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Bar Chat

01/27/2020

The Shocking Death of a Legend

[Posted early Sunday p.m.]

NCAA Basketball Quiz: Give the nicknames for the following Division I hoops programs....

Vermont, South Florida, La Salle, Kennesaw State, Eastern Washington, Weber State, Long Beach State, Quinnipiac, Valparaiso, Austin Peay, and Troy.

Answers below.

***The following column was basically finished, save for one or two items, when I learned of the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant along with the rest of you.  The 41-year-old was taking one of his daughters, 13-year-old Gianna, “GiGi,” to a travel basketball game.  Sadly, at least one other parent and player were also passengers in Kobe’s private helicopter that crashed in foggy conditions above Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles.  At first it was reported five died, including the pilot.  Then the sheriff’s department said there were nine victims.

Bryant played all 20 seasons with the Lakers, moving to the NBA straight out of high school, and he’d win five NBA championships, three alongside Shaquille O’Neal.

Kobe was a 15-time All-NBA performer, including 11 Xs on the first team.  What I respect was his 12 times on the All-Defensive team, first team nine times. 

That last bit sums up his career.  No one worked harder, no one had a better work ethic.

Tiger Woods, a friend and fanatic Lakers fan, played today’s round at Torrey Pines not knowing what had happened until he finished up on 18.  Asked five minutes later, Tiger, clearly emotional, cited “the fire,” and noted that what he admired was how Kobe brought it on both offense and ‘D’.

Kobe was beginning to make his mark in the business world, too, and has been a frequent guest on CNBC as he got into his various projects.

It is such a tragic irony that just last night, LeBron James passed Kobe, his hero, on the all-time scoring list.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement that read in part:

“For 20 seasons, Kobe showed us what is possible when remarkable talent blends with an absolute devotion to winning...But he will be remembered most for inspiring people around the world to pick up a basketball and compete to the very best of their ability.  He was generous with the wisdom he acquired and saw it as his mission to share it with future generations of players, taking special delight in passing down his love of the game to Gianna.”

If you plug Kobe’s name into my search engine, you’ll see 154 mentions, this being No. 155.  Yes, I covered his career for sure, including the dark moments. 

But for today, we honor his greatness, and our thoughts go out to his wife, surviving daughters, the Lakers organization, and his legions of fans around the world.

Kobe would have told us the best was yet to come in his life.  But it just wasn’t to be.

[Much more next time.]

College Basketball Review

--After three highly-volatile weeks in college basketball, virtually zero upsets the last few days.

Thursday, Indiana (15-4, 5-3) beat 11 Michigan State (14-5, 6-2) 67-63, which is hardly a major upset.

Today, though, Indiana had a golden opportunity to move into the top 25.  Up six, 76-70, with 1:08 to go at home against 17 Maryland, the Terps rallied to take it, 77-76, the Hoosiers missing a golden last-second opportunity down low.  Maryland is now 16-4, 6-3, Indiana dropping to 15-5, 5-4.

--No. 4 San Diego State is now 21-0, 10-0, after a solid 71-67 win on the road at UNLV, 11-11, 6-3.

--Last Wednesday, in its first game in the top 25 in over 30 years, 24 Rutgers acquitted itself well on the road at 19 Iowa, falling 85-80.  The Scarlet Knights then beat Nebraska (7-13, 2-7) at home yesterday, 75-72, on a Geo Baker 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to move to 15-5, 6-3.  Hopefully they stay in the rankings.

--I can’t help but go back to an amazing beatdown Wednesday...Tulsa defeating 20 Memphis 80-40, the Tigers 16 of 56 (28.6%) from the field, 2 of 21 from three, 20 turnovers.  I mean that is godawful, almost Wake-like.

Memphis then lost to SMU yesterday 71-70 as the Tigers (14-5) will no doubt tumble out of the top 25, which should help Rutgers stay in it, mused the editor.

--Remember early in the season when Michigan was the surprise in the nation, rocketing to No. 4 in Week 5 out of nowhere, 7-0?

Well, after losing to 21 Illinois (15-5, 7-2) yesterday, 64-62, the Wolverines have fallen to 11-8, 2-6.

--And then there is Vanderbilt.  Saturday, Vandy matched the SEC’s mark for consecutive losses set by Sewanne from 1938-40 at 24 with a 90-64 defeat by South Carolina.  [Sewanee left the SEC after that last season.]

