College Basketball Quiz: More first-round picks. 1) Who was selected No. 1 out of Colorado by Boston in 1997? [lengthy NBA career] 2) Who was the last player out of Columbia to be a No. 1 pick? [lengthy NBA career] 3) Who was a No. 1 out of UConn in 1990, the first for the Huskies since 1967’s Wes Bialosuknia was selected by Oakland of the ABA? 4) Who was a No. 1 out of Creighton in 1985? [big man…lengthy NBA career] 5) Who was a No. 1 out of DePaul in 1982, selected by San Diego? [lengthy NBA career] Answers below.
New York Knicks Quiz: For diehard fans of a certain age. Next Monday, Feb. 22, the Knicks are holding a 40th anniversary celebration for the 1969-70 world championship squad. Name the members of that team. Answer below.
**Tiger to hold a press conference on Friday, 11:00 am**
Olympic Bits…this column is being posted before any of Wednesday’s results…**update…at 5:30 pm ET did just see the Vonn result in the downhill.
What a mess…aside from the awful weather conditions (the indoor ski area at the mall in Dubai would have been a better facility), some of the drama is going out of the Games. And in watching the Today Show Wednesday morning, I didn’t realize the Canadians won’t let spectators close to the Olympic cauldron. You have to view it from behind a chain-link fence. Talk about bush league.
“The XXI Winter Olympics are now but V days old, and so far this is the unofficial tally:
“Two postponed ski days, one because of too much rain, one because of too much snow. Think about that: There was too much snow to hold a skiing event, mostly because there’s been too little snow before.
“Two Zambonis needed to properly re-freeze the ice at the long-track speed skating on Monday night, causing a delay of 90 minutes. Seriously, you can’t make ice at the Winter Olympics? Isn’t that like running out of grass when building a baseball stadium?
“One snowboardcross won by an American, Seth Wescott, who earlier in the day had likened the conditions on the course to somewhere between abominable and abhorrent, although there’s nothing abominable about this snow, man.
“One case of extreme fog that threatened to wipe out the women’s snowboardcross but instead delayed it close to two hours. One billion Canadian dollars, sunk into these Olympics that is just now dawning on taxpayers will not be magically paid off by someone other than taxpayers and is giving the regular protestors some egalitarian footing.
“And, of course there was a fatality on the luge course, which really belongs in a whole separate category. Some journalists, always quick to judge these things, have already declared these the Worst Games Ever, which is both premature and an unnecessary slap at Atlanta, which earned the title in 1996 and has held a vise-like grip on it ever since (after all, let’s be honest: A bomb went off there. That has to be hard to top, no?).
“It would just help a lot if the snow would start falling, and the mercury would start dropping, and stuff would start working. The sooner the better.”
Mr. Vaccaro forgot one key item. The fact the ground around the snowboarding area was so unstable, 8,000 tickets had to be refunded! The reason for the instability? No snow. Just mud.
Meanwhile, snowboardcross rider Lindsey Jacobellis, who was an embarrassment at the 2006 Olympics, proved to be “the biggest turkey of the Vancouver Games on Tuesday afternoon,” in the words of Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. She fell, clipped a gate, spun off the course and was disqualified. And yet the girl still doesn’t get it.
“It’s unfortunate the rest of the world only sees this race and four years ago. So I don’t have a great track record for the general public.”
“Outside of the snowboarding world, Jacobellis’ name is not so much a name as it is a dictionary entry, and it gained a new definition Tuesday. A proposal, to Messrs. Merriam and Webster, for their 2011 unabridged.
Main entry: Jacobelis
Pronunciation: JAKE-uh-BELL-is
Function: Verb
Dates: 2006, 2010
1. To cost oneself athletic glory and sentence oneself to a lifetime of smarmy people using surname as a verb, esp. through youthfully hubristic hot-dogging.
