College Basketball Quiz: Name the 8 in the rotation for the champion 1992-93 North Carolina team that defeated Michigan and the Fab Five, 77-71. Answer below.
NCAA Tourney Bits
AP Poll…last one
1. Gonzaga…1-seed
2. Louisville…1
3. Kansas…1
4. Indiana…1
5. Miami…2
6. Duke…2
7. Ohio State…2
8. Georgetown…2
9. Michigan State…3
10. New Mexico…3
–Don’t bother me if you are playing multiple brackets. Only one counts.
Elite Eight
Saint Louis-Creighton
Gonzaga-New Mexico
VCU-San Diego State
N.C. State-Miami
Final Four
Creighton-Gonzaga
San Diego State-Miami
SDSU defeats Gonzaga!
I also don’t have a single big upset in the first round. [11 or higher.]
–Not for nothing but Gonzaga is a Jesuit school and, you know, our new pope is a Jesuit. Just sayin’.
–So, yes, this tourney is wide open unlike any many of us seen in years. Seth Greenberg said, “Is it mediocrity or is it parity? I don’t know.”
I think it’s mediocrity. But in a tourney, nothing wrong with that for the spectators as long as there are a lot of great finishes.
“A really fun thing to do if you’re in North Carolina is to go to Duke’s campus wearing a Lehigh basketball jersey. You’ll have lots of friends in no time. Yes, the wound of Duke’s round-of-64 loss last year to Lehigh is still fresh and may give you pause in riding the Blue Devils this time around. There’s no evidence that the Great Danes of Albany will pounce on Duke in a similar way…though there is one thing that might send Duke home early or spring them to the Final Four. Ryan Kelly, Seth Curry and Quinn Cook can shoot with the best of them. But they can also go cold. The Blue Devils hit 40.6% from 3-point land – and went ice cold from deep in all five of their losses this season.”
–Yes, Saint Louis, having lost coach Rick Majerus in December, is a huge sentimental favorite.
–The new Big East is being unveiled with the Catholic Seven – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova – being formally joined by Creighton, Xavier and Butler. It’s going to be outstanding, plus they start off with a 12-year $600 million deal with Fox Sports. Eventually the conference will add two more. Of course it’s a blow to the A-10 that they lose Xavier and Butler.
–So I caught the second half of the Robert Morris-Kentucky NIT contest and what a shot in the arm for the NIT, let alone the Colonials; Robert Morris taking down the defending national champs 59-57 in a thriller before 3,500 wild fans in Pittsburgh. [Rupp Arena being used for the NCAAs.] It was also a huge win for the much-maligned Northeast Conference, whose NCAA tourney representative is LIU Brooklyn.
[Kentucky is the first team in 25 years to be ranked in the top 3 to start the season and then miss the tournament.]
The Heat
Well, I watched the entire Celtics-Heat game on Monday night. I mean I would never watch a regular season non-Knicks game until the playoffs, at least not since I was a kid. I don’t watch NBA games on Sunday when there is a college game (or golf) on.
But I had to watch the Heat go for No. 23 in a row, while praying, for the first time ever, that the Celtics would win. I mean if you’re a Knicks fan….well, you understand.
Alas, the Heat won as LeBron continued his brilliant season, dragging the rest of his boys along for the ride. I just don’t want them going any further. The Lakers’ 33-game streak is sacred, after all. That 1971-72 team with Wilt, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, Jim McMillian, Happy Hairston, Flynn Robinson, Pat Riley…started off 6-3 and then reeled off the 33.
Anyway, as I show my age, Norman Chad of the Washington Post was musing about the recent streaks in sports and elsewhere…the Blackhawks’ 24 straight games earning a point, the Dow Jones’ 10-session winning streak…
“Meanwhile, with Tim Donaghy out of the league, we assume the Heat’s streak is an honest one.”
But Chad brought to my attention something I didn’t realize about Miami’s Shane Battier. As in following the Boston game, he has 292 field goal attempts this season, with 257 of them from three! Goodness gracious. Battier hits a super 43% from downtown.
