Can anyone stop Arizona Wildcat Salim Stoudamire? That is the question being asked throughout the college basketball world today after the desert scorpion fatally stung Eddie Sutton’s Oklahoma State Cowboys last night in Chicago. The numbers may not be awe inspiring – 19 points and 7 assists on 7/11 shooting – but numbers alone don’t explain what Stoudamire meant to his team last night. Trailing by four with two minutes to go, Stoudamire nailed a crucial three to keep Arizona in the game and then with the game on the line, he nailed a game winning jumper with five seconds remaining. In both instances, there was never any doubt in my mind that those shots were going to find the bottom of the net. That is the way it has become with Stoudamire. He is locked in – much like Glen Rice was in 1989 and Dennis Scott was the following year. He is simply having one of those runs where everything he throws up finds its mark. This guy is simply fearless and that makes him particularly dangerous with the game on the line. Illinois will be favored in tomorrow’s Regional final, but I am not sure they want any part of Salim. The Illini has a solid backcourt of its own, but Coach Bruce Weber may not have an answer for Stoudamire. I am not sure anyone has an answer for Stoudamire right now.
Last night’s game between Arizona and Oklahoma State is already an instant classic and I am sure ESPN Classic would have it queued up if it had the re-broadcast rights. Last Saturday’s game pitting Wake Forest against West Virginia was a hell of a game, but for my money, last night’s game has been the most exciting of the tourney thus far. It was heavily hyped over the past week but it certainly didn’t disappoint. The key to the game was Oklahoma State’s inability to shut down Arizona from the field. The Wildcats ended up shooting 66 percent which is simply amazing considering it came against a team coached by Eddie Sutton. Had Ok State not been able to force some turnovers, the game wouldn’t have been close, but Sutton’s crew was able to get some cheapies and Joey Graham had a great game that helped the Cowboys keep it close. But each time it looked as if Ok State was finally ready to pull away, Arizona would counter with a stiff right. And in the last five minutes, Ok State just couldn’t get any stops as Arizona made five or their final six field goal attempts. Such marksmanship proved to be the key to the game.
The loss has to be devastating for Sutton. He took the core of this team to the 2004 final four and this squad looked like it was ready for a return trip. After all, six of Sutton’s top seven players were seniors and many, including myself, felt that this was the team that was going to get Sutton his first NCAA championship. Sutton, who is closing in on 70, now faces the job of rebuilding his team and time is getting short. Who knows if he will ever be able to get back to this spot with such a talented stable. On the bright side, Ok State’s loss means I will not have to see anymore shot of John Lucas looking like a crazed madman in the stands. Someone has to calm this guy down and tell him that psychotic dads belong in woman’s tennis and not men’s basketball. As for Lute Olsen, he now moves on to play Illinois on Saturday, looking for his sixth trip to the Final Four. He has a flawed team but he has a guy riding shotgun who is white hot right now and that could be enough to lift Arizona by Illinois. Saturday’s game could be another classic.
The Washington Huskies sure got dealt a bad hand last night. It was bad enough that they had to go up against a very lethal Louisville team, but it was another thing entirely to expect them to overcome an incredibly biased officiating crew. I know Washington lost by 14 so it’s hard to go crazy over the officiating, but that game would have had a much different outcome had the officials swallowed their whistles at least once or twice. Some early calls actually went against the Cardinals but the officials then attempted to rectify the situation by giving Louisville a huge windfall on its early investment. In about a four minute period, Washington got deluged by calls, including two cheapies that sent guard Nate Robinson to the bench for the balance of the first half. Other bad calls followed and at times, it seemed Washington players couldn’t wipe their ass without being called for hand checking. Just as the fouls were beginning to pile up, Louisville’s outside bombers began finding daylight and started making threes from just inside the Arizona state line. It was a bad combo for the huskies who saw a seven point lead turn into a ten point deficit in the blink of an eye. From that point on, the Huskies were never able to get back in the game. I am not saying Washington would have won the game had the officiating been a bit more even, but it sure would have helped them keep it tight.
So what do we have tonight? Well, the big game and really the only one that has much of my interest will pit Michigan State up against Duke CBS loves this game since it matches up two the game’s heavyweight coaches. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo has never beaten Coach K but tonight could see that streak come crashing down. I think Michigan State matches up well with Duke and I suspect they are going to give the Devils trouble. Spartan center Paul Davis has the size to matchup with Duke Center Sheldon Williams and Michigan State has guys on the perimeter that can play strong man-to-man defense. As such, J.J. Reddick may not find many open looks tonight, at least not from inside twenty-two feet. Hell, it he starts making bombs, Duke will win, but if he shoots as poorly as he did against Mississippi State, the Devils will have trouble moving on. I like the Spartans getting four in this one.
In the other early game, NC State will take on Wisconsin in a game that shouldn’t be televised at such an early time. This one is bound to be ugly and will surely scare kids under the age on eleven. Neither of these teams has ever run a fast break and both are content to pass the ball twelve times before taking a shot. This game will be so boring that it should be sponsored by Ambien, the nation’s leading sleep aid. With that said, I am taking Bo Ryan over Herb Sendek in this snoozer. As for the late games, it is impossible to pick against Carolina. They just have too many guns and Villanova can do little other then circle the wagons and hope Carolina kicks the game away. I don’t see that happening. And rounding out the night, we got Kentucky going up against Utah for the sixth time since 1993. I wish I could say Utah will break their winless streak against the Cats tonight, but I don’t think it is going to happen. Kentucky doesn’t have much, but they have enough D to give Utah fits, especially point guard Marc Jackson who handles the ball about as comfortably as Michael Jackson handles his responsibilities as an adult. The Utes have never been able to handle Kentucky’s athleticism and tonight will be no different. KU wins by eight.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
March 24 - Spare Me The Knight-Time Stories
Its been more then a decade since Bobby Knight won two games in a single NCAA tourney, but to hear the national media tell it, the old fox hasn’t missed a step. That is this week’s story from a bunch of lazy and tired pundits who are all too eager to rekindle the legend of Bobby Knight. Let’s be honest folks, Knight and his Red Raiders won two games last weekend over unexceptional teams. First, he beat a UCLA team with a center on loan from the March of Dimes and then he beats a Gonzaga team that wins a tourney game as a favorite about as often as Mt. Saint Helen’s explodes. Is this anything to get excited about? Did Knight somehow shock the world? I don’t think so but to hear Knight’s enablers tell it, Bob’s Red Raiders pulled off something truly amazing last weekend. According to this camp, Knight just took a bunch of cripples and molded them into a group of giant killers. If I didn't know any better, I would think an after-school television special was in development starring Gary Coleman as Texas Tech guard Ron Ross, Tim Meadows as Jarius Jackson, and Ken "White Shadow" Howard playing Coach Knight.
