks-Kings game at the Garden and so by the time you read this a little bit of the shine may have worn off…or Jeremy Lin and the Knicks will have gone to 7-0 since he took over the club, now called the Era of Lin.

Understand that as I’ve noted the last two columns, Linsanity is very real in the New York area. Long-time sports talk radio host Mike Francesa summed up my own feelings and that of my fellow once dormant Knicks fans. 

Francesa was talking about having a commitment last Saturday night and rushing home to catch the second half of the Knicks-T’Wolves game because for the first time in ages, he couldn’t wait to see it. I had the same feeling Tuesday night. I couldn’t wait to see the game and for the third straight contest, including last Friday night’s dramatics against the Lakers, I haven’t missed a minute. [OK, now you know I wasn’t out to dinner for Valentine’s Day.]

Well, Tuesday, Lin started off very slowly against the Raptors, who always seemed to have two bodies on him as he drove the lane. He turned the ball over five times in the blink of an eye. The Knicks weren’t adjusting to the return of one of their stars, Amar’e Stoudemire, who was rusty after not playing for a week.

But with the Knicks down 12 in the fourth quarter, Lin, and teammate Iman Shumpert, took charge and by now you know Lin won the game in dramatic fashion. 

“He was tired. The turnovers were piling up. It looked like the magic had finally run out and Linsanity was over.

“And then, somehow, in front of an often-hostile Toronto crowd, the Harvard graduate wrote one more chapter in the most unlikely story of this NBA season.

“Jeremy Lin hit a 3-point dagger with 0.5 seconds to go in front of a stunned Raptors squad, giving the Knicks a 90-87 victory….

 “ ‘That was a great shot,’ Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. ‘The kid made a great shot.’”

For all his sloppy play, Lin finished with 27 points and 11 assists (though with eight turnovers).

“The name Tim Tebow was overheard in the visitors’ dressing room Tuesday night after Jeremy Lin delivered another miracle win for the Knicks, but then Bill Walker decided it didn’t apply.

“ ‘He’s doing it in New York, for one thing,’ Walker told Baron Davis. ‘And Tebow only does his thing on Sunday.’

“As opposed to the Knicks’ new playmaker, who performs miracles on a daily basis.”

Lin himself said, “It’s the all-powerful and all-knowing guy who does miracles.”

“The moment the ball swished, the people inside (Air Canada Centre) let loose an explosion that nearly detonated the night – and this was all for a shot that was going to make sure the home team lost. They didn’t care. They were here for Jeremy Lin, they wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

“And probably left thinking we’ve all been a little too reserved in our descriptions.

“Lin? He took a pounding last night, every time he drove the ball, and on the other end, running full steam into screens. He looked vulnerable. He looked human.

“ ‘I love playing on a team that wants to be a team,’ Lin would say. ‘That’s why we’re having fun.’

“The remarkable story of Jeremy Lin proves that LeBron James kind of blew it. I know, this sounds off-topic, but bear with me for one second. That ESPN ‘Decision’ was annoying but it was hard to argue with James’ choice of Miami – it’s a lively town; warm; his friends play there; they’re probably going to win an NBA title soon. But in selecting the Heat, James not only crushed the city of Cleveland, he also trampled hard on New York’s infamous civic ego. The Knicks cleared out salary space and the city tried to seduce him with all its usual, bloated presumptuousness – channeling Sinatra, we told LeBron that making it here was better than making it anywhere; that if he won as a Knick he’d be an instant deity; that he’d make buckets of extra cash because New York is nuts with plutocrats who like to toss bags of money out of town cars. Mayor Bloomberg did a groveling commercial, and the Knicks tried to impress James with celebrity pleas. LeBron was unconvinced. It was embarrassing. At the time skeptics suggested that maybe New York wasn’t such a glamour stop anymore; that in an era of social media and brand globalization, a star athlete’s ascension was no longer so tied to the city where he or she put on pajamas at night. New York felt the chill of a snub. Perhaps the city had peaked as a sports destination, and we were the last ones to notice. Then a while later, Cliff Lee blew off the Yankees for Philly, and we all had the same worried, self-involved conversation again.

“But then you watch what has happened in New York the past week and a half with Jeremy Lin and you see how this city still can deliver a national rumpus like none other. Other significant factors are at play in the point guard’s sudden rise…

“But it’s not wrong to say New York is also a big driver – this story swelled fast because it’s happening in a sweaty, hungry mega-media hothouse….New York makes everything a little larger, louder, unavoidable, for better and definitely also for worse. Elected officials get more famous here; chefs do; entertainers do….