Poor first-year coach Jerry Stackhouse, his Commodores 8-11, 0-6, after they went 0-18 in SEC play last season.  Vanderbilt has been playing its last five without the SEC’s top scorer, Aaron Nesmith, out indefinitely with a foot injury.

--Just an absolutely disgraceful job of coaching by Danny Manning on Wake Forest’s final possession in overtime today against Virginia, the Deacs losing 65-63 to fall to 9-10, 2-7; UVA now 13-6, 5-4.

Yes, we were playing without our two top scorers, Brandon Childress and Chaundee Brown, but after a gutty effort and with eight seconds to play, Manning called a play that was so nonsensical, any Wake fan watching it will have trouble falling asleep tonight.

--Roy Williams moved to No. 4 on the all-time coaching wins list in Division I with his 880th victory Saturday, 94-71 over Miami.  West Virginia’s Bob Huggins moved into a tie for seventh with win No. 876* after a 74-51 win over Missouri. 

*804 in Division I, 876 if you include his wins at Division II Walsh University.

--Finally, the Big 12 came down hard on Kansas junior forward Silvio De Sousa, suspending him for 12 games for his role in the Sunflower Showdown throwdown Tuesday night, the brawl with Kansas State.

KU freshman forward David McCormack was suspended for two games; K-State redshirt junior forward James Love will miss eight games and Wildcats freshman forward Antonio Gordon received a three-game suspension.

“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated, and these suspensions reflect the severity of last evening’s events,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a news release.  “I am appreciative of the cooperation of both institutions in resolving this matter.”

De Sousa’s 12-game suspension followed coach Bill Self’s earlier indefinite banishment.

“There is no place in the game for that behavior,” Self said in a statement.

De Sousa was not a major contributor to the Jayhawks statistically and won’t be missed.

Kansas defeated Tennessee Saturday 74-68 in its first game since the big brawl.

NFL

--Yes, just play The Game already.  For the record, Kansas City is still at -1.5, with the Over/Under at 54.

--Eli Manning retired Friday after 16 seasons as a New York Giant and two Super Bowl MVPs.

There are few athletes who seemed more comfortable in their own skin than Eli, and he had no problem walking away from the sport.  There was never any serious consideration of trying to sign, say, a two-year deal elsewhere, his basic physical skills still there.  Nor did Eli want to be a coach, or does it seem like he wants to get into broadcasting.

Nope, Eli, father of four young kids, is perfectly content to stay where he is now, my town, Summit, N.J. 

So Eli retires with a 117-117-0 record, with 57,023 passing yards, 7th all time; 366 touchdown passes, 7th; and 244 interceptions, 12th.

Eli never led the league in passing yards or TDs, though he did lead in INTs three times.  He was never an AP All-Pro, and his career passer rating of 84.1 is highly mediocre vs. today's standards.

But Eli was this...consistent and incredibly durable.  In fact from 2005 thru 2018, Eli Manning started every single game for the Giants save for one in 2017, when the organization messed with him unnecessarily.  There is a ton to be said for that.

And of course there are those two magical postseason runs, 2007 and 2011, his two Super Bowl MVPs, when he threw 15 touchdown passes with just two interceptions in eight playoff games those two runs.

The thing is in accessing Eli’s career, you can’t help but go back to the 117-117 mark as a starter (including 48-67 his final eight seasons), and the four other years he led the team to the playoffs only to flame out in the first round.

So you have to picture the conversations, for years now, on sports radio in New York... “Is Eli a Hall of Famer?”

Certainly not a first ballot HOFer.  But you can’t ignore those two MVP trophies on the ultimate stage...and that durability.*

I also can’t help but add that the Manning family story itself is ‘complicated.’  I’ve brought it up before, a few times (after all this is Bar Chat #2,255, if you can imagine that).  But it’s not appropriate to rehash a few things now, and Eli has been a super representative of my community and the Giants.

John Mara, the team’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement announcing Manning’s retirement: “For 16 seasons, Eli Manning defined what it is to be a New York Giant both on and off the field.  Eli is our only two-time Super Bowl MVP and one of the very best players in our franchise’s history.  He represented our franchise as a consummate professional with dignity and accountability....We are beyond grateful for his contributions to our organization and look forward to celebrating his induction into the Giants Ring of Honor in the near future.”

