NCAA B-Ball Quiz: OK, sports fans. You’re all aware no No. 16 seed has ever won a tournament game since the advent of the 64/65-team field in 1985. 0-96. But a 15-seed has won only four times, and never then a second game, for a 4-96 mark. Name the four No. 15 seeds to win. [Hint: First one was in 1991] Answer below.
One of the greatest athletes of his generation that the majority has never heard of, New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, hit another milestone this weekend. With the Devils’ defeating Montreal 3-1 on Saturday, Brodeur in goal, tied Patrick Roy for career wins with 551. Brodeur goes for the record 552 at home, Tuesday, against Chicago. That would be a great ticket.
Brodeur also has 100 career shutouts, second to Terry Sawchuk’s NHL record 103. That’s one mark I never thought would be exceeded.
But Brodeur, playing in New Jersey and not at Madison Square Garden, receives virtually zero publicity.
I’ll have more on Thursday, before the tourney starts, but for now I’m psyched that Wake Forest has Cleveland State and, potentially, Utah. Sure, I was hoping for a 2 seed, not a 4, but it’s about getting to the Sweet 16 and then what happens from there…happens. As I note further below, Wake’s players are strange. They just don’t seem to get it. But I’m more confident tonight (Sun.) then I was earlier in the day regarding the brackets.
A few other notes…North Dakota State, in its first year, a 14 seed? Guaranteed…they give Kansas a game and lose by less than 9.
I can’t believe Utah State is an 11. I also can’t believe Cornell is a 14. [The first deserves better…the latter deserves a 16.]
I also like Stephen F. Austin….not sure about the b-ball team, though.
John Feinstein / Washington Post, on the mid-major bubble teams losing out to the power conference mediocre ones. [Written prior to Selection Sunday….though he ended up talking about the likes of St. Mary’s and Creighton.]
“Will the world truly be a better place because the Big Ten, which has one truly quality team (Michigan State) and one other pretty good team (Purdue), get eight bids as the experts say it will? Shouldn’t Illinois and Penn State have been sent immediately to the NIT – or, worse, the College Basketball Invitational – the very minute their 38-33 debacle came to a merciful conclusion last month?
“ ‘Any college basketball team that can’t score 40 points in a game, win or lose, should not under any circumstances be in the tournament,’ said Mike Gminski, a color commentator for CBS and Raycom. ‘They should be disqualified on the spot.’”
[For the record, Penn State did not get a bid, but Illinois is a 5]
Former Wake Forest great Rodney Rogers, 37, is rehabbing from his tragic dirt bike accident. Scott Fowler has a moving piece in the Charlotte Observer that I appreciate a number of you passing on to me (Phil W. being first). Rogers is paralyzed from the shoulders down but at least has been able to leave the Atlanta hospital specializing in the rehab of such injuries and has moved closer to his home in North Carolina. Rogers granted Fowler his first interview and immediately dispelled the notion that it was an ATV accident, confirming it was instead a dirt bike mishap. Rogers is able to sit in a wheelchair but is otherwise motionless, breathing with the help of a ventilator. The outlook is not good, but if anyone can keep the faith, it’s him.
Following is Rogers’ account of what happened the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 28, 2008. It’s heartbreaking. His fiancé didn’t want him to go out that day but Rogers wanted to see his friends.
Rogers, though, recalls having some regrets on the drive to Vance County. He remembers thinking: “I shouldn’t go out today. I’m getting too old for this mess.”
“He had on a helmet that day. He had had several accidents on dirt bikes. None had been serious, but they have convinced him to always wear a helmet when riding. He also wore protective gear on his arms and legs.
“Some off-road riders wear neck braces to help prevent head and neck injuries. Rogers actually owned a couple of them for this reason. However, he didn’t like the way they felt and says he ‘never really wore them.’
“The accident occurred in the afternoon. Rogers says he didn’t see the ditch at first. When he did, he says he realized: ‘I was going too fast.’
“He hit the ditch with the front wheel of the dirt bike. (Earlier media reports that Rogers was riding an ATV are incorrect, he says).
“Rogers flipped head-first over the handlebars. Even in the air, he says, he doesn’t remember being hugely concerned.
“ ‘I had fallen like that plenty of times while riding,’ he says.
“But as soon as Rogers came down, he knew something was wrong. His friends circled back to check on him.
“ ‘I never lost consciousness,’ Rogers says. ‘I told them when they came back and got me: ‘I think I done messed up and broke my neck.’ I didn’t feel nothing. I couldn’t move my arms, couldn’t move my legs. I knew it wasn’t right.’”
