NCAA Basketball Quiz: Name the six players in the main rotation for the 1982-83 championship North Carolina State team. Answer below.
College Basketball Review
–So it’s a crazy 10-day stretch before Selection Sunday as teams fight to stay off the bubble, or at least make their way into the conversation for a bid.
Since the last chat, we had No. 5 Georgetown losing to Villanova 67-57, thus ensuring ‘Nova’s berth, if there had been any doubt. They are just 19-12, 10-8, but the Wildcats are 4-2 against Top 25 teams and they have three of those wins over Top 5 squads.
On Saturday, Georgetown then slaughtered No. 17 Syracuse 61-39 as the Orange continued their second-half slide, moving to 11-7 in the Big East. It’s time for Jim Boeheim to say bye-bye and hit the links. He has a ton of talent on the team. Something is missing (aside from atrocious shooting).
No. 6 Miami lost to a bad Georgia Tech team at home, 71-69, before beating Clemson on Saturday, 62-49, to wrap up the ACC regular season crown. But all three of their conference losses came in the last five contests.
Colorado defeated No. 19 Oregon 76-53 on Thursday to supposedly wrap up their bid, but then the Buffaloes lost at home on Saturday to an awful Oregon State team. Back on the bubble goes Colorado. It’s just been that kind of year.
Virginia, after defeating Duke to move to 10-5 in ACC play, thus securing a bid, then loses to Boston College and Florida State. Back on the bubble they go. [Or maybe off it after Sunday’s OT win over Maryland to get to 11-7.]
Florida State also defeated North Carolina State, which fell to 11-7 in conference play. It’s assumed the Wolfpack are still in. All I’ll say is they better win one game in the ACC tournament.
Kentucky suffered a bad loss to Georgia, 72-62, but then turned around on Saturday and defeated No. 11 Florida 61-57.
In the super Mountain West Conference, my San Diego State Aztecs have ended up just where I said they would weeks ago, 9-7 in the conference and very much on the bubble no matter what some experts say after losing at Boise State 69-65, which moves to 9-7 itself and in a tie for fourth behind No. 12 New Mexico (89-88 losers at Air Force), Colorado State and UNLV. Boise’s only loss at home this year was in OT to New Mexico. I mean I’ve followed this conference closely and it’s been brutal going on the road this year.
Meanwhile, in other big games on Saturday, No. 13 Oklahoma State defeated No. 9 Kansas State 76-70.
Unranked Baylor destroyed No. 4 Kansas 81-58! [Yet another unranked team defeating a Top 5 in this historic regular season.]
TCU goes to a whopping 2-16 in Big 12 play in defeating a respectable Oklahoma squad, 11-7 in conference, 70-67.
And then there was Murray State. What an incredibly disappointing year, as I’ve said before, that then ended on as depressing a note as you can find in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament final against Belmont. Murray lost 70-68 in overtime but it shouldn’t have gotten to that point as they hit only 2 of 6 free throws in the final two minutes of regulation, and then in OT, with the score tied and about 25 seconds left, Murray superstar guard Isaiah Canaan dribbled the freakin’ ball off his foot, uncontested, for a backcourt violation and Belmont hit a shot with 1.2 seconds left. The town of Murray, Kentucky must be incredibly down on their boys. And I can only think how good they would have been had last year’s freshman sensation, guard Zay Jackson, not had a serious brush with the law that necessitated his suspension from the school.
Oh well…at least Racer fans have had far more to cheer about the past few seasons than Wake Forest supporters. This week Wake’s campus newspaper ran a full-page ad urging athletic director Ron Wellman to fire coach Jeff Bzdelik
Bzdelik in his three seasons is 1-15, 4-12, and 6-12 in ACC play, including 1-24 in ACC road games. Overall, 11-39 in conference.
Ball Bits
“It hurts worse when our icons say farewell, because they are the ones who define our own lives as fans. It can be baseball, yes: Mariano Rivera yesterday, Mickey Mantle in spring training of 1969, Joe DiMaggio after the 1951 World Series, Willie Mays after the ’73 World Series.
“But it isn’t limited to that. Joe Willie grew old, and Clyde, and Gretzky. Johnny Carson retired in 1991 and in some ways TV hasn’t felt nearly the same ever since. The 1960s may have ended, for the record, on Dec. 31, 1969, but the last rites weren’t really administered until April 10, 1970, the day the Beatles broke up. And they probably weren’t committed forever to the history books until Dec. 8, 1980, the night John Lennon was murdered….