Friday, Mara added that no other Giant will ever wear Eli’s No. 10.

*Manning started 234 games for the Giants overall, the fourth most by a QB for a single franchise.

Tom Brady 283...Patriots
Brett Favre 253...Packers
Dan Marino 240...Dolphins
Eli 234...Giants

MLB

--Former Houston Astros starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel became the first member of the 2017 World Series champions to offer a public apology for the team’s sign-stealing scheme.

Speaking Friday at the fan convention for the Chicago White Sox, who signed the left-hander to a three-year, $55.5 million contract in December, Keuchel said he felt what happened was blown out of proportion, but he was sorry.

“I’m not going to go into specific detail, but during the course of the playoffs in ‘17, everybody was using multiple signs,” Keuchel said, “I mean, for factual purposes, when there’s nobody on base, when in the history of major league baseball has there been multiple signs?

“It’s just what the state of baseball was at that point and time. Was it against the rules?  Yes it was, and I personally am sorry for what’s come about, the whole situation.”

--The Mets settled on 38-year-old Luis Rojas to be their new manager following Carlos Beltran and the team parting ways after he was implicated in the sign-stealing scandal.

Rojas was the first quality control coach in the team’s history, but he has also been a successful manager in the Mets system and is very familiar with many of the players on the roster, whom to a man support Rojas.  Good vibes all around.

--The Washington Nationals brought back first baseman Ryan Zimmerman in yet another great move, one year, $2 million, plus numerous performance bonuses.  The Nats’ offseason maneuvering is now complete.

Faced with the loss of Anthony Rendon, and potentially Stephen Strasburg, Washington re-signed Strasburg, and brought back Howie Kendrick and Asdrubal Cabrera, catcher Yan Gomes, reliever Daniel Hudson, and now Zimmerman, but also added infielder Starlin Castro.  Production wise, they have largely ensured there will be little offense lost with Rendon’s departure in free agency to the Angels.

I mean you gotta respect the organization for all the moves.  Bringing back the likes of Kendrick, Cabrera and Zimmerman while some of their top prospects gain another year of valuable AA or AAA experience, and they add a guy, Castro, who hit 22 home runs, drove in 86, and played all 162 games.

And I didn’t even note that they signed slugger Eric Thames, 25 home runs in 396 at-bats for Milwaukee last year, Thames an outfielder-first baseman, though he could see some time at third.

Bottom line, Mets fans face further nightmares in their series with Washington.

--And speaking of the NL East, BetOnline.ag issued its Over/Under totals for the division:

Braves 91 ½, Nationals 90 ½, Mets 86 ½ and Phillies 85 ½, easily the closest division on paper.  Yes, a tension convention in every intradivision game this year.

[I placed two bets on the Mets today...to win the World Series and the over/under, which DK has at 85 ½.  All in on my team this year!]

--Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post was discussing the Nolan Arenado situation in Colorado, Arenado wanting out just a year after signing an 8-year, $260 million contract.  But Arenado’s opt-out provision after 2021 is a major hurdle in completing a deal that Rockies management would like to conclude.  Any team trading for him would have been assured of only two years of his service.  And Arenado has a full no-trade clause that might require a buyout to get him to waive it.

So with these restrictive factors in play, it seems no team has reached out to Colorado in any serious way, while the Rockies will be asking for the moon in return.

Which means the Rockies have no choice but to move ahead with Arenado as their third baseman and as the season goes on they’ll be losing leverage.

At the same time the league will move on, such as in the case of the Braves, who missed out on Josh Donaldson but then signed outfielder Marcell Ozuna to a one-year deal this week to fill a need for a middle-of-the-order bat.

With the signing of free agent Ozuna, that leaves Yasiel Puig and Nicholas Castellanos as the remaining two big bats on the market.

NBA

--Finally, Zion Williamson made his NBA debut for New Orleans on Wednesday and talk about exploding on the scene, he had 17 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, including four 3-pointers, though it wasn’t enough, the Pelicans losing 121-117 to the Spurs.

The New Orleans home crowd lustily booed coach Alvin Gentry for sticking to the team’s medical advice and taking Zion out with 5:23 left.