“There’s hype, there’s bluster, there’s exaggeration and the unmistakable flicker of a new urban legend. The excitement over Jeremy Lin feels authentic and loud, a city confidently reset as the center of a self-created universe. It feels like New York.”

[As of Tuesday night, an average ticket for Sunday’s Mavs-Knicks game at the Garden is going for at least $478.]

College Basketball

AP Top Ten

1. Kentucky
2. Syracuse…defeated No. 18 Louisville, Monday, 52-51
3. Missouri
4. Kansas
5. Duke
6. Ohio State
7. Michigan State
8. North Carolina
9. Baylor
10. Georgetown
13. San Diego State
16. Murray State…where they should be despite just one loss
21. Saint Mary’s…Sat. vs. Murray State

“When North Carolina took the court to play Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., one night last month, it marked the reunion of two storied conference rivals whose campuses are separated by a short drive across the spine of a basketball-crazy state.

“Yet when the No. 5 Tar Heels arrived, they found a crowd nearly 2,000 short of capacity. Never mind that Wake is having an off year; it was the lowest turnout for that matchup since Joel Coliseum opened in 1989.”

As of Monday, ACC home attendance is 13.5% below the final average from 2006. Maryland’s attendance is down 24% in six years. Since 2004, the ACC’s attendance is off 14%, the largest among the six major conferences.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford blames the large transition in coaches, eight coaching changes in three seasons. I blame conference hopping.

As Rachel Bachman points out, the ACC’s average attendance peaked at 11,990 in 2004, the season before Miami and Virginia Tech joined the conference and two before Boston College did.

“The addition of those teams meant that instead of playing each conference opponent at least twice per season, teams now don’t play every opponent in the conference at home every year. Former Maryland coach Lefty Driesell said by playing less-familiar teams, ‘students don’t have any connection.’”

You also have a charisma deficit when it comes to the coaches. As former Duke star Grant Hill points out, “I couldn’t even tell you some of the coaches at some of these schools.”

I sure as hell can’t, partly because unless Carolina or Duke are playing these days, I’m not watching. I have more fun watching Murray State and its Ohio Valley Conference games than I do, say, Boston College-Virginia. If San Diego State was in my time zone, I’d watch all of their games before most ACC contests. SDSU, win or lose, is normally far more entertaining.

And, yes, attendance is no doubt suffering because the television experience is so much better, let alone that as I just noted, almost every game is on TV or the Net.

--AP Women’s Basketball Top Ten

1. Baylor
2. UConn
3. Stanford
4. Notre Dame
5. Duke
6. Miami (FL)
7. Kentucky
8. Maryland
9. Ohio State
10. Delaware!!!
11. Green Bay

--Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay says he is open to Peyton Manning retiring as a Colt as long as he restructures his contract, which no way Peyton does. The March 8 deadline is fast approaching…actually, something could happen by week’s end.

--The Detroit Red Wings set a new NHL record with their 21st straight win at home on Tuesday night, a 3-1 win over Dallas. Talk about a fan base that’s spoiled. The old mark was held by Boston back in 1929-30 and matched by Philadelphia in 1976. It does need to be noted that the Red Wings won three of the contests in shootouts, which prior to 2005 would have resulted in ties.

Meanwhile the Rangers continue to roll as these two lead their respective conferences. Boy that would be a dream Stanley Cup Final matchup.

[As for other home winning streaks in sports; the Chicago Bulls won 37 straight during the 1995-96 season. The 1978 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1988 Boston Red Sox both won 24 straight, baseball’s longest since 1919. The Miami Dolphins won 27 straight at home from 1971-74 for the NFL mark.]

--Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach was the best for it ratings wise since 1997. But can Tiger win? The upcoming World Golf-Accenture Match Play Championship? Doral? Bay Hill? The Masters? [A tradition unlike any other.]

But what’s this? Tiger announced on Tuesday he would play the Honda Classic in between the Match Play and Doral events. Tiger lives where the Honda is held, plus Jack Nicklaus has become heavily involved in the event so Tiger has a few incentives not only to play, but also to continue to repair his image by backing Jack with an appearance.

Phil Mickelson and Tiger are now 13-13-5 when playing head-to-head. But Mickelson has won the last five times they’ve been paired. Sunday, Tiger missed six putts within 10 feet. Mickelson, normally erratic with the flat stick, was 14-of-14 from that distance. [Tracee Hamilton / Washington Post]

--Many around baseball are shocked that the Oakland A’s, of all teams, were the ones to sign Cuban power-hitting outfielder Yoenis Cespedes; $36 million over four years. That’s Money Ball? Talk about a risk.

