[Posted: Wednesday morning]
NCAA Basketball Quiz: North Carolina defeated Illinois 75-70 for the 2005 national title. Name the eleven players on the consensus All-America team for the 2004-05 season (six on the first). You get the initials…this one isn’t easy. 1st team: A.B., C.P., D.B., H.W., J.J.R., W.S. 2nd team: D.W., I.D., L.H., S.S., S.M. Answer below.
March Madness
Saturday
2 Oklahoma vs. 2 Villanova
1 North Carolina vs. 10 Syracuse
It really is amazing to think that in the last AP poll, March 14 after Selection Sunday, Syracuse had zero votes. 46 teams received them, including 3 votes for Monmouth. Syracuse also had zero in the AP preseason poll. And they lost five of six coming in.
So I have a real-life example of how outrageous it is to have Syracuse as a 10-seed in the mix.
The Wednesday night before the first round of the tourney, I was at a meeting with my charity group, we’re dying Easter Eggs for the kiddies for our annual hunt the following Saturday, and my buddy and I conduct a March Madness ‘blind’ pool for a certain amount, and I’m collecting the money and attempting to keep track of who has selected who.
Well, there were 30 of us there, some buying multiple teams, but a fair number are casual followers of the event and I decided I would just write down who selected who for the first six seeds.
Uh oh. While most people, as I told them, kept their slips, we’re trying to figure out who has Syracuse! Needless to say, sorry ‘Cuse fans, but I want them going down before I face major embarrassment.
Gary Parrish / CBSSports.com:
“Yes, Syracuse made it.
“And that really is the story of this Final Four – how a school that A) was banned from last season’s NCAA Tournament because of rules violations, B) is still on probation, C) finished tied for ninth in the ACC with a 9-9 league record, and D) had a 72 RPI on Selection Sunday, and was among the most debated 36 at-large schools, is somehow headed to the Final Four after beating a team (Virginia) that finished seven spots better in the ACC.
“Wow.”
Sports Illustrated, in its preseason Top 20, had….
1. North Carolina
2. Kansas
3. Kentucky
4. Duke
5. Maryland
6. Virginia
7. Wichita State
8. Villanova
12. Oklahoma
Then before the tournament started, like the rest of us schleps, they had a Final Four of Oklahoma vs. Kansas and Michigan State vs. North Carolina, with Kansas defeating Carolina.
Yours truly had Virginia beating Kansas.
As for Syracuse, also like yours truly, SI had Dayton beating Syracuse.
[Not making fun of SI, but for 17 years I’ve used them as a good barometer of public thought and it’s part of my awesome archives, frankly.]
Meanwhile, as alluded to above, you do have the elephant in the room when it comes to the Syracuse-North Carolina matchup. Both programs are/were dirty.
Syracuse is on probation because of a variety of rules violations, including academic improprieties, extra benefits to players, booster misconduct, and failure to follow drug-test policy, while Jim Boeheim was suspended the first nine conference games of this season. The school was forced to vacate 108 wins. That’s pretty serious stuff.
And North Carolina’s case with the NCAA just goes on and on, rooted in what’s been described as “systemic academic fraud.” UNC goes before the Committee on Infractions later this year.
But at the same time this is nothing new. In fact Gary Parrish noted his opening paragraph from the 2011 national title game:
“An athletic director (Gene Smith) from a school (Ohio State) whose football coach (Jim Tressel) will be suspended five games next season for violating NCAA rules watched a team on probation (Connecticut) win the national championship, then handed the trophy to a basketball coach (Jim Calhoun) who will be suspended three games next season for illegal recruiting.”
So for now we just focus on Saturday’s games.
–It really is pretty remarkable that Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger has taken five teams to the NCAA tournament…Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and the Sooners.
—Kevin Stallings was tabbed to replace Jamie Dixon at Pittsburgh, after Dixon left to take the job at TCU. Stallings was the coach of Vanderbilt the past 17 seasons, going 332-220 with seven NCAA tournament appearances, including this year where they lost the play-in game to Wichita State. The Commodores definitely underachieved this season, which doesn’t say much about Stallings.
Vandy is said to be looking at VCU coach Will Wade, a Nashville native who previously coached at Chattanooga.
—TBS announcer Kevin Harlan caught some heat for his pronouncement as the final seconds ticked off on Sunday in Syracuse’s win over Virginia.
“Jim Boeheim and Syracuse have done it! Back from the dead on Easter Sunday! They’re going to the Final Four!”
