---

Bar Chat

11/13/2014

The Ducks Move Up...FSU down

NFL Quiz: Name the top five all time in interceptions.   No. 5 finished his career with 65. Two of the five played at least some of their careers in the 1950s. Answer below.

College Football...movin’ down to the wire...

1. Mississippi State 9-0 (48 first-place votes)
2. Florida State 9-0 (12)
3. Oregon 9-1
4. Alabama 8-1
5. TCU 8-1
6. Baylor 8-1
7. Arizona State 8-1
8. Ohio State 8-1
9. Auburn 7-2
10. Ole Miss 8-2
11. Nebraska 8-1
19. Duke 8-1
21. Marshall 9-0
23. Colorado State 9-1...competition for Marshall, re Group of Five

1. Mississippi State
2. Oregon...quack quack
3. Florida State
4. TCU...easy schedule rest of way
5. Alabama...win and in
6. Arizona State
7. Baylor...up from 12
8. Ohio State...up from 14
9. Auburn
10. Ole Miss
11. UCLA...up from 18
16. Nebraska...huh...dissed...lose three slots
18. Notre Dame...down from 10...bye bye
21. Duke

*No Marshall or Colorado State!

FSU dropped to No. 3 in the CFP ranking following their unimpressive 34-20 win over a poor Virginia team. Here’s all you need to know about the Seminoles’ 2014 version vs. the 2013 one.

Last season Jameis Winston threw 40 touchdown passes with 10 interceptions. This year his splits are 17-11, with six of the 11 interceptions in the last three weeks.

Back to Nebraska, I don’t understand this...they were 13 a week ago in the CFP rankings and their lone loss was 27-22 to Michigan State. But then the rest of their schedule has been weak. Well, a win over No. 20 Wisconsin this weekend would help some.

And regarding Colorado State, their lone loss is to 7-2 Boise State (37-24), while they beat Boston College at Chestnut Hill, 24-21.

One other that is important. 8 Ohio State at 25 Minnesota, noon. If Urban Meyer wants to be able to continue to whine, the Buckeyes need a 30-point win.

--I missed the fact that in Louisville’s 38-19 win over Boston College last weekend, Gerod Holliman had three more interceptions, giving him six in his last three and a nation-leading 13 in just nine games! [He missed week two against Murray State.]

Going to sports-reference.com, single-season interception leaders are listed going back to 2000 and Holliman’s 13 are tops. Wikipedia shows Al Worley (Washington) with 14 in 1968. I hope Mr. Holliman appreciates my painstaking research for his benefit.

[I paid off my Wake Forest-BC football lunch bet on Tuesday in beautiful Westfield, New Jersey at Ferraro’s. I had the chicken special with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Steve D., BC alum, had a panini. Temps were in the mid-60s. Winds were variable and out of the east.] 

--FCS / Div. I-AA...Coaches’ Poll:

1. Coastal Carolina 10-0
2. New Hampshire 8-1
3. Jacksonville State 8-1
4. North Dakota State 9-1
5. East Washington 9-2
6. Villanova 8-2
7. Illinois State 8-1
8. Fordham 9-1...has built a consistent program...good for them...
9. Chattanooga 7-3
10. Southeast Louisiana 7-3

Scandal at UNC, continued

Dan Kane is the man at the News & Observer of Raleigh who has been breaking all the stories in the North Carolina academic scandal. The other day he reported on another bombshell:

“During the season that the UNC men’s basketball team made its run to the 2005 NCAA championship, its players accounted for 35 enrollments in classes that didn’t meet and yielded easy, high grades awarded by the architect of the university’s academic scandal.

“The classes, some advertised as lectures but that never met and others listed as independent studies, were supervised by Deborah Crowder, a manager in African and Afro-American studies who a report from former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein says graded required end-of-semester work leniently as part of a ‘paper class’ scheme to keep athletes eligible. Crowder was not a professor and admitted to investigators that she assigned grades without reading the papers.

“Of the 35 bogus class enrollments, nine came during the fall semester of 2004, when eligibility for the spring was determined. Twenty-six were during the spring semester, when the season climaxed with a victory over Illinois in St. Louis.

“One of the basketball players, Rashad McCants, had previously told ESPN he took nothing but paper classes in the spring 2005 semester. His transcript showed he was in three independent studies plus one lecture class that had no instruction. He received straight A-minuses, making the dean’s list.”

