College Basketball Quiz: 1) Fordham finished 26-3 in 1970-71, at one point reaching No. 9 in the AP poll while advancing to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. Who was the coach? 2) Who once scored 100 points in a game for Furman? 3) Who was a first-round draft pick out of George Washington in 1994, a big man? 4) Who led Georgetown in scoring four years in a row, including Patrick Ewing’s freshman season? 5) Dominique Wilkins was a first-round pick out of Georgia by whom in 1982? 6) Georgia Tech had three first-round picks in the 1980s; 82, 86, 89. Name ‘em. [Dennis Scott was 1990, Kenny Anderson 1991. And Mark Price is not an answer.] Answers below.
This just in…employee killed at Sea World by killer whale…more details next time
The New Jersey Nets are 5-52….Nets Watch, another free feature of Bar Chat.
Girls, Girls, Girls
I have to admit I didn’t catch too much of the women’s short program on Tuesday, but I’ll be glued to the tube with the rest of you for the long one. Oh yeah, count me as one of two billion fans of Kim Yu-na of South Korea. Here’s hoping she skates again to perfection. That would be a cool moment, to see perhaps the greatest ever live up to the billing. And of course it would be terrific if Canada’s Joannie Rochette could medal with all the hurt she is experiencing with her mother’s passing. Kleenex sales would spike the next day as we all rush to replenish our suddenly depleted supplies.
[I’m also hoping this massive storm we’re supposed to get hit with doesn’t bring down all the power lines in the New York area. Talk about a potential nightmare for NBC, because the ratings Thursday should otherwise be enormous.]
But back to Queen Yu-na, just imagine how badly her countrymen want her to beat the Japanese competitor. This is what the Olympics are supposed to be about, sports fans. Blood feuds and revenge. The true Olympic spirit.
Speaking of girls, girls, girls…one of the world’s largest drug gangs is being run by one, Angie Sanselmente Valencia, a former lingerie model, and an international arrest warrant has been issued for this 30-year-old who recruits beautiful women and then uses them to move drugs to Europe and North America. Many of the girls are also said to be lingerie models. Valencia left her native Colombia when a 21-year-old was busted in December with a lot of cocaine at Buenos Aires airport and then spilled the beans.
Valencia, whose bras undoubtedly shoot bullets, paid her drug runners about $2,000 to board flights from Colombia to Cancun with bags of cocaine every 24 hours.
Of course the preceding had absolutely nothing to do with the Olympics, or the Olympic movement, but I had to fit it in somewhere.
So back to the Games, Dutchman Sven Kramer is not the happiest camper on the planet after being disqualified in the 10,000m speed skating event, this after his coach, Gerard Kemkers, mistakenly told Kramer to change lanes, leaving Kramer to say:
“Usually, I don’t want to blame anyone else, but this time I can’t do anything else. I wanted to be on the outer lane then just before the cone Gerard shouted ‘inner lane,’ I thought he’s probably right and went to the inner lane. At first I thought my skates passed the cone on the wrong side, I will be disqualified. Then I noticed in the stadium something was wrong.
“You have to decide in a split second. Afterwards I should have gone with my own thoughts, but I was brought into doubt. This really sucks. This is a real expensive mistake.”
At least Kramer won gold in the 5000m and at 23, he will be back and a good story for Sochi.
As for Gerard Kemkers, Bob Costas put it best. Hopefully there is a witness protection program in the Netherlands for this guy. He’s a dead man otherwise.
–Uh oh…my pick to win the football/BCS title next fall, Oregon, is having major off-field issues. Four players have been arrested in the last month and linebacker Kiko Alonso was suspended for the 2010 season after a DUI. But more disturbing is the dismissal of wide receiver Jamere Holland. In a Facebook post, Holland mistakenly concluded Alonso had been kicked off the team (Alonso will still have two years eligibility left) and blasted the move. In a later post, Holland wrote, “I wish I could block whites as friends and only have blacks LOL, cause apparently I’m misunderstood.” No, Jamere. You’re a freakin’ idiot.
Oregon coach Chip Kelly, who you’ll recall had to deal with LaGarrette Blount last season, told The Oregonian that he wouldn’t get into whether the Facebook post was the cause of Holland’s dismissal, “but you’re smart enough to figure it out.”