A few weren’t that happy that the ‘Cuse comeback was being compared with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
—At 7:30 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, ESPN is showing a tape of the historic 1966 NCAA men’s basketball tournament final where Texas Western started five black players and defeated Adolph Rupp’s all-white Kentucky team, 72-65.
As the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir noted, this game has rarely if ever been seen on television. The quality of the tape isn’t good, he writes, but try and catch some of it.
–In the Women’s Final Four….
Sunday, April 3
4 Syracuse vs. 7 Washington
1 UConn vs. 2 Oregon State
Final, April 5.
UConn advanced to its tenth Final Four, ninth in a row, with a 86-65 victory over Texas as the Huskies will be trying for a record fourth consecutive national championship. The win was UConn’s 73rd straight.
Head coach Geno Auriemma is now just two wins shy of an 11th title, which would move him past UCLA’s John Wooden for most all time in college basketball history.
But following UConn’s astounding 98-38 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday in the Sweet Sixteen, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy tweeted that UConn’s amazing success was bad for the sport, to which Geno Auriemma said:
“Don’t watch. Nobody’s putting a gun to your head to watch. So don’t watch, and don’t write about it. Spend your time on things you think are important.”
Which is why I don’t write much about your program either, Geno.
But then Auriemma compared the Huskies to Tiger Woods.
“When Tiger was winning every major, nobody said he was bad for golf.”
That is a stupid comparison.
Meanwhile, the Beavers of Oregon State won the right to meet UConn with a 60-57 win over Baylor.
–In the NIT semifinals at the Garden on Tuesday….
Valparaiso edged BYU 72-70, while my San Diego State Aztecs were annihilated 65-46 by George Washington as SDSU reverted to offensive form…17 of 59 from the field (28.8%), just 3 of 22 from three. Oh well. They got a class trip to the Big Apple.
NBA
–Thru Tuesday’s play, Golden State is 67-7 with eight to play as they seek to better the 72-10 mark of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. The Warriors have two left with San Antonio (April 7 and 10) and two with Memphis.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers are 9-66 and threatening to tie their own NBA-worst record of 9-73 back in 1972-73.
–Last year the Lakers were a franchise-worst 21-61. After Monday night’s 123-75 debacle, a 48- point loss to Utah that tied a franchise record, L.A. is 15-59.
Monday, Kobe Bryant was 1-of-11 from the field as he continues his wonderful farewell tour.
Bryant is shooting .357 from the field for the season, .283 from behind the arc, which is really terrific, if you’re playing with a goat sack in Afghanistan.
Yup, for the fifth time, with another one or two to follow, Kobe’s final years have been an utter catastrophe for the franchise. But he got his money and that’s all he cared about.
And as if the Lakers didn’t already have enough problems, now it’s emerged that there is a major rift in the locker room involving rookie D’Angelo Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft.
As noted first on ESPN.com, Des Bieler of the Washington Post sums up the issue.
“Several days ago, a video was tweeted out by a gossip website that showed (Laker) Nick Young, who got engaged to pop star Iggy Azalea last year, briefly discussing a pair of women, including model Amber Rose. At the time, it was rumored that Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 draft, had secretly shot the video, and on Tuesday, ESPN confirmed those rumors.
“What’s more, according to ESPN, Russell’s teammates are irate about the recording, seeing it as a personal betrayal, and have responded by ‘isolating’ the first-year guard….
“At a recent breakfast meeting, one source said, no Laker would sit with Russell at his table. The source added that, in another instance, Russell came into the locker room and sat next to guard Lou Williams, who got up and walked away.
“ ‘It’s bad,’ one team source told ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelbourne. ‘It’s about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there’s no trust.’”
–The following is more parochial than normal, especially in light of the New York Knicks’ record, but I’ve written in the past how some of us fans in the area love having Walt “Clyde” Frazier still with us in an active capacity as he does the Knicks telecasts, so the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman had these thoughts in his Tuesday column.
“The Knickerbockers, in their multiple decades of dysfunction and failure, have once again reached the point in a season where the only reason to continue watching this sorry, alleged NBA product on television is to hear what Walt Frazier might say.
“By no means is this an open invitation to be subjected to four quarters of Knicks dreck on the MSGulag Network. One quarter will suffice, as Frazier proved Saturday night while the Knicks were preparing to eventually descend back into the Stink Tank against Cleveland.
