Last College Basketball Quiz: 1) Where did Michael Ray Richardson attend school? 2) Who was UNLV’s first first-rounder? 1975, initials R.S. 3) Who was a first-rounder out of New Mexico in 1990, initials L.L.? 4) I noted awhile back that Jimmy Collins was a great player out of New Mexico State, 1970. Who was selected ahead of him in the first round the same year, also out of NMS, initials S.L.? Answers below.
And now…your Final Four
2 West Virginia vs. 1 Duke [WVU first Final Four since 1959; Coach K’s 11th]
5 Butler vs. 5 Michigan State [Butler’s first Final Four ever; Coach Izzo’s 6th in 12 years]
Of course I’m fired up for selfish reasons that West Virginia came through against Kentucky. That was truly incredible in the first half when they were 7 of 12 from 3-point land while 0 for 10 from inside the arc. It was a gutty performance from a gutty team and, frankly, I think I kind of called it pretty well last Chat. Plus I’m glad Duke won from the standpoint of the conference, but now it’s time for them to go down. Sorry, Dookies. Whatever the outcome, it should be a great game.
But who is the best coach in the land? Is there any doubt it’s Michigan State’s Tom Izzo? How many times as a fan of the sport have you felt like he had inferior talent, yet Izzo gets it done, and once again without a big star, in this case Kalin Lucas. Hats off to you, Coach.
And hats off to Butler. I’m going to jump the gun a bit, but I’m stating today, Butler wins it all next year. There is no better returning threesome than Gordon Hayward, Matt Howard, and Shevlin Mack, and yet another great story in what is as good an NCAA tourney as we’ve ever had.
Bouncing Ball Bits
One of the stupidest things I read was a piece by Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com concerning Kansas State’s loss to Butler.
“Kansas State deserved better than what happened to it Saturday, and I’m not talking about the 63-56 loss to Butler in the West Regional final. I’m talking about the way the loss happened, or why it happened. With Kansas State struggling to reach the rim on jump shots, struggling to grab rebounds, struggling to control the dribble. Struggling to make it up and down the damn court.
“History won’t care about the reasons why, of course. History will remember this as the historic day Butler finished the leap from the Horizon League to the Final Four….Me, I’ll remember it for that, but also for something else. I’ll remember it as the day Kansas State went home to get the rest it wasn’t afforded before the most important game in program history.”
Now get this. The Xavier-Kansas State double-overtime thriller ended at 12 a.m. Eastern time, or like 12:05 as I remember it. That was Thursday night. Kansas State played Butler at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Do you see what Doyel is saying? These are college kids. They had all day Friday to rest up, for crying out loud, and he’s trying to convince a disbelieving readership that another 2 ½ hours, playing in Saturday’s nightcap rather than the early game, would have made a big difference? C’mon…get serious. We aren’t talking about playing until midnight one night in a conference tournament and then having to come back at 1:00 p.m. the next day for the finals, as is sometimes the case. K-State had a full day in between. Spare me the crocodile tears. I mean the guy goes on for three pages about this issue!
“Is it true St. John’s is conducting a phone-a-thon? Are school officials really randomly dialing people and asking, ‘So, if we offered you the job would you take it? Hello? Hello! Anyone home?’
“Apparently other options include asking callers: ‘If you want the job, please dial one. If you aren’t interested, dial two. If you would like to use St. John’s as a ploy to get more money from your current employer, dial three. If you have a good one-liner about our efforts in trying to find a coach, dial four.”
St. John’s has looked at Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt, Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg, and Boston College’s Al Skinner, the first two turning it down as of this writing. It was also going to interview Siena’s Fran McCaffery (but it appears he ended up at Iowa), and the New York Post over the weekend said former UCLA coach Steve Lavin is in the mix.
Some of us, though, don’t understand the fascination with Hewitt, who does have New York roots but can’t compile a winning record in ACC play. In fact ESPN’s Bill Simmons said of the guy, he “might just be in a coma.”