“It’s the icons that latch onto our souls. It’s someone like Mariano Rivera, who without question has done his job – throwing the ninth inning of baseball games – better than any man who ever lived. His quiet nature probably precluded him from becoming more of a pop culture cornerstone – like his buddy, Derek Jeter – but the sheer dominance of his talent made up much of the difference.
“Make no mistake: Whenever the time comes for Jeter to make the kind of announcement Rivera (made Saturday), there will be an even greater, even broader sense of melancholy descending upon the city, simply because of Jeter’s ubiquitous presence on and off the field since 1996.
“But Rivera beat him to The Bronx by a year, will beat him to Cooperstown, and will forever hold a firm anchor on the souls of Yankees fans who marveled at his excellence for so long, it’s hard for many of them to remember a time when they didn’t fret through ninth innings the way most baseball fans do. Jeter is an all-time great, but even his most ardent acolytes acknowledge there have been other shortstops as good, or better.
“Rivera? He was peerless, and he was reliable, and maybe we let ourselves believe he would keep throwing that cutter forever. Because if he could stay young, so could we.”
“Remember, they’re not the Bronx Bunters. So where are the home runs coming from?
“The Yankees hit 245 of them last year, 31 more than any other team. They hit so many home runs that one of the biggest points of discussion all season was whether they were too dependent on the home run.
“ ‘We’re not the Bronx Bunters,’ manager Joe Girardi finally said last September…
“The Yankees had 10 players hit double-digit homers last year, 10 players who combined for 227 of their 245 homers. Now, with the news that Mark Teixeira will be out 8-10 weeks, they know for sure that eight of those 10 won’t be in the opening day lineup.
“And Derek Jeter still has to be listed as iffy. Of those 10, only Robinson Cano is a sure thing….
“Among those eight who will be missing, the Yankees lost 179 home runs.”
Well, Curtis Granderson (43 in 2012) and Teixeira (24), will be back in May it would seem. But it’s going to be one interesting season for the Yanks.
Golf Balls
—Tiger Woods won the WGC at Doral for his 76th PGA Tour title, just six behind Sam Snead’s 82. Steve Stricker, who gave Woods a lengthy putting lesson before the event, finished second.
–Earlier in the week, Rory McIlroy apologized for walking off the course at last week’s Honda Classic.
“I realized pretty quickly it was not the right thing to do. I regret what I did. It won’t happen again. There is no excuse for quitting.”
As for Rory’s play at the WGC, he got off to a rocky start but worked his way up the leaderboard to finish T-8 with a final round 65.
The Masters…a tradition unlike any other…on CBS…is setting up to be spectacular this year with myriad story lines. Tiger, Rory, Phil, a 14-year-old kid from China in the field, Freddie (one hopes), Ernie….
But I’m going out on an early limb here. I’ve been watching Angel Cabrera’s play. He played OK in Puerto Rico this week (T-30) and has been coming around recently. He’s your winner!
It’s your Bar Chat Guarantee!!!
–By the way…Phil Mickelson is now 3 for 55 in Florida. Tiger is 14 of 48 in the state.
–As reported by Golfweek, work on the 2016 Olympic golf course down in Rio has not begun yet. Talk about pathetic. The International Golf Federation is getting nervous as hell. It seems there is a claim against the developer’s ownership of the land on which Gil Hanse is to design the course. [He’s also redesigning Doral.] It’s presumed the project will take 18 months to complete, so there is a little time to spare, but not much as these things go.
–The Chicago Blackhawks history making start finally ended on Friday night at the hand of the struggling Colorado Avalanche, 6-2. The Blackhawks fell to 21-1-3. Dating back to last year’s regular season, the streak was 30 games, the second-longest in NHL history to the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers’ 35-game stretch that included 25 wins and 10 ties – all in the same season.
–The Brooklyn Nets have been waiting for guard Deron Williams to play like the player they signed to a mega-year, mega-$s contract (he’s getting $17 million+ this season). But he’s had one nagging injury after another and has not been playing like an elite point guard. That is until Friday night when in the course of Brooklyn’s 95-78 win over Washington, Williams hit 11 threes, one shy of the NBA record, plus he had a record nine in the first half on his way to 42 points. The game was notable for another reason. Nets forward Reggie Evans had 24 rebounds, but was only 5 of 16 from the free throw line.
–The Knicks Amar’e Stoudemire is out for the regular season with another operation on his knees, though this time his supposedly good one. Big blow….Biiiig blow.
—Ted Ligety won his fifth giant slalom of the season and wrapped up his fourth World Cup title in the discipline. As Ronald Reagan would have said…not bad, not bad at all. Actually, I didn’t realize all 16 of his World Cup wins have been in the giant slalom. He has finished on the podium in all seven GS races this year.