Kidding aside, Bobby Knight’s star is shining brighter right now than it has in a dozen years and this is just how CBS and the rest of the media want it. Come tourney time every year, the media has little to market other than big name coaches, and in this case, Knight fits the bill. Make no mistake about it, Knight has accomplished very little in this tourney so far, but he is a name and as such, CBS and company will do everything in their power to put him front and center. That is why you aren’t hearing too much this week about the past ten years of Knight's life. After all, this is a guy who couldn’t drag a decent player to Indiana once Calbert Cheney and Alan Henderson left Bloomington in 1993. From that point until his ouster, Knight ran a barebones program that was devoid of any urban talent. He coached his ass off during that time and it is probably to Knight's credit that he took a few of those teams to the tourney. But that doesn’t erase the fact that Knight just couldn’t get players to play for him. As a result, he got fired for cause and ended up in some godforsaken town in west Texas. And that begs the question of why we are celebrating this guy as if he is a god? HE HASNT DONE ANYTHING SINCE A DEMOCRAT WAS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE! (Either has Joe Gibbs, but at least he has some Winston Cup victories under his belt since his last Super Bowl.) Despite this drought, the story on Knight is he is now a magician for taking a decrepit program to another level. Easy folks, you may hurt yourself dishing out all this bullshit. True, Texas Tech is a backwater program, but it has been to this point before. In fact, Texas Tech has been to this same spot more recently than Knight. If you don't believe me - look it up!
I am not here to bash Knight. I think he is an entertaining and intelligent guy who can certainly coach the game of basketball. But I could do without all the warm and fuzzy Knight stories. I could do without ESPN's Mike Greenburg telling me what a wonderful story it would be if Knight could get back to the Final Four. I can do without Knight being given an unchallenged platform to revise history and defend his performance over the past dozen years. And most importantly, I can do without Knight telling me what a great job he has done with this group of over-achievers. Such talk is nothing more than Knight masturbating his own ego. Knight is a Hall of Famer – there is no question about it. But let’s leave it at that. This isn’t a “great” story. In fact, it’s not even a story at all. The guy has won two games. That is it! Now he has a good shot at making it three in a row tonight against WVU, and at that point, I will concede that something is afoot. But until that time, lets tone it down a bit.
While Knight is getting a ton of adoration for turning around a dormant program, his adversary in tonight’s regional semifinal is getting almost none. Of course I am talking about West Virginia’s John Beilein who took over the Mountaineers following their dismal 2002 campaign. Lest you forget, West Virginia basketball was teetering on the brink of extinction three years ago. They had finished 1-15 in the Big East in 2002 and there was no hope in sight. In fact, it got so bad that West Virginian Bobby Huggins took a pass at the opportunity to take the helm after he visited Morgantown and saw the mess under the hood. Since no high-profile coaches would take the job, WVU turned to Beilein who was coaching just over the ridge at Richmond. Beilein came in to find the program as stripped as a 19th century Appalachian mine. He was left with nothing, but even without any talent, he managed to get his guys to play hard. In his first year at WVU, Beilein somehow managed to squeak out five conference wins and last year he won a deuce in the NIT. This year, his team came out of nowhere to make the NCAAs and last week, they pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating Wake Forest. This guy has truly accomplished a miracle at a place that was about as moribund as it gets. The media can laugh about a place like Lubbock all it wants, but Morgantown is no prize. This is of no concern to Beilein who has his team playing very good basketball right now. I am picking him to win tonight and give either Washington or Louisville a tough time on Saturday afternoon. If this guy can somehow make it to St. Louis, it will be a story worth printing.
The most absurd comment I heard this morning comes to us courtesy of ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla who was on the radio previewing tonight’s games. When asked about the Illinois game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fran mentioned that he thought WM could hang tough especially since they had already played well against Big-10 teams this year His evidence was a WM win over Purdue, and based on this, Fran claimed he thought WM would have finished somewhere in the middle of the Big-10. This may be the case, but a win over Purdue is not a relevant piece of evidence and I would have declared it inadmissable. Purdue was simply atrocious this year and Fran should not have used this game as a barometer of anything. If anything, Fran should have pointed to the fact that WM lost to in-state rival Wisconsin by 29. I do not see WM giving Illinois too much trouble tonight. They will try to press Illinois, but the Illini’s great backcourt should be able to dice ‘em up. I don't see Deron Williams or Dee Brown strugglig agaisnt pressure and its possible that early success will force WM coach Bruce Pearl to back off. WM has made a lot of threes in their two wins so far and if they keep hitting long-balls, they could keep it close, but I don’t see Illinois losing this game.
Regardless of who wins, I am tired of hearing any more stories aboout how Illinois fans are pissed off at what WM coach Bruce Pearl did to Illinois when he was an assistant at Iowa. For those in need of a history lesson, Pearl turned Illinois in during the late 80's for illegally recruiting a Chicago phenom named Deon Thomas. Pearl is referred to as a "rat" down in Champaigne and the nickname is probably well deserved. But I don't want to hear how tonight's game is payback. That incident happened a long time ago and well before any "twenty somethings" were fans of the Illini. What Pearl did was wrong, but it is not as if Illinois didn't cheat. Lou Henson's staff improperly recruited Thomas and they got busted - end of story.
The other two games tonight will be delicious, and in particular, I am really looking forward to the Louisville-Washington matchup. I know I picked Louisville to go to the Final Four, but I am switching picks for tonight’s game. I really like this Washington team. They have a ton of interchangeable guys and they can be real hard to stop when they attack the offensive glass. This is particularly true with their guards who are relentless. This can lead to some easy transition baskets for their opponents, but it can also cause havoc, especially for those who have trouble cleaning their own glass. I like Louisville plenty, but I think Washington gets this done in a game played in the 80s. As for Ok State and Arizona, I am staying with the Cowboys, but this is a close call. The Cowboys were very mediocre last week and star forward Joey Graham has been awful of late. They need him tonight or it will be good night for the team I picked to win it all. Although concerned, I still think the cowboys have enough to move on although I do like Lute Olsen in these kinds of situations. Olsen is a lot like Jim Boeheim in this regard – they both are real dangerous as the underdog.
Kidding aside, Bobby Knight’s star is shining brighter right now than it has in a dozen years and this is just how CBS and the rest of the media want it. Come tourney time every year, the media has little to market other than big name coaches, and in this case, Knight fits the bill. Make no mistake about it, Knight has accomplished very little in this tourney so far, but he is a name and as such, CBS and company will do everything in their power to put him front and center. That is why you aren’t hearing too much this week about the past ten years of Knight's life. After all, this is a guy who couldn’t drag a decent player to Indiana once Calbert Cheney and Alan Henderson left Bloomington in 1993. From that point until his ouster, Knight ran a barebones program that was devoid of any urban talent. He coached his ass off during that time and it is probably to Knight's credit that he took a few of those teams to the tourney. But that doesn’t erase the fact that Knight just couldn’t get players to play for him. As a result, he got fired for cause and ended up in some godforsaken town in west Texas. And that begs the question of why we are celebrating this guy as if he is a god? HE HASNT DONE ANYTHING SINCE A DEMOCRAT WAS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE! (Either has Joe Gibbs, but at least he has some Winston Cup victories under his belt since his last Super Bowl.) Despite this drought, the story on Knight is he is now a magician for taking a decrepit program to another level. Easy folks, you may hurt yourself dishing out all this bullshit. True, Texas Tech is a backwater program, but it has been to this point before. In fact, Texas Tech has been to this same spot more recently than Knight. If you don't believe me - look it up!
I am not here to bash Knight. I think he is an entertaining and intelligent guy who can certainly coach the game of basketball. But I could do without all the warm and fuzzy Knight stories. I could do without ESPN's Mike Greenburg telling me what a wonderful story it would be if Knight could get back to the Final Four. I can do without Knight being given an unchallenged platform to revise history and defend his performance over the past dozen years. And most importantly, I can do without Knight telling me what a great job he has done with this group of over-achievers. Such talk is nothing more than Knight masturbating his own ego. Knight is a Hall of Famer – there is no question about it. But let’s leave it at that. This isn’t a “great” story. In fact, it’s not even a story at all. The guy has won two games. That is it! Now he has a good shot at making it three in a row tonight against WVU, and at that point, I will concede that something is afoot. But until that time, lets tone it down a bit.