[In another area vacancy, the Seton Hall job, Iona’s Kevin Willard was tabbed.]
Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Jason Zengerle had a story on the money coaches make as a result of March Madness, or have the potential to make; such as John Calipari would have received a $650,000 bonus if he had guided Kentucky to the title.
The aforementioned Paul Hewitt has an absolutely crazy contract. It’s a rolling six-year deal at over $1 million a season. Thus, if GT ever wanted to fire him (as many fans do), it would cost the school about $7 million in severance. That’s nuts! We’re talking Paul Hewitt, not John Wooden.
It all started with the shoe companies. Back in the late 1970s, Nike teamed up with promoter Sonny Vaccaro to break into the basketball market by paying coaches to outfit their players in Nike gear. As Jason Zengerle reports, the first payments were in the $10,000 range. But by the mid-80s, the likes of Georgetown’s John Thompson were receiving $200,000.
Then in the 90s, Nike cut all-school agreements, where money didn’t go to the b-ball coach directly, but rather the university for outfitting all the school’s teams in Nike gear. The university then dispersed the money to the coaches.
Calipari is the highest-paid coach in the sport at eight years, $31.65 million. But his formal salary is only $400,000. The rest is comprised of “University Agreements.” Talk about corruption.
One guy I wouldn’t want to play for is Kansas State’s Frank Martin. Is that guy a jerk or what? Well, he has a new five-year deal paying him $1.5 million per. Duke’s Coach K? $3.6 million a year. [Or more…that was for 2008.] On a different level, Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobson
re-upped during the tourney for 10 years at $450,000, with annual raises of $25,000 throughout the length of the deal, which runs through 2020. His old contract paid him $289,000.
Switching gears, I have to admit I didn’t know much about Rod Strickland’s role as assistant to John Calipari until I read New York Times columnist William Rhoden’s piece on Sunday. Many of us hoops fans remember Strickland’s NBA career, where he was a very solid point guard, 13.2 points per game, 7.3 assists, but also a bit of a malcontent, to say the least.
But it seems he’s become quite the coach, with Calipari giving him a chance with an entry-level position paying him a whopping $1,000 a month for nine months…for two years. As Rhoden writes:
“Along with Baylor and Butler, Strickland is one of the great stories of the tournament. His is a story of maturity and development, of mistakes and overcoming them, and of making the best of a golden opportunity.”
Strickland, whose basketball IQ is apparently off the charts, has become the “Professor of the Point.” “He tutored Derrick Rose in 2007-08. Rose led Memphis to the national championship game, was the No. 1 pick of the NBA draft and was named the league’s rookie of the year. Last season, Strickland helped Tyreke Evans make the transition from high school forward to shooting guard to the point. Evans was the fourth overall pick of the 2009 NBA draft and is a contender for rookie of the year.
“This season, Strickland, 43, tutored John Wall, Kentucky’s freshman phenom….
“During timeouts or sometimes while sitting on the bench, Strickland and Wall had conversations. What’s impressive is that Wall seemed to be listening intently.”
–Every single basketball fan in the country is thinking the same thing after Butler’s upset of Syracuse, 63-59. With the ‘Cuse up 54-50, none of us have ever seen a worse job of coaching than that of Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. He lost total control of his very talented team as they played like a Band of Idiots down the stretch.
–Normally, I couldn’t care less who is announcing the game but I do like Gus Johnson’s enthusiasm, which you get the sense isn’t manufactured, and partner Len Elmore is the best analyst.
Dick Enberg, God bless him, has lost a step or two, but you would too if you had been broadcasting 50 years. I like the story that his gig doing UCLA games lasted nine years and in that time they won eight titles.
–The officiating in this tourney has been beyond pathetic.
–Pretty amazing that the Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas received zero jail time for bringing guns into the locker room. Instead, Arenas is spending 30 days in a halfway house, was placed on two years of probation, fined $5,000, and will have 400 hours of community service. Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld said Arenas would be back next season. “We’re not going to void his contract….Gilbert is part of this organization, he’s part of our team….I think people forget that he’s still one of the best players in this league.”
