NCAA Basketball Tournament Quiz: For long-time hoops fans, there are three individual point totals that s/b engrained in everyone’s brain (aside from Bill Walton’s 44 on 21-of-22 shooting in the 1973 national championship game, which I’ve covered before). So, give me the point totals for 1) Bill Bradley, Princeton, third-place game vs. Wichita State, March 20, 1965. 2) Austin Carr, Notre Dame, first-round game vs. Ohio, March 7, 1970. 3) Jack Givens, Kentucky, national championship game vs. Duke, March 27, 1978. Answers below.
College Basketball…AP Men’s Poll
1. Florida 29-2 (50)
2. Wichita State 34-0 (15)
3. Villanova 28-3
4. Arizona 28-3
5. Louisville 26-5
6. Virginia 25-6
7. Duke 24-7
T-8. Michigan 23-7
T-8. San Diego State 27-3
10. Kansas 23-8
11. Syracuse 27-4
14. Creighton 24-6
20. New Mexico 24-6
23. VCU 24-7!!! [Your “Pick to Click,” though I’ll also be rooting for SDSU.]
Among the teams gaining automatic bids into the NCAA tournament thus far are North Dakota State (25-6); Manhattan (25-7), a 71-68 winner over Iona in the MAAC; Mount St. Mary’s (16-16…yuck), which whipped Robert Morris (21-13) 88-71 in the NEC title game; and Milwaukee (21-13, 7-9), a 69-63 winner over Wright State (20-14, 10-6) in the Horizon conference tournament. Ergo, Mt. St. Mary’s and Milwaukee will be 16s, and probably in the play-in game. [Some bracketologists have Milwaukee as a 15-seed.]
Ball Bits
–Finally got around to reading the Pete Rose book excerpt in the March 10 issue of Sports Illustrated. Kostya Kennedy wrote “Pete Rose: An American Dilemma.” For those of you who go to Cooperstown, the excerpt is worth reading, if you’re not going to buy the book, that is.
But I loved this bit from a Pete Rose roast that was held in conjunction with a ceremony in Cincinnati, Sept. 11, 2010, commemorating the 25th anniversary of his 4,192nd hit, breaking Ty Cobb’s mark; an event Commissioner Bud Selig let him attend.
The roast was held afterwards at an area casino, with many of his former teammates there. When it was Pete’s turn to fire back:
“Rose zapped (Tony) Perez (for his unusual use of English) and Griffey (for his batting style), and Rose told the one about the time (son) Petey had phoned him from the minor leagues, battling through an 0-for-22 stretch, to ask his father the best way to get out of a slump. And Rose answered, ‘How the hell would I know? I’ve never been in a slump. Call [Dave] Concepcion.’”
–Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Eric Chavez, in an interview with Gabe Lacques of USA TODAY, talked about how the steroids era and Barry Bonds helped him; as in Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa made Chavez and those in his era rich.
“A lot of players are outspoken about it. They just forget how many riches, for lack of a better word, that all of us have enjoyed. Ownership, MLB, those guys brought baseball to a whole new level as far as popularity is concerned. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
“It’s unfortunate the way things happened. I think we all wish it could have been different. But we all enjoyed that ride to the top. All of us. They kick-started that whole thing. For good or for bad. You can be opinionated as you want all you want.
According to Forbes, MLB had revenues of $1.5 billion in 1995, the year after the World Series was canceled. In 2013, revenue exceeded $8 billion, and could reach $9 billion in 2014.
–The Braves signed the best remaining free-agent pitcher, Ervin Santana, to a one-year, $14 million contract. Santana was 9-10, 3.24, with Kansas City last season.
“Robinson Cano is beginning the first season of a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Seattle Mariners.
“Imagine how much he might’ve made if he ran hard to first base.
“Cano’s baseball skills are undeniable: He has batted .300 or better in seven of nine seasons, has hit at least 25 homers five straight years, has played in at least 159 games in each of the last seven seasons and won two Gold Gloves as a second baseman.
“But, you know, he doesn’t like running out groundballs.
“I recall once going to a Yo-Yo Ma concert in which the famed cellist dogged it on some minor chords because, as he told me afterward, ‘they’re just minor chords.’ That’s the last time I’m paying $6 on StubHub for classical tickets….
“Will the Mariners get their $240 million worth? If Cano helps them win, attendance will spike, but otherwise, he is not a draw. People come to the ballpark for A-Rod and Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols and Mike Trout, to see Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole pitch, but no one is changing their Friday night plans to watch Cano run halfheartedly after hitting a ground ball to shortstop….
