College Basketball Quiz: 1) Since 1955, who is the only other player at LSU to average 30 points per game aside from Pete Maravich? 2) Karl Malone was a first-round selection out of Louisiana Tech in 1985. Who is the only one since? 3) Who was the leading scorer on the Louisville squad that captured the national title in 1980? 4) Who is the only first-round draft pick out of Loyola-Marymount? 5) Who is the only first-round selection out of Marist? Answers below.
Finally…March Madness!
I’ll have the official bracketology from Bar Chat on Thursday. Not to get too personal, but I was actually at a gospel concert in Jersey City at the time the brackets were announced yesterday, having to do with my friends in Newark.
But I got home Sunday night with minutes to spare, just in time to see “The Pacific.” If you don’t subscribe to HBO, it’s worth paying the $50 or so to catch all ten parts. Or buy the video this summer. Like “Band of Brothers,” every American, especially those who weren’t part of “The Greatest Generation,” should be forced to watch it.
1. Kentucky
2. West Virginia
1. Duke
2. Villanova
1. Kansas
2. Ohio State
1. Syracuse
2. Kansas State [kind of a surprise]
So I’ve gotta tell ya, West Virginia, my pick to click since the beginning of this season, is fun to watch. They certainly played three super exciting contests in taking the Big East Conference title as the kid from my hometown here, Summit, New Jersey’s Wellington Smith, had a double-double in the deciding game. America now also knows what a clutch performer Da’Sean Butler is.
And from watching some of the other games, if I’m an NBA team, I wouldn’t mind having Ohio State’s Evan Turner in my starting five. Talk about a soon-to-be perennial All-Star.
I received my “Mean Green” North Texas t-shirt. I actually like the K-State matchup they have in the first round.
Cornell a 12?! C’mon.
As for Wake Forest, my initial reaction is…how did we get a 9? I knew that last regular season ACC contest clinched a bid, but I really thought we’d be a 12. More Thursday….
Jim Calhoun said he is re-upping for another four seasons at UConn. He turns 68 in May. This is incredibly stupid on his part, but I guess he wants to die on the court.
Oregon Football’s Huge Debacle
So last fall I had an absolute blast going to the Oregon-USC football game in Eugene and for the past few weeks I’ve been meaning to make plans to head out for the Nov. 6 Oregon-Washington contest. Washington is going to be featuring Jake Locker, one of the premiere quarterbacks in the country who is a surefire top five draft pick a year from now; that is if he doesn’t choose a major league baseball career instead…one of those guys, you see.
But I just hadn’t gotten around to making the arrangements and now it looks like I’ll shelve the plans, totally.
You see, the Oregon Ducks, in whom I’ve invested countless $hundreds in Duckwear, from cross country and track t-shirts to football, the perfect hedge against being a Wake Forest fan, have a discipline problem when it comes to its players. A rather severe one. Here’s the story.
“University of Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli told police and his football coach earlier this year that he had nothing to do with a Jan. 24 break-in at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house just west of the UO campus, court records show.
“He changed his tune Friday afternoon and pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in the case.
[Masoli and a teammate, receiver Garrett Embry, stole two laptops and a projector.]
“Lane County Circuit Judge Maurice Merten sentenced the 21-year-old California native to one year probation and 140 hours of community service.
“Ducks head coach Chip Kelly doled out further punishment later Friday, announcing that his star player will not play a single game in the upcoming season.
“Kelly didn’t elaborate on his rationale, but UO athletic director Mike Bellotti did offer a comment. ‘It’s a combination of both the incident and the degree of honesty’ provided by Masoli, Bellotti said.”
Separately, superstar running back LaMichael James pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of physical harassment in a fight with a longtime girlfriend. Four additional misdemeanor charges were dismissed. Judge Merten sentenced James to 10 days in jail, although it is unlikely James will actually serve any more time due to the fact he was in jail for two days, initially.
“Unlike Masoli, James was upfront about the allegations he faced, [Lane County D.A. Alex] Gardner said. ‘From very early on, clearly he was willing to accept responsibility.’