2. To spin out and end an Olympic Games in disappointment.
Synonyms: Van de Velde
At least Bode Miller gained a bit of redemption for his 2006 flameout in capturing the bronze in the men’s downhill, thus becoming the first American to win three medals in alpine skiing, his other two being silvers in Salt Lake City in 2002. And he said all the right things immediately afterwards.
“By the end back in 2006, (Bode) had become impossible to root for. This was after describing the buzz of skiing drunk on ’60 Minutes,’ after staying out late the night before the downhill, after complaining about his room, after failing to medal in any of his five events. Mostly, it was after he had all but poured a beer bong over the notion of what the Olympics are supposed to be….
“ ‘Whether I had a medal or not, I’m not sure it would have made a huge difference,’ Miller said later, and with an earnestness that was absolutely believable. But the medal would still be a nice bonus. And so it was….When it was over, when the bronze was his, he did a most un-cool thing:
“He smiled. He cheered. He celebrated. And so did everyone else, even the Canadians, who are the same kind of suckers for comebacks and redemption as we are.”
And then you have the Chinese pairs skaters who captured gold, thus ending the Russians’ 46-year winning streak, She Zue, 31, and Zhao Hongbo, 36, who came out of retirement last year to try to win Olympic gold to add to their two disappointing bronze medals. The married couple had one message after their incredibly satisfying victory.
“I think that it’s hard to continue skating,” Shen said, answering a reporter’s questions about what the couple would do next. “Maybe it’s time to have a baby.”
February 22nd is the 30th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” the U.S. beating the U.S.S.R. in hockey at the Olympics in Lake Placid. It was a game that lifted the spirits of all Americans, what with hostages being held in Iran, the Soviets invading Afghanistan and the Cold War in full force. Slava Fetisov, then a rookie defenseman on the Soviet team, recalled from his end, “We were told (we could) lose to anybody but the U.S.”
The year before, in a Challenge Cup Series with the NHL All-Stars, the same Soviet team had won 2 of 3, including a 6-0 finale. In a pre-Olympic appearance, the Soviets beat the Americans, 10-3.
At Lake Placid the U.S. team was seeded 7th, though coach Herb Brooks still thought they might win a bronze medal. In their opener, the Americans salvaged a 2-2 tie with 3rd-seeded Sweden. They then whipped 2nd-seeded Czechoslovakia, 7-3; Norway, 5-1; Romania, 7-2; and W. Germany 4-2. Next up were the Soviets.
You can all probably recall where you were when you watched the game. What I’m forgetting is if I knew the result beforehand because the game was on a 3-hour tape delay. The Soviets led 2-1 when, with one second remaining in the first period, Mark Johnson scored to tie it at 2. The Soviets had the world’s best goalie, Vladislav Tretiak, but he was benched for the remainder of the game after Johnson scored in one of the more controversial decisions by a coach in the history of sports.
In the 3rd period, with the Soviets now up 3-2, Johnson scored again to tie it and then suddenly, on a shift change with 10 minutes to go in the game, Mike Eruzione scored on a screened shot to make it 4-3 U.S. That’s the way it ended. The final 10 minutes were the longest of their lives.
What many now forget is that the U.S. still had to defeat Finland for the Gold Medal. If they lost they’d finish 4th. They won 4-2. Eleven of the U.S. team went on to play in the NHL.
Lastly, and back to Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, he had this to say of figure skaters in general and one Johnny Weir.
“I have to be honest: It makes it harder to take these pairs figure skaters seriously in their desire to be viewed as hard-bitten athletes like everyone else when they get made up like clowns – replete with painted-on tears – the way Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy did Sunday night.
“And, well, Johnny Weir doesn’t help the cause either by raising a ruckus because he decided to drop fur from his costume. I really would like to know what Chuck Bednarik thinks about that.”
—Pitchers and catchers are reporting as you eat your morning cereal. USA TODAY Sports Weekly revealed their power ratings for this season, based on voting by the writers and editors there.
