NCAA Basketball Quiz: On Sunday, Creighton’s Doug McDermott entered the all-time Division I scoring list at No. 10 with 2,917 points. Pete Maravich is No. 1 at 3,667. Granted, this is impossible, but name the other eight. [OK…major clue…the other eight are from the following schools…Portland State, La Salle, Mississippi Valley State, Texas Southern, Saint Peter’s, Bradley, Cincinnati and Kansas] Answer below.
College Basketball…AP Poll
1. Florida 25-2 (47)
2. Wichita State 29-0 (14)
3. Arizona 25-2 (4)
4. Syracuse 25-2
5. Kansas 21-6
6. Duke 22-6
7. Louisville 23-4
8. Villanova 24-3
9. Creighton 23-4
10. Saint Louis 25-2…at VCU, Saturday
12. Virginia 23-5…hosting Syracuse, Saturday…huge
13. San Diego State 23-3
19. North Carolina 20-7
25. New Mexico 21-5
—Wichita State moved to 30-0 on Tuesday with a 69-49 win over Bradley, becoming the first Division I team to reach that mark in the regular season.
—St. John’s (18-11, 8-8) suffered a potentially devastating loss to Xavier (19-9, 9-6) on Tuesday, 65-53. Star D’Angelo Harrison had just four points on 1-11 shooting from the field. The Red Storm don’t deserve an NCAA tournament bid.
—Wake Forest (15-13, 5-10) dealt Clemson (17-10, 8-7) a deadly blow in terms of the Tigers’ tournament hopes, 62-57 in Winston-Salem on Tuesday.
Ball Bits
–I have no problem with Major League Baseball attempting to cut down on serious injuries at the plate with its new collision rule, but we’re all waiting to see how it will be interpreted. For now it’s a one-year experiment.
The new rule, 7.13, states that “a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate).”
So collisions are still allowed if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runner’s direct path to home plate, or if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate.
A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the catcher drops the ball.
The umpires will have a pair of comments to use for interpretation. The first reads, “The failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runner’s lowering of the shoulder, or the runner’s pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation.”
The second comment says that “unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score.”
It is not a violation “if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable.”
Oakland catcher Derek Norris told the Associated Press: “I think it’s fair. A runner’s path is to home plate. Any deviation and he’s not trying to score, he’s trying to harm. A runner going out of the basepath trying to break up a double play is declared out. This is the same concept as a double-play slide.”
—Angels phenom Mike Trout, still just 22, is amazed at the figures being tossed about for a contract extension. “It’s crazy what people are saying, and throwing out numbers like that. I’m in a spot where I wouldn’t have thought I would be before my career was over.”
Like the report having him signing a six-year, $150 million extension. The Angels actually want the deal to be longer because under a six-year contract, Trout could test the free agent market at 29.
You know, when you think of it, were this to come to pass, and Trout stays healthy, we’re talking at 29 he would be signing the largest contract in the history of professional sports, right?
Here’s hoping Trout just kills it this season. Like 40 homers, 55 doubles, 50+ steals, .350 batting average. That would be great for the sport. And it couldn’t happen to a better guy.
Manager Mike Scioscia said of Trout and the contract talk: “He hasn’t flinched. He’s very grounded. He has everything sorted out the way a young player has to have everything sorted out with his priorities.
“If nobody was paying attention to him, he’d be fine with it. If everybody was paying attention to him, he’d be fine with it.”
–Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke is on MLB’s blanklist for comments he made concerning the Dodgers series in Australia to open the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it…. I can’t think of one reason to be excited for it.”
That caused an uproar in Australia, and the Dodgers quickly responded that the team, as a whole, is looking forward to the excursion.
To me it’s a dumb idea. That’s a helluva long trip and I can see how players like Greinke, steeped in their routines, would hate this.
But, that said, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks okayed the idea long ago.
Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw may not make the trip as the Dodgers are trying to control his innings.
[The Dodgers and Diamondbacks play March 22-23 in Australia, their time, and then they resume their schedules Sun. March 30.]
–Mets first baseman Ike Davis confided to a reporter that he hid the extent of an oblique injury last season from the team, the story came out over the weekend, and then on Monday, Davis ripped the reporter for the New York Post, confronting him in the clubhouse with teammates watching, and insisted that his soreness didn’t impact his production (.205 batting average and just nine home runs).
Manager Terry Collins said he “was surprised as anybody” to hear about Davis’ injury. And the skipper was ticked that Davis then compounded things by going after the reporter.
“He shouldn’t have said anything and now he’s gotta answer to it. As I told him, ‘I feel terrible for you because this isn’t going to come out well for you.’”