“I wonder whether Robinson Cano at least runs hard to the bank. Nah. He probably has direct deposit.”
–Running back Rashard Mendenhall was tired of living a “private life in the public eye” as an NFL player, which, according to a report for ESPN.com by Josh Weinfuss, “included being the target of racial slurs online.” So he announced he was retiring at 26 years of age. Good for him.
Mendenhall played six years in the NFL, five with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that drafted him out of the Univ. of Illinois. He had 4,236 yards on 1,081 carried (3.9) and 37 touchdowns.
Mendenhall had his share of serious injuries and said that while his passion for the game hadn’t diminished, he was tired of living under the microscope and wanted to live the rest of his life “without the potential physical limitations that come with years of playing, and his dislike with how the game has shifted more toward entertainment and away from fundamentals.”
“Imagine having a job where you’re always on duty, and can never fully relax or you just may drown. Having to fight through waves and currents of praise and criticism, but mostly hate. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been called a ‘dumb n—–.’”
–I won’t attempt to keep up on all the free-agent moves, but us Jets fans are thrilled the team dumped Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie, saving mega-$millions in cap space, though Cromartie could return under a reworked contract, which would be OK, too. Quarterback Mark Sanchez will also be released shortly.
–But as the free-agent season gets underway, and with the Jets looking for help at wide receiver, aside from a likely first-round selection in the draft (Marqise Lee, perhaps), as Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal points out, “From 2000 to 2012, only nine free-agent (receivers) under age 30 switched teams following seasons of at least 50 catches, 800 yards and five touchdowns, according to Stats, LLC. But three free-agent wideouts this year meet that criteria – Eric Decker, Julian Edelman and Golden Tate.”
However, of the previous nine meeting the above parameters, only two exceeded their walk-year production in their first year with a new team. Two others were essentially the same and the other five fell well short.
I want the Jets to go the draft route for two receivers and pray Stephen Hill stays healthy and reaches his potential. Yes, the Jets have a ton of cap room, but that doesn’t mean you just throw it around…at least assuming they learned something from the Santonio Holmes signing.
–The Giants signed a decent running back from Oakland, Rashad Jennings, who had 733 yards on the ground last season.
–Meanwhile, the Cowboys released their all-time pass rusher, DeMarcus Ware. He has 117 career sacks and made seven Pro Bowls, but can now sign with anyone.
–The Bears released defensive end Julius Peppers, with Peppers slated to receive a base salary of $13.9 million in 2014 and count a whopping $18.1 million against the cap; important because the Bears had signed quarterback Jay Cutler to that massive seven-year deal in January that includes a base salary of $22.5 million in 2014.
Peppers, 34, has 118.5 career sacks, but just 7.5 last season. Nonetheless, in his four years in Chicago (after his star turn with Carolina), he started in every game (64) and made the Pro Bowl his first three seasons.
–The Miami Dolphins shipped Jonathan Martin to the 49ers for a conditional draft pick. Martin is thus reunited with his college coach, Jim Harbaugh.
“The generation gap in golf has never been more pronounced, and not because the average age of the last three winners on the PGA Tour is 24.3 years. Years from now, we might look at the derring-do shown by 24-year-old Russell Henley at the Honda Classic last week and 23-year-old Patrick Reed at the World Golf Championship event Sunday as the beginning of the brash brothers era on the PGA Tour.
“Henley’s playoff victory at the Honda Classic was his second in 34 starts as a professional. Grouped in the final round with the former No. 1 Rory McIlroy, Henley played as if he, and not McIlroy, had won two major championships.
“His victory came a week after fourth-ranked Jason Day, 26, defeated 23-year-old Victor Dubuisson in the World Golf Championship match-play final.
“Reed has won three times in his last 14 starts, with all of his victories coming since Tiger Woods’s last title run….
“Reed, who ascended to 20th in the rankings, displayed only slightly less bluster than the Doral host, Donald Trump. Reed said he considered himself a top-five player. So what? Virginia, a loser in overtime Sunday, was No. 5 in last week’s men’s college basketball poll. Until March Madness or the Masters, rankings are mainly a matter of opinion.
“Never mind that the world’s top three (Woods, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson) and six of the top seven have not won in 2014, while Reed has won twice. His audacity did not sit well with the people in the sport who prefer their golf champions as polished as the trophies in their hands, company men quick to thank God and country – not their wife, sponsors and agents, as Reed did as if he were a stock-car driver in victory lane.”