I’ve told you that as much as I love Oregon, and the atmosphere at the game I attended there last fall, plus the Olympic Track and Field Trials the year before that, the school, and the city of Eugene, are very strange.
–The New York Knicks honored the 1969-70 championship team on Monday night. For those of us of a certain age that grew up in the New York area, this Knicks team was the culmination of an awesome stretch for sports fans…the Namath/Jets Super Bowl, the Mets in the fall, and then the Knicks the following spring. It will never get any better than that in my lifetime. [First and foremost, you can never duplicate the excitement of being a kid and experiencing this.]
Today’s Knicks edition proceeded to lose the game 83-67 to Milwaukee, but just a few words on that squad of 40 years ago that captured our hearts. They got off to a 23-1 start, including 18 in a row, which tied the league mark at the time, and I’ll never forget number 18, at Cincinnati, with the Knicks pulling it out 106-105 by scoring an ungodly amount of points in a row at the end. These were the days that unless the Knicks were on the Sunday national television game, the only other time during the week they were on TV was Fridays, so you relied totally on the radio. I once had a tape of the end of the Royals game and wish I could figure out where the heck it is. Marv Albert was never better.
Speaking of Marv, we were so lucky growing up to have him as the Knicks (and Rangers for a long time) play-by-play man. All of us of a certain age during this time would go to bed with the transistor radio under the covers, listening to the west coast games. Great memories. Basketball was such a superior sport in those days as well.
But the other night, Knicks management didn’t invite Marv because of his testy departure a few years ago…just incredibly stupid. Marv refused to comment.
—College Basketball Update
AP Men’s Poll
1. Kansas
2. Kentucky
3. Purdue…seriously in the conversation now with the first two
4. Syracuse
5. Duke…overrated…but the best we’ve got, ACC fans!
6. Kansas State
7. Villanova
8. West Virginia…stumbled again, this time vs. UConn
9. Ohio State
10. New Mexico…still say these guys are overrated
15. Butler…running roughshod on Horizon Conference. So what?
23. Richmond…would love to see them make Elite Eight just for the hell of it
I missed that Bryant won a game, beating Wagner to end a 28-game losing streak.
AP Women’s Poll
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Nebraska
4. Tennessee
5. Xavier
6. Duke
7. Notre Dame
8. West Virginia
9. Florida State
10. Ohio State
T-24. Hartford
–In the ongoing rating of the NFL draft, USA TODAY Sports Weekly ranks my man C.J. Spiller of Clemson as the first running back; Sam Bradford over Jimmy Clausen at QB; and Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant as the top wide receiver.
Meanwhile, in the overall Top 100 Prospects list, as ranked by NFLDraftScout.com, Wake Forest’s Brandon Ghee, CB, sneaks in at 97, while an OT from little Hillsdale College, Jared Veldheer, is ranked at No. 80, the only small school guy on the entire list.
St. Louis, Detroit and Tampa Bay have the first three selections. Personally, I don’t care what St. Louis’ needs are, any team would be nuts not to take Nebraska DT, Ndamukong Suh, with the first pick.
–The San Diego Chargers were forced to release future Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson. No doubt LT’s best days are way in the past, like three years ago, as we all witnessed in the playoffs, but it’s too bad this is just part of the NFL. LT will latch on with someone and, used judiciously, could still contribute as a 3rd down back, I imagine.
–Talk about a nightmare, how about the Michigan football program and its pitiful coach Rich Rodriguez. The NCAA is accusing Rodriguez of further major rules violations, including a total disregard for the rules governing how much the players are allowed to practice, for one, but the school could fall under the “repeat violator rule” for the transgressions of the basketball program in 2003. Rodriguez has gone 3-9and 5-7 in his two seasons, for which he is being $2.5 million per.
–The other day I said I thought Tiger Woods seemed scared…scared of what faces him. Tuesday, George Vecsey, writing from his New York Times perch, concluded:
“The other day, Woods sounded different, like a guy who had been scared. He doesn’t really owe that much to the public or his sponsors or the golf tour. He mostly owes it to himself and his family and friends to get himself straight.
“He could, however, send word to his caddie-enforcer, Steve Williams, that this is not the best time to be threatening the gallery over potential insults. Didn’t Williams get the memo about humility?”