In the women’s giant slalom this weekend, Tina Maze gained her 21st podium of the season in finishing second. She’s now just one podium finish behind Hermann Maier’s record from 1999-2000.
–South Carolina All-American defensive end Jadeveon Clowney has taken out a $5 million insurance policy to protect himself financially during the Gamecocks’ 2013 season. There is little doubt Clowney would be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft if he was eligible, so some have suggested he sit out to avoid suffering a serious injury.
Clowney instead is using the NCAA’s “Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Program” that permits qualifying athletes in major sports, including ice hockey, to take out a loan to help finance the cost of an insurance policy, which they must repay upon signing a pro contract, as reported by the AP.
Clowney saw up close and personal how an injury can potentially ruin a consensus first-round pick when he saw the gruesome injury suffered by teammate Marcus Lattimore, the star running back.
In Clowney’s first two seasons he has collected 21 sacks and is a top Heisman Trophy candidate. At 273 pounds (after gaining some weight this offseason), he says he just ran a 4.54 40-yard dash.
–Six-time Pro Bowl kicker David Akers was released by the San Francisco 49ers. Akers, 38, struggled last year from long range, making just 9 of 19 from 40 yards or more. He said the other day he suspended his Twitter account after receiving a death threat.
“The young volunteer who was killed by an African lion at a California wildlife sanctuary died almost instantly when the big cat broke her neck, a coroner has found. It was revealed that the animal may have used its paw to pry open a gate and escape from its pen to attack her.
“Dianna Hanson, 24, was talking on the phone with a co-worker as she cleaned the lion’s enclosure in the moments before she was killed by the four-year-old African lion named Couscous….
“A post-mortem examination showed bite and claw marks on Ms. Hanson from ‘the lion playing with the body like a cat would play with a mouse,’ according to the Fresno County coroner, David Hadden.
“Dr. Hadden added that Couscous may have used his paw to pry open a gate separating its pen from the larger enclosure to attack Ms. Hanson.
“The 550-lb. lion broke Ms. Hanson’s neck with an apparent swipe of the paw.”
Yikes. That is one strong animal. Sadly, police shot and killed Couscous to allow them to reach Ms. Hanson.
Authorities don’t know why Hanson was inside the cage because she was forbidden from entering.
Tippi Hedren, the actress who founded an exotic pet shelter, expressed dismay over the lion’s death. “It wasn’t the lion’s fault. It’s the human’s fault always,” she said.
–Chris K. alerted me to the following as it has been a busy time for lions.
“A woman was mauled to death by a lion as she made love to her boyfriend outdoors in Zimbabwe, it was reported today.
“Sharai Mawera died yesterday after the big cat pounced while she was enjoying a romantic moment in the bush with her unnamed partner.
“The My Zimbabwe news website reported that the predator attacked the couple at a secluded spot in the bushy near the northern town of Kariba.
“Ms. Mawera’s boyfriend is believed to have jumped up and fled in the nude when the lion lunged forward.”
Authorities said the woman’s “neck and tummy had been mauled.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the word ‘tummy,’ I must admit. Our sympathies to the family.
“Rangers launched a hunt for the lion following the tragedy, amid concern the same animal may have killed a local man who disappeared at the weekend.
“Police believe the man, who has not been named, was mauled by a lion as he walked home from a nightclub.”
Nothing like those crazy nightclubs in the bush, I always say. The lion or lions remain on the run. Lock your doors.
—Two poachers were killed in a gun battle in India’s Kaziranga National Park, where a dozen rhinos have recently been killed. This particular park now has 1,300 guards! But they are needed because the park, at 430 square kilometers, has a rhino population of 2,290, or more than two-thirds of the global one-horned rhino population of 3,300.
Scientists have some eye-opening news for you: Bees get a buzz when they drink nectar laced with a little caffeine, and it supercharges their long-term memory.
“In laboratory experiments, honeybees were roughly three times as likely to remember a floral scent a day later if the nectar had minuscule amounts of the stimulant than if it was caffeine free. They were also twice as likely to remember a caffeine-laced scent a full three days later. Pretty impressive for an insect that lives only a few weeks.
“The findings, published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, hint that flowers may have been capitalizing on the bitter compound long before humans built the first Keurig machine.
“ ‘It’s the first evidence that I know of where a plant is actually using a drug to manipulate the behavior of an animal to its own benefit,’ said study leader Geraldine Wright, a neuroethologist at Newcastle University in England.”
—Dirtball of the Decade candidate Oscar Pistorius is seeking to have his bail conditions relaxed so he can travel abroad. Really. His lawyers say he’s not a flight risk. I’ll get in trouble if I say anymore.