On to Augusta. [But first, Reed will be playing in Arnie’s tournament at Bay Hill in two weeks.]
–The controversy over the World Golf Hall of Fame and the selection process continues. The Hall announced there won’t be any inducted in 2014 while a review is conducted of the different avenues for admittance, plus the presentation ceremony, which almost never has a Hall of Famer in attendance, as opposed to, say, Major League Baseball’s or the NFL’s induction ceremonies, where at least 40 existing members show.
“A reassessment of the criteria is long overdue in light of growing talk of lost credibility and an increasingly watered-down membership. The drumbeat of dissension that began with Raymond Floyd’s public remarks last year (‘The bar has been lowered,’ Floyd told Golf Magazine.’ ‘Guys get voted into the Hall of Fame who don’t belong, who lack the numbers.’) has grown louder.
“Nick Price made no effort to hide his disgust, saying the Hall should be reserved for the men and women who surpassed the loftiest of our expectations.
“ ‘With my record, I should’ve just snuck in. I should be like the rear of it,’ said Price, a three-time major winner who has won 50 pro events worldwide. ‘The guys who are in there who did so much, you can’t compare them to the guys they’re letting in now. You can’t.’
“Lanny Wadkins, who was inducted in 2009, put it more bluntly.
“ ‘I didn’t think I should be in,’ he said. ‘I thought the Hall of Fame was a place for Watson, Trevino, Nicklaus and Palmer. But then all of a sudden when Curtis Strange and (Tom) Kite, and (Ben) Crenshaw are in, damn right I should be in.’….
“Strange, a 2007 inductee, used his own circumstances to highlight what he called the fallacy of Hall of Fame voting.
“ ‘I got in with 70 percent for 17 wins and two majors. Hubert Green won two majors and 19 tournaments and (got only 52 percent of the vote), and he had to come in on the Veterans ballot,’ Strange said. ‘It’s just not right.’”
As for the Hall itself, it started down in Pinehurst but never made a profit, so the PGA opened a new facility in St. Augustine, Fla, 1998, and with its location off Interstate 95, the feeling was 1 million a year would visit. Instead, last year attendance was 220,000, at $19.50 a head. Needless to say, it loses money.
Actually, another calculation says just 36,000 went to the Hall, which they figured out by looking at the 50-cent surcharge on every ticket that goes toward the bonds used to build a local convention center.
Suffice it to say, the Hall of Fame relies heavily on the largesse of the PGA Tour. Each tour event is required to kick in $50,000 annually.
I’ve told you how I visited the Hall about ten years ago and I’m sorry, I just didn’t think it was that great a museum. The museum connected to the USGA’s headquarters in Far Hills, N.J., (Golf House) is superior in my opinion. Much smaller, but very cool (and expanding in the future with a Nicklaus room, slated to be completed in 2015).
As for the World Golf Hall of Fame selection process, it obviously needs to be changed, though I have to admit I don’t have a problem with Colin Montgomerie getting in without a major because the guy was so dominant on the European Tour for so long. He won 31 Euro events, after all, and was 8-time Order of Merit winner.
So maybe something like you need to win 25+ if you don’t win a major, but the standard should be 20 wins plus at least one major, or three and 15. Not 1 and 14, or 2 and 12.
Bottom line, golf needs to hammer it out. With the incredible competition these days, 20 wins is darn good and that’s probably where you start.
–Meanwhile, back to Augusta. Golfweek reports the Eisenhower Tree that was damaged and removed from the left side of the 17th hole as a result of one of this winter’s ice storms will not be replaced for this year. “Instead, you can expect Greenjacket Central to have folks on that hole charting the landing areas of drives off the tee, and once it has all of its info, the club can proceed from there.”
—Phil Jackson is expected to become “president” of the New York Knicks, with current president/general manager Steve Mills being demoted to hot dog vendor, with an option to work as a bartender at one of the clubs inside the newly renovated MSG.
As for his living arrangements, Jackson, who resides in Marina Del Rey, Calif., would be expected to live in New York during the season. His fiancé, Lakers president Jeanie Buss, will stay in her job.
So, assuming this all comes off, Jackson’s first step is to keep Carmelo Anthony.
–The number of police patrolling the Boston Marathon route, April 21, is said to be over 3,500. Spectators will be severely limited in what they can carry, such as no backpacks, coolers and other large items. The total field is expected to be around 36,000.