1. Yankees 2. Phillies 3. Red Sox 4. Cardinals 5. Angels 6. Twins 7. Dodgers 8. Rays
Uh oh. 22. Mets 28. Blue Jays 29. Nationals 30. Pirates
My Mets are 22?! Good grief. But if I were you, I’d go to Vegas and put a $100 on both the Nationals and Pirates. Both have the potential to at least be exciting…far more so than the Metsies!
–The New Jersey Nets defeated Charlotte on Tuesday and now stand 5-48!!! The state is very proud of them.
—College Basketball
AP Men’s Poll
1. Kansas
2. Kentucky…survived OT vs. Miss. State on Tuesday
3. Villanova
4. Purdue
5. Syracuse
6. Duke
7. Kansas State
8. West Virginia
9. Ohio State
10. Georgetown
23. Wake Forest…then bad loss to Virginia Tech, Tues.*
25. Richmond…very cool
27. Virginia Tech
*Here’s why Wake’s 87-83 loss at VT was so infuriating. Our two centers played terribly, both fouling out, with 8 of the 10 fouls between them inexcusable. We were consistently boxed out and our two solid freshmen put up bricks. This game cost us a seed come March Madness because it was in the bag until the last 12 minutes after which we were simply outhustled.
For you Wake fans out there, though, I also can’t help but bring up the stat comparison for the two Deacs who were first-rounders in the 2009 draft as of the All-Star break. It’s pretty amazing how identical they are.
Jeff Teague, 9.7 min., .342 FG%, .897 FT% [26-29], 2.9 ppg, [4 of 20 from downtown]
James Johnson, 9.5 min., .382 FG%, .871 FT% [27-31], 2.8 ppg [6 of 20 from downtown]
Despite this start, though, I’m guessing both have long careers. Teague has shown he can be a decent playmaker and Johnson just has too much potential. But next season will be critical for the duo.
AP Women’s Poll
1. UConn…just give the trophy to them now
2. Stanford
3. Nebraska
4. Notre Dame
5. Tennessee
6. Xavier
7. Ohio State
8. Duke
9. West Virginia
10. Florida State
–The Olympics is saving Tiger Woods a bit. Word that porn star Joslyn James claimed she had been pregnant by Tiger not once, but twice, was kind of buried. In an interview with “Inside Edition,” James alleges one pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and the other in an abortion. She says she never told Tiger about either. But now as you saw above, Tiger is finally about to speak out…and not only upstage the Accenture Match Play event (they being the first sponsor to dump him), but also the Games. Kind of funny. And undoubtedly it will be all Tiger next chat.
–Goodness gracious. Former Oklahoma State basketball coach Sean Sutton is a dirtball of the year candidate after being charged with four felonies for obtaining a controlled dangerous substance by fraud, unlawful possession and other stuff. Sutton has serious drug issues.
Sutton succeeded his father, legendary Eddie Sutton, as OSU’s coach and went 39-29 in two seasons before resigning under pressure in April 2008. Eddie had stepped down in May 2006 following a drunk-driving crash.
–Speaking of dirtballs, how about U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis? A French judge is seeking to question Landis about computer hacking going back to September 2006 at a doping lab, the same one that uncovered super elevated testosterone levels in Landis’ samples in the run-up to his 2006 Tour de France victory, which then led to his losing the medal. The judge, though, has only issued an arrest warrant applicable to French soil, not international as first reported.
It turns out that Landis used hacked files for his defense in a California arbitration hearing in an attempt to show the lab made mistakes in the handling of the tests. It was during the Tour’s 17th stage that Landis, eight minutes behind the leader, suddenly rocketed up the board during the mountain stage, cutting the lead to just 30 seconds.
—Topps is launching a pretty cool deal this year for its 2010 set of baseball cards. One in every six packs will include a code enabling you to redeem online for a vintage card. The biggest is a Mickey Mantle rookie card worth more than $20,000. Barry Paddock of the New York Daily News has a typical story for all of us who collected cards from Cal Ripken Jr.