However, many also compare Cespedes to Bo Jackson in terms of power and speed. And at the same time, the A’s are building for another run in 2-3 years. They traded pitchers like Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey for prospects.

--The Yankees are supposed to be announcing the trade of pitcher A.J. Burnett to the Pittsburgh Pirates any minute now, with the Pirates picking up $10 to $13 million of the $33 million remaining on Burnett’s contract.

It was back in December 2008 that the Yanks signed the guy to a five-year, $82.5 million contract, upon which Burnett went 34-35 with a 4.79 ERA. He was 2-2, 5.08 in postseason play. In other words, Burnett should have received about $27,000 a season, not $16.5 million.

--Each day during the NBA season I check the box scores of the games where former Wake Forest players are involved; Tim Duncan, James Johnson, Jeff Teague, Josh Howard, Al-Farouq Aminu and Ish Smith (once I track down what team he’s on…Ish moving around a lot). I don’t check out Chris Paul for reasons I’ve expressed only about 98 times in this space, but Paul is so good you can’t help but see what he’s doing.

So back to Duncan. This is his 15th season! Talk about time flying. What a career for the Big Fundamental. San Antonio’s Greg Popovich has done a great job ‘saving’ Duncan the last few years, trying to keep him fresh for the playoffs as Tim’s playing days wind down to a precious few.

But the Spurs, who are on a roll, have won all seven games in February and look what Duncan has done this month. 17.5 ppg / 11.5 reb in just 28 minutes a game…or like 23.5/15.5 over 38 minutes, his usual playing time during his peak. I’d say he can still turn it on when the situation calls for it.

--Mountain West and Conference USA announced they would merge. Teams would include UAB, East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, UTEP, Tulane, Tulsa Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming. WAC schools Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii, which were planning on joining the Mountain West in 2013, will also be part of the league, with Hawaii being a football-only member.

Final plans would include 18 to 24 schools and a football championship that involves a semi-final round. Of course the logistics of this conference, starting with the travel, are a mess; Hawaii to East Carolina being a rather lengthy jaunt.

--West Virginia is going to commence play in the Big 12 with the upcoming football season. WVU and the Big 12 are combining to pay $20 million so the Mountaineers can leave the Big East early; otherwise they would have had to wait the required 27 months. WVU will now open conference play, Sept. 29, hosting Baylor. Among others, West Virginia will host Oklahoma, which will be a fun game for folks in Morgantown this fall.  

As for Pitt and Syracuse, it’s possible the Big East will allow them to go to the ACC in time for the 2013 football season. Both schools and the ACC said they wouldn’t challenge the Big East’s rules, but would like the transition to happen sooner than the current fall of 2014 plan.

In 2013, the Big East should have 11 football teams without Pitt and Syracuse with the additions of Memphis, Central Florida, SMU and Houston that year, plus Boise State and San Diego State, to join Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida and Rutgers.

--Big drug bust at TCU…17 students, including four football players (which is why I’m mentioning it here) arrested in a sting just announced. So the chancellor says “99.9% of the students here do the right thing.” To which I can’t help but reply, ‘Err, Chancellor? 99.9% of the 9,500 students on the Fort Worth campus would mean only 10 arrests, not 17.’

Fun with numbers and campus drug busts…another free feature of Bar Chat.

--Since Randy Edsall replaced Ralph Friedgen as Maryland football coach 13 months ago, “he has lost 24 players to something other than graduation or injury.” [Mike Wise / Washington Post]

--Congratulations to Brittany Ross of Washington & Lee Univ. for her first place in the 200 fly and second in the 100 fly as the W&L women’s swim team won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship in Greensboro, N.C. last weekend. Brittany is the daughter of Trader George and Cindy Ross, long-time friends. 

--Follow-up. British Prime Minister David Cameron called the heads of the FA (Football Association) and the Premier League in for a meeting to discuss racism in football. The parties are to decide whether a media campaign is needed to stamp out racist and homophobic behavior. The incident I wrote of, where Liverpool’s Luis Suarez didn’t shake hands with Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in a pre-game ritual, was the final straw. Said the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt:

“As a society, one of the main reasons we have made huge strides in changing attitudes to racial discrimination is because of the changes in football.”

--We note the passing of former San Francisco and Miami wide receiver and kick returner, Freddie Solomon, who died of cancer at the age of 59.

Solomon caught 371 passes in his 11-year career, 48 for touchdowns, to go along with a solid 15.8 average per reception. He also returned four punts and one kickoff for scores.

“The military trains dogs today for Army missions including patrolling and sniffing for narcotics and bombs. So why canines?