Overall, Zion had 22 points and 7 rebounds in just 18 minutes.

So then on Friday, in his second game, Zion had 15 points (including his first NBA dunk) and six rebounds in 21 minutes, the Pelicans losing again 113-106 to the Nuggets.

But his career is off and running.

--Also Friday, I can’t help but note the Clippers’ 122-117 road win at Miami.  Kawhi Leonard had his first triple-double for L.A., 33-10-10.

But after praising the Heat’s James Johnson for his play off the bench recently, Johnson had one of the worst games of anyone’s career.  0 for 9 from the field (0 for 7 from three), in just 12 minutes, with a –20!  And this is a defensive stopper.  Yuck.

--Saturday, LeBron James passed Kobe Bryant for third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 29 points in a 108-91 loss to the 76ers in Philadelphia.  James honored Kobe by wearing sneakers on which he wrote “Mamba 4 Life,” referencing Bryant’s nickname.

So we have:

Kareen 38387
Karl Malone 36928
LeBron 33655

The Lakers fell to 36-10 with the loss, the Sixers now 30-17.

--We note the passing of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame high school coach Morgan Wootten, 88.

Wootten coached at Dematha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, suburban Washington, for 46 seasons, 1,274 victories with just 92 losses.  His teams were acclaimed national champs five times, and he never had a losing season.

A dozen or so of his players went on the NBA, including Adrian Dantley, Danny Ferry, Kenny Carr and Sidney Lowe.  Lowe teamed with his DeMatha teammate Dereck Whittenburg on North Carolina State’s 1983 national championship team.

Wootten’s signature moment came in 1965, when DeMatha hosted New York City’s Power Memorial High School, led by Lew Alcindor, Power riding a 71-game winning streak.

“Wootten had his 6-foot-8-inch Sid Catlett hold a tennis racket aloft during workouts so that DeMatha would become accustomed to (the 7-foot-2) Alcindor’s shot-blocking threat.  From the game’s outset, Catlett guarded Alcindor from behind while DeMatha’s other 6-foot-8-inch player, Bob Whitmore, fronted him with help from Bernard Williams, a guard.

“Holding Alcindor to 16 points, well below his average, DeMatha won, 46-43, before a sellout crowd of some 12,500 at the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House.”  [Richard Goldstein / New York Times]

Wootten told USA TODAY in 2013, “That game, I think, had the biggest impact in the history of high school basketball.  After we beat Lew Alcindor, high school basketball started to be recognized on a national basis.”

CFB

--LSU rewarded coach Ed Orgeron, upping his $4 million a year salary as Tigers coach to $6 million as part of a new contract that is worth $42 million over six years, the deal including a $5 million split-dollar life insurance policy that is paid out over the first two years.

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward said: ‘Coach O has set a new standard at LSU.  He has proven that he is not only a championship coach, but also a leader of a program committed to doing things the right way.  He has represented our institution and our state with great pride, on and off the field of play.”

Orgeron's new contract runs through the 2025 season, and he’s now the fifth-highest paid SEC head coach behind Alabama’s Nick Saban at $8.7 million, Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher at $7.5 million, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn at $6.8m. Saban’s contract is second in college football to Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who makes $9.8 million a year.

Golf Balls

--Australia’s Marc Leishman won his fifth PGA Tour victory at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines by one over Jon Rahm, Tiger finishing T-9 in his first bid to break the tie with Sam Snead for all-time PGA Tour wins at 82.  Tiger will tee it up again in three weeks at Riviera.

Among those missing the cut at Torrey Pines were Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Gary Woodland, Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson.

For Phil, it was his second straight missed cut and the 49-year-old has now gone 22 events without a top-10 finish, dating to his victory at last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.  He’s also now missed seven of his last nine cuts, despite the fact he is crushing the ball...except it is in every direction imaginable.  He hit just seven of 28 fairways in his two rounds, last in the field.  [Schauffele and Fowler were his playing partners Thursday and Friday...bad karma.]

Meanwhile, Mickelson is controversially playing in next week’s Saudi International on the European Tour, then flying all the way back to the West Coast to play the following week at Pebble.  Insane.

Reminder, he turns 50 in June.

--At this week’s European PGA Tour event, the Dubai Desert Classic, Sebastian Soderberg was in last place among 71 golfers entering the final round.