“After we were led to believe the District of Columbia has the strictest gun laws in the country – no room for interpretive dance: you do the crime, you do the time – Gilbert Arenas was sentenced to 30 days in a Halfway House.
“I’m not all that convinced a month in a halfway house is gonna dissuade the coterie of copyright criminals….
“Who says Arenas isn’t living a charmed existence? How fortuitous that the lone person who became teary eyed by Wild Gil’s rendition of ‘Weapons in the Workplace’ (the second time he violated a gun law, by the way) was the gullible guy gripping the gavel.
“As it turns out, the judge got his law degree from a Halfwit House.
“President Obama is going to need all additional 16,000 IRS auditors just to investigate the D.C. judicial system.”
But Gilbert Arenas isn’t the only issue for the Washington Wizards these days. You also have center Andray Blatche. In a loss to Charlotte last week, Blatche refused to re-enter the game when coach Flip Saunders asked him to. Many in the NBA, including former players, were incredulous upon hearing of this insubordination.
So what does Saunders do the next day? He started Blatche! Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon was beside himself.
“It doesn’t matter that (Blatche) is 6 feet 11 and only 23 years old. Just two weeks after putting together a string of impressive games for the Wizards, Blatche has revealed himself to be a team killer, a player whose personal agenda interests him more than the agenda of the team.
“He’s exactly what a rebuilding franchise doesn’t need, which is to say a knucklehead who thinks putting up big but meaningless numbers for a bad team makes him Wilt Chamberlain….To reward him for selfishness and insubordination by letting him play is unthinkable.”
Hell, Saunders, instead of suspending him, played Blatche 39 minutes! And it was Blatche who said Saunders owed HIM an apology. “To me, I think this will all go away if I receive an apology.” It’s crazy. The guy refused to go back into a game, Saunders blasted him in post-game comments, Blatche said he was misunderstood (how he could be so is beyond belief) and he wants the apology. Can you imagine being a Wizards season ticket holder this year? I thought the Knicks were dreadful.
–Sporting News picks the Yankees over the Phillies, again, in the World Series. [Yanks-Red Sox in the ALCS, Phils-Cardinals in the NLCS]
—Alex Rodriguez wants us all to believe there is nothing of concern in his connection to Canadian doctor Tony Galea, but it was comical that Friday’s scheduled interview with federal investigators in Buffalo was postponed when A-Rod’s attorneys convinced officials to delay it because they didn’t want their client photographed and videotaped as he entered and exited the U.S. Attorney’s offices; dozens of reporters and photographers having staked the place out.
But Rodriguez himself once again confused matters further when he said there never was a scheduled meeting. Huh? Well, we don’t call him Mr. Disingenuous for nothin’.
“Already the feds have talked to Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes of the Mets. It means the feds found time to ask their questions and Beltran and Reyes found time in their own baseball schedules to answer them. As we used to say around the Mets: Amazin’.
“Somehow this hasn’t happened yet with Alex Rodriguez. And if the feds talked to Tiger Woods about Dr. Galea – Galea did house calls with Tiger – it is a bigger secret than what happened at Woods’ house on Thanksgiving night….
“You are supposed to believe that Rodriguez not flying up to Buffalo this week to talk to the feds was somehow by mutual consent. Right. Here’s the mutual consent, so you know: Rodriguez’s lawyers talked them out of it.
“Oh, sure. The lawyers didn’t want their Yankee star being walked into a courthouse or wherever the meeting was going to take place like it was some kind of perp walk, for an investigation A-Rod keeps saying is about somebody else.
“So the interview was pushed back. Again. The longer this plays out (it seems harder for the feds and A-Rod to sit down than it was for A-Rod to finally win himself a World Series), the more you wonder how much we might be dealing with star-struck investigators here….