So as Chad writes: “These days, (Battier) sets up shop just beyond the three-point line, usually in the corner – I believe he has a desk and a reading lamp over there – and waits for his teammates to reverse the ball to him, then catches and shoots a wide-open 22-foot half-inch jumper with his eyes closed.
“He does nothing else – the team reportedly fines him if goes in the paint…He somehow averages 2.3 rebounds, but most of them are his own misfired three-pointers that clank off the rim and ricochet back into his lap.”
Q. Following Selection Sunday, would it make sense to declare “Bracket Monday” a holiday so we can fill them out without being distracted by our jobs? (Ray Stinger Jr. / Pittsburgh)
A. Pay the man, Shirley.
Ask The Slouch Cash Giveaway…email asktheslouch@aol.com and, if your question is used, you win $1.25 in cash!
NFL Bytes
“The standoff between the Jets and the Buccaneers over Darrelle Revis could be coming to a head soon.
“The Buccaneers are losing patience with the Jets, according to league sources, over the teams’ inability to strike a deal for the All-Pro cornerback. The Buccaneers have told people around the league they may have to look at other options at cornerback soon if they can’t make a deal for Revis.
Well, us fans know it’s not exactly amazing. It’s par for the course. I mean by all reports, Tampa Bay is willing to give the Jets their first-round pick (No. 13) overall as part of a package for Revis and that is all the Jets can possibly hope for. The team wants to trade him rather than pay his asking price of $14 to $16 million, plus he’s coming off knee surgery, so the Buccaneers appear to be offering the Jets the most they could possibly expect in return.
So stop jerking around, Jets! There are cheaper free-agent cornerbacks out there for Tampa Bay. Or commit to Revis once and for all.
“I know for a fact that we’re not actively trying to trade Darrelle Revis,” Ryan said. “At the same time, if somebody calls, you’re going to listen no matter who the player is – Darrelle Revis, Joe Montana, whoever.”
–Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Monday that everyone in the organization wanted receiver Wes Welker to return. Welker then signed a two-year deal with Denver, while New England signed Danny Amendola from the Rams to replace him.
But Kraft blamed Welker’s agents for misjudging their client’s value, even as the Patriots offered Welker more than he ended up getting in Denver.
Kraft, though, then gave up details of the negotiations that were very out of character for an owner, let alone him, in saying Welker could be cut after one year with the Broncos.
“In fact, he has a one-year deal in Denver for $6 million. Our last offer, before we would have even gone up and before we thought we were going into free agency, was a $10 million offer with incentives that would have earned him another $6 million if he performed the way he had the previous two years. But in Denver, he’s going to count $4 million against the cap this coming year and $8 million the second year.
“There is no guarantee that he plays the second year there. He will get $6 million the first year. Our deal, he would have gotten $8 million the first year – our last offer to him.” [Judy Battista / New York Times]
“I’ve known Bob Kraft since he bought the New England Patriots. He is one of the best owners I’ve ever seen. One of the smartest. One of the more levelheaded. One of the more…decent.
“What Kraft did at the owners’ meetings here was not his greatest moment. He attacked the agents of Wes Welker and, ostensibly, Welker….
“Kraft explained that the Patriots paid above market value for Welker. While that claim might be accurate, it leaves out a highly important point. The Patriots had last year and all of this season to get something done with Welker. They didn’t. Welker got tired of the situation and left.
“Kraft’s attitude is what irks me about ownership. Owners are allowed to pursue the greatest opportunities for themselves, but players aren’t?
Ball Bits
–I have to give Mets third baseman David Wright the benefit of the doubt. I blamed him for hiding an injury involving his rib cage as he then played in the World Baseball Classic before he was forced to sit down, thus jeopardizing his status for opening day.
“Wright…clarified the timeline of events associated with the injury. He said he began feeling the pain during his first or second day of practice after joining the United States team before it began World Baseball Classic play. He did not receive treatment then and did not inform the Mets about it, because he assumed the pain would dissipate.
“But it became worse, bothering him most when he was at rest and not warmed up. The Mets learned of the injury Thursday morning, one day after he began receiving treatment, and by that evening, when the United States was preparing to play the Dominican Republic, he was ruled out of the lineup.
“Asked whether he should have informed the Mets about the injury sooner, Wright invoked an old sports adage, that being hurt and being injured were different states.”