While Knight is getting a ton of adoration for turning around a dormant program, his adversary in tonight’s regional semifinal is getting almost none. Of course I am talking about West Virginia’s John Beilein who took over the Mountaineers following their dismal 2002 campaign. Lest you forget, West Virginia basketball was teetering on the brink of extinction three years ago. They had finished 1-15 in the Big East in 2002 and there was no hope in sight. In fact, it got so bad that West Virginian Bobby Huggins took a pass at the opportunity to take the helm after he visited Morgantown and saw the mess under the hood. Since no high-profile coaches would take the job, WVU turned to Beilein who was coaching just over the ridge at Richmond. Beilein came in to find the program as stripped as a 19th century Appalachian mine. He was left with nothing, but even without any talent, he managed to get his guys to play hard. In his first year at WVU, Beilein somehow managed to squeak out five conference wins and last year he won a deuce in the NIT. This year, his team came out of nowhere to make the NCAAs and last week, they pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating Wake Forest. This guy has truly accomplished a miracle at a place that was about as moribund as it gets. The media can laugh about a place like Lubbock all it wants, but Morgantown is no prize. This is of no concern to Beilein who has his team playing very good basketball right now. I am picking him to win tonight and give either Washington or Louisville a tough time on Saturday afternoon. If this guy can somehow make it to St. Louis, it will be a story worth printing.
The most absurd comment I heard this morning comes to us courtesy of ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla who was on the radio previewing tonight’s games. When asked about the Illinois game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fran mentioned that he thought WM could hang tough especially since they had already played well against Big-10 teams this year His evidence was a WM win over Purdue, and based on this, Fran claimed he thought WM would have finished somewhere in the middle of the Big-10. This may be the case, but a win over Purdue is not a relevant piece of evidence and I would have declared it inadmissable. Purdue was simply atrocious this year and Fran should not have used this game as a barometer of anything. If anything, Fran should have pointed to the fact that WM lost to in-state rival Wisconsin by 29. I do not see WM giving Illinois too much trouble tonight. They will try to press Illinois, but the Illini’s great backcourt should be able to dice ‘em up. I don't see Deron Williams or Dee Brown strugglig agaisnt pressure and its possible that early success will force WM coach Bruce Pearl to back off. WM has made a lot of threes in their two wins so far and if they keep hitting long-balls, they could keep it close, but I don’t see Illinois losing this game.
Regardless of who wins, I am tired of hearing any more stories aboout how Illinois fans are pissed off at what WM coach Bruce Pearl did to Illinois when he was an assistant at Iowa. For those in need of a history lesson, Pearl turned Illinois in during the late 80's for illegally recruiting a Chicago phenom named Deon Thomas. Pearl is referred to as a "rat" down in Champaigne and the nickname is probably well deserved. But I don't want to hear how tonight's game is payback. That incident happened a long time ago and well before any "twenty somethings" were fans of the Illini. What Pearl did was wrong, but it is not as if Illinois didn't cheat. Lou Henson's staff improperly recruited Thomas and they got busted - end of story.
The other two games tonight will be delicious, and in particular, I am really looking forward to the Louisville-Washington matchup. I know I picked Louisville to go to the Final Four, but I am switching picks for tonight’s game. I really like this Washington team. They have a ton of interchangeable guys and they can be real hard to stop when they attack the offensive glass. This is particularly true with their guards who are relentless. This can lead to some easy transition baskets for their opponents, but it can also cause havoc, especially for those who have trouble cleaning their own glass. I like Louisville plenty, but I think Washington gets this done in a game played in the 80s. As for Ok State and Arizona, I am staying with the Cowboys, but this is a close call. The Cowboys were very mediocre last week and star forward Joey Graham has been awful of late. They need him tonight or it will be good night for the team I picked to win it all. Although concerned, I still think the cowboys have enough to move on although I do like Lute Olsen in these kinds of situations. Olsen is a lot like Jim Boeheim in this regard – they both are real dangerous as the underdog.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
March 23 - Bonds Breaks Down
Has any public figure in recent memory had a worse couple of weeks than Barry Bonds? I have searched my memory banks but nothing is coming up. And it is not for lack of candidates. It is just that Barry has set the bar so high that no one else can compare. This is a guy who in just a few short weeks has been formally and informally charged with narcotics violations, perjury, obstruction of justice, adultery, tax evasion, and surliness. His former trainer appears poised to testify against him and his former girlfriend is telling all who will listen that Bonds is an adulteress snake. On top of that, he underwent knee surgery and had to watch on television as some of his steroid-abusing peers were brutally embarrassed by a panel of inquisitive legislators. All in all, it has not been the best of times for number 25.
After taking a flurry of body blows, Bonds finally cracked yesterday when he revealed to the world that he is “tired” of being picked apart and harassed. It was a touching moment that was hard to hear with the violins playing in the background. Bonds didn’t mention any recent events in specificity, but it was clear that the deluge of negative news in recent days had taken its toll, Looking frustrated and despondent, Bonds tried yesterday to recast himself as a sympathetic victim and the press as the vicious blood-thirsty villain. The irony here is almost too much to consider since Bonds has bullied the media for years. But to hear him say it yesterday, the media now has him up against the fence and is demanding he fork over his milk money. Make no mistake about it - yesterday’s scorn was directed at the San Francisco Chronicle and the media in general who Bonds claims “wanted me to jump off the bridge. I finally jumped. You wanted to bring me down. You finally have brought me and my family down. You’ve finally done it, everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. I’m done.” Sorry Barry, you haven’t jumped, the media didn’t bring you down, and you are not done by a long shot.
Barry has created problems that cannot be summarily waived by his own decree. Instead, he has problems that will fester for months on end. Bonds may think he can wave his magic 34 ounce wand and be done, but that is not his call. He can’t call off the media hounds. He can’t prevent his old friend and trainer from becoming a government witness. And he cannot block an old girlfriend from turning over damaging testimony and documentation to federal authorities. Basically, he is at the proverbial plate with no stick. He has got to understand he is playing a game that is much bigger than baseball. He may want all this to end but only the Justice Department can make that call. Welcome to the real world Barry.
There is no doubt that Barry has backed himself into a corner and he has reached his boiling point. He is injured, embarrassed, scared and fed up with the world. And that begs the question - will he retire? I think that if he can play, he will return. That is a big if considering his age and health, but I am fairly certain he will make an effort to at least pass Babe Ruth on the home run chart. He has big race-related issues with Ruth and I feel he will do what is necessary to hit a 715th home run. But who knows after that. If I had to bet, I would say number 44 is safe at 755. Nonetheless, it is pretty clear from yesterday’s performance that Bonds is no longer having any fun as a baseball player or a public figure. And at some point fairly soon, perhaps by the end of this year, I think he may call it quits. A prosecutor and a jury of his peers may make the choice for him.