“Knowing where this game was headed, and perhaps realizing it would hasten the defection of eyeballs, Frazier, with a push from Mike Breen, targeted LeBron James during the first quarter. It started with Frazier throwing freezing water on a discussed alliance of James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul, saying it’s a longshot.
“ ‘These guys are in the twilight of their careers,’ Frazier said. ‘Even if they join forces it’s not guaranteed they will win a title.’
“Since Anthony still has three years left on his $124 million contract following this season, it had to be ‘reassuring’ for Phil Jackson and James (Guitar) Jimmy Dolan hearing Clyde say Melo is in the twilight of his career. Who knew they were running a premature retirement facility?
“Back to James.
“Breen reminded Frazier about the King’s recent criticisms of his teammates, which included ‘various cryptic tweets.’ Frazier stopped short of saying LBJ was big-timing his mates, but indicated he was taking them down a road leading to alienation.
“We all are human. We don’t like to be embarrassed, especially in the public. So that’s my problem with what (James) is doing,’ Frazier said. ‘He has gone public with his criticisms. That can be dangerous as far as animosity on the team.’….
“Frazier (then) focused on James’ ‘antics,’ including negative body language.
“ ‘That’s not cool for a guy who is supposed to be the leader of the team,’ Frazier said….
“Just when the extended critique of James (during game action) seemed to be ending, MSG inserted another video replay. This time, James was yelling at his teammates during a timeout huddle. Frazier said this is not the only way LBJ expresses himself.
“ ‘It’s like when something goes awry, he (James) is on the other side of the court when it happens. He’s sulking,’ said Frazier. ‘He’s not going back to the bench. I don’t like that. It’s like he’s showing them (his teammates) up.’
“Frazier all but called James selfish….
“It’s one thing to be critiqued, and have your personality analyzed negatively, by a coach-turned-analyst, or a former player of little consequence. Quite another when a Hall of Famer, a living legend, a guy who produced the most clutch performance in NBA Finals history, is delivering (a jab)….
“No doubt, on occasion, Dolan’s lieutenants have muzzled Frazier yet, even that is not an easy task. For it is apparent even Clyde is not sure what is coming out of his mouth next.
“There is one certainty here: Frazier will not single out a current Knick – let’s say Anthony – the way he did James. Nor has he ever taken his former teammate Phil Jackson to task for his cryptic tweets. Or the Knicks’ failed record under his presidency.
“Maybe Frazier is waiting until the end of the season, giving fans – in a twisted way – something to stay tuned for. Maybe he’s waiting for Breen to steer him in that direction.”
MLB
–Mets fans were on pins and needles Monday afternoon and evening after word came out that pitcher Matt Harvey had gone to the doctor for a non-baseball medical issue, which had many buzzing that he had some sort of serious ailment, even as manager Terry Collins and GM Sandy Alderson didn’t seem too concerned when interviewed by reporters. All Alderson said was that whatever was wrong with Harvey didn’t involve his shoulder, elbow or knee.
Thankfully, Tuesday morning we learned Harvey had a blood clot in his bladder that ‘passed.’ He is still slated to be on the mound Sunday night in Kansas City for the opener.
–Barry Svrluga / Washington Post
“What will happen with Pablo Sandoval?: ‘Have you seen him?’ one general manager asked me during spring training. ‘He looks like a beer league softball player.’ With apologies to beer league softball players everywhere, that’s not a bad comparison. Entering the second season of a five-year, $95-million deal with Boston, Sandoval arrived at Red Sox spring training decidedly overweight. How much, he didn’t know, because he told reporters he didn’t weigh himself over the winter. It was hardly surprising, then, when Sandoval came down with a stiff lower back last week. He is listed day-to-day. Thus comes the most intriguing question out of Boston’s camp: What if Sandoval, due to make $17.6 million in 2016, isn’t the Red Sox’ best option at third base? Travis Shaw, 25, spent his first 15 games of spring training hitting .367 with six extra-base hits, including two homers, in 49 at-bats. Sandoval’s injury and fitness (or lack thereof) provide a window for Shaw to climb through – at the very least.”
Barry Svrluga also mentions that Robinson Cano is having a great spring. I was going to say something about Cano before opening day, that he’ll return to form, and I’ll just go on record now as saying he hits .320 with his old pop.
–So in keeping with this last comment on Cano, when I wrote my baseball predictions last Sunday, I hadn’t read Sports Illustrated’s entire preview in terms of each team but some random thoughts.