“If Rodriguez’s story is so innocent, if he only needed Dr. Galea to give him any kind of treatment – with anti-inflammatory pills or platelets that he could have gotten from the Yankee team doctor or at any big hospital in the big bad city – how come it is taking him so long to tell it? First he will tell it to the feds and then to Major League Baseball [MLB being next in line after the feds.]”
So while Beltran and Reyes had no problem answering questions, “It’s different with A-Rod. He IS the circus. In some ways, he loves the drama, even when he says he can’t talk.”
—Curt Schilling to Sports Illustrated’s Dan Patrick:
“People always ask me about the McGwire and Bonds thing. I despise Barry, so there’s a bias there. But they both cheated, along with a lot of other people.”
Schilling: “I just always had a problem liking people who treated people as subhumans.”
–There are conflicting reports on the state of Tiger Woods’ golf game. The other day I mentioned how friends Arjun Atwal and John Cook said they played some practice rounds with ‘the same old Tiger.’ Atwal said he was hitting it farther than ever. But others have said Tiger’s game is a mess. On Saturday, NBC announcer, and part-time Tour player these days, Brad Faxon, said he bumped into Tiger at Isleworth, the two not having seen each other since Tiger’s issues hit the front pages, and Tiger admitted he is going to be extremely nervous at Augusta.
But this is interesting. Last December, Tiger’s popularity had plummeted. According to an Opinion Research poll, only 34% had a favorable opinion of the guy, but now it’s back up to 43% (45% unfavorable). 59% want to see him win the Masters. 52% expect him to win.
In an interview with the London Times, though, longtime BBC commentator Peter Alliss has some strong opinions about Tiger’s behavior. Alliss, now 79, said Tiger was smart to pick Augusta for his return, but he’s a little surprised the green jackets who run the show actually wanted him because the tournament is now being hijacked by a single player. “It would have been rather grand…if they had said, ‘Sorry, we don’t want your sort here.’”
Alliss continues: “(Tiger’s) been caught shagging birds. He’s not been married all that long and he’s an idiot. If he was sitting here now, I’d say, ‘Tiger, you are an idiot.’”
As for the last two to three years in which Tiger often came across as grumpy and uncommunicative, Alliss says this was Woods’ “Fornicating Period.”
Peter Alliss is celebrating 49 years with the BBC. That’s amazing. And as the Times article points out, the guy is as sharp as ever.
Alliss, by the way, was quite an accomplished player for Great Britain, winning 21 tournaments worldwide, including three British PGA Championships. He had four top ten’s in the British Open, and in eight Ryder Cups had a 10-15-5 record.
“Enough talk about Tiger Woods’ apologies. He’s apologized to his wife, his kids, his mom, his family, his friends, his colleagues, his commissioner, his sponsors, his scholarship recipients and his students. He’s apologized to everybody but his cable guy. The man has begged forgiveness, sworn change and sought help. What else can he do? Walk the Stations of the Cross?….
“A win wouldn’t make him moral or cured or forgiven by his wife. But it would make him immortal. Honestly, just for golf, I’d love to see it. And when it was over, I’d love to see him do something else he hasn’t done in forever. Laugh.”
–What a tragedy at Florida International University (FIU) as running back Kendall Berry was stabbed to death outside the school’s recreation center on Thursday night. A 22-year-old suspect turned himself in. It seems the two got into an argument and Quentin Rashad Wyche pulled out a sharp object and stabbed Berry. No one seems to know what the dispute was about. By all accounts Berry was a good kid and was poised to have a breakout season on the gridiron this fall after scoring seven touchdowns last year.
“The manager of the club where Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is accused of having sexually assaulted a 20-year-old Georgia woman said Thursday one of the woman’s friends told him a bodyguard of Roethlisberger’s had denied her entrance to the area leading to the bathroom where she believed the accuser and Roethlisberger were that night. The accuser told police later that Roethlisberger had assaulted her in the club’s bathroom.”