–Tuesday was Hall of Famer Monte Irvin’s 95th birthday. Irvin played high school ball about 15 minutes from here in East Orange and broke the color barrier with the New York Giants in 1949, playing in two World Series for them. His first full season wasn’t really until 1951, when he was 32, and he finished third in the MVP vote that season, hitting 24 home runs, leading the league with 121 RBI and batting .312. His other big season was ’53, 21-97, .329. He also hit .394 in his two World Series appearances.
The Star-Ledger’s Jerry Izenberg, who has seen it all, will always remember Irvin as a Newark Eagle.
“Once, when I asked (Irvin) about his nomad days with the Newark Eagles, the bus trips, the ridiculously low salary of $125 a month and later $150, the greatness of teammates like (Larry) Doby and Ray Dandridge and Willie Wells and Leon Day that surrounded him, and the icons like (Josh) Gibson and Satchel Paige and Buck Leonard who played against him, he smiled and then said:
“ ‘I played in three countries. I played in two World Series. But I never found anything to match the joy and the laughter those years with the Eagles brought me. The city (Newark) and county (Essex) loved us. We’d go out to hear jazz or to dinner and our fans were always grabbing the check. We were young and the world was new to us. We had never traveled. [Ed. after the all-black league seasons ended, they barnstormed in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Cuba.]
Monte Irvin, not Jackie Robinson, was slated to break the Major League Baseball color barrier. Branch Rickey had signed him for an all-black team, which didn’t exist but was part of Rickey’s preparations.
“Monte had called Rickey and candidly told him an inner ear infection would prevent him from playing in that mythical league. Rickey decided he could not wait. He picked Robinson to carry out his secret plan to integrate the Dodgers.” [Izenberg]
Finally, Irvin was picked up from the Eagles by the Giants.
At 95, Monte Irvin is the oldest living former major-leaguer and the oldest to have been on a winning World Series team (1954).
–Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for the New York Knicks (21-36), it did.
“Monday evening at the Garden delivered another gut-punch: Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki knuckle-balled a long jumper to sink New York at the buzzer.
“A heave to make you heave. Hours later, serious life intervened. Knicks point guard Raymond Felton turned himself in on two felony gun charges. The Journal’s Chris Herring and Pervaiz Shallwani reported that the charges stemmed from an illegal semiautomatic handgun that allegedly belongs to Felton and was left at the home of his estranged wife, Ariane Raymondo-Felton.
“Given New York City’s strict gun laws, Felton appears to be in a serious mess. He was arraigned Tuesday evening and his case was adjourned until the first week of June.”
Rocco Parascandola, Barbara Ross and Larry Mcshane / New York Daily News
“Busted Knicks point guard Raymond Felton grew increasingly erratic over the last several months – ‘aggressively’ holding a handgun during a Valentine’s Day clash with his wife as their 19-month marriage crumbled.
“Ariane Raymondo-Felton, 26, told cops she was going through a divorce and that she feared her husband might harm himself, sources told the Daily News. Her lawyer took the gun, which had been stashed under the bed at the Feltons’ Upper West Side apartment, to the 20th Precinct stationhouse about 5 p.m. Monday.
“The Belgian-made semiautomatic handgun was loaded with 18 armor-piercing bullets.”
The gun is known among Mexican drug dealers as “mata policia,” cop killer. Felton faces a number of weapons charges and a maximum 2 1/3 to 7 years behind bars if convicted.
“Say this for the Knicks: They don’t waste time dabbling in failure. When they’re in, they’re in. When they head into the tank, they don’t circle around deliberately, like a quarter in one of those ramp-banks. They sink like stones. Weighted by anvils. Propelled by supersonic engines. Right to the bottom.
“This was a season already past the point of redemption from a basketball standpoint. Now it is something else entirely.”
–South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney wowed scouts at the NFL combine on Monday with a 4.53 40-yard dash, pretty darn impressive for a 6-foot-5, 266-pound lineman. But as the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino pointed out, it’s about more than speed.
“Of the 10 defensive linemen since 1999 who have broken the 4.6-ssecond barrier, according to NFLCombineResults.com, just two were first-round picks. Ex-Jet Bryan Thomas was the 22nd overall pick in 2002 after he ran an all-time best 4.47 40, and he started 104 games in the NFL (33.5 sacks). Current Packer Nick Perry (4.55), who was taken 28th overall in 2012, has six sacks in just 11 career starts.”
–Pete Prisco / CBSSports.com: “There are a lot of personnel people who think Clemson quarterback Taj Boyd could go undrafted. I don’t think so, but you never know. Scouts are down on him.” I’m a little surprised by this.
–CBS filled out its NFL pregame show team with the hiring of former linebacker Bart Scott, who joins new addition Tony Gonzalez and holdovers James Brown, Bill Cowher and Boomer Esiason.