“I wanted to get a Brooks Robinson so bad. I kept opening up more packs, more packs, more packs. It took me a long time to get a Brooksy card. I wish I knew where that was right now.”
“Your mom puts them up in the attic someplace, and then you come home and somehow they’re mysteriously gone,” said Ripken. [But, to get Ripken’s mom off the hook, he never blamed her personally for the missing Brooksy.]
All 38,000 Topps cards issued since 1952 are up for grabs, stored in a Delaware warehouse. Said a Topps executive, “It’s definitely secure. Mom-proof. A big sign on the door – No Moms Allowed!”
I know I’ve mentioned this before but for my own collection, the best of which was 1967-69 (ages 9-11…the Wonderbread years, more or less), my mother didn’t throw them out (my brother still swears she threw out his Pete Rose rookie card, though). But my problem was I lost some key cards playing flips with Stevie T., and then I stupidly gave an entire shoebox full as a birthday present to my childhood buddy Jeff W. So while I still have a lot of great cards (now in my 10X10 climate-controlled storage space), instead of 8 Johnny Bench rookie cards, to cite one decent example, I have just 3 or 4.
Back to the ’52 Mantle card, one in mint condition sold for $275,000 in 2001, but Topps is lowballing in talking about a $20,000 value. They’ve also conceded three will be made available but haven’t talked about the condition, which one must assume is pretty close to mint, seeing as they control the mint itself, sports fans, though it’s also not known which cards Topps had to go out to dealers to acquire itself to complete the full collection for this giveaway.
–I need to bury the following personal opinion in this column, but it just needs to be said. We have got to increase the types of crimes that would allow for capital punishment. Like for this situation we have here in New Jersey, where over the past month, “at least seven memorial plaques have been stolen from parks and public places across Middlesex, Union and Somerset counties,” as reported by Brent Johnson of the Star-Ledger.
“Police aren’t sure if the robberies are connected, nor are they sure of a motive. It could be a prank, or someone is stealing the historical items to auction, or thieves are lifting the bronze and brass plaques to sell as scrap metal, police said.”
Similar thefts have been occurring all over the country. Nothing ticks me off more than stuff like this. If it’s a prank, and the plaques are returned, then I’d let the thieves off with extensive community service along with the cost to repair and replace them. If it’s more sinister, those responsible deserve the ultimate. Hey…it wouldn’t happen again, ever…right?
If thieves are taking it for the bronze, which is at a high of $2 a pound, that means a 30-pound plaque may get you a whopping $60. But as one expert said, replacing it could cost any township $3,000 because they have to be engraved and personalized.
–OK, track fans. I just picked up some tickets to see Usain Bolt run the 100 in New York on June 12. [Adidas Grand Prix…Randall’s Island] A few tickets near the finish line are still available…but going fast. Of course there is always a risk in something like this. He could suffer an injury beforehand, but now that the endorsement money is starting to come through (he has a great spot for the Jamaican tourism bureau, for example), Bolt certainly recognizes the value of a New York appearance and I suspect by May he will be all over the local media promoting the event. It’s a full track meet, compressed into 3-4 hours, and I’m also assuming Bolt’s race will end up on national TV.
—Andrew Dice Clay is making a comeback, or so he hopes, as he headlines at the Las Vegas Hilton. It was exactly 20 years ago that Dice peaked and I was there to see him at a packed Madison Square Garden concert (pretty unusual for a comedian to be able to do that), about a week before or after his famous Saturday Night Live appearance. His movie “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane” was released at the same time, it bombed at the box office if I remember correctly, and Dice’s flame went out. But for about two months he was the biggest thing in show business, a meteoric rise…and fall.
–I missed this last chat, but the Los Angeles Times reported that Florida’s cold temperatures have been doing a number on the python population. This is very good news, folks. As reported by David Fleshler and Lisa J. Huriash:
“Vultures circled over Everglades National Park’s Anhinga Trail, where thousands of dead nonnative fish floated in the marshes. [Ed. being they are ‘nonnative,’ you shouldn’t care.]