Rogers would learn soon after he had suffered a high spinal cord injury.
Former ACC and NBA friends and foes have visited him, but one deserves to be singled out, former coach Dave Odom. “He’s getting back his playfulness,” Odom said. And his fiancé also hasn’t left his side.
Rodney is a good man and we pray for him. I’ll be writing at the following address. If you were ever a fan, try and do the same. Rodney Rogers, c/o Wake Forest University, P.O. Box 6242, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109.
*And parents, it’s worth passing this story on to your kids…get them to wear a neck brace.
–The Wall Street Journal’s Reed Albergotti had a bit comparing the careers of Martin Brodeur and Derek Jeter, which are remarkably similar. Brodeur debuted with the New Jersey Devils in 1992 and has 14 playoff visits with three championships and 10 All-Star games. Jeter has 12 playoffs, 4 titles, and 9 All-Star appearances.
—Lindsey Vonn, having already wrapped up her second consecutive overall World Cup title, won the super-G championship title, the first American woman to accomplish this feat, a day after winning her second consecutive downhill title, matching Picabo Street. Vonn also now has 22 career wins, extending her American record in that category.
–The other day I saw that the manager for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, Davey Johnson, was going to be absent for the game against Puerto Rico because he was attending his step-son’s wedding. That tells you everything you need to know about the WBC, I mused. We aren’t talking about a manager taking one game off out of a 162-game regular season, as happens all the time for personal reasons…funerals and such. But we’re talking an elimination tournament here.
Then on Sunday, following Team USA’s 11-1 loss at the hands of Puerto Rico, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci weighed in…Verducci being a huge supporter of the WBC, while yours truly has as yet to catch a single inning.
“1. The World Baseball Classic wants acceptance as a premier, competitive event. But the major league players also need to get ready for Opening Day. Padres pitcher Jake Peavy of Team USA stood out Saturday night as an example of what can go wrong when those become competing interests.
“Puerto Rico hammered Peavy for six runs in two innings, and though Puerto Rico won by way of the mercy rule, 11-1, the game really was over when Peavy was permitted to absorb such a pounding….Eight of the first 14 batters against him reached base. It was downright ugly. A Cuban starting pitcher, for instance, would have been yanked in the first inning with that kind of stuff.
“And yet U.S. manager Davey Johnson didn’t bother even to get a relief pitcher up until the score was 5-0. Why? Johnson, who arrived slightly late to the game to attend a wedding (ed. my bad…slightly), provided a puzzling answer. Johnson was asked if he considered pulling Peavy even one batter earlier, because Peavy’s last batter put him over the 50-pitch threshold that by rule requires him to sit out four days – essentially knocking him out of Round 2 entirely (which may not be such an awful consequence).”
Johnson’ reply was lame. Additionally, the U.S. players didn’t know there was a 10-run rule. Verducci:
“Is it too much to ask to expect the players to actually know the rules of the tournament? It was eerily reminiscent of the 2006 WBC when the players had no idea of the tie-breaker rules.”
As Team USA’s Adam Dunn, who didn’t know the rule, said, it was “embarrassing.”
–Interesting story in Sports Illustrated by Joe Posnanski on Albert Pujols.
“Albert Pujols knows that people do not believe him. He does not just know it, he lives it, breathes it, he takes it with him into the batting cage…A batting practice pitcher throws, and Pujols rockets hard line drive after hard line drive. People marvel at how much louder and fuller the ball sounds coming off his bat than off the bat of anyone else. That sound used to make heroes. Now, it only cements his guilt in the minds of the most cynical in the great American jury.
“This is the uncompromising math of 2009: The more Albert Pujols hits, the less those cynics will believe him.”
It’s about not being a great time to be the best hitter in baseball. Barry Bonds? Alex Rodriguez? Or the best home-run hitter…McGwire? Or the best pitcher of his era…Clemens? You get the picture.
“Albert Pujols knows he cannot prove to people that he has never used steroids. He knows that there will always be doubters. ‘Let’s say I retire 15 years from now,’ he says. ‘They’re going to say, ‘Well, he probably did it back then. He just didn’t get caught.’ I know that’s what they’re going to say. And you know what, man? It is sad.’”
Sorry, Albert. It’s going to be awful hard to convince me.