–The injury story in New York is unending…Derek Jeter’s surgically repaired ankle is still sore and his status for opening day is very much in question. Heck, he’s 39!
–The Yankees did make a great move in picking up Detroit Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch. The left-handed hitting slugger is made for the little bandbox known as Yankee Stadium. I’m guessing he hits 30+ home runs, even if in limited playing time.
–Former Oklahoma star quarterback Steve Davis was killed in a small plane crash in Indiana that also claimed friend Wesley Caves, both of Tulsa, Okla. The plane the two were in apparently made two approaches to the airport in South Bend, followed by an aborted landing before crashing into houses Sunday afternoon. Amazingly, only one on the ground was injured.
Davis, 60, was Oklahoma’s QB from 1973-75, including the ’74-’75 national championship teams. Davis compiled a 32-1-1 record as starter, Barry Switzer’s first three years as head coach of the Sooners.
Of course these were the days of Oklahoma’s punishing ground attack, averaging an NCAA record 73.9 attempts per game in 1974 with Davis throwing just six passes per contest.
–Talk about an incredibly stupid tragedy. From the London Times:
“A British man and his 12-year-old son have been found dead in the Alps after slipping down a gully during a weekend break in France.
“Peter (S.), 48, had called for help when his son, Charlie, lost his footing on the northern flanks of Mont Blanc only hours after they had arrived in the Alps on Saturday.
“Charlie slipped down the 300m slope and crashed into rocks below. Mr. S. is thought to have attempted to reach his son after alerting rescue services, but then slid to his death as well.
“Captain Patrice Ribes, of the gendarmerie’s mountain rescue service, said that the pair had set out to walk along a ‘dangerous, deep, snowy’ track known as La Jonction between Les Bossons and Les Houches in the Chamonix valley.”
The man’s wife, who had stayed in Britain, said her husband and son had called that day and were planning a five-hour walk along the peak which rises to 2,600m. Mr. S. had sent a picture by text message to a friend before the accident.
So here’s the stupid part….and you won’t believe it.
“Captain Ribes said that Mr. S. and Charlie had been wearing walking shoes suitable only for summer. ‘You need shoes with spikes at this time of year,’ he said. ‘In normal shoes, it is difficult to stop once you start slipping. That slope is like a giant slide.’”
A Chamonix city official said: “We can’t understand why they came here to do a walk like this at this time of year.”
–And here’s an “Idiot of the Year” contender. Greek midfielder Giorgos Katidis earned a lifetime ban from the Greek national team after celebrating a late, game-winning goal for club team AEK Athens with what was deemed a Nazi salute. Katidis, 20, claimed he had no idea what the meaning of the gesture was and that he was simply pointing to a teammate. I’ve seen the pictures. He’s an idiot.
–I saw this depressing bit from Reuters Wednesday morning:
“Poachers killed at least 86 elephants in Chad last week, including 33 pregnant females and 15 calves, conservation groups said Tuesday, warning that elephants in Central Africa risked being wiped out by such slaughters. The killing was the worst in the region since more than 300 elephants were slaughtered in Cameroon early last year. Both raids took place during the dry season, when poachers armed with automatic weapons carry out coordinated attacks on herds of elephants in the region…..Citing local officials, the World Wildlife Fund said the poachers were on horseback and spoke Arabic, suggesting that they may have been the same group involved in the 2012 attack in northern Cameroon.”
It just makes you sick. The UN should form paramilitary forces from ex-Iraq and Afghan war vets who I’ve said for years would love this kind of mission. Blow the poachers to kingdom come.
–After midnight on March 18, 1990, two men posing as police officers pulled off the biggest art heist in U.S. history at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, stealing 13 paintings worth $500 million in just 80 minutes. The stolen art included works by Rembrandt, Manet, Degas and Vermeer.
For more than two decades, the FBI has worked the case and on the 23rd anniversary announced they know who did it, but are withholding the identities for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they hope by publicizing the theft they can recover the artwork.
The FBI believes the thieves belonged to a criminal gang from New England and the Mid-Atlantic and that the art was taken to Connecticut and the Philadelphia area.