After taking a flurry of body blows, Bonds finally cracked yesterday when he revealed to the world that he is “tired” of being picked apart and harassed. It was a touching moment that was hard to hear with the violins playing in the background. Bonds didn’t mention any recent events in specificity, but it was clear that the deluge of negative news in recent days had taken its toll, Looking frustrated and despondent, Bonds tried yesterday to recast himself as a sympathetic victim and the press as the vicious blood-thirsty villain. The irony here is almost too much to consider since Bonds has bullied the media for years. But to hear him say it yesterday, the media now has him up against the fence and is demanding he fork over his milk money. Make no mistake about it - yesterday’s scorn was directed at the San Francisco Chronicle and the media in general who Bonds claims “wanted me to jump off the bridge. I finally jumped. You wanted to bring me down. You finally have brought me and my family down. You’ve finally done it, everybody, all of you. So now go pick a different person. I’m done.” Sorry Barry, you haven’t jumped, the media didn’t bring you down, and you are not done by a long shot.
Barry has created problems that cannot be summarily waived by his own decree. Instead, he has problems that will fester for months on end. Bonds may think he can wave his magic 34 ounce wand and be done, but that is not his call. He can’t call off the media hounds. He can’t prevent his old friend and trainer from becoming a government witness. And he cannot block an old girlfriend from turning over damaging testimony and documentation to federal authorities. Basically, he is at the proverbial plate with no stick. He has got to understand he is playing a game that is much bigger than baseball. He may want all this to end but only the Justice Department can make that call. Welcome to the real world Barry.
There is no doubt that Barry has backed himself into a corner and he has reached his boiling point. He is injured, embarrassed, scared and fed up with the world. And that begs the question - will he retire? I think that if he can play, he will return. That is a big if considering his age and health, but I am fairly certain he will make an effort to at least pass Babe Ruth on the home run chart. He has big race-related issues with Ruth and I feel he will do what is necessary to hit a 715th home run. But who knows after that. If I had to bet, I would say number 44 is safe at 755. Nonetheless, it is pretty clear from yesterday’s performance that Bonds is no longer having any fun as a baseball player or a public figure. And at some point fairly soon, perhaps by the end of this year, I think he may call it quits. A prosecutor and a jury of his peers may make the choice for him.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
March 22 - Gammons' Gas
Well, Opening Day is fast approaching and that means only one thing – a flurry of pieces from the pen of Peter Gammons predicting greatness for every team in baseball other than Tampa and Kansas City. Is there a more optimistic reporter than ESPN’s Peter Gammons? Or put another way – is there another print or on-air analyst who provides less critical analysis than Mr. Gammons? Let’s take a look at some recent evidence.
I will start by saying I have never been a fan of Gasman. I have always felt he is a tool of his sources and I have long suspected that the only people who talk to the King of Fluff are agents who want to see their agendas show up in print or on Baseball Tonight. Moreover, Gammons simply refuses to ever criticize anything that happens on the baseball field. You will never hear him say something akin to “Jeff Suppan is nothing more than a journeyman,” or “Bernie Williams is shot.” And you can just forget about a shot at a general manager. I honestly believe Peter would resign his commission at ESPN before he publicly ripped one of his buddies in that club. He just refuses to bite the hand feeds him. That makes him lazy and, in my mind, nothing more than a propagandist.
Gammons weaknesses are always showcased at this of the time of year since this is when he starts going out with his season previews. Over the past ten days, some of these team previews have begun leaking out and they all basically mirror each other. All are wildly optimistic and to hear Peter tell it, there are at least 24 teams competing for playoffs spots this year. Two recent Gasman gems involve previews of the Cubs and Giants. As far as the Cubs go, Gammons piece basically just regurgitates Chicago’s roster and sums up that the Cubs could be dangerous if their pitching stays healthy. Really? That is quite a piece of analysis. That is a bit like saying the Germans may have gone deeper into Russia had they had some more fuel and armor. Aside from that, the piece has enough sugar to keep a diabetic in business for a year. Gammons, at one point in his story, had the audacity to say Derrick Lee is a “star” and Nomar is playing like he did in 1999. You have got to be kidding me. Did Nomar’s agent Arn Tellem pay him to write that? And while Derrick Lee is a nice player, he is not a “star” under even the most liberal definition of the word. He then went on to mention that pitcher Ryan Dempster is “throwing extremely well” even though Dempster couldn't get anyone out the other night. That happened after the date of publication so Pete has an excuse, but I will bet you Gammons had absolutely nothing to base his Dempster comment on other then what he was being told by Cubs management. That is a no-no in journalism and a Hall of Famer like Peter should now that. In sum, the piece basically serves as a platform for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to sound off about his team. There is no mention that the Cubs have one of the worst outfields in the NL or the fact that the lineup is loaded with strikeouts. Gammons, as usual, refuses to focus on such trivial points.
That takes us to Gammons recent piece on the Giants. The gist of this piece is that the Giants have added a ton of depth and that should hold them over in the event that Barry Bonds is out for a significant period of the season with a knee injury. Gammons mentions in his piece that the Giants have some issues, such as age and questionable pitching, but he explains these issues away by quoting Giants who say the issues are moot. Gammons goes on to print these claims without spending a moment considering the source or the validity of the statement. Of course manager Felipe Alou thinks his staff will be better than others think. Pete – what the hell else is he going to say? Your job is to second guess such comments when they clearly straddle the line. How about something akin to – “Alou thinks Brett Tomko and Noah Lowry will be solid all season, but that seems like a stretch given the track records of these two.” And what about just assuming Jason Schmidt will return to form this year. Schmidt was awful at the end of last year, but Gammons ignores this point altogether. Gammons concludes by saying that if this goes right, if that goes right and if Bonds can come back, the Giants are in great shape. I would like Peter to just once take the opposite approach and say something like “this flawed club has a lot of question marks going into Spring Training.” Dare to dream!
Mike Francesa sank to a new low yesterday afternoon on the WFAN radio show that he hosts with “Puppy Chow” Russo. Francesa has never, and I repeat never, been hard on his friends in the coaching ranks, and it continued yesterday with his gentle handling of Jim Calhoun following Connecticut’s early exit from the NCAA tourney. Calhoun doesn’t rank as high as Bill Parcells on Francesa’s list of close friends, but he is a close pal. Anyways, when yesterday’s discussion turned to UCONN’s 65-62 loss to lowly North Carolina State on Sunday, Francesa pulled out the soft velvet gloves that are reserved for handling very fragile objects. He began by reluctantly conceding it was a bad loss for UCONN, and this half-baked concession had to be forcibly extracted by his angry sidekick. But he refused to go any further and he had a laundry list of excuses at the ready for why this loss hardly dings Calhoun’s impressive resume. Francesa’s basic point was that every team has to reload and this year it was UCONN’s turn. Later, he started pulling out some injury excuses and pointing to the inexperience of UCONN’s backcourt as factors why UCONN rolled craps on its second roll. He then scolded Husky fans who dared to show any frustration over the loss, citing them as crybabies who have come to expect too much from Calhoun. Hey, I am not here to bash Calhoun. I think he has done a wonderful job in Storrs, but this is not his first bad loss or bad team. Francesa knows that but you couldn’t have detected it from yesterday’s show, which ultimately segued into a rant on Dean Smith’s tourney gaffs. Listen Mike, your good friend is not god. He is a damn good coach, but his resume has plenty of question marks.