As for coach Roy Williams, he’s been changing his story since 2011, when the News & Observer first revealed the scandal, and has zero credibility.

“In defending its alabaster-pure reputation, the NCAA likes to criminalize others. Recently, it sentenced Georgia running back Todd Gurley to ’40 hours of community service’ for selling his autograph. But I’ve been leafing through the sheaves of the NCAA rule book, and in a diligent search of its 432 pages, I failed to find a single sentence empowering NCAA President Mark Emmert to put a tin star on his chest and serve up phony lawman imitations. I also can’t find the part where the NCAA is allowed to conduct shakedowns like a crooked sheriff.

“The need to dissolve the NCAA and put its Indianapolis headquarters into foreclosure has been fully demonstrated in the past weeks. Repeatedly, the NCAA exceeds its authority in petty matters or intrudes in large matters where it has none, while completely failing in its one real responsibility: education. On the heels of the Gurley fiasco came a series of subpoenaed e-mails in a Penn State court case showing that the NCAA ‘bluffed’ the school into forking over a $60 million fine in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case. NCAA officials acknowledged in the e-mails that they didn’t have the right to levy the fine, but they knew the school was so wounded and embarrassed by Sandusky it could be intimidated into accepting the punishment. Now, this comes perilously close to blackmail.

“Meanwhile, the NCAA has exhibited total paralysis in the one case truly in its purview: the broad, years-long academic scandal at North Carolina, in which scores of athletes were kept academically eligible with fake ‘paper’ classes and prearranged grades....

“The NCAA so lacks coherence that every attempt to exercising authority veers from vacuous to ham-handed. A community service sentence for Gurley? What part of the community did he aggrieve, exactly, by owning his own signature? And what is the philosophy behind stripping Joe Paterno of his career victories following a child-molestation case when it’s not even established what he knew about it? While leaving Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston on the field during a sexual assault inquiry everyone in charge knew about?”

One other item on the topic of Carolina. A man claiming to be former Tar Heels defensive tackle Tydreke Powell went on a Greensboro, N.C., radio program Monday night and implicated football coach Butch Davis and basketball coach Roy Williams. The fellow’s identity hasn’t been corroborated but he claims:

“Butch Davis came into a meeting one day and he said, ‘If ya’ll came for an education, you should have went to Harvard,’” the caller said.

As the Washington Post’s Marissa Payne reports: “The man’s statements line up closely with a lawsuit brought over the weekend by former UNC football player Michael McAdoo.”

The man claiming to be Powell also said this about Roy Williams:

“You know he know, man. Roy Williams is a snake... Listen, let me tell you this right here. One thing about Carolina, man, if you ain’t got a class with a basketball player, you [better] go find one. If you got one with [them], you know it’s an A.” [Sports Illustrated first reported on the radio call-in.]

--Eagles replacement quarterback Mark Sanchez sure did the job on Monday night against the highly disappointing Panther, with the onetime Sanchise, while with the Jets, throwing for 332 yards and two touchdowns in Philly’s 45-21 win. It was his first start since Week 17 of the 2012 season.

--Circling back to some statistics from Sunday’s games that I need to get down for the archives.

In the Giants’ 38-17 loss in Seattle, they gave up a Seahawk franchise-record 350 yards on the ground, 510 overall. It was the fourth straight time the defense has given up 400 or more yards, the first time in franchise history. The 350 rushing by the Seahawks was also the most allowed by the Giants since 1978.

--Aaron Rodgers had a nice stat line...18/27, 315, 6-0...the six touchdowns coming in the first half as the Packers roared to a 42-0 halftime lead against the Bears Sunday night. The six in one half tied a record held by Oakland’s Daryle Lamonica from way back in 1969. The 42-0 score was also the second-biggest halftime margin in history. [The 2009 Pats had a 45-0 margin over the Titans.]

Pity NBC,   The average margin of victory in its eight Sunday night games over the past eight weeks has been 23.5 points. The closest was Pittsburgh’s 37-19 win over Carolina on Sept. 21.

Well next Sunday night it’s New England at Indianapolis... so maybe, just maybe...

--I obviously didn’t know that Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer tore his left ACL Sunday as I went to post. The diagnosis was confirmed Monday and he is out for the year. Now backup Drew Stanton is on the hot seat.