As to the state of mind Roethlisberger was in the evening in question, the manager said, “You see a lot at a bar. Was he the drunkest person I ever met? No. Did he have a buzz? Probably.”
–Can you believe New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma saying that the NFL’s new overtime rule is tarnishing the Saints’ Super Bowl victory? What a jerk.
Recall that the Saints beat Minnesota 31-28 in overtime in the NFC Championship game after winning the coin toss and then kicking a 40-yard field goal. Under the new rules, Green Bay would get a chance to match the field goal or get a touchdown for the win. So Vilma said:
“If you read between the lines, we feel like they’re saying well, if Minnesota would have had a possession who knows what would have happened. We don’t appreciate that. I don’t appreciate it at all.” [Yahoo Sports]
Yoh, Jonathan. Chill out. I don’t know anyone who is belittling the Saints’ win.
–Here’s another jerk. Suspended Binghamton men’s basketball coach Kevin Broadus has filed a suit alleging racial discrimination, even though three players have been arrested in his three years as coach as he ran a renegade program. Broadus says other coaches in the State University of New York system had players arrested for serious crimes, but kept their jobs. However, Binghamton’s official investigation revealed far more than criminal behavior. Broadus allegedly pressured staff to change players’ grades and had circumvented admissions standards.
–NFL owners will vote May 24-26 as to whether or not to hold the 2014 Super Bowl in New York (New Jersey’s Meadowlands). While initial polling says the owner’s will go for it, some are expressing skepticism as I have. But Denver’s Pat Bowlen, when asked by the Daily News’ Gary Myers, “Is it fair to ask fans to pay $1,000 per ticket and then potentially sit in uncomfortable conditions?” replies:
“If they don’t want to go and watch it in the stadium, they can watch it on television. I am not opposed to having a game in New York.”
But what if they can’t get to the freakin’ game in the first place, Mr. Bowlen? And we aren’t talking losing $75-$150, the cost of a regular season game; we’re talking the $1,000, plus another $2,000 for travel expenses!
Thankfully, there is one voice of reason out there, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.
“I’m not sold on it. The idea of cold weather certainly doesn’t scare us. The idea of a two-foot snowstorm does. After what we’ve been through in Baltimore in the last three months, you really have to wonder if logistically it’s possible the darn thing could get postponed. I don’t think you could get people into the Meadowlands, 70,000 people into the Meadowlands, in a two-foot snowstorm in New York.”
–Golfer Fred Couples won his 3rd Champions Tour event in four starts this year, firing a 62 in the final round to defeat Corey Pavin. To say the least, Couples’ play is a real shot in the arm for the senior set. I’d also say you can hardly count Boom Boom out of the Masters the way he is playing.
–The New Jersey Nets are 9-64 heading into Monday’s play. One more win and they avoid the worst season ever in NBA history.
“Police in Connecticut say even they were surprised by the actions of these U.S. criminals: two would-be robbers called a bank ahead of time to get the money ready and were arrested at the scene.
“Fairfield police say they arrested 27-year-old Albert Bailey and an unidentified 16-year-old on robbery and threatening charges on Tuesday afternoon at the People’s United Bank branch….
“Sergeant James Perez said the two Bridgeport residents called the bank and told a worker to get a bag of money ready. Perez says they showed up at the bank 10 minutes later, but police had been notified and arrested the suspects in the parking lot.
“Perez told the Connecticut Post the suspects were ‘not too bright.’”
And to think the two sat around planning this beforehand.
–“A 3-year-old boy is hospitalized after being bitten by a rattlesnake at an elementary school (in Tustin, Calif.).” He’s in stable condition.
“Officials say he was playing with the baby rattlesnake near the playground during lunch when he was bitten….
“Baby rattlesnakes can be more dangerous than fully grown rattlesnakes because they might unleash all their venom when they bite.” [KTLA-TV]
I never knew adult rattlesnakes held back, did you?