The sport did indeed receive a real shot in the arm with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s second triumph in the Daytona 500 (20th victory overall, but only second in six years). He remains NASCAR’s most popular driver, after all.
“This brings me a lot of joy. I look forward to going and doing all the media all week long and representing the sport,” Earnhardt said.
“I don’t know that I realize how big a deal it is, but I know I got a lot of fans that are really happy, really enjoyed what we did.”
It was a special win as well for crew chief Steve Letarte, who had announced he is leaving at the end of the season to become an analyst with NBC.
By the way, Dale Jr. finally posted on Twitter, Monday, his first tweet being: “Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?”
His team had taken down @DaleJr long ago, and the account had 235,000 followers as of Sunday, even though Earnhardt hadn’t posted anything. “But Earnhardt vowed before the race to make his presence felt if he won the Daytona 500, and he followed through with that initial tweet, which included a photo of him with the Harley J. Earl Trophy.” [Viv Bernstein / New York Times]
Harold Ramis, RIP
“Harold Ramis was a standard-bearer for a loopy brand of humor that grew out of sketch comedy and he created some of the most popular movies of the 1980s and 1990s including ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Caddyshack.’
“Mr. Ramis who died Monday at age 69 from the effects of a rare autoimmune disease, was a veteran of The Second City comedy troupe and various National Lampoon productions culminating in ‘Animal House,’ which he co-wrote and ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation,’ which he directed.
“Many of his films had an anarchic, kitchen-sink quality, with jokes thrown in almost at random bearing little relation to the plot. But his most critically successful work, epitomized by ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘Analyze This,’ was more tightly focused.
“Coming-of-age themes in the 1960s constituted the canvas for many of his comedies: summer camp (‘Meatballs’), college fraternities (‘Animal House’) and the Army (‘Stripes’).
“Mr. Ramis’s directorial debut was the 1980 film ‘Caddyshack,’ starring Rodney Dangerfield, who once called him ‘the Steven Spielberg of Comedy.’…
“A Wall Street Journal critic wrote that she ‘laughed until I sneezed.’”
Jack Black: “Harold was a force of good in the universe – so funny, sweet and thoughtful. He will be deeply missed.”
Ramis was actually joke editor for Playboy magazine early in his career, before joining Chicago’s Second City in 1969. He then moved to New York for the Off-Broadway “The National Lampoon Show,” where he worked with Second City alums and future “Saturday Night Live” stars John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner.
Bill Murray: “He earned his keep on this planet. God bless him.”
Chevy Chase said he was “shocked and heartbroken” by the loss.
Dan Akroyd said, “May he now get the answers he was always seeking.”
Director Judd Apatow: “Harold was one of the nicest people I have ever met, and he inspired countless people to go into comedy. His brilliant work will make people happy forever.”
“When Faber College was about to expel the misfit Deltas of ‘Animal House,’ the rambunctious character Bluto Blutarski rallied them, but it was writer Harold Ramis who provided Bluto’s stirring words:
“ ‘What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no! It ain’t over now, because when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Who’s with me? Let’s go! Come on!’
“For a few comic beats, the downcast frat boys react with utter silence – exquisite moments that made one of Ramis’ funniest scenes even funnier.”
Ramis co-wrote “Animal House” with Doug Kenney and Chris Miller, the three swapping stories of their own fraternity days – and enhanced them.
“All of them had trolled women’s colleges for dates. None had hatched schemes to meet a dead girl’s grieving friends, as Tim Matheson’s ‘Animal House’ character did when he saw a story in the Emily Dickinson College newspaper headlined, ‘Sophomore Dies in Kiln Explosion.’
“As characters and story lines came to life, they each wrote a third of the script. Then each had a chance to rewrite the others’ work, ‘so each of us had input on each section of the film.’
“Ramis’ first directing effort came two years later with ‘Caddyshack.’
“Ramis hoped to work with Don Rickles but was intrigued with Rodney Dangerfield after seeing him on ‘The Tonight Show,’ he told Variety in 2000.
“ ‘Dangerfield was so excited,’ he said. ‘He had no conception of how movies were made. There was ‘Rolling,’ ‘Speed,’ and ‘Action,’ and Rodney looked at me. I said, ‘Action.’ He looked at me. Then he said, ‘Do you want me to do the bit?’ I said, ‘Do the bit.’’
“Ramis was rarely a winner at entertainment-awards shows. He simply succeeded at entertainment. Except for ‘Groundhog Day,’ his films rarely impressed critics, but they were celebrated by moviegoers. So perhaps it is strangely appropriate that he died the week before the movie industry prepares for its annual Oscar celebration of films that may or may not have much of an audience. If moviegoers had been able to vote, they would have handed Ramis a wall full of trophies.