“James, who will serve 24 months probation and be required to submit to a domestic violence evaluation to see if he must undergo treatment, issued a statement Friday apologizing to his victim.”
I read it. James said all the right things, including telling everyone to lay off the girl because he alone is responsible, adding:
“I look forward to demonstrating to my university, to my team and to the community that I am a better man than recent events suggest.”
Chip Kelly announced James would be suspended for the Ducks’ Sept. 4 season opener against New Mexico.
The District Attorney, Gardner, did tell the room full of reporters that in the grand scheme of things, the allegations faced by the players were minor, “they are profoundly insignificant. I’m asking you all to keep it in perspective.”
Coach Kelly, though, has had to deal with one issue after another, including a brawl involving the placekicker, Rob Beard, who has also been suspended for one game. Embry was dismissed from the team back in January for unspecified rules violations. And I recently wrote of linebacker Kiki Alonso, who was suspended for a full year due to a drunk driving incident. Plus, sophomore defensive end Matt Simms was dismissed from the team after Eugene police cited him on assault charges.
All of this on top of last year’s incident involving running back LeGarrette Blount, who you’ll recall punched a Boise State player after UO’s season-opening loss there.
“This is not what our football team is all about,” Kelly said at the conclusion of a brief news conference Friday afternoon.
Goodness gracious, Coach. You’re a good man, and these incidents are not your fault. But it has to stop, know what I’m sayin’? Oregon is nothing more than a bunch of thugs. That said, I have too much invested in this team in terms of the Duckwear so I’m putting Oregon on my own personal probation, rather than dropping them totally. And if you can come up with a quarterback to replace Masoli, I’ll be back on board because no one ever said I couldn’t be as shallow as the rest!
Rachel Chokes!!!
What happened on Saturday is the last thing the sport of kings needed. Rachel Alexandra, in what was to be a tune-up for her first match with Zenyatta, lost at the New Orleans Ladies Stakes. The reigning Horse of the Year was edged out by a mare named Zardana (coincidentally, Zenyatta’s stablemate) and Rachel’s trainer, Steve Asmussen, took the blame, saying he had not trained her well. Now it appears Rachel won’t meet Zenyatta on April 9 at Oaklawn Park (Hot Springs, Ark.) as initially planned.
What a shame, because in California, Zenyatta, last into the stretch at Santa Anita Park, staged a spectacular run.
“Her regular rider, Mike Smith, let her lope behind the field for most of the mile-and-an-eighth race. ‘[Trainer John Shirreffs] kept telling me that it’s a mile and eighth race, which meant I want you to make this as easy as possible for her,’ he said.
“When he finally asked Zenyatta, a big girl, for run in the lane, she was stopped once, twice and looked beat. Instead, she seemed to shrink herself into an aerodynamic torpedo and dive into ever so small holes.”
Go ahead, YouTube both races. But now what? The thrill is gone. Should Rachel get her act together later in the year, the two will finally match up and it yet could be a great contest, but Rachel’s record is marred. The trainer did truly screw it up.
The only good thing to come from the first big weekend of the race season, as we gear up for the Kentucky Derby in May, is that the official pony of Bar Chat, Lookin At Lucky, won his first start of the year at Oaklawn Park as a huge cheer went up at the global headquarters of StocksandNews; Lookin At Lucky being the Derby pick here as well.
And when Lookin At Lucky wins, it’s a free subscription for all readers!
A Hall of Famer Passes Away
Hall of Fame tackle, longtime color commentator, and actor, Merlin Olsen, died at the age of 69 of mesothelioma, which is most commonly associated with asbestos. No doubt, as a member of the famed “Fearsome Foursome” of the Los Angeles Rams, Olsen was one of the best defensive tackles in NFL history.
Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, puts Olsen alongside “Mean” Joe Greene and Bob Lilly as the three best. Sabol also told the Los Angeles Times that Olsen and Reggie White were the two best bull rushers.
“They could just grab a guy straight on and push him right back. When you watched them, you were really watching the essence of what line play was. And Merlin did that for 60 minutes. He was the kind of guy who was stronger at the end of the game than he was at the beginning.”