If you want the truth – I’ll give you the truth. In 1997, UCONN missed the tourney entirely. That doesn’t happen to great coaches. Coach K hasn’t missed a tourney since he hurt his back in 1995 (one absence since 1983) and Dean Smith didn’t miss a tourney from 1976 until his retirement in 1997. But Calhoun didn’t do it just once. He repeated the feat in 2001, making it two debacles in a single decade. There are a bunch of guys – Gary Williams, Roy Williams, Mike Montgomery, Tom Izzo, Coach K, Tubby Smith – that haven’t swum in that pool of late. You want some more? How bout that loss to UCLA in the 1995 Regional Finals? Okay, UCONN wasn’t favored, but expectations were high in Storrs that year. The Huskies got blown out of that game despite the fact that the final score credited them with only a six point loss. And what about the Donyell Marshall team that lost to Florida in 1994, the Ray Allen team that lost to Mississippi State in 1996, or the act of god that guided an out-coached UCONN to a win over Washington in 1998? Those are the same type of games that Francesa and the Pup use to POUND other coaches. Hey, Calhoun has two rings and two Final Four victories over Krzyzewski. For that alone he has earned my respect. He is a very good coach and perhaps a great one, but a bad loss is a bad loss and friendship shouldn’t get in the way of calling it like it is. In the future Mike, when buddies come up, recuse yourself from the conversation because your friendship is getting in the way of your objectivity. If you are going to kill the rest of the world for these types of losses, your friends should get the same treatment.
Staying with UCONN, it was reported this morning that Husky forward Charlie Villanueva intends to leave school for the NBA. Good Riddance. This is a classic case of addition by subtraction. Villanueva had skills, but there was no telling when he was going to show up and play. He had a number of big games this year, but his two point game against UNC sticks with me as evidence of his inconsistency. I do not closely follow UCONN hoops, but it never struck me that Charlie fit in at Storrs. He had a very uncomfortable freshman year and while his second year was an improvement, he seemed like an outsider on this year's club. I don’t see his absence hurting this team so long as Josh Boone returns. If Boone returns, UCONN will probably have the country’s top front line next year (assuming Sean May and/or Marvin Williams leave UNC) and I suspect that the Huskies will probably be a top-5 pre-season team. If he leaves, which is a definite possibility, the Huskies will find themselves a bit thin up front unless incoming frosh - Andrew Bynum and Jeff Adrien – can provide immediate help.
The Villanova Wildcats suffered a huge blow yesterday when they found out that forward Curtis Sumpter will miss the rest of the season, which could conclude Friday night against North Carolina. The 6’7 Brooklynite has been a mainstay for Villanova all year and his absence robs the Cats of their best inside player and their best free throw shooter. Without him, Jason Fraser will have to log big minutes against Carolina’s Sean May and Marvin Williams. That is not a good matchup for Villanova, but they still have a dangerous backcourt that may be able to keep this game close. Meanwhile, Carolina just keeps getting the breaks. First, potential foes UCONN and Kansas lost this past weekend weakening the Syracuse region and now Villanova looses this key player. It seems fate is trying to make things just about as easy as possible for Roy Williams to get back to the Final Four. Even Roy should be able to knock this softball out of the park. But before anyone just hands UNC this Friday’s game, remember that this is the 20th anniversary of Villanova’s 1985 NCAA Championship. That run culminated in 66-64 shocker over Georgetown, but as I mentioned yesterday, it also included a 56-44 win over UNC in the Southeast Regional Final. The Heels led that game 22-17 at half, but Nova shut down UNC in the second half and walked away with an easy win down in Birmingham. From there, Nova went on to Lexington and took out Memphis State in the national semi-finals and Georgetown in the finals.
The clouds over the Southside of Chicago lifted a bit this morning when it was reported that White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle’s foot injury was not as bad as first thought and may only cost the left-hander a single spring training start. But those clouds seemed to have moved north and have now enveloped Wrigley Field. Why do I say this? Well, just as it seemed like concerns over Kerry Wood’s arm were easing; the Cubs found out today that they have probably lost closer Joe Borowski for a month with a broken hand. This is a big blow for the Cubs who already had concerns over Mark Prior and their shaky bullpen. Last year, with Borowski largely sidelined, the Cubs had among the three worst bullpens in the National League. LaTroy Hawkins proved highly unreliable and late inning collapses went a long way towards explaining why the Cubs lost out to the Astros in the race for the NL wildcard. General Manager Jim Hendry has been banking on Borowski to solidify the Cubs bullpen, but these plans have been laid to waste – at least until May 1st. With Mark Prior a question mark, Wood nursing a sore arm, and Borowski hurt, the Cubs are undeniably having the worst Spring Training in the major leagues. Not even ESPN’s Peter Gammons could sugar coat this one.
The NFL draft is fast approaching and one story worth watching is whether California football coach Jeff Tedford has lost some of his luster with NFL personnel directors. One of Tedford’s players, quarterback Arron Rodgers, is expected to be selected near the top of the first round, but some are beginning to wonder whether Rodgers may slip because teams are concerned by the recent track records of other Tedford protégés. Is such concern well founded? Well, based on a quick survey of the literature, it seems Tedford’s star has begun falling and caution may be warranted. In case you don’t know his resume, Tedford has been associated with turning out a number of high-profile quarterbacks. During coaching stints at Fresno State, Oregon and California over the past decade, Tedford has coached the likes of David Carr, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller and Arron Rodgers. In years past, many commentators have lauded Tedford as a fine mentor of quarterbacks, but I am not so sure this reputation is deserved given the recent track records of these signal callers. Carr has shown flashes of brilliance and he probably has a future in the NFL, but Smith was a total bust and is now fighting for a spot in NFL Europe. Boller has shown very little other than an erratic arm in his two years in Baltimore and Harrington was rumored to be on the chopping block in Detroit this off-season. This is hardly murderers’ row. In fact, it is a pretty weak stable in my estimation. So is Rodgers going to be another Tedford bust or is he the real deal? From what I have read on a recent scouting workout, Rodgers is reportedly the real deal and deserves to be selected in the top few picks, So that begs the question of whether Tedford’s recent legacy will scare teams off? After all, nobody wants another Akili on their hands since that is the kind of mistake that gets people fired. I am not a draft guru, but I suspect that if Rodgers falls, he will fall to no lower than the eight spot where Arizona currently is slotted. Should this happen, I think more than a few “experts” will comment that Tedford’s shine has dulled.
I will start by saying I have never been a fan of Gasman. I have always felt he is a tool of his sources and I have long suspected that the only people who talk to the King of Fluff are agents who want to see their agendas show up in print or on Baseball Tonight. Moreover, Gammons simply refuses to ever criticize anything that happens on the baseball field. You will never hear him say something akin to “Jeff Suppan is nothing more than a journeyman,” or “Bernie Williams is shot.” And you can just forget about a shot at a general manager. I honestly believe Peter would resign his commission at ESPN before he publicly ripped one of his buddies in that club. He just refuses to bite the hand feeds him. That makes him lazy and, in my mind, nothing more than a propagandist.