But this created a unique opportunity.  At least he saw it as such.  Since he’d be playing alone, going off first, Soderberg decided he would attempt to play the round in record time, and he blazed around in just 97 minutes, destroying Thomas Pieters’ previous record of a little under two hours.  And he shot a 75, two better than his third-round 77.

“I just tried to play as fast as possible,” he said afterwards.  “I felt like it would be a fun thing to do and I didn’t necessarily think that it would hurt my game too much at some points.”

Australia’s Lucas Herbert gained his first victory in a playoff, having made up six shots in the final round.

Australian Open

--Roger Federer trailed by 8-4 in a first-to-10 tiebreaker at the end of the fifth set against John Millman of Australia on Friday.  Two points from defeat in a match that had stretched past four hours, Federer rallied and reeled off six straight points to snatch the 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8) victory and reach the fourth round.

Now that’s a champion.

3-seed Federer then defeated Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics today to advance to the quarterfinals, along with 2-seed Novak Djokovic.  1st-seed Rafael Nadal will attempt to do the same tomorrow.

--On the women’s side, Coco Gauff stunned defending champion Naomi Osaka in straight sets to reach the fourth round; the 15-year-old cruising 6-3, 6-4 in 67 minutes.

Gauff said after, “I don’t know where that came from.  Honestly, like, what is my life?  Two years ago I lost in the first round in juniors and now I’m here.”

Well Gauff then lost her fourth-round match Saturday to 14th seed American Sofia Kenin in three sets.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams was upset in the third round by 27th-seeded Wang Qiang, Serena’s quest for a 24th Grand Slam singles title continuing, her last GS the 2017 Aussie Open.

She’s appeared in four major finals over the past two seasons but lost each one.

Australia's Ashleigh Barty, the top-seed in the tournament, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-set win over American Alison Riske today.

FIS Alpine Ski World Cup

--So much for Mikaela Shiffrin’s slump.  After failing to win in her first four races of 2020, Shiffrin won a downhill on Friday at Bansko, Bulgaria, just her second downhill Cup win in her career, and first in two years.

And then today, she won a Super G race, career victory No. 66, sixth of the season, and Shiffrin’s overall points lead is back to a very comfortable 370.

--I have written little of the men’s side of the World Cup season because once again the American men are struggling mightily with just one podium finish thus far.

But with the retirement of 8-time overall World Cup points titleholder Marcel Hirscher, talk about a tight race in the first season without him.

Overall Points Standings after 24 of 44 races.

Henrik Kirstoffersen (Norway) 741
Alexsander Aamodt Kilde (Norway) 700
Matthias Mayer (Austria) 692

Premier League Standings...played / points

1. Liverpool 23 – 67
2. Man City 24 – 51
3. Leicester City 24 – 48
4. Chelsea 24 – 40
5. Man U 24 – 34
6. Tottenham 24 – 34
7. Wolves 24 – 34

With FA Cup play this weekend, we had midweek play in the PL, with Liverpool continuing its otherworldly season, a 2-1 win on the road at Wolverhampton on a Firmino goal at 84’.

Tottenham finally scored, twice, in a 2-1 win at last-place Norwich City, a much-needed three points to stay relevant in the Champions League discussion.

Stuff

--14-year-old Alysa Liu repeated as U.S. national figure skating champion Friday night in Greensboro, N.C., with Mariah Bell in second, Bradie Tennell in third.

But the biggest ovation went to Gracie Gold, who finished 12th in her comeback attempt, her career halted by a battle with mental illness.  After a stirring free skate, Gold was brought to tears by the standing ovation she received from the appreciative crowd.

Gold was the gold-medal favorite for the 2018 Winter Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea, but she had to abandon her bid to make the American team and enter an inpatient therapy clinic in Arizona to deal with a number of issues.

--Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports had a story on the NCAA Convention in Anaheim this past week and the failure, again, of the body to put real proposals together on the paramount issue of the day...how to allow college athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness in response to mounting pressure from various state legislatures.  The NCAA has promised to have proposals in place by the time decision-makers convene in April but this hardly seems likely.

Wolken:

“But even as the process chugs along, the fundamental question is the same as it was last October when the NCAA board of directors started going down this road: Is college sports truly ready to open the door for athletes to capitalize on their likeness with all of the consequences that might bring, or is the collective fear of losing control going to result in a half-measure that will make college sports look out of touch and incapable of reforming itself?....