–Tuesday, Mar. 17…HBO’s “Real Sports”…Bode Miller! This I have to see. [Also what could be an interesting story on Brandon Jennings, the high school b-ball star who opted to play in Europe rather than college for the requisite year before announcing for the NBA draft.]
–Houston, we have us a “Jerk and Idiot of the Year” candidate…Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, who was forced to admit he was 34 years old, not 33, after screwing up an interview question. When asked by Yahoo Sports how he felt after knee surgery, Vlad said, through an interpreter, “I feel good. I can’t say [like] 25, because, you know, I’m 34. But I feel a lot better.” Guerrero later admitted to a team official that he was born in 1975, not ’76.
–There was nothing further on the presumed fatal shark attack in Sydney the other day. That’s at least the fourth attack, first fatal, in this area in just the past month.
–Something doesn’t seem right about the “two-hour battle between spear fisherman Craig Clasen and a 12-foot tiger shark in the Gulf of Mexico.” I’ll leave it at that.
–More College Basketball Bits
Wake Forest’s star players have been saying some strange things all season, a sign of their immaturity. Guard Jeff Teague, on the implosion against Maryland in the ACC Tournament when the Deacs shot 30% from the field and 3 of 25 from downtown.
“I think guys were kind of scared to shoot because you haven’t shot in this gym and guys didn’t really have the confidence. Guys were usually taking those shots and guys were passing up shots and trying to get into the lane.”
Oh brother. First off, Coach Dino Gaudio specifically brought them to the arena a day early so they could get used to it, but also we’re talking the end of the season here.
Moving right along, in the New York area hoops fans are wondering why St. John’s coach Norm Roberts is still at the helm after one winning season in six, capped off by the worst half in the history of the Big East tournament, 10 points, as the Johnnies went on to lose to Marquette 74-45. The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro pointed out that St. John’s lost all ten games to teams that finished in the upper half of the 16-team Big East by an average margin of 19.6 points. Eegads.
After UConn coach Jim Calhoun’s outburst when questioned about his salary, he garnered a 68% favorability rating among Connecticut residents in the first poll released after the incident. Only 12% described their opinion of him as unfavorable. Here at Bar Chat we continue to believe Calhoun was right to tell the freelance journalist to “shut up.”
Speaking of UConn, I didn’t catch much of the Syracuse-Connecticut six-overtime classic on Thursday that ended at 1:22 a.m. Friday morning, after 3 hours and 46 minutes, with Syracuse on top 127-117. There hadn’t been a six-overtime, Division I contest since 1955. Mike Vaccaro / New York Post, on why anyone who did witness it will never forget it.
“See, you don’t need a rooting interest to enjoy marathons like this one. You just need patience, some time on your hands, and an ability to enjoy the fact that the difference between tension and boredom sometimes lies in the eyes, ears and rears of the beholder. Such as the day in 1977 when the family went to Shea Stadium for a Mets-Expos game and stayed around for all 17 innings before Lenny Randle won it with a home run….
“(The) appeal of these marathon games is the fact that they can be just as physically taxing on a fan as they are on a player.”
“This was not a classic case of execution – five players missed an opportunity to hit a game-winning shot – and in terms of an NCAA tournament berth there really wasn’t much on the line for either team. Instead, it was the game itself, an exhibition of will, emotion and fortitude that gave the matchup meaning. It reminded us why we continue – despite scandals and hypocrisy that so often occupy our attention in sports – to embrace games.”
James Harden (Arizona State)
You know who my favorite player in the country is, aside from Curry? Pitt’s Sam Young. I’m just convinced he’s an NBA All-Star down the road.
Finally, attendance at all 12 top-drawing college basketball conferences was down during the regular season, 1-5% on average, in another sign of tough economic times.
“A huge crocodile knocked over a canoe in a southern Philippine lake and decapitated a 10-year-old girl, police said.
“The girl and a classmate were on their way to their floating school…when the crocodile bumped the boat, causing it to capsize.
“The attack happened on Saturday but it wasn’t until Monday that rescuers found the girl’s headless body floating on the lake.
“The classmate was rescued by a man escorting the pair in another boat, said Ruel Hipulan (don’t know him), head of the private group that runs the school in the remote town.
“Police said that, based on accounts of villagers, the crocodile might be as long as seven meters, which would be huge, even for the large saltwater crocodiles known to inhabit the lake.” [I’ll say.]
I’d also like to amend my opening remark. I will go outside to shop for groceries and beer, but I won’t matriculate at any floating graduate schools, especially in tropical climes.