Vecsey doesn’t understand why Tiger is scared. It’s not about his “addiction,” it’s about Tiger having acted like a supreme jerk and now it’s payback time. He hasn’t treated anyone well. And as for Steve Williams, I said there is only one answer. Fire the guy now. Caddies are replaced all the time…and while Tiger once fired Fluff Cowan because he felt Cowan was looking to get too much of the spotlight, Williams hasn’t exactly been like Phil Mickelson’s caddie, Bones Mackay, who is never in the news.
As for Tiger himself, he is now in Scottsdale, Arizona, one of my favorite places in the country in terms of nightlife and beautiful women….oops….that’s not exactly what’s best for Woods.
“The first monogamous amphibian has been discovered living in the rainforest of South America.
“Genetic tests have revealed that male and females of one species of Peruvian poison frog remain utterly faithful.
“More surprising is the discovery that just one thing – the size of the pools of water in which they lay their tadpoles – prevents the frogs straying.”
—Lindsey Vonn and Jamie Foxx are Jay Leno’s first guests on his return, Monday. Sarah Palin is on the second night. So for the novelty of it, I’ll stay up at least part of the first night, and get some sleep the second. Sarah is sooo yesterday. As for Will Ferrell, he said he would boycott Leno, which is a good thing because we’ve all learned no one kills a talk show faster than this guy.
–Berlin police have a new theory as to the disappearance a month ago of the skull of Baltic pirate Klaus Stortebeker, who was executed 600 years ago after which “his headless body is said to have walked 12 meters along the Hamburg quayside. He had struck a deal with the elders of the port: any of his 70 men that he managed to pass in his post-decapitation walk should be spared. The corpse passed 11 fellow pirates before the executioner tripped him up.” [Roger Boyes / Irish Independent]
So anyway, the skull was taken from a Hamburg museum and now police believe it has become a trophy in the turf wars between rival biker gangs…the Hell’s Angels and the Bandidos. The skull is deemed by museum officials to be “priceless.” The age of the skull was confirmed in 1999. If you see a biker holding it, I wouldn’t confront the guy.
–Speaking of headless chaps, James Bone of the London Times writes:
“The killer who provoked one of America’s most famous headlines has been denied parole after 27 years behind bars.
“A fatal robbery at a Queens strip club in 1983 prompted the New York Post to blare on its front-page: “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
Actually, the story behind the headline is so awful, I’m not going to repeat it here. You can look it up yourself if you so desire. Charles Dingle was the killer.
“A 400-pound bear was shot and killed by authorities after it ripped a man’s screened porch and devoured his daughter’s pet rabbit, police said.
“The bear intruded on Joe McCabe’s Old Boonton Road property, near the county’s Tourne Park, around 5 p.m. Sunday, attracting the 41-year-old man’s attention as it chewed on an object in the backyard.
“It had also rummaged through his garbage that had been left outside, he said.
“The bear had two tags in its ear, McCabe said, which means it had been observed by a state biologist. [Ed. or it was a member of the Crips.]
“McCabe…said he didn’t realize the animal had eaten his 11-year-old daughter’s rabbit until he saw a large hole in the porch screen. The 3-year-old rabbit, named Blackie [Ed. Blackie was father to 678 kids…John, Joe, Peter, Peter II, Peter III…] was usually kept on the porch, he said, and pieces of rabbit fur and blood provided hints of its fate.
“ ‘She was devastated,’ he said of his daughter. [Ed. If this is the worst thing that happens to the kid, she’s lucky.]”
Meanwhile, after the bear was discovered, it was gunned down. McCabe himself faces a $1,000 fine for not taking his trash indoors.
–Yikes. For those of you from the New York area, remember ABC sportscaster Marvell Scott? Seemed like a pretty normal guy, right? Plus he left television to pursue med school. Pretty honorable, right? On Tuesday, he was charged with raping a 14-year-old hooker he picked up near Times Square.
A Kansas City man says he was hit by a flying hot dog that almost put his eye out last year. He is seeking more than $25,000 for injuries he sustained when he was smacked in the eye with a wiener chucked by the team’s mascot, Sluggerrr.
Of course this follows on the heels of the Pediatrician Association recommending that the hot dog’s shape be reconfigured to prevent kids from choking on it.