“For centuries, dogs have proved loyal soldiers. In Roman times, mastiffs were equipped with armored collars and used to attack enemy troops’ legs.

“The Army received its first nine American-trained sentry dogs in May 1942, forming the Army Canine Corps. By the end of World War II, the corps had more than 10,000 dogs.

“Today, the 341st Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, procures all military working dogs, with more than 110 personnel from across the services training dogs for the military and other federal agencies.

“The Army Veterinary Corps cares for dogs training at Lackland, according to U.S. Army Public Health Command.

“ ‘The German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd and Belgian Malinois have proven to be the best choices as the standard MWD for patrol and detection work,’ according to the squadron’s website.”

Gotta tell you, sports fans, I never heard of a Dutch Shepherd. I imagine they are good speed skaters, too.

--Malachy, a Pekingese, won Best in Show at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club event in Madison Square Garden, beating out 2,077 canines from 185 breeds and 47 states. The 4-year-old, previously number one toy dog at Westminster the last two years, now retires to East Berlin, Pa.

Separately, Norman Chad of the Washington Post had his special correspondent, “intrepid Siberian husky Chuchi’s Yuki” keep an exclusive journal for “Couch Slouch” on his four-legged week in New York. A few of Chuchi’s comments follow.

“I wasn’t there, but Occupy Wall Street did not seem dog-friendly.”

“Had to travel from LAX to JFK in the cargo hold. Probably a blessing – the in-flight movie was ‘One for the Money.’”

“If I never have to pee or poop again in the rain, it would be fine by me.”

“If I have to hear the Boston terrier yapping about Tom Brady, there’s going to be trouble.”

“Public perception aside, some of the nicest dogs I’ve ever met have been Rottweilers and pit bulls.”

“Charles Barkley can tout Weight Watchers all he chooses, but if he wants to drop the excess pounds, he should just do like we do: Eat only twice a day.”

“Why do I bark at postal carriers? Because their pensions are killing off the USPS.”

“There’s a German shepherd in Stall 231 who acts like they won World Wars I and II.”

“If I weren’t a show dog, I guess I would have gone into pediatrics.”

“Lately, my owner’s been adding a little PBR to my dry food in the morning – not bad.”

“I had a dream the other night: They threw all the people out of Texas and all you could see for miles and miles were steakhouses and fire hydrants.”

“Little-known dog fact: The Australian terrier chases his tail counterclockwise.”

“To break the tension, a game of Twister broke out in the VIP room.”

“A lioness has attacked and killed a South African zoo employee at a rural lion farm, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“ ‘Apparently he was either feeding or cleaning an enclosure when he was attacked by a lioness,’ Johannesburg Zoo spokeswoman Letta Madlala told AFP.

“ ‘The other employees heard him screaming and rushed to assist.’….

“The 11-year-old lioness was tranquilized after the incident and has been isolated in her own cage. Madlala said zookeepers were uncertain whether to keep the animal alive or cull it.”

Personally, there is nothing worse than a tiger wannabe, which is what lions are, even if they still rank No. 16 on the All-Species List, vs. tigers’ No. 3; behind the gibbon and the elephant.

--Meanwhile, a story out of Jinan, China, as passed along by Brad K., is highly disturbing.

“A group of Chinese tourists endured a wild bus ride through a safari park when they were ambushed by a streak of fierce tigers.

“The group of 27 terrified tourists hid under seats when eight Bengal tigers attacked their bus at the Paomaling Wild Life Animal World in the eastern city of Jinan, as reported by the Global Times.

“The tigers smashed the windows of the bus and chewed on its tires during the 20-minute ordeal.

“To make matters worse, the attack happened in a spot with no cellphone reception. When the bus managed to reach the gate of the tiger enclosure, it was locked because the guard was off having lunch.

“ ‘If he had come [back] five minutes later, all of us would have been tiger food,’ one of the tourists was quoted as saying.”

None of the tourists was injured. The zoo apologized.   I’m thinking if the place had cellphone  coverage, the tigers would have been checking out sports scores and let the passengers alone. Very short-sighted on the part of the zoo.

“Shakira got a little too up-close-and-personal with a sea lion in Cape Town, South Africa, over the weekend, but luckily her brother Tony was on hand to fend off the animal’s attack.

“The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ singer had sidled up to a group of sea lions and seals to offer some baby talk and snap a few photos, she wrote in a full account on her Facebook page.

“ ‘Suddenly, one of them jumped out of the water so fast and impetuously that it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me,’ she wrote.”