“ ‘Acting is all about big hair and funny props,’ he once said. ‘All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it. Brando knew it.’ What we know is that the work of Harold Ramis is still making Americans laugh.”
—NBC did just fine with the Olympics, averaging 21.4 million viewers a night. While this was down from the 24.4 million average for Vancouver, of course those Games’ big events were largely conducted in prime time.
As Richard Sandomir of the New York Times put it, 21.4 million “is like carrying ‘Sunday Night Football,’ which averaged 21.7 million viewers last season, every night.”
However, a topic I brought up before, the median age, rose from 48 in 2002 during the Salt Lake City Winter Games to slightly more than 55 for Sochi.
That’s kind of bizarre, seeing as how the new X-Games-type events were brought into the fold to appeal to a younger audience.
Meanwhile, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league would decide on whether or not to participate in the 2018 Winter Games in the next six months. Some players, like Sweden’s (New York Rangers) goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, who picked up a silver medal, love everything about the Olympics. Others, such as the Islanders’ John Tavares, end up with season-ending injuries.
What’s clear is that Olympic hockey is popular. Four years ago, Canada’s gold medal win over the U.S. was watched by 27.6 million, the most-watched hockey broadcast since 1980. [Bloomberg]
–The weather was an excuse for keeping many golfers off the course last year. According to the PGA of America, golf courses nationwide were open 268 days in 2013, down an average of 10 days from 2012, resulting in a 5% drop in the number of golf rounds played. This is after the sport recovered in 2011 and 2012 following the Great Recession.
Only California and Washington reported an increase in the average number of days golf courses were open and rounds were played, 2013 vs. 2012, and in those instances, rain was obviously no factor. [Hugo Martin / Los Angeles Times]
—College Baseball Poll
1. Virginia
2. Florida State
3. LSU
4. Vanderbilt
5. Oregon
6. South Carolina
7. Oregon State
8. North Carolina State
9. Cal-State Fullerton
10. Rice
—Men’s Division I Hockey Poll (Coaches)
1. Boston College
2. Minnesota
3. Union (N.Y.)
4. Ferris State
5. St. Cloud State
13. Colgate
Pete M., Colgate alum, tells me there is a computer poll that has Red Raiders No. 11 and thus handily in line to make the 16-team NCAA tournament field (ending in the Frozen Four).
–Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews is the new co-host on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” Fox signing off on her appearing on a rival network. She’s replacing Brooke Burke-Charvet. This makes no sense, not that I watch the show.
–Actor Alec Baldwin announced through a letter in New York Magazine that he was tired of New York because he and his family don’t have any privacy. “I just can’t live in New York anymore,” he said.
“Everything I hated about L.A. I’m beginning to crave. L.A. is a place where you live behind a gate, you get in a car, your interaction with the public is minimal. I used to hate that. But New York has changed.”
So the New York Post found a source in the NYPD who responded:
“I say: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out of the city. I don’t like the guy. It’s a pain in the ass to deal with him every time he blows his top at the press and we’re called in to clean up the mess.”
Another police source familiar with Baldwin’s many cases said, “He chose a career to be a public figure and he acts surprised whenever the media wants to take his photo or his wife’s. I don’t get it. Nothing will change for him if he moves to L.A. The press will hound him out there, too.”
–Members, past and present, of the group Kiss couldn’t agree on who should play at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction so the band decided not to play at all. Whatever. As I say one or two times a year, the museum itself in Cleveland is terrific. A must see…love it. But the whole process for who’s in and who’s out has always sucked and with the addition of rap acts these days, even more so.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/24/73: #1 “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (Roberta Flack) #2 “Dueling Banjos” (Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell…think “Deliverance”… one of the top ten flicks of all time…) #3 “Crocodile Rock” (Elton John)…and…#4 “You’re So Vain” (Carly Simon) #5 “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love” (Spinners) #6 “Do It Again” (Steely Dan) #7 “Last Song” (Edward Bear) #8 “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend” (Lobo) #9 “Love Train” (O’Jays) #10 “Rocky Mountain High” (John Denver)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: Top ten all time in scoring.
1. Pete Maravich, LSU…3,667
2. Freeman Williams, Portland State…3,249
3. Lionel Simmons, La Salle…3,217
4. Alphonso Ford, Mississippi Valley State…3,165
5. Harry Kelly, Texas Southern…3,066
6. Keydren Clark, Saint Peter’s…3,058
7. Hersey Hawkins, Bradley…3,008
8. Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati…2,973
9. Danny Manning, Kansas…2,951
10. Doug McDermott, Creighton…2,917