SI has Pittsburgh at 87-75…I don’t see that. I’m afraid the Bucs are going to be more like 82-80, a major step back.
SI has the Rockies at 73-89. They will go 59-102 (one game not made up).
The Dodgers’ rotation is hideous outside of Kershaw. They will suck.
Awful season for L.A. baseball fans overall, too, as the Angels, who SI has at 72-90, will go 64-98. I am not wishing ill on anyone but a certain high-profile player that we all love will be out a decent stretch with hamstring issues and that will be a killer for the ball club.
I think the Oakland A’s will be far better than SI’s predicted 63-99. I’m saying 84-78.
The Red Sox will be highly entertaining all season owing in no small part to huge years from Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts. SI has them at 92-70. That’s going to be on the mark. Maybe 94-68.
The team I’d love to see do well as a total outsider is Cleveland. SI has them at 83-79. I’ll go with 88-74.
The reason why I have Toronto facing off against the Mets in the Series is because that lineup is beyond outrageous, especially if Tulowitzki stays reasonably healthy (140 games).
As for the Cubbies, another super lineup, but their starting staff will deeply disappoint. Jake Arrieta will go 16-12, 3.45, and the others will be just OK. But the hitting will get them to 93-69.
–Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times notes that 50 years ago this week, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale reported to spring training, a month after their teammates first showed up. It’s a topic I’ve covered before but these two held out for a higher salary at a time when there was no free agency, no salary arbitration, and no power in the players’ union. If a player didn’t like the salary he was offered, he could go home.
Shaikin:
“It was Feb. 23, 1966, and The Times splashed the headline across the top of the page: ‘Koufax, Drysdale Eye $1 Million Pact.’
“That would be a paltry sum for a player today, when the average major league salary is almost $4 million, but such riches were unheard of 50 years ago. In 1965, Koufax won 26 games and his second Cy Young Award in three years. He finished second to Willie Mays for the National League most-valuable-player award.
“The Dodgers paid Koufax $85,000 that season. They paid $80,000 to Drysdale, who won 23 games, batted .300 with seven home runs, and finished fifth in the MVP race.
“For 1966, the Dodgers offered $100,000 to Koufax and $85,000 to Drysdale. The San Francisco Giants had signed Mays for two years, at about $125,000 per year.
“Koufax and Drysdale, wary of the Dodgers’ playing one pitcher against the other, teamed up and asked for three years at a total of $1 million – split equally, so that each would earn $167,000 per year. And they told the Dodgers to talk to their agent, akin to a sin at the time.
“The duo effectively became baseball’s first union – a union of two.”
In Florida, the Dodgers went about spring training.
In California, Koufax and Drysdale signed a deal to appear in a movie called “Warning Shot” – Koufax as a detective, Drysdale as a television commentator. And they also agreed to do a television variety show called “The Hollywood Palace.”
So the weeks go by and Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, doing the games then as now, recalled that fans took consolation in the feeling, ‘It has to end, they’re not going to play without those two,’ Scully said. “That would seem preposterous.”
But the public overall, and the media, were not on their side. The Los Angeles Times portrayed them as “the flinging financiers” pursuing “their double-barreled raid on the Dodger treasury.”
Shaikin:
“A March 15, 1966 Times report from spring training called the holdout ‘the greatest player revolt in the 77-year history of the Dodgers’ – ignoring or forgetting the heated objections among several Brooklyn players to sharing a clubhouse with Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier.”
Another Dodger was also holding out, shortstop Maury Wills, who had finished third in the MVP race, but Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley “scared me to death, saying I was in cahoots with them,” Wills said. “He said, ‘They might be able to get away with that, but you can’t.’
“I got a ticket right away and went to spring training. He put a contract in front of me and I signed it. I didn’t even look at it.”
Dick Moss, the first general counsel for the players’ union, said of the time:
“Players were told they were lucky to be playing baseball. If it wasn’t for baseball, they’d be driving trucks. Or, if they were black, they were told they would probably be picking cotton. It was a very primitive time.”
Back then players were bound by the so-called “reserve clause” to stay with the team for as long as the team liked, with no recourse other than retirement. No arbitration, no agent representation in disputes.
GM Buzzie Bavasi said he would talk with the agent representing Koufax and Drysdale but would only negotiate with the players.
Well the duo signed on March 30, 1966. Koufax got $125,000. Drysdale $110,000.
Bavasi was ticked, writing later: “When the smoke had cleared, they stood together on the battlefield with $235,000 between them, and I stood there with a blood-stained cash box.”