–So you see that Ohio state championship high school hockey game the other night in Columbus – Cleveland’s St. Ignatius and Sylvania Northview? After regulation and seven overtimes, the game was halted by state officials and the teams declared co-champions as a result of the 1-1 tie.
Fans and players were frustrated, but the commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association cited player safety in making the call, in consultation with coaches and athletic directors from both schools.
As Tim Warsinskey of the New York Times noted, however, the result has sparked nationwide debate on how best to end a championship game and whether Ohio officials made the right call.
National high school and O.H.S.A.A. rules do not include provisions for shootouts, which seems kind of stupid, nor does the O.H.S.A.A. set a limit on number of overtimes. Back in 2007, a district tournament game went eight overtimes.
In 1955, Minneapolis South and Thief River Falls played to a high school record 11 overtimes. South won, 3-2.
Actually, I had no idea how long the overtimes were for high school. In the Ohio case they played three, 15-minute periods, and then seven, 8-minute overtime periods, so 101 minutes.
None of the 40 players had been hurt, but Northview Coach Mike Jones said after the seventh overtime, “What happens if we go into the eighth OT and a kid is exhausted and he doesn’t keep his head up and gets run over and is taken out on a stretcher? If a kid doesn’t skate off that ice because he’s hurt, what kind of national debate is there going to be then?”
Well, after the decision was made, Commissioner Dan Ross took to the ice to announce to the crowd of 2,482 the game was over.
“Fans booed loudly and chanted, ‘Let them play!’ there was no postgame presentation because only one set of championship hardware was available. The players shook hands and took turns posing with the lone trophy.”
–Yikes. As reported by Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland (think Annapolis), “Two dogs attacked three deer early Monday after they crashed through the glass door” of a county school.
“Just before 4 a.m. Monday, officers responded to an alarm at Southern Middle School…When the officers arrived they found chairs knocked over in the lobby and broken glass at a door next to the cafeteria.”
Well, it gets gruesome from there. Bottom line, two dogs (one a German shepherd) were chasing three deer who crashed through the door, followed by the dogs.
The school was closed for a day for cleanup. The dogs’ owners were located at a nearby home. The dogs were captured by animal control officials and tried in animal court. In a moment, the results of that trial.
–From the Star-Ledger here in New Jersey, “An unidentified Montclair woman was taken for $86,000 by a fraudulent Match.com user allegedly named Maxwell Yas, township police said.
“Described in the profile as an American civil engineer working in Malaysia, the internet heart-breaker apparently cultivated an online romance with the Montclair woman over several months.
“During that time, the alleged engineer convinced the woman to wire large sums of money to the suspect who claimed to be facing financial difficulty….
“Other Match.com users have complained in online forums of similar fraudulent activity by someone using the name Maxwell Yas.
“Montclair police warned residents that romantic online scams are growing more common.”
–And now the results of the canine trial…Superior Court Judge Frank Drebin gave the dogs’ suspended sentences, seeing as they were ridding the neighborhood of giant rats.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/12/77: #1 “Love Theme From ‘A Star Is Born’ (Evergreen)” (Barbra Streisand… gag me….) #2 “Fly Like An Eagle” (Steve Miller) #3 “I Like Dreamin’” (Kenny Nolan…my freshman year at Wake Forest was not ending well with this drivel…)…and…#4 “Night Moves” (Bob Seger…or as Marvin “Bad News” Barnes once said, “Men move at night”…) #5 “Blinded By The Light” (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band….this was played endlessly on the station down there…) #6 “Dancing Queen” (Abba) #7 “Torn Between Two Lovers” (Mary MacGregor…back then I was torn between Schlitz and Miller, Schlitz having a brewery in Winston-Salem we used to go to on Friday afternoons to take the tour, you see, and, err, get a few free beers in the Brown Bottle Room…and, ahhh…) #8 “Year Of The Cat” (Al Stewart… prefer “Year of the Search and Rescue Dog” but that’s a personal preference…) #9 “Rich Girl” (Daryl Hall & John Oates) #10 “Go Your Own Way” (Fleetwood Mac)
NCAA Basketball Tournament Quiz Answers: 1) Bill Bradley scored 58 points on 22-of-29 shooting in the consolation game in 1965. 2) Austin Carr scored 61 points on 25-of-44 shooting. [Still the single-game tourney record.] 3) Jack Givens had 41 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in the national title game in 1978.