Gammons weaknesses are always showcased at this of the time of year since this is when he starts going out with his season previews. Over the past ten days, some of these team previews have begun leaking out and they all basically mirror each other. All are wildly optimistic and to hear Peter tell it, there are at least 24 teams competing for playoffs spots this year. Two recent Gasman gems involve previews of the Cubs and Giants. As far as the Cubs go, Gammons piece basically just regurgitates Chicago’s roster and sums up that the Cubs could be dangerous if their pitching stays healthy. Really? That is quite a piece of analysis. That is a bit like saying the Germans may have gone deeper into Russia had they had some more fuel and armor. Aside from that, the piece has enough sugar to keep a diabetic in business for a year. Gammons, at one point in his story, had the audacity to say Derrick Lee is a “star” and Nomar is playing like he did in 1999. You have got to be kidding me. Did Nomar’s agent Arn Tellem pay him to write that? And while Derrick Lee is a nice player, he is not a “star” under even the most liberal definition of the word. He then went on to mention that pitcher Ryan Dempster is “throwing extremely well” even though Dempster couldn't get anyone out the other night. That happened after the date of publication so Pete has an excuse, but I will bet you Gammons had absolutely nothing to base his Dempster comment on other then what he was being told by Cubs management. That is a no-no in journalism and a Hall of Famer like Peter should now that. In sum, the piece basically serves as a platform for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to sound off about his team. There is no mention that the Cubs have one of the worst outfields in the NL or the fact that the lineup is loaded with strikeouts. Gammons, as usual, refuses to focus on such trivial points.
That takes us to Gammons recent piece on the Giants. The gist of this piece is that the Giants have added a ton of depth and that should hold them over in the event that Barry Bonds is out for a significant period of the season with a knee injury. Gammons mentions in his piece that the Giants have some issues, such as age and questionable pitching, but he explains these issues away by quoting Giants who say the issues are moot. Gammons goes on to print these claims without spending a moment considering the source or the validity of the statement. Of course manager Felipe Alou thinks his staff will be better than others think. Pete – what the hell else is he going to say? Your job is to second guess such comments when they clearly straddle the line. How about something akin to – “Alou thinks Brett Tomko and Noah Lowry will be solid all season, but that seems like a stretch given the track records of these two.” And what about just assuming Jason Schmidt will return to form this year. Schmidt was awful at the end of last year, but Gammons ignores this point altogether. Gammons concludes by saying that if this goes right, if that goes right and if Bonds can come back, the Giants are in great shape. I would like Peter to just once take the opposite approach and say something like “this flawed club has a lot of question marks going into Spring Training.” Dare to dream!
Mike Francesa sank to a new low yesterday afternoon on the WFAN radio show that he hosts with “Puppy Chow” Russo. Francesa has never, and I repeat never, been hard on his friends in the coaching ranks, and it continued yesterday with his gentle handling of Jim Calhoun following Connecticut’s early exit from the NCAA tourney. Calhoun doesn’t rank as high as Bill Parcells on Francesa’s list of close friends, but he is a close pal. Anyways, when yesterday’s discussion turned to UCONN’s 65-62 loss to lowly North Carolina State on Sunday, Francesa pulled out the soft velvet gloves that are reserved for handling very fragile objects. He began by reluctantly conceding it was a bad loss for UCONN, and this half-baked concession had to be forcibly extracted by his angry sidekick. But he refused to go any further and he had a laundry list of excuses at the ready for why this loss hardly dings Calhoun’s impressive resume. Francesa’s basic point was that every team has to reload and this year it was UCONN’s turn. Later, he started pulling out some injury excuses and pointing to the inexperience of UCONN’s backcourt as factors why UCONN rolled craps on its second roll. He then scolded Husky fans who dared to show any frustration over the loss, citing them as crybabies who have come to expect too much from Calhoun. Hey, I am not here to bash Calhoun. I think he has done a wonderful job in Storrs, but this is not his first bad loss or bad team. Francesa knows that but you couldn’t have detected it from yesterday’s show, which ultimately segued into a rant on Dean Smith’s tourney gaffs. Listen Mike, your good friend is not god. He is a damn good coach, but his resume has plenty of question marks.
If you want the truth – I’ll give you the truth. In 1997, UCONN missed the tourney entirely. That doesn’t happen to great coaches. Coach K hasn’t missed a tourney since he hurt his back in 1995 (one absence since 1983) and Dean Smith didn’t miss a tourney from 1976 until his retirement in 1997. But Calhoun didn’t do it just once. He repeated the feat in 2001, making it two debacles in a single decade. There are a bunch of guys – Gary Williams, Roy Williams, Mike Montgomery, Tom Izzo, Coach K, Tubby Smith – that haven’t swum in that pool of late. You want some more? How bout that loss to UCLA in the 1995 Regional Finals? Okay, UCONN wasn’t favored, but expectations were high in Storrs that year. The Huskies got blown out of that game despite the fact that the final score credited them with only a six point loss. And what about the Donyell Marshall team that lost to Florida in 1994, the Ray Allen team that lost to Mississippi State in 1996, or the act of god that guided an out-coached UCONN to a win over Washington in 1998? Those are the same type of games that Francesa and the Pup use to POUND other coaches. Hey, Calhoun has two rings and two Final Four victories over Krzyzewski. For that alone he has earned my respect. He is a very good coach and perhaps a great one, but a bad loss is a bad loss and friendship shouldn’t get in the way of calling it like it is. In the future Mike, when buddies come up, recuse yourself from the conversation because your friendship is getting in the way of your objectivity. If you are going to kill the rest of the world for these types of losses, your friends should get the same treatment.
Staying with UCONN, it was reported this morning that Husky forward Charlie Villanueva intends to leave school for the NBA. Good Riddance. This is a classic case of addition by subtraction. Villanueva had skills, but there was no telling when he was going to show up and play. He had a number of big games this year, but his two point game against UNC sticks with me as evidence of his inconsistency. I do not closely follow UCONN hoops, but it never struck me that Charlie fit in at Storrs. He had a very uncomfortable freshman year and while his second year was an improvement, he seemed like an outsider on this year's club. I don’t see his absence hurting this team so long as Josh Boone returns. If Boone returns, UCONN will probably have the country’s top front line next year (assuming Sean May and/or Marvin Williams leave UNC) and I suspect that the Huskies will probably be a top-5 pre-season team. If he leaves, which is a definite possibility, the Huskies will find themselves a bit thin up front unless incoming frosh - Andrew Bynum and Jeff Adrien – can provide immediate help.
The Villanova Wildcats suffered a huge blow yesterday when they found out that forward Curtis Sumpter will miss the rest of the season, which could conclude Friday night against North Carolina. The 6’7 Brooklynite has been a mainstay for Villanova all year and his absence robs the Cats of their best inside player and their best free throw shooter. Without him, Jason Fraser will have to log big minutes against Carolina’s Sean May and Marvin Williams. That is not a good matchup for Villanova, but they still have a dangerous backcourt that may be able to keep this game close. Meanwhile, Carolina just keeps getting the breaks. First, potential foes UCONN and Kansas lost this past weekend weakening the Syracuse region and now Villanova looses this key player. It seems fate is trying to make things just about as easy as possible for Roy Williams to get back to the Final Four. Even Roy should be able to knock this softball out of the park. But before anyone just hands UNC this Friday’s game, remember that this is the 20th anniversary of Villanova’s 1985 NCAA Championship. That run culminated in 66-64 shocker over Georgetown, but as I mentioned yesterday, it also included a 56-44 win over UNC in the Southeast Regional Final. The Heels led that game 22-17 at half, but Nova shut down UNC in the second half and walked away with an easy win down in Birmingham. From there, Nova went on to Lexington and took out Memphis State in the national semi-finals and Georgetown in the finals.