–At least five coyotes have been captured in New York City the past few months. But this is just the beginning. The New York Post reports that neighboring Westchester County is teaming with them. They appear to be massing for a summer assault.
–For you wine folks out there, in an interview with new Mets outfielder Jason Bay, he mentions his favorite red is from Cliff Lede’s winery in Napa. And that’s your wine tip for the day. We now resume our regularly scheduled consumption of domestic beer.
–Tracy Miller of the New York Daily News had a story titled “Sleeping with a stranger for $1 million not an indecent proposal for one in three people.” At least that was the response to a sex survey question, bringing to mind the plot of 1993’s “Indecent Proposal” starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.
So would you do it? Seriously. Personally, I [oops…the rest is garbled].
Actor Robert Culp, 79. Culp was best known for the 1960s espionage-adventure series “I Spy,” which broke the color barrier in having Bill Cosby as Culp’s sidekick. Culp also starred as Bob in the 1969 movie “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.”
Culp dropped dead outside his home while taking a walk, the victim of a heart attack.
“My mind wants to flow into sadness, but I want to stay above that,” said Cosby. “Those of us who are the firstborn always dream of that imaginary brother or sister who will be their protector, the buffer, the one to take the blows. I’m a firstborn, and Bob was the answer to my dreams. He was the big brother that all of us wish for.”
Hugh Hefner was distraught. Culp was a regular at the Playboy Mansion as part of a weekly gathering of friends.
“He was very much like he appeared to be,” Hefner said. “He’s the one who came up with the tongue-in-cheek motto for when the guys got together. ‘Gentlemen, gentlemen, be of good cheer, for they are out there and we are in here.’”
Personally, I don’t really remember “I Spy,” which ran from 1965 to 1968, but it was always said Culp and Cosby did indeed become fast friends through the show and the rapport between the two shined through. Culp received three consecutive Emmy nominations and was beat out each time by Cosby. In his later years, Culp played Ray Romano’s father-in-law in “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Chet Simmons, a pioneering television sports executive, passed away at 81. It was in 1979 that he left the presidency of NBC Sports for ESPN, a fledgling cable network with a highly uncertain future. Simmons told the New York Times then: “Twenty-four hours of sports sounds like a lot, but not in the concept we call narrow-casting. Cable subscribers have about 18 channels to choose from.” And so it was that in three years, he made “Sports Center” the linchpin of a network lacking a big-time event; conceived of covering the NFL draft; and oversaw the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, which really set in motion what we came to know as March Madness.
Those who worked with Simmons at ESPN said he used to give daily pep talks, extolling the future, and in the end, ESPN got involved in it all…the NFL, the NBA, MLB and on and on. But Simmons left ESPN in 1982 to become commissioner of the USFL and by the fall of 1986, the league had folded. Earlier in his career, while at ABC, Simmons helped create programs like “Wide World of Sports.”
Lastly, many of us are in mourning over the great Johnny Maestro, 70, who died of cancer in Florida. Maestro was one of the great voices of both Doo Wop and Rock & Roll, scoring the top hit “16 Candles” with the Crests in 1958 and then a decade-long career with the Brooklyn Bridge.
Born John Mastrangelo on May 7, 1939, in New York City, and growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he began his career in 1956 as lead singer for the Crests, an integrated Doo-Wop group. [Maestro once said of them, “There were three blacks, one Puerto Rican, and I was the Eye-talian.”] “16 Candles” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts and he had other big hits with the group, including “The Angels Listened In,” “Step By Step,” and “Trouble In Paradise.” After a brief fling as a solo artist, Maestro then formed the Brooklyn Bridge. Cue the distinctive guitar opening…and then Maestro…“Girl…I heard you’re getting married…”
The Tune, “Worst That Could Happen,” peaked at No. 3 for two week in February 1969, beaten out both times by Tommy James and The Shondells’ “Crimson And Clover” and Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People.” No. 4 both weeks? The Doors’ “Touch Me.” Oh, those were great times, maybe not for society as a whole but the music was the best and for those of us growing up in the New York area, it was the time of Joe Namath’s Super Bowl win, the soon to be World Champion New York Mets and the New York Knicks. This is no small reason why “Worst That Could Happen” is consistently in the top 40 all-time for any survey of rock and roll among New York radio audiences. It not only was a great song, but we associate it with some great memories. My guess is that with Johnny Maestro’s passing, the tune climbs even higher (until, that is, our generation dies off!).