“(But) as much as the NCAA knows it has to act and do something substantive on name, image and likeness, this is a group of people whose default setting is to address every issue not from the standpoint of what is right but rather what will do the least to disrupt the status quo.  And nothing is a bigger potential disruptor of the status quo than allowing college athletes to go out on their own and earn whatever they can get for anything from autograph signings to basketball camps to car dealer endorsements, which is what name, image and likeness is supposed to be all about.  In fact, it’s what America is all about.”

There are some legitimate causes for concern.   It’s easy to allow a college athlete to make money off a music album that they recorded or a book they wrote.

“Much harder are the issues that would involve a college athlete endorsing a product or a restaurant, for instance, because of concerns about recruiting.  If the NCAA is going to allow athletes to do that, the thought is there has to be some mechanism to ensure that some school’s big booster who owns a local bank isn’t going to pay the star quarterback recruit $250,000 to be in commercials.”

--Andrew Bary of Barron’s had a piece this weekend on the investment opportunities related to the sports betting boom.   If you’re interested in specific plays you can look it up.

But according to the American Gaming Association, $150 billion is bet on sports illegally each year, while now states are eager for the tax revenues from legal wagering.  Ergo, sports betting revenue is set to explode from less than $1 billion in 2019 to about $7 billion in 2025.  This compares with current annual U.S. casino revenue of $75 billion.

But as Andrew Bary notes, the “revenue projections greatly understate the amount of potential betting because revenue is the amount of money won by the gambling companies.  The profit margin, or ‘hold,’ on sports betting is about 7%, meaning that $7 billion of revenues would stem from $100 billion of bets.”

Gambling companies have been flocking to my state of New Jersey, where 85% of the wagering last year was done online.  With 15 operators, the state is now the epicenter of U.S. online sports wagering.  Last year, there was about $4.5 billion in sports betting in the state, generating about $300 million of industry revenues.

Stupidly, New York still hasn’t legalized sports betting, where it is permitted at only four upstate casinos.  It’s estimated 25% of New Jersey’s business is coming from New Yorkers crossing the border.

--Meanwhile, after an extensive investigation, Jade Roper Tolbert, a former contestant on reality-TV series “The Bachelor,” had her win taken away from a DraftKings daily fantasy football contest.

On NFL wild-card weekend, Tolbert finished with the top score in DK’s Millionaire Maker contest when she bested more than 105,000 entries and thought she had won the $1 million top prize.  Controversy ensued, however, as DraftKings began looking into allegations that Tolbert worked with her husband, Tanner Tolbert, a known high-volume daily fantasy player, to circumvent entry limits into the contest.

So whoever “spcik36” is, they were declared the winner.  DK had never distributed the $1 million prize to Tolbert pending its inquiry.

--Lastly, I’ll be watching some of the Grammys tonight, before “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and I can’t help but note the NBC interview with ousted Grammys CEO Deborah Dugan, who said the awards were “rigged.”

That's exactly what I told you in relation to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!  It’s all the f’n music producers and the representatives of the artists who rig it, whether it’s the Grammys or the Hall of Fame.  It sucks. 

Top 3 songs for the week 1/30/65: #1 “Downtown” (Petula Clark...one of my faves...)  #2 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers)  #3 “The Name Game” (Shirley Ellis)...and...#4 “Love Potion Number Nine” (The Searchers)  #5 “Hold What You’ve Got” (Joe Tex)  #6 “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” (Marvin Gaye)  #7 “This Diamond Ring” (Gary Lewis and The Playboys)   #8 “Come See About Me” (The Supremes)  #9 “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow The Sun)” (Del Shannon)   #10 “All Day And All Of The Night” (The Kinks...the Beatles are taking a brief break from the top ten...)

NCAA Basketball Quiz Answers: The nicknames for the following Division I hoops programs....

Vermont Catamounts, South Florida Bulls, La Salle Explorers, Kennesaw State Owls, Eastern Washington Eagles, Weber State Wildcats, Long Beach State 49ers, Quinnipiac Bobcats, Valparaiso Crusaders, Austin Peay Governors, Troy Trojans.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday.

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