The clouds over the Southside of Chicago lifted a bit this morning when it was reported that White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle’s foot injury was not as bad as first thought and may only cost the left-hander a single spring training start. But those clouds seemed to have moved north and have now enveloped Wrigley Field. Why do I say this? Well, just as it seemed like concerns over Kerry Wood’s arm were easing; the Cubs found out today that they have probably lost closer Joe Borowski for a month with a broken hand. This is a big blow for the Cubs who already had concerns over Mark Prior and their shaky bullpen. Last year, with Borowski largely sidelined, the Cubs had among the three worst bullpens in the National League. LaTroy Hawkins proved highly unreliable and late inning collapses went a long way towards explaining why the Cubs lost out to the Astros in the race for the NL wildcard. General Manager Jim Hendry has been banking on Borowski to solidify the Cubs bullpen, but these plans have been laid to waste – at least until May 1st. With Mark Prior a question mark, Wood nursing a sore arm, and Borowski hurt, the Cubs are undeniably having the worst Spring Training in the major leagues. Not even ESPN’s Peter Gammons could sugar coat this one.
The NFL draft is fast approaching and one story worth watching is whether California football coach Jeff Tedford has lost some of his luster with NFL personnel directors. One of Tedford’s players, quarterback Arron Rodgers, is expected to be selected near the top of the first round, but some are beginning to wonder whether Rodgers may slip because teams are concerned by the recent track records of other Tedford protégés. Is such concern well founded? Well, based on a quick survey of the literature, it seems Tedford’s star has begun falling and caution may be warranted. In case you don’t know his resume, Tedford has been associated with turning out a number of high-profile quarterbacks. During coaching stints at Fresno State, Oregon and California over the past decade, Tedford has coached the likes of David Carr, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller and Arron Rodgers. In years past, many commentators have lauded Tedford as a fine mentor of quarterbacks, but I am not so sure this reputation is deserved given the recent track records of these signal callers. Carr has shown flashes of brilliance and he probably has a future in the NFL, but Smith was a total bust and is now fighting for a spot in NFL Europe. Boller has shown very little other than an erratic arm in his two years in Baltimore and Harrington was rumored to be on the chopping block in Detroit this off-season. This is hardly murderers’ row. In fact, it is a pretty weak stable in my estimation. So is Rodgers going to be another Tedford bust or is he the real deal? From what I have read on a recent scouting workout, Rodgers is reportedly the real deal and deserves to be selected in the top few picks, So that begs the question of whether Tedford’s recent legacy will scare teams off? After all, nobody wants another Akili on their hands since that is the kind of mistake that gets people fired. I am not a draft guru, but I suspect that if Rodgers falls, he will fall to no lower than the eight spot where Arizona currently is slotted. Should this happen, I think more than a few “experts” will comment that Tedford’s shine has dulled.
Monday, March 21, 2005
March 21 - Easy Folks, We've Seen This Before
Will the national media please tone it down! After a weekend where we saw a number of upsets, some of which were fairly historic, the media is claiming we just lived through something akin to a hundred year storm. Whether it is coming from CBS, ESPN or talk radio, the general consensus is Hayley’s comet just flew by and blew a bunch of teams out of the NCAA tourney. Despite having surgery this weekend to repair a herniated mouth, Dick “the Godfather of Crap” Vitale, was on the radio this morning just going crazy about all the parity we are now seeing in men’s college basketball. And Dick’s argument is that we are seeing the playing field leveled because great players are skipping college and going straight to the NBA. As such, the great schools no longer have dominant big men and the smaller schools from the non-power conferences can now compete. This theory is not Vitale’s property. It has become conventional wisdom and its being repeated all over the airwaves this morning. I am not going to rip the theory because I think it has SOME validity, but I think it’s being misapplied to explain a phenomenon that is not all that phenomenal.
Here is my point – eight of the top 16 seeded teams in this year’s tourney were upset this weekend. Of those eight, none were number one seeds. So the question that must be asked is whether this outcome departs or comports with historical precedent. That answer is closer then the latter then the former. If you look back at the last 20 tourneys, usually six to eight seeded teams lose during the opening weekend. Over the last two years, seven teams got knocked off, while the number was only 6 in 2002. But in 2000, the number was nine, just as it was in 1990 and 1986. So what does this say? Well, it says that upsets have been a part of this tourney for a long time. Upsets occurred before many players were leaving early and those same upsets are still happening today. And here is my point. Early entry has definitely leveled the playing field. Heck, I am not going to sit here and argue that Georgia Tech or Syracuse would have lost this weekend had they had Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony in their respective lineups. But based on historical data, it seems to me that the playing field was never as tilted as the media suggests. If it had been, we would have seen much fewer upsets throughout the 80s since the top teams would have ridden their superior talent into the regionals. But that didn't happen then just as it doens't happen now. Listen, I will concede that early entry has brought the top teams in the country back to the pack, but this has been going on for a long time. After all, does anyone really think North Carolina would have lost to Villanova in 1985 had Michael Jordan stayed in school? But early entry by itself does not explain why we see so many favored teams lose during the first weekend of the tourney each year. In many instances, they lose because they come out flat, are out-coached or simply choke. That is a fact and it has been one for some time.
The conventional wisdom is the game of the tourney so far was Saturday night's game between Wake and West Virginia. You will get no complaints from me. This was a super game that reminded me a bit of the second round game a couple years back when Arizona and Gonzaga exchanged blows and ended up in a multiple overtime slugfest. Saturday's contest took fifty minutes to settle and was only won after West Virginia’s Mike Gansey made a deal with the devil that allowed him to pour in 19 during the two overtimes. Read that again - 19 in ten minutes! Wake simply couldn’t find the guy and he made them pay time and time again. Wake gave almost as good as it got, but in the end, their patchwork defense let them down. I have been hammering away at Wake’s D all year but no pundit in the country would listen. In fact, I heard Andy Katz say on ESPN this morning say that he picked Wake to win it all because he thought Wake would be more committed to defense in the tourney. This is grounds for dismissal if you ask me. Andy, why would you expect a team that hasn’t played defense in TWO seasons to turn it on in the post-season? What were you watching out there all season? Wake’s defense was so bad on Saturday that I am not sure Tm Duncan could have made a difference. This team was a paper tiger all year and West Virginia found a way too cut it up into shreds. Before I move on, congratulations are in order for Mountaineer coach Jim Beilein. He took over a moribund program two years ago that no one wanted, including hometown boy Bob Huggins, and has turned it into a very solid club. And while Big East power brokers like Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun will be sitting at home next weekend, Beilein will in Albuquerque playing for a shot at the Final Four.
In other second round action, Oklahoma really let me down against Utah. I was expecting Oklahoma to suffocate the Utes but this didn’t happen and I blame coach Kelvin Sampson. The Sooners, one of my Final Four picks, made one huge tactical mistake and it ended up costing them the game. They decided early on that they were not going to let Utah center Andrew Bogut beat them. So what did they do? They doubled down on the big Aussie on almost every occasion. Bogut responded by hitting a number of open cutters who were free for layups. Oklahoma was hurt by the fact that their top interior defender, Kevin Bookout, was in early foul trouble, but I thought they should have taken their chances by playing Bogus straight up. Sampson never caught on and Bogut ended up with seven big assists to supplement his 11 boards. After beating the Sooners, the Utes were rewarded with another match-up against their nemesis from Kentucky. This will be the sixth team these two teams have squared off in the tourney since 1993. I hate Kentucky and have been selling them all year, but I think they will make it 6-0 against Utah later this week. Kentucky has little offense, but I think they have more then enough defense to shut down Bogut and his fellow Utes.