“In one memorable highlight package featuring the Rams and Chargers, the late John Facenda intoned that Olsen ‘went through the offensive line of the San Diego Chargers like a storm surge through a sand castle.’”
The funny thing about the Fearsome Foursome, though – Olsen, Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, and Rosie Grier – is that they were really only all together from 1963 to 1966, during which time the Rams had just one winning season. [Grier retired after the ’66 season.]
Jones told the Los Angeles Times in 1985, “Merlin had superhuman strength. If I was beating my man inside, he’d hold him up and free me to make the tackle. If he had to make an adjustment to sacrifice his life and limb, he would make it. A lot of the plays I made were because he or the others would make the sacrifice.”
Olsen said the average weight of the line was 275 and “there was not a weight lifter in the group. Imagine how big we’d be today.”
He joined the Rams in 1962 from Utah State, where he won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman, and was drafted third overall, behind teammate and quarterback Roman Gabriel as the Rams had two first-round picks. He was the league’s rookie of the year on a team that won all of one game. Merlin proceeded to spend his entire 15 years with the Rams, where he was a Pro Bowler every season except his last.
But Merlin Olsen was more than a football player. He earned his master’s degree in economics while playing for the Rams, and after his playing days were over, aside from working in the broadcast booth with Dick Enberg for NBC, he appeared in “Little House on the Prairie,” and then had the title role from 1981 to 1983 in “Father Murphy.”
Olsen had two brothers who also played in the NFL, Phil, who was with the Rams for four years when Merlin was there, and Orrin, who played center for the Chiefs.
–Nothing new on the case involving Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It’s so bad, though, that he had to tell police no sexual intercourse took place between him and his accuser, according to Pittsburgh television station KDKA. The 20-year-old woman asserts Roethlisberger assaulted her. The QB evidently admits to contact with the woman but that she slipped and fell, injuring her head.
Well that’s just great news, Ben. And get this, two off-duty Pittsburgh police were with Roethlisberger at the Milledgeville, Ga., nightspot. Why? They were celebrating his birthday.
Well, seeing as the cops are friends, and now part of the investigation, you can imagine the twists and turns this case could take.
—Manny Pacquiao won a one-sided 12-round decision over Joshua Clottey, with 51,000 on hand in Cowboys Stadium. One judge gave Pacquiao every round, while the other two gave him all but one.
The fight everyone wants to see, though, Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., can’t take place until the fall at the earliest and there are some who say Pacquiao may never fight again because his real passion now is politics and he’s heading back home to run for the legislature.
–Mike Lupica of the Daily News sums up the feelings of New York-area baseball fans.
“Why exactly did (A-Rod) need to go to a Canadian doctor who can’t practice medicine in New York to get anti-inflammatory drugs for a hip that may or may not have been ‘inflamed’ at the time?
“I don’t mean to be a cynic or skeptic with the Yankee third baseman, but are we supposed to believe he couldn’t get anti-inflammatory pills at Columbia-Presbyterian, a few minutes from Yankee Stadium?
“He couldn’t get anti-inflammatory pills from the Yankee team doctors or at New York Hospital?
“But apparently we are supposed to believe that Dr. Galea, who is on record about how much he likes human growth hormone as a way of keeping himself young, is as much of an expert on anti-inflammatory pills, that’s what he told the Associated Press he gave to Alex Rodriguez, as he is blood-spinning. What a guy. He should have his own TV show, like Dr. Oz….
“Come on, there are more things fishy about all this than the old Fulton Fish Market. If the whole thing is so easily explained, if Rodriguez is ‘at ease’ with the whole situation as he told the media in Florida the other day, how come he hasn’t cleared some of this up already, no matter how lawyered up he is….
“Rodriguez keeps saying that this isn’t about him, it’s about somebody else. That means Galea. Boy, it sure is. You know something else the feds want to know, and not just from Rodriguez? They probably want to know if Dr. Galea, whom his assistant said isn’t allowed to practice medicine in the United States, treated any of these ballplayers in this country the way he treated Tiger Woods in Florida….