Surprisingly, another of the Brooklyn Bridge’s tunes that was a hit in the New York area, “Blessed Is The Rain,” didn’t make the national top 40. Ditto “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Singer Dion DiMucci wrote on Facebook, “Johnny was a class act. He was truly a gentleman.” The great Dion reached out to Johnnny in his final days.
Radio legend Cousin Brucie said, “Maybe now the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will recognize him. Of all the talent, Johnny was the smoothest.” And I love this line of Brucie’s. “He probably sounded more like his recordings live than any other performer. He always held true to the music and treated it with great respect.”
“Worst That Could Happen” was performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in December 1968 and with this Jimmy Webb tune, the Brooklyn Bridge found lightning in a bottle.
So in honor of Johnny Maestro, get out of your cubicles and sing. If your boss is cool, you could get a promotion.
Girl, I heard you’re getting married
Heard you’re getting married, this time you’re really sure
And this is the end, they say you really mean it
This guy’s the one that makes you feel so safe, so sane and so secure
And, baby, if he loves you more than me
Maybe it’s the best thing
Maybe it’s the best thing for you
But it’s the worst that could happen to me
I’ll never get married
Never get married, you know that’s not my scene
But a girl like you needs to be married
I’ve known all along you couldn’t live forever in between
And, baby, if he loves you more than me
Maybe it’s the best thing
Maybe it’s the best thing for you
But it’s the worst that could happen to me
And, girl, I don’t really blame you for having a dream of your own
Hey, girl, I don’t really blame you
A woman like you needs a house and a home, baby
If he really loves you more than me
Maybe it’s the best thing
Maybe it’s the best thing for you
But it’s the worst that could happen
Oh, girl, don’t wanna get married
Girl, I’m never, never gonna marry, no no
No, it’s the worst that could happen
The worst that could happen
Oh, girl, the worst that could happen….
Top 3 songs for the week 3/30/74: #1 “Sunshine On My Shoulders” (John Denver…ran out of fuel…ashes scattered in Rocky Mountains, in case you think you’ve merely stumbled upon an old campfire) #2 “Hooked On A Feeling” (Blue Swede) #3 “Seasons In The Sun” (Terry Jacks)…and…#4 “Bennie And The Jets” (Elton John…top three of his) #5 “Dark Lady” (Cher) #6 “Mockingbird” (Carly Simon & James Taylor…stupid tune) #7 “Jet” (Paul McCartney & Wings) #8 “Come And Get Your Love” (Redbone) #9 “Eres Tu (Touch The Wind)” (Mocedades) #10 “The Lord’s Prayer” (Sister Janet Mead)
College Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) Michael Ray Richardson was out of Montana, 1974-78.* 2) Rickey Sobers was the first first-rounder out of UNLV, 1975, but he didn’t play a game in the NBA. 3) Luc Longley was a first-rounder in 1991 out of New Mexico. Longley then had a serviceable 10-year career, averaging 7 points. 4) Sam Lacey, New Mexico State, was selected fifth in the 1970 draft by Cincinnati. Lacey went for a double-double his first six seasons of a 13-year NBA career.
*Ah yes…a few times a year it’s necessary to remind everyone of the great ‘Ray Ray,’ or ‘Sugar Ray’…Michael Ray Richardson, who once had this exchange with a reporter.
Reporter: What do you think is happening to the team?
Richardson: The ship be sinking.
Reporter: How far can it sink?
Richardson: Sky’s the limit.
And that’s it for college basketball until next winter.