For Palmer, do you think he is lucky that just two days earlier he signed the $50 million extension, $20 million of which is guaranteed?! It’s the same leg he had to have surgically reconstructed in 2005.

AFC North

Cleveland 6-3
Cincinnati 5-3-1
Pittsburgh 6-4
Baltimore 6-4

NFC South

New Orleans 4-5
Carolina 3-6-1
Atlanta 3-6
Tampa Bay 1-8

--Boy, am I a fired up Mets fan. After the Colorado Rockies gave outfielder Michael Cuddyer a $15.3 million qualifying offer, it was felt the Mets wouldn’t be in the market for him because that would mean giving up a first-round draft pick, which the Mets are loathe to do. Plus Cuddyer could just take the $15.3 million and figure out what to do about 2016 later.

But out of nowhere, the Mets announced they signed him for two years, $21 million. Cuddyer is no spring chicken, turning 36 next March, and he played just 49 games in 2014 due to various injuries, but he is just one year removed from a batting title and, while he played in Coors Field, after years in Minnesota, and his numbers may have been juiced a bit, he’s a professional hitter, with some pop and versatility; plus a quality clubhouse guy. If he can give us 120+ games, the team is better.

As an aside, the Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond wondered just how much the Mets gave up in losing the 15th overall selection in the 2015 draft to acquire Cuddyer?

“Since the amateur draft began in 1965, 23 of the 50 players taken with the 15th pick have appeared in the major leagues.

“That number should increase over the next few years as more players from the most recent drafts progress through the system, but it’s clear that the 15th overall pick is far from a sure thing.”

8 of the 50 turned into All-Stars and only one became a Hall of Famer, Jim Rice.

Scott Carpenter and Chase Utley are among the other 15th picks.

--Meanwhile, the Mets’ Jacob deGrom won N.L. Rookie of the Year honors. Only a year ago, he was an afterthought in the Mets organization. After missing all of 2011 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, he was just in his third full season as a starter, going back to his days at Stetson.

But after being called up last May, he went 9-6 with a 2.69 ERA in 140 innings.

--Clayton Kershaw will win his third Cy Young Award later today, Wednesday, and possibly the MVP award later in the week, but despite his 72-26 record and four straight ERA title the last four seasons, you just know he’s burning to take L.A. back to the playoffs and get the monkey off his back...that 1-5, 5.12 ERA postseason record in 11 appearances.

--The White Sox’ Jose Abreu was a unanimous choice as A.L. Rookie of the Year. All he did was hit 36 home runs and drive in 107.

--Perhaps the most intriguing player decision in the offseason concerns the Rockies’ Troy Tulowitzki. He’s spectacular when healthy, but here are his games played the last three seasons.

2012...47 games
2013...126
2014...91

And he’s owed $20 million per from 2015-2019, plus, potentially, another $29 million over 2020-21.

--Yankees GM Brian Cashman is convinced it’s important to bring back his midseason acquisitions – Chase Headley to play third, Brandon McCarthy for the rotation, and even Stephen Drew at shortstop. 

But Manager Joe Girardi seems to be counting on Alex Rodriguez at third. Cashman counters: “If I signed a Chase Headley, he would be the starting third baseman.”

But Stephen Drew? He hit .162 in 271 at-bats between Boston and the Yanks. [Drew, by the way, was an overall 15th pick, per the above.]

--Buck Showalter (Baltimore) and Matt Williams (Nationals) were named their respective league’s Managers of the Year.

--Philadelphia is 0-7.  Mark R. is sticking by his prediction the 76ers will go 6-76. Actually, he tells me the folks in Philly are asking which team will win more games...the Eagles or the Sixers? It’s the Eagles...by a mile.

“UCLA is no longer the dominant power in men’s college basketball that it was under coach John Wooden in the 1960s and ‘70s, when the Bruins won 10 NCAA titles in 12 seasons. But there’s one thing the school is still best at: producing successful NBA players.

“Between 1999 and 2009, 16 players from UCLA were selected in the NBA draft, with 14 of them going on to play more than 300 games, the highest number for any school in Division I, according to Stats LLC.”

We’re talking the likes of Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Jrue Holiday, Matt Barnes, Darren Collison and Trevor Ariza.