The statute of limitations has expired on crimes associated with the actual theft. The FBI, though, believes someone not involved in the case has seen the work without realizing it is stolen.
–It’s always been known the dancers for the Bolshoi ballet were “pimped out,” but the topic is front and center again as the ballet’s general director denies the charges by a former ballerina.
Anastasia Volochkova, who was fired back in 2003 for being overweight, said the other day on television, “Girls are invited each in turn by the administrator, who explains that they are going to a party, with dinner and a follow-up, in bed and going all the way.”
Asked whom the dancers had to sleep with, she replied: “With certain oligarchs, some of them are members of the board of trustees [of the Bolshoi] or just the person organizing the party.” [Sydney Morning Herald]
Last time I was in Moscow….err, ahh….let’s just say prostitution is rather open. As in they sit at the elevator banks. “No thank you, dear. I have to write Bar Chat.”
–When I saw the pictures of Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn I’m sure you had the same thought. Gee, it really is amazing how he found Elin II.
Now many are already saying the relationship won’t last, and I have no comment on this. Except I was reading a piece in USA TODAY and they quote a Los Angeles-based psychologist and relationship expert, Dr. Wendy Walsh, who says “The chances for a successful relationship are pretty slim….They will have far more challenges than most people have. They’re under such a microscope.” Yeah, whatever.
But then Dr. Walsh says, “Because of Tiger’s notorious infidelities, he’ll be under such a microscope. Every time he talks to a pretty girl on the golf course, Lindsey is going to hear about it.”
And that’s when we know Dr. Walsh doesn’t have a clue about Tiger Woods, or she wouldn’t have made such a stupid statement.
Have any of you, ever, seen Tiger talk to a pretty girl, or any fan whatsoever on the golf course? C’mon.
I’m just guessing Lindsey could be what Tiger needs to get over the Majors hump this year. Win No. 15, or even 16. Now that the two have gone public, we’ll see how he plays at Bay Hill this weekend.
–It’s a long story, but Arnold Palmer is having dinner with Kate Upton. All because he takes an interest in people, as USA TODAY’s Doug Ferguson put it. Turns out Upton’s agent’s father was a regular playing partner of Arnie’s at Latrobe Country Club and with Upton’s parents, who live in Florida, being huge Palmer fans, voila! Upton is doing some promo work for Arnie’s tea drink too.
“Did you see this?” Palmer said, holding up the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. “She’s coming here. Did you know that?”
Ferguson writes: “He put it back on his desk, gave it one last look, and then grabbed a stack of papers to place over the magazine.
But get this. Ferguson is sitting in Arnie’s office at Bay Hill and describes the following:
“(Arnie) picked up a sheet of paper. It was a letter to David Frost, who won the Toshiba Classic on the Champions Tour the day before.
“ ‘Congratulations on your strong performance in the Toshiba Classic,’ he said, reading the letter aloud. ‘He’s playing pretty good.’
“He reached for a black pen and signed his name, as famous as any signature in sports.
“The other letter on his desk was for Kevin Streelman, who won the Tampa Bay Championship for his first PGA Tour title in 153 tries. Palmer watched most of the back nine on television and was impressed with what he saw. He had this letter placed in Streelman’s locker downstairs.
“Talk about a tradition like no other. For years, Palmer has written a note of congratulations to the winners on every tour every week.”
Yes, Shu….my last words should be more on the line of “Arnie went to Wake Forest…”
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/21/81: #1 “Keep On Loving You” (REO Speedwagon) #2 “Woman” (John Lennon) #3 “The Best Of Times” (Styx)…and…#4 “9 to 5” (Dolly Parton) #5 “Crying” (Don McLean) #6 “Rapture” (Blondie) #7 “Hello Again” (Neil Diamond) #8 “The Winner Takes It All” (Abba) #9 “I Love A Rainy Night” (Eddie Rabbitt) #10 “What Kind Of Fool” (Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb)
College Basketball Quiz Answer: 8 in Carolina’s rotation for the ’92-’93 title team….George Lynch, Donald Williams, Eric Montross, Brian Reese, Derrick Phelps, Pat Sullivan, Henrik Rodl, Kevin Salvadori.
Of course this was the Chris Webber timeout that didn’t exist game.