–We have us another “Jerk of the Year” candidate…ESPN commentator Tony Kornheiser for saying the following of fellow ESPN sportscaster Hannah Storm’s outfit the other day.
“Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today. She’s got on red go-go boots and a Catholic school plaid skirt…way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now.
“She’s got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body…I know she’s very good, and I’m not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won’t…but Hannah Storm…come on now! Stop! What are you doing?”
Kornheiser was suspended for three days by management, while Wiener Nation took another hit with the sausage casing remark. Totally uncalled for.
[Actually, since Kornheiser ruined Hannah’s life, he deserves to serve at least two years of hard time.]
–Perusing Men’s Health magazine, I see there is a bit titled “The 4 Enemies of Hot Sex.” Such as…
You schedule it… “This is a huge problem for couples with kids: You have a rare night alone, and there will be sex, damn it! Problem is, nothing kills the desire for sex quite as effectively as the demand for it.”
I always thought the sight of Oliver Perez on the mound for the Mets was an effective sex killer.
–Picked up a book by Michael Pellegrino titled “Jersey Brew: The Story of Beer in New Jersey.”
“I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.”
–Homer Simpson
“Make sure that the beer – four pints a week – goes to the troops under fire before any of the parties in the rear get a drop.”
–Winston Churchill to his Secretary of War, 1944
“I’m going to buy a boat, do a little traveling, and I’m going to be drinking beer!”
–John Welsh, Brooklyn bus driver who won $30 million in the New York lottery
“24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence?”
–Stephen Wright
“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.”
–William Shakespeare, Henry V
Top 3 songs for the week 2/27/65: #1 “This Diamond Ring” (Gary Lewis and The Playboys) #2 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers) #3 “My Girl” (The Temptations) …and…#4 “Downtown” (Petula Clark) #5 “The Jolly Green Giant” (The Kingsman) #6 “Tell Her No” (The Zombies) #7 “Shake” (Sam Cooke) #8 “The Boy From New York City” (The Ad Libs) #9 “I Go To Pieces” (Peter and Gordon) #10 “King Of The Road” (Roger Miller… goodness gracious…is that a super top ten or what?!)
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) 29-year-old Digger Phelps coached Fordham for one year, 1970-71, leading them to the NCAAs and then a job at Notre Dame; one of the great parlay efforts of all time. Phelps often started four guards and a 6’ 4” center, Tom Sullivan. Fordham drew the first two sellouts for college basketball at the new Madison Square Garden, including a dramatic 94-88 win over Notre Dame, 2/18/71, that I remember. Charlie Yelverton had 28 and Bill Mainor 27 for the Rams against an ND squad featuring Austin Carr. Carr averaged 38 points per game both his junior and senior seasons. Phelps, incidentally, went just 6-20 his first year at Notre Dame before getting his act together. 2) At Furman, on 2/13/54, Frank Selvy scored 100 points against Newberry, including a 40-foot heave at the buzzer to notch the magic number, in a 149-95 win. Because Newberry wasn’t Division I, though, it isn’t considered the Div. I record (Kevin Bradshaw, 72, 1991 for U.S. International). Selvy was a 3-time All-American and the 1st pick overall in the NBA draft in ’54 by Baltimore. He had a mediocre 9-year career. 3) Yinka Dare was a first-round pick out of George Washington by the New Jersey Nets. The 7-footer played a whopping 110 games in parts of four seasons, averaging 2 ppg. in earning the moniker “Stinka”. He had all of 4 assists, total. Astounding. Then he dropped dead in 2004 at the age of 32 of a heart attack. 4) Eric “Sleepy” Floyd led Georgetown in scoring, 1978-82, before becoming a first-round draft pick by New Jersey. He went on to have a solid 13-year NBA career. 5) Dominique Wilkins was a first-round pick out of Georgia by Utah, but then traded before the season began to Atlanta. 6) Georgia Tech had three first-round picks in the 1980s; 1982, Brooke Steppe (K.C.); 1986, John Salley (Detroit); 1989, Tom Hammonds (Washington). Mark Price was the first pick of the second round of the ’86 draft by Cleveland and went on to have a great career, shooting 40% from downtown, and making over 90% of his free throws.