–Ruh Roh…there are now about 2,000 coyotes living in Chicago and its suburbs. Heck, over the years they’ve even migrated to New York City.
But it seems coyotes are opportunistic eaters, as a piece in The Economist puts it. Rabbits, rats, Canada geese (yesss!!), fruit, and family pets.
Between 1960 and 2006, however, there were only 159 reported cases of bites across North America. But in 2009, a young woman hiking in Nova Scotia was killed by coyotes. Some speculate the coyotes found in eastern America are a wolf-coyote hybrid, which is rather disconcerting. My brother has seen them in his backyard, a few miles from where I live.
Which is why we recommend you always carry the Bar Chat Bazooka with you. [Or “BCB” as TSA agents call it.]
–Noma, in Copenhagen, has been rated the best place to eat in the world by Restaurant magazine the past three years. But in mid-February, it has come to light, four-fifths of the patrons eating there became ill; all apparently contracting a norovirus.
It’s pretty disgusting. Inspectors later blamed poor hand hygiene and a lack of hot running water in one of the kitchen’s sinks.
Noma offers a 10-course tasting menu costing $260, not including wine, and limits capacity to 40 guests for lunch and dinner, serving items such as deep-fried reindeer moss.
It also turns out the restaurant could have nipped the problem in the bud but failed to read customer emails on their health.
Bloomberg News reports that the second best restaurant in the world is Gustu, which, believe it or not, is in Bolivia.
–From Men’s Health: “Recent research from New Zealand suggests that women who regularly drink alcohol with their partner are happier in the relationship than those who drink without their partner. Imbibing together often means socializing together, which may lead to increased satisfaction, says study author Jessica Meiklejohn. [Great name….Say, Jessica. Are you free tonight?] Similar drinking habits could indicate overall compatibility.”
—Alcohol consumption in Ireland is down about 20% since 2001. The recession has had something to do with this.
–Speaking of consumption of alcohol, I was over at Trader George’s Saturday night, watching ECAC hockey playoff action…St. Lawrence vs. Colgate…after Pete M. managed to rig the computer feed to the television.
Let’s just say the production quality of the contest, won by St. Lawrence 4-1, was rather low-tech. Like it appeared it was being shot using someone’s cellphone. But Trader George had a beer choice of Schaefer’s, Piels, and PBR. I stuck with Schaefer…because as you know…
The most rewarding flavor
in this man’s world
for people who are having fun
Schaefer…is the…one beer to have when you’re having more than one!
–Guitarist Alvin Lee, a star of Woodstock while playing with band Ten Years After, died at the age of 68 following complications from routine surgery, said his manager. Woodstock ended up marking the peak for the band.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/11/78: #1 “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” (Andy Gibb) #2 Night Fever” (Bee Gees…ughh) #3 “Sometimes When We Touch” (Dan Hill…don’t bother me. I’m watching the Mets…)…and…#4 “Emotion” (Samantha Sang) #5 “Lay Down Sally” (Eric Clapton…mailed this one in…) #6 “Stayin’ Alive” (Bee Gees…just shoot me…) #7 “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” (Chic…what an awful time for America…Carter malaise…this crappola…) #8 “I Go Crazy” (Paul Davis…decent tune…except he was going crazy because the music world sucked so bad…) #9 “Just The Way You Are” (Billy Joel…but no doubt this one saved the year…terrific tune…) #10 “Can’t Smile Without You” (Barry Manilow…I was racking up a stellar academic record at Wake Forest during this time…that is if you added a full point to my GPA…)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: Six in rotation for the 1982-83 Wolfpack…
Thurl Bailey, Dereck Whittenburg, Sidney Lowe, Cozell McQueen, Lorenzo Charles, Terry Gannon…others who saw minutes in NCAA tourney were Alvin Battle, Ernie Myers and George McClain.
State was unranked after mid-January until it defeated Virginia, 81-78, for the ACC tournament title, which earned it a No. 16 ranking in the final poll heading into the NCAAs.
Then State, a 6-seed, needed double overtime to defeat 11-seed Pepperdine in the first round, 69-67.
Next up No. 3-seed UNLV, which the Wolfpack edged 71-70.
Then No. 10-seed Utah, which the Wolfpack blew out 75-56.
Then a 63-62 win over No. 1-seed Virginia and Ralph Sampson.
Then a 67-60 win over No. 4-seed Georgia.
Then the 54-52 title win over No. 1 Houston, which was also No. 1 in the final AP poll. Houston coach Guy Lewis pulled one of the bigger boners in tournament history when he allowed star Clyde Drexler to pick up four fouls in the first half.