“About half of the Burmese pythons that have turned up in the park recently have been dead. Dead iguanas have dropped from trees….
“And in western Miami-Dade County, three African rock pythons – powerful constrictors that can kill people – have turned up dead.”
One official with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said half of the pythons may have succumbed to the cold. Now if we could just get a big cold wave next January to kill off the remainder (I’m assuming the worst of the cold is history for the rest of 2010), then Floridians could stop sleeping with one eye open.
Then again, here’s a nightmare. From Greg Graziani, “one of several licensed python hunters” in the Everglades. In four days, he found two dead, two live ones, and one on the verge of death.
“Vultures had pecked through 12 inches by 4 inches down the back of this animal’s body,” he said. “I thought it was dead, and we reached down to pick it up, and it was very much alive.”
If your child misbehaved today, maybe use this as a bedtime story for payback.
—Bird action is finally picking up outside my new office location, but I’m seeing too many seagulls. However, where there are seagulls and pigeons, one can only hope the hawks and eagles aren’t far behind.
–Researchers have concluded King Tut, who died sometime around 1324 BC, or 3286 years before the Mets played their first game, suffered from malaria. I’m guessing he also didn’t wash his hands frequently.
—Kevin Eubanks is leaving Jay Leno and “The Tonight Show” in March to pursue other opportunities, a blow to Jay, who is relaunching on March 1; not that I will be staying up until 11:35 eastern to see him.
—Dale Hawkins died. He was 73. Hawkins, a singer-guitarist, came up with the 1957 hit “Suzie-Q,” which went on to become a rock anthem. It was a top 30 tune in ’57 but was then covered famously by the likes of the Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival (their first top 40, peaking at No. 11, fall of ’68). In the 1960s, Hawkins, switching to a different side of the music industry, produced a top 10 hit for Bruce Channel (“Hey! Baby!”) and the Five Americans (“Western Union”).
Top 3 songs for the week 2/18/84: #1 “Karma Chameleon” (Culture Club…these guys and their music depressed the hell out of me) #2 “Jump” (Van Halen…thank god they were around) #3 “Joanna” (Kool & The Gang)…and…#4 “99 Luftballons” (Nena) #5 “Talking In Your Sleep” (The Romantics) #6 “That’s All!” (Genesis) #7 “Thriller” (Michael Jackson…42 lbs. at death) #8 “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” (Yes) #9 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” (Cyndi Lauper…just an awful tune) #10 “Let The Music Play” (Shannon….time to get back to the 60s)
*The following is a link to Paul Sorvino doing a cooking segment the other day on the local CBS affiliate. I don’t mention links of this kind because if I started doing so, you all would inundate me with your favorites and just don’t have the time for that. But this particular one will have you running to the kitchen to make stuffed shells because of its simplicity. Plus you have the “Goodfellas” angle.
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) 1997 – Colorado: Chauncey Billups, selected by Boston. Only played with them 51 games. 2) 1970 – Columbia: Jim McMillian, selected by Lakers,
9-year career, averaged 13.8 ppg. 3) 1990 – UConn: Tate George, selected by New Jersey, just 4 years in NBA…sucked. 4) 1985 – Creighton: Benoit Benjamin, selected by Clippers, proceeded to play 15 years in the game with 9 teams, averaged 11.4 ppg. 5) 1982 – Detroit: Terry Cummings, selected by San Diego, played 18 years in the league, averaged 16.4 ppg, including 7 years where he averaged 20+.
New York Knicks Quiz Answer: Members of the ’69-’70 world champions…Dick Barnett, Don May, Nate Bowman, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Mike Riordan, Dave DeBusschere, Cazzie Russell, Walt Frazier, Dave Stallworth, Bill Hosket, John Warren and Phil Jackson. Jackson, however, was on injured reserve with a back injury the entire season. Russell would have been fun to watch in today’s game. He could chuck it from anywhere.