Well a real players union began to evolve two years later under the leadership of Marvin Miller and Dick Moss (see also Curt Flood), but needless to say player-management relations were still awful. Bowie Kuhn, commissioner from 1969-84, fought fiercely against free agency, warning the richest teams would buy up all the best players and that teams would go bankrupt.
But as Bill Shaikin writes: “The apocalypse never came to pass.”
Donald Fehr, who would succeed Marvin Miller, told Shaikin that Miller often said the “first key event” in the players’ assertion of labor rights ought not to be credited to the union.
“Koufax and Drysdale deserved the credit.”
Fehr said: “In terms of the development and enhancement of players’ rights, in the modern era, this was the first shot out of the cannon. And it was done without Marvin and the union. The guys did it themselves.”
Stuff
–The United States men’s national soccer team got its act together in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday night with a 4-0 win over Guatemala, which only four days earlier had defeated the U.S. 2-0, causing a panic among Team USA and its fans.
The U.S. is now in second in Group C of their World Cup qualifying competition, with two teams moving on.
–Man, there have been a slew of deaths at a way too early age just this year, including Patty Duke, 69. The cause of death was sepsis from a ruptured intestine.
Patty Duke had stardom but also hardship and heartache. Being nearly 11 years younger than her I can’t say I knew her well through TV, but I saw my share of reruns of “The Patty Duke Show,” which debuted in 1963.
Earlier, she was the then-youngest actress ever to win an Oscar with her performance as Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” She had debuted in the Broadway production of the same with Anne Bancroft in 1959.
But Duke’s childhood was rough, as revealed in her memoir, “Call Me Anna,” where she talked about her parents, who had major issues, to say the least, and who also supplied Patty with alcohol and prescription medication when she was 13.
In “The Patty Duke Show,” she played both main characters, “Patty” Lane, all-American teenager, and “Cathy” Lane, her identical cousin from Scotland.
The show was known in part for cameos by the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Sal Mineo and the British pop duo Chad and Jeremy.
Duke would later become a fierce advocate for mental illness awareness, after her own diagnosis with bipolar disorder in 1982.
–Director of Shark Attacks Bob S. relayed a story from the Daily Mail, a tragic one; an 85-pound husky killed by an alligator on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The owners believe the dog was drinking water from the edge of a lagoon where it was known a gator lived.
So now the couple is pushing to have the gator removed.
Actually, the dog, which is normally on a leash, just wandered less than 100 yards from the family’s home where the gator is. I’m not sure I’d want to live that close to one. That’s a quick way to break up a family barbecue.
“I thought Bob was grilling the steaks?”
[This is the first line in my new straight-to-video thriller, “What happened to Bob?” Throw in some co-eds frolicking in the lagoon on spring break, three of whom disappear in succession, but neither the girls nor their dopey boyfriends can figure out why the gator they see sunning on the far bank seems to be getting incredibly fat.]
–Finally, we note the passing of UNC-Asheville mascot, Rocky the bulldog. As local native Johnny Mac tells me, Rocky was quite a fixture at the games, loved by all.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/30/68: #1 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” (Otis Redding…#1 four weeks…) #2 “Love Is Blue” (Paul Mauriat) #3 “Valleri” (The Monkees)…and…#4 “Simon Says” (1910 Fruitgum Co. …ughh…) #5 “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone” (Aretha Franklin) #6 “La-La-Means I Love You” (The Delfonics…awesome tune…) #7 “Young Girl” (The Union Gap featuring Gary Puckett) #8 “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” (Georgie Fame) #9 “Lady Madonna” (The Beatles) #10 “(Theme From) Valley of the Dolls” (Dionne Warwick…another great one…)
NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: 2004-05 All-America team.
1st team
Andrew Bogut (Utah)
Chris Paul (Wake Forest)
Dee Brown (Illinois)
Hakim Warrick (Syracuse)
J.J. Redick (Duke)
Wayne Simien (Kansas)
2nd team
Deron Williams (Illinois)
Ike Diogu (Arizona State)
Luther Head (Illinois)
Salim Stoudamire (Arizona)
Sean May (North Carolina)
Not exactly loaded with future stars.
*** Tuesday, the Associated Press released its 2015-16 All-America team.
Buddy Hield (Oklahoma) and Denzel Valentine (Michigan State) were unanimous selections, joined by Brice Johnson (North Carolina), Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia) and Tyler Ulis (Kentucky).
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