“Over this same span, 17 players from Duke were drafted, but only 12 Blue Devils played more than 300 games.”

--Hey Wake fans. You see who is off to a good start? James Johnson re-emerged with Toronto and on Tuesday night in a 104-100 win over Orlando that extended the Raptors’ mark to 7-1, Johnson had 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, with a sterling +13. I’ve said this for years. He’s as good an athlete, with as much potential, as anyone in the league. It’s all about his desire (and limiting his off-court issues). I hope he finally plays a full season, contributes consistently, and then comes through big in the playoffs.

[Meanwhile, Tim Duncan is off to a slow shooting start, but is averaging 11.5 boards for the 4-3 Spurs. Bazooka Joe says: “Timmy D. played all four years at Wake Forest!”]

--We note the passing of Ernie Vandeweghe, a leading Knicks player of the early 1950s, father of Kiki who also played for the Knicks after a star turn at UCLA.

Ernie was an All-American at Colgate before moving to the NBA and the Knicks. He was attending Columbia as a medical student at the same time and later as a resident there. Sometimes he arrived at the games late because of his schedule.

Marty Glickman, a former Knicks broadcaster, recalled in his memoir “The Fastest Kid on the Block,” “(Ernie) would go to class and labs, then take the last possible plane or train to get to where the Knicks were going.”

Dr. Vandeweghe retired after six seasons and had a pediatric practice in Southern California and was a team physician for the Los Angeles Lakers.

--Don’t forget, casual sports fans, and avid fans whose minds might be elsewhere...college basketball starts Friday/Saturday. Wake Forest entertains UNC Asheville in its opener. I’m not in the least bit optimistic about this season, again, but...new coach Danny Manning is already doing a terrific recruiting job for 2015-16. In April 2017, little old Wake Forest will win the national title!!!

I said this a few weeks ago but to reiterate, for this season I’m all in with San Diego State to cut down the nets in Indianapolis on April 6.

--Men’s Soccer Coaches Poll (Nov. 11)

1. Syracuse
2. Notre Dame
3. Stanford
4. Charlotte
5. Creighton
6. UCLA
7. Indiana
8. Georgetown
9. Washington
10. Saint Louis

--27-year-old Swede Martin Jacobson won the World Series of Poker main event Tuesday in Las Vegas, picking up a cool $10 million in the process. It all started playing online poker after work, he says. It was the first time the final three in the WSP all hailed from outside the United States. We are so overrated.

--The seven football players accused of sexual hazing at Sayreville War Memorial High School in New Jersey will be tried as juveniles. This means their identities won’t be revealed (though many already have been) and the complaints will remain sealed. The kids could still face up to five years in juvenile detention.

--Well, you’ve all heard this one but need to get it down for the archives. The Daily Mirror reported that long-time Led Zeppelin fan, Virgin boss Richard Branson, had guaranteed Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones just over $300 million each, before taxes, if they were to play a 35-date, three-city tour. Drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, effectively ending the band, would have been represented by his son, Jason.

No brainer for Pages, Jones and Jason, who all quickly signed up, according to the Mirror’s source.

But Plant asked for 48 hours to think about it and then ripped up the contract in front of startled promoters. Plant’s refusal is apparently absolute.

The tour was going to start in London, Berlin and New Jersey, with Branson talking about a further 45 dates, with the band being flown around on one of his private planes.

Top 3 songs for the week 11/12/66: #1 “Poor Side Of Town” (Johnny Rivers...awesome tune) #2 “Last Train to Clarksville” (The Monkees) #3 “96 Tears” (? (Question Mark) & The Mysterians)...and...#4 “Good Vibrations” (The Beach Boys) #5 “Dandy” (Herman’s Hermits) #6 “Winchester Cathedral” (The New Vaudeville Band) #7 “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (The Supremes) #8 “If I Were A Carpenter” (Bobby Darin) #9 “Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly” (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels) #10 “I’m Your Puppet” (James & Bobby Purify)

NFL Quiz Answer: Top five interceptions...

Paul Krause 81 (1964-79)
Emlen Tunnell 79 (1948-61)
Rod Woodson 71 (1987-2003)*
Night Train Lane 68 (1952-65)
Ken Riley 65 (1969-83)

*Rod Woodson leads with 12 interceptions returned for a touchdown.

---