“(And) if you practice medicine in this country without a license, in either Florida or New York, you can get sent away for that for up to four years. This is known as real time.”
–Staying with New York baseball, it’s really unbelievable the string of bad luck the Mets have had the past 3+ years. But while the collapses of 2007 and 2008 were of their own doing, 2009 was about an unreal stretch of injuries. And now 2010 is suddenly looking like more of the same with Carlos Beltran rehabbing from a serious knee injury and Jose Reyes on the shelf due to an overactive thyroid, with Mets GM Omar Minaya saying, “the reality is, it doesn’t look good.” The problem with an elevated thyroid, according to doctors, is you become dehydrated and put too much stress on the heart. Not as big a deal for you or me, but a big one for an athlete of Reyes’ caliber.
“The meat of the news slithered through the crevasses of the medical speak and the happy talk. Omar Minaya, the Mets’ general manager, and Peter Greenberg, the agent for Jose Reyes, were offering layman’s explanations for the latest diagnosis of Reyes’ gland. The term is ‘hyperthyroid.’ The prescription is rest and dietary changes.
“It was Greenberg who then calmly sprayed Napalm all over the remainder of the Mets’ spring.
“ ‘Two to eight weeks of rest…’ he said, and at first it seemed preposterous, because hadn’t Reyes and Greenberg themselves seemed to indicate that they’d received positive reviews from the New York doctors? Hadn’t Reyes actually begun exercising on his own Monday, anxious to get back to baseball?
“Wouldn’t Greenberg say, a few seconds later, that the doctors still insist this is the ‘best-case scenario’ for what ails Reyes, since there is no medicinal treatment needed?
“ ‘It doesn’t look good right now,’ Minaya would ultimately concede a few minutes later. Specifically, he was referring to Reyes’ availability for Opening Day, but at this point that seems a laughably modest reference point.
“Opening Day? If the weekly monitoring that’ll gauge the reduction of Reyes’ thyroid levels takes the full eight weeks – and there is zero reason to believe it won’t – you are talking about a return to baseball activity of May 1 or so. And even if Reyes goes on an advanced, speeded-up spring training catch-up regimen – not advisable, given he is coming off a major hamstring injury – you are talking about a best-case scenario of late May when you see him in Citi Field.
“Which, by the by, is the optimistic timetable for Carlos Beltran’s return.
“By which point the Mets might need high-powered binoculars to see the Phillies, Braves and Marlins.”
On the potential HGH issue for Reyes, John Harper / New York Daily News:
“Reyes said he told the FBI that he did not obtain HGH from Galea, that he saw him only for blood-spinning treatment to try to help his recovery last season from the hamstring tendon injury that eventually required surgery.
“But is it possible that Reyes used the stuff? You’d have to be naïve in this day and age, after all of the steroids fallout in recent years, to simply dismiss the possibility, especially since Major League Baseball doesn’t test for the substance.
“Furthermore, as chronicled in yesterday’s Daily News, a clinical study established a link between HGH and abnormal thyroid hormone levels more than 20 years ago, and experts in the field of performance-enhancing drugs acknowledge the possibility that Reyes’ condition could have been caused by HGH.
“None of this means that Reyes is guilty of doping. But it’s not out of the question to think of him being so frustrated last season with his hamstring injury, and so desperate to return to baseball, that he would have been willing to try HGH.
“After all, that is the state of mind many admitted users of performance-enhancing drugs have cited as motivation.”
–Jets coach Rex Ryan had lap-band surgery to deal with his obesity. Last season he weighed 340 pounds. [Lap-band surgery is reversible.]
–Last week, the New York Knicks set a franchise mark for futility by securing their ninth consecutive losing season. Through Sunday, they are 23-43. The Nets are 7-59 as they still need three more wins to avoid tying the 1972-73 Sixers for worst record ever, 9-73.
Not for nothing, but way back on 11/2/09 in this very space, I said the Nets would go 9-73, and the Knicks, 24-58. [I’m not going to be too far off, it would seem.]