Turns out Shakira and her brother both injured their hands while trying to protect themselves among the rocks.

It’s a good thing she wasn’t in the water herself. No doubt a Great White, already chowing down on the sea lions, would have devoured her, thereby taking some of the air out of the Whitney Houston story, especially when the only thing that would have been found was Shakira’s bikini bottom, in keeping with the ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ myth.

--Speaking of Ms. Houston and her funeral, a lot of locals in Newark and neighboring East Orange (where Whitney went to school) are upset the family is opting for a private, rather than a public service, like at the Prudential Center. Said the funeral home director, “This is their private time. They have shared her for 30-some years with the city, with the state, with the world. This is their time now for their farewell.”

Dumb move. The family also appears split on where to bury Whitney. Her mom and cousin Dionne Warwick want to bury her in Atlanta, where they say she was happiest, but other family members want her buried in Newark. I’ve also seen a story she could be buried in Westfield, New Jersey, which I’m pulling for because I am 15 minutes away and could get a story or two out of it.

--The New York Daily News reports that Whitney Houston “frittered away her $100 million fortune on years of drug abuse and high living and was on the skids when she died.”

The Daily Mail reported that mentor Clive Davis had loaned Houston $1.2 million to pay off her debts and get clean.

It’s estimated Whitney’s “I Will Always Love You” generated 100,000 downloads in just the first day after her death.

Michael Jackson’s estate, incidentally, took in $273 million in sales in the year after he died in June 2009.

--Hey Mets fans…the team announced five bobblehead giveaways. April 22, Tom Seaver; May 26, Rusty Staub; June 17, Keith Hernandez; July 21, Edgardo Alfonzo; Aug. 25, Mike Piazza.

As much as I love Seaver, I’d really like to have a Hernandez or Staub doll. Actually, I’d like a Cleon Jones bobblehead. Jerry Grote or Sid Fernandez would also be good ones. Maybe Danny Napoleon. 

-- “Jerk of the Year” candidate…Floyd Mayweather Jr., who posted on his Twitter page:

“Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”

Mayweather is known to be a primo racist, once launching all manner of slurs against Filipino Manny Pacquiao; which is why we wish Pacquiao would fight Mayweather so the rest of us could root him on to, err, knock the crap out of Floyd!

--Congratulations to 19-year-old Kate Upton on her selection as the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover Girl. But I gotta tell ya…not a fan of the actual photo. She should have been leaning forward.

--The Wall Street Journal’s Will Friedwald gives a rave review of Paul McCartney’s “Kisses on the Bottom.”

“From bottom to top, ‘Kisses…’ is a much more classy and heartfelt effort than all the other rockers-go-standards projects (a genre partially launched, coincidentally, by fellow Beatle Ringo Starr’s 1970 ‘Sentimental Journey’); it will probably be the only one that, in future years, I’ll listen to anywhere near as often as the classic recordings of Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra.”

McCartney, by the way, borrows heavily from Cole’s songbook and recorded it at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. Sir Paul said he was intimidated at the idea of working where Cole once played and sang.

Top 3 songs for the week of 2/16/74: #1 “The Way We Were” (Barbra Streisand…whatever) #2 “Love’s Theme” (Love Unlimited Orchestra…Barry White’s studio orchestra…I miss Barry!!!) #3 “You’re Sixteen” (Ringo Starr…weak effort)…and…#4 “Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” (Aretha Franklin…one of her three best) #5 “Spiders & Snakes” (Jim Stafford… saw him in Branson, Mo., a number of years ago…great entertainer…but good lord you can catch some traffic jams in Branson) #6 “Americans” (Byron MacGregor) #7 “Let Me Be There” (Olivia Newton-John…eh) #8 “Jungle Boogie” (Kool & The Gang…I crank this one up in the car from time to time) #9 “Boogie Down” (Eddie Kendricks) #10 “Rock On” (David Essex)

NCAA Basketball Quiz Answers:   1) 40 ppg per season: Pete Maravich, LSU…44.5 (1970), 44.2 (1969), 43.8 (1968); Frank Selvy, Furman, 41.7 (1954); Johnny Neumann, Mississippi, 40.1 (1971). 2) Tim Duncan, Wake Forest, is the only ACC player to lead the nation in rebounding, 1998, 14.7. 3) Charles Jones, LIU-Brooklyn, is the last to lead the nation with an average of over 30 points (30.1) in 1997-98. He then led the nation again the following year with 29.0. 4) St. Peter’s (Jersey City, N.J.) Keydren Clark is the last to lead the nation in scoring two consecutive seasons, 2004-06, 26.7 and 25.8.

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