“Human remains have been found in a flooded creek near where an 11-year-old girl is believed to have been taken by a crocodile in rural Darwin.
“An elite 10-man search squad, armed with rifles for their own protection, made the grisly find after more than 12 hours methodically trawling Black Jungle Swamp."
“Keepers at a bird sanctuary in West Sussex hoped that the last remaining female Blue Duck in the country – called Cherry – might mate with either of the drakes, Ben or Jerry.
“But neither male duck appeared interested and are now inseparable at the Arundel Wetland Centre, leaving Cherry to her own devices.
“Centre warden Paul Stevens said he was disappointed that efforts to produce new Blue Duck offspring had failed but said the two male birds made ‘a lovely couple.’
“ ‘They stay together all the time, parading up and down their enclosure and whistling to each other as a male might do with a female he wants to mate with,’ he said.”
So we have two gay Blue Ducks…not that there is anything wrong with that.
“An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the remains of a 16th-century woman with a brick stuck between her jaws – evidence that she was thought to be a vampire.
“Experts say the ancient ritual was tied to medieval ignorance as to how disease spreads and what happens after death.”
–Mike Tierney of the New York Times had the story of former NFL running back Travis Henry, now 30. Why would Travis Henry be the subject of an article after he had retired? He has nine children – each by a different mother. Henry is in jail, after first being under house arrest on a cocaine trafficking charge, because he was nailed on a child-support case in Florida. In fact the estimated payments on his nine cases amount to $170,000.
–An apparently “distraught” man, believed to be in his late 30s, jumped into the rapids above the Horseshoe Falls, one of Niagara Falls three waterfalls, and safely made it to the bottom, becoming only the second person in more than 100 years to go over the falls with no protective device and live.
After making it to the bottom, he repeatedly resisted attempts to rescue him. Finally, after 45 minutes, rescuers were able to swim up from behind and grab him. The man is in hospital suffering from hypothermia and a head injury…his suicide mission unsuccessful.
Back in 1829, incidentally, Sam Patch, a professional daredevil, “jumped into the Niagara twice for a stunt…He died in a later stunt.” [Anne Barrowclough / London Times]
–Sammy Davis Jr.’s third, and last, wife, Altovise Joanne Gore Davis, died. I bring this up because I can’t believe it’s been 19 years since Davis himself passed away in 1990.
–From the Brisbane Times: Dateline Jakarta – “An Indonesian villager had to be rushed to hospital after a horse bit off one of his tes-ic-es during a freak attack.”
Cough cough. “The 35-year-old man was unloading sand from a horse-drawn cart at a construction site in Sulawesi earlier this week when the attack occurred, Indonesia’s state-run news agency Antara reported.
“A witness said the animal suddenly lunged at the man, sinking its teeth into his crotch.”
[Actually, the story gets more descriptive…as in it was on the pavement and was brought to the hospital along with the victim. No word on whether, err, doctors attempted to sew it back on. This being Indonesia and all, I’m also assuming everyone washed up before attempting the maneuver. As for the fate of the horse, “Budi,” nothing on him as yet.]
–You just know Tom Brady is hating this. Gisele Bundchen, his supermodel bride, tells Harper’s Bazaar that Tom is “very naïve, almost like a child. That is my favorite quality about him. One thing that I thought was so amazing when I first met him is that he is innocent.” You’ve gotta believe Brady will hear it in the locker room after this. Bundchen added she wants a big family. Not Octomom big, I assume.
–Michael Jackson sold out 50 concerts at London’s O2 arena less than five hours after the tickets went on sale. That’s one million tickets for concerts in July through September, and then next January and February.
But once again we have this issue of how the tickets are being sold. They were announced as costing about $70, but the Jackson site points you to Viagogo’s where they sell for about $700 a pair. And tickets are already appearing on eBay for, get this, over $4,000 a pair.
–Michael Martin Murphey turned 64 on Saturday. Sorry, but I like “Wildfire,” which I swear doesn’t make me a bad person.
[In all seriousness, I Googled Murphey’s name to check on the spelling and then clicked on the 8-minute YouTube clip of him performing the song. If you are a fan of this guy, you’ll love it.]
–Once again Doral proved to be a most entertaining golf tournament. Phil Mickelson won his 36th PGA Tour title in besting Nick Watney and a severe case of food poisoning that sent him to an urgent care center Saturday for an IV.
–Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer are off again?! And she’s not having a baby as a supermarket tabloid screamed? I don’t know what to believe anymore.