Ernie Els captured his 17th PGA Tour title in winning the WGC event at Doral, as his renewed zest for the game pays off.
Last week, in tying for 17th at the Honda Classic, Sam Saunders earned $68,444. The most his grandfather, Arnold Palmer, ever won for a PGA Tour victory was $50,000 (the 1971 Westchester Classic).
Sports psychologist Bob Rotella talked about prize pupil Padraig Harrington. “He gets distracted sometimes because he’s thinking about things to tell the media when he finishes his round. That’s because he wants to help you guys out. Where else do you get that?”
I didn’t write about what a jerk John Daly was the other week but GolfWeek had a good summary of the issue that came to the forefront.
Daly had sued the Florida Times-Union, losing a 2005 defamation suit and was ordered to pay $272,000 to the paper’s owner, Morris Communications, to cover their legal fees. But as part of the suit, the Times-Union got hold of the PGA Tour’s 456-page disciplinary file on Daly.
Now the Tour is known for its secretive ways so no one, until today, has had the real story on how many times Daly has been cited, such as:
He’s been suspended five times, fined nearly $100,000, made seven trips to alcohol rehab mandated by the Tour; put on probation six times; 21 citations for “failure to give best efforts” in tournaments; 11 citations for “conduct unbecoming a professional.”
The big story the other week, though, was that Daly took out his revenge against the Times-Union reporter who released the details, Garry Smits, by giving out Smits’ cellphone number and asking fans to flood the line. After Smits had received 100 calls, the Tour told Daly to rescind his tweet.
Ken Green, playing on a prosthetic leg as a result of an RV accident last year, shot an 80 in a Sunbelt Senior Tour event while hitting his drives 245 yards.
Seve Ballesteros, who is continuing to recover from a brain tumor, is hoping to at least make an appearance at the British Open at St. Andrews. He actually hopes to play in it, but, worst case, he should be able to compete in a special four-hole event for past winners.
The Wall Street Journal’s John Paul Newport was musing about the difference between today’s budding stars and the class nine years ago that contained Ty Tryon, Matt Kuchar, David Gossett, Charles Howell III, Aaron Baddeley, and Adam Scott. Only Scott has had a lot of success, six PGA Tour wins. [Incredibly, for all his ink, Howell just has two.]
But today’s group of 25 and unders certainly seems to have it all…Rory McIlroy, 20; Rickie Fowler, 21; Dustin Johnson, 25 (3 wins); Anthony Kim, 25 (2 wins); plus Martin Kaymer, 25; Ryo Ishikawa, 18; Danny Lee, 19; Michael Sim, 25; Jamie Lovemark, 22; and even an 18-year-old from South Korea, Noh Seung-yul, who won the Malaysian Open the other week to become the Asian PGA Tour’s second youngest champion ever. Stretch the parameters to 28 years of age, though, and you have Camilo Villegas (3 wins).
Bottom line, you can see from the first example that a number of those in the second group, despite the early hype, won’t make it. I’ll say Dustin Johnson ends up winning the most.
Lastly, the latest on the Tiger front is that there are differing reports whether his first tournament will be Bay Hill or Augusta.
But Tiger has a new problem. Documents released Friday by the Florida Highway Patrol show that the ambulance crew responding to Tiger’s accident believed it was a case of domestic violence and wouldn’t allow Elin to ride in the ambulance with her husband. But a police officer responding to the call said he didn’t know where the ambulance crew got the idea it was domestic violence. [Tiger in his only statement denied there was any such thing.]
And this…though on a lighter note…mistress Jamie Jungers told Howard Stern that not only did Tiger fly her coach when he wanted to see her, but he never tipped the wait staff.
“It embarrassed me,” said Jamie. “He always expected things to be complimentary.”
–Just nine of the 20 English Premier League (EPL) football teams are profitable. There are no salary caps, which is why you have such a disparity between the good and bad clubs. But teams such as Manchester United and Liverpool are struggling under massive debt loads. In fact, the total debt load for the EPL is $4.8 billion, which is 56% of the total of all European teams. [Bloomberg BusinessWeek]
But this just in…David Beckham tore his Achilles tendon and will miss the World Cup. The injury ends his quest to become the first England player to appear in four World Cups.
–After a three-year absence, Formula One’s Michael Schumacher finished 6th in the opening Bahrain Grand Prix. I caught a little of it, early Sunday morning. As my brother said, it was more than a bit sterile. [Like it’s Bahrain…there were zero shots of the crowd, if there even was one.]
—WOLVES KILL FEMALE JOGGER
Wolves in Alaska killed a teacher in an isolated village while she was out jogging. 32-year-old Candice Berner died of injuries sustained in the attack. As reported by the BBC:
“Her body was dragged off a rural road, leaving a bloody track, into the nearby bush and was surrounded by wolf tracks. Police said wolves in the area had been aggressive recently.”
In fact, the community had recently been on alert for wolves and school children were being accompanied to school while armed snowmobile patrols had been on the lookout for the animals.
It is believed to be the first fatal wolf attack in the U.S. in 50 years. [The last known fatality in North America was 2005, in Saskatchewan.]
Berner’s body was found by snowmobilers and it had been partially eaten. Said the head of the State Police in the area, “There’s no other carnivores in that area that are out and active…From the number of prints at the scene, we’re thinking there were probably two, three, maybe four [wolves].”
Berner had moved to Alaska from Pennsylvania in August and was working as a special needs teacher in Chignik Lake.
–Actor Corey Haim’s death was linked to a massive illegal prescription drug ring, according to California Attorney General Jerry Brown. I really couldn’t care less, since I can’t care for every loser in the world, after all, but what I found interesting is that Brown said the ring uses doctors’ identities to order prescription drug notepads from authorized vendors and then sells them to the dealers and addicts.
Haim’s ex-girlfriend (and former fiancé) said he was abusing Valium and Vicodin. Tiffany Shepis said, “You’re talking about a person that, at the time when I knew him, was ingesting 40 some-odd pills a day.” Geezuz.
–Not enough time to talk about the passing of Peter Graves, 83. His best turn was in “Airplane!”
–And this just in, courtesy of Johnny Mac and the Pocono Record.
“River Road in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area will be closed for several nights over the next few weeks to protect migrating amphibians.”
It’s all about “myriad wood frogs, spotted salamanders, spring peepers and other spring-breeding amphibians that suddenly feel the ancestral urge to search the environment for prospective mates.”
I’m assuming some of you can associate with being a “spring peeper.”
Top 3 songs for the week 3/14/70: #1 “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Simon & Garfunkel) #2 “Travelin’ Band” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #3 “The Rapper” (The Jaggerz)…and…#4 “Rainy Night In Georgia” (Brook Benton…in my top 50) #5 “Ma Belle Amie” (The Tee Set… if you knew who did this one, you’re good) #6 “Give Me Just A Little More Time” (Chairmen Of The Board) #7 “Thank You (Falenttinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (Sly & the Family Stone) #8 “Hey There Lonely Girl” (Eddie Holman) #9 “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (Hollies) #10 “Evil Ways” (Santana)
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) Chris Jackson is the only one to average over 30 ppg for LSU since Pistol Pete, averaging 30.2 during the 1988-89 campaign. Jackson was a 1990 first-rounder who changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Abdul-Rauf had a nine-year NBA career, averaging 14 a game. 2) Randy White was a first-rounder out of La. Tech in 1989. He had a so-so five-year NBA career. 3) Darrell Griffith was Louisville’s top scorer on the 1980 title team. He proceeded to play 10-years in the NBA, all with Utah, averaging 16 ppg. 4) Bo Kimble is the only first-rounder out of Loyola-Marymount, 1990. He played just 105 games in the NBA. I’ll have more on Kimble’s Loyola team next BC. 5) Rik Smits was the only first-rounder out of Marist. The 7’4” center from the Netherlands had a solid 12-year career, all with the Pacers, averaging 14.8 points and 6 rebounds.