–The creator of Bozo the Clown, Alan Livingston, died at the age of 91. Livingston was also a top executive for Capitol Records and in the early 1950s, signed a down-on-his-luck Frank Sinatra who was in a major career slump at the time. Livingston introduced Sinatra to arranger Nelson Riddle. The two then produced “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “Young at Heart” and Sinatra was back on the beam.
In the late 1950s, Livingston then moved to television and produced “Bonanza.” Then he returned to Capitol as president, just in time to sign the Beach Boys, Steve Miller and the Band.
But wait…there’s more! In 1963, Livingston agreed to release the Beatles’ single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and brought the Fab Four to the United States in ‘64 to promote it. Capitol had earlier rejected the Beatles’ initial hit singles as unsuitable for the American market.
His late brother, Jay, who died in 2001, was a composer who teamed with songwriter Ray Evans to produce such standards as “Mona Lisa,” “Silver Bells” and “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” as well as the theme music for “Bonanza.”
Top 3 songs for the week 3/16/68: “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” (Otis Redding) #2 “(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” (Dionne Warwick) #3 “Love Is Blue” (Paul Mauriat)…and…#4 “Simon Says” (1910 Fruitgum Co.) #5 “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” (The First Edition…Kenny Rogers) #6 “I Wish It Would Rain” (The Temptations) #7 “La-La-Means I Love You” (The Delfonics…a classic) #8 “Valleri” (The Monkees) #9 “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone” (Aretha Franklin) #10 “I Thank You” (Sam & Dave)
NCAA B-Ball Quiz Answer: Four No. 15 seeds to win their first round game in the tourney.
2001 – Hampton over Iowa State, 58-57
*FYI…Fifteen 14 seeds have won a first round game, but only two then won a second contest…Chattanooga in 1997 and Cleveland State in 1986, before losing in the Sweet 16.
Who was this lad? According to our best evidence, his name is usually given as Magonus Saccatus Patricius, and his father was Calpurnius, a local official of the declining Roman Empire. Patrick, born in Scotland or Wales, may or may not have been a religious officeholder but what is agreed upon is that he was captured, along with a thousand others, by a marauding sea-going band just before his sixteenth birthday, in the year 416 AD, and brought to Ireland as a slave.
Ireland had about 200,000 people at the time (compared to nine million before the Great Famine and about 4.5 million today). Dr. George Otto Simms, a Patrick historian and Church of Ireland Archbishop, describes the Ireland of Patrick’s time:
“Their livelihood depended on the rearing of cattle and sheep and also mixed farming. Thick forests covered large tracts of land. The word for ‘road’ was, understandably, bothar, meaning a path for the cows. About one hundred chieftains ruled as petty kings among their clans…remarkably enough, we learn that, within a hundred years of Patrick’s death, these warrior-kings had become Christians….The druids continued to advise their rulers. In Ireland during the early days of the Christian Church no martyr’s blood seems to have been shed.”
Patrick’s main job was tending sheep and after six years he went to France to take up the religious life, where he was consecrated bishop by Pope Celestine, with the mission of returning to Ireland to spread the gospel around the year 432 AD.
There were Christians in Ireland before Patrick, but not too many, and Patrick, steeped in the scriptures, began to approach the kings and chieftains who had massive influence on their people. He also took on the druids, outsmarted them, and displayed great courage in confronting hostility. And he led by example.
It was Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, a spot revered by thousands of Pilgrims each year, that Patrick emulated his spiritual leader, fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He had terrific charisma and was a great communicator.
But did he drive the snakes out of Ireland? Well, that’s probably myth, but when he died in 461, he left behind a thriving church.
Mal Rogers of Ireland of the Welcomes had some of the following observations concerning St. Patrick and other Irish stuff.
7000 BC: First human settlers arrive in Ireland. Somewhere near present-day Coleraine. Property prices immediately go through the roof.
6000 BC: Hunter-gatherers turn into hunter-ditherers, and farming begins. Still not much time for celebrations. European Union subsidies a distant dream. March 17th passes without any fuss.
500 BC: The Celts arrive. These people knew how to party….Riverdance looks on the cards for the first time.
0: The year dot. Pagan celebrations still widespread, but events in the Middle East top the news agenda.
432 AD: Patrick returns to Ireland…Drives snakes out in a religious ceremony – tabloids declare: “Mass hissterial!”
Next Bar Chat, Thursday…sorry, delaying Frank Howard and other baseball stories until then.