Well, it wasn’t black Sunday in Charlotte yesterday as both UNC and Duke found ways to move on. For UNC, it was no sweat at all. The Heels, as they have done all year, simply steamrolled an inferior team. Iowa State hung tough for about twelve minutes, but they had no answer for Marvin Williams or Sean May. Both of Carolina’s big guys were unstoppable and Marvin’s emergence could start paying big dividends for the Heels. There is no way he will supplant Jawad Williams in the starting lineup, but coach Roy Williams will have no choice but to play Marvin more and more if the freshman keeps playing well. North Carolina now moves on to Syracuse where it will face a decimated region. No team in America benefited more from this weekend’s upsets than the Heels who face the possibility of having to only take out Villanova and NC State on the way to St. Louis. That isn’t exactly a Herculian task, although Nova could be a test on Friday. As for Duke, they had a brief scare yesterday against Mississippi State but Daniel Ewing bailed them out on a day when J.J. Reddick looked like anything but the ACC player of the year. You have to give this Duke team credit. They don’t have a lot, but they play good defense and that can buy you a win come this time of year. It certainly did yesterday as the Devils allowed Mississippi to make fewer than one in three shots for the game. Duke now comes up against Michigan State which is a rematch of a game played in December. Duke won that game, but I feel this one will be a toss up. State has very athletic guards that may give Reddick some trouble and State has a physical center that can match-up against Sheldon Williams. I am not sure MSU wins this, but I like the Spartans and the 4.5 points.
What is it with CBS and their obsession with former Duke and ACC basketball players? This weekend the fascination was on display as six of the eight color men doing tourney games played their ball in the jewel of the South. The six-pack includes Jay Bilas (Duke), Jim Spanarkel (Duke), Mike Gminski (Duke), Dan Bonner (Virginia) Len Elmore (Maryland) and Bill Packer (Wake Forest). Meanwhile, a seventh announcer, Bob Wenzel, was an assistant coach at Duke from 75-80, meaning that three people associated with 1978 NCAA finalists are in the CBS stable. That has to be some kind of broadcasting record. To make matters worse, the guy back at the studio - Seth Davis - is a Dukie. And just in case that isn’t enough Duke and ACC flavor, sideline chick Bonnie Bernstein is a Terp. With all this ACC talent amassed at CBS, you got to wonder what Terry Gannon (NC State) is doing over ABC or Brad Daughtery (UNC) is doing up in Bristol. If Big Brad plays his cards right, he could end up replacing the tiring Bill Raftery in a couple years, giving all eight CBS color men a link to the ACC. It is no wonder with all these ACC guys getting checks from CBS that the country believes there is a media bias towards the ACC. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many Dukies involved. What gives on that front? Is the head of CBS Sports a Duke grad as well? I don’t mind Gminski much, but what the hell is Spanarkel doing on the air? I guess he took the spot of Jon Sundvold (Missouri) at the request of the ACC Commissioner. Here is my request to CBS. If you are going to give us a boat load of ACC guys, let’s have some of the characters from the past. Why not track down Chris Washburn and get him on the air. Or how about Buzz Peterson? He just got fired at Tennessee and I am sure he could have used the work. C’mon, guys, enough with the Devils. Isn’t it enough that we have to see that Coach K American Express commercial every five minutes?
Other then Andy Katz ridiculous comment concerning Wake's defense, the most asinine comment of this morning comes from from Mr. Vitale. I couldn't believe this one. When speaking of NC State coach Herb Sendek, Vitale had the audacity to say all Herb does is win in March. Unless he is talking about Sendek's record in his club's early bird golf championship, I have no idea what Vitale is talking about. After winning two games in this year's tourney, Sendek is a 4-3 in March with exactly one trip to the regionals in four appearances. I will give Kudos to Sendek for pulling this team together after it started 3-7 in conference play, but lets not go overboard. This guy has done little of note in Raleigh and it seems he is constantly on the chopping block. With these two wins over the weekend, Sendek has earned himself another year at NC State, but he is always a 13-15 year away from the unemployment line. And had guard Julius Hodges not come back for his senior year, that probably would have happened this year. I am tired of people making excuses for Herb. Some try to suggest that NC State is a sister of the poor when compared to Duke and UNC and therefore Sendek is entitled to something tantamount to a welfare subsidy. I will concede that NC State is probably a notch below those two, but this is a program that has won big in the past. In case people forget, NC State has won two championships since 1974. That is the same amount as UNC and only one less than Duke. NCSU has all the ingredients necessary to compete - tradition, a new gym, and no academic requirements As such, there is absolutely no reason for the mediocrity that has occured on Herb's watch.
Barry Bonds has big problems and the odds he spends time in a federal courtroom, or perhaps prison, keep getting shorter and shorter. As I wrote last week, Bonds has got to be concerned that his former trainer – Greg Anderson – is about to cut a deal and become a government informant. Anderson is under suspicion for distributing steroids and he could hold the key if the government wants to prove that Bonds lied to the grand jury when he said he didn’t knowingly use steroids. Now, another person close to Bonds is contradicting number 25’s story. Kimberly Bell, Bonds former girlfriend, went before the grand jury on Thursday and testified that Bonds told her in 2000 that he was using steroids. How is that for a little pillow talk? I can just imagine the scene where Barry pushes Bell to the other side of the bed and says, “I’m sorry baby, maybe I can take care of you after I complete this cycle.” In addition to her testimony, Bell also supposedly pulled a Linda Tripp and has ninety minutes of phone conversations between the two on tape. I can’t wait for the Justice Department to leak those tapes. Bonds’ camp is making little of Bell’s story, arguing the chick is lying and is just providing this testimony as a way to promote her upcoming book. That may be true, but the mere fact that the U.S. Attorney hauled Bell in and gave her immunity is an indication that the government now has Bonds in its sights. The BALCO investigation is no longer geared towards nailing Victor Conte and Greg Anderson. Instead, it has become the United States versus Barry Bonds. This is about Barry lying under oath. It is about nailing a guy who obstructed justice in order to protect his reputation. Barry and his camp are downplaying the recent developments in this case, but their public displays of confidence are transparent to this scribe. My guess is the San Francisco Treat is beginning to finally understand that there is a big difference between lying to the public and lying to federal investigators. After all, he can lie to Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle all he wants and Ray cannot do a thing about it other then press forward with the story. On the other hand, the United States Attorney doesn’t have to sit by and take Barry’s crap. After hearing Bell was hauled in to testify, I am lowering the odds that Bonds will spend time in jail from 7/2 to 3/1.
This Saturday, Roberto Alomar called it quits after his last gasp effort to hang on with the Devil Rays fell apart. My only question is what took so long? Alomar is unquestionably a Hall of Famer, but he has been absolutely putrid since 2001 and this announcement was at least a year overdue. I will start by saying Alomar is unquestionably the best second baseman who played during my lifetime. Sorry Joe Morgan. Sorry Rhino. Neither of you could hold a candle to Alomar. He was a ten time Gold Glover who could hit anywhere in the lineup. He finished his career as a .300 hitter, with 2700 hits and almost 500 steals. He never won an MVP like his aforementioned peers, but he did finish in the top-6 five times. Plus, he was a post-season wrecking ball and if you don’t believe me, just ask anyone on the 1992 A’s. Based on this resume, I have no problem saying Roberto was one of the ten best players of the 90s. That is hardly arguable, but my question for Alomar is what happened to your game after the 2001 season? I have heard of people falling off cliffs, but Roberto fell off something akin to the Kangshung Face on Mt Everest. That is a 5000 footer and Roberto stumbled off it the moment he got traded from Cleveland to the Mets. In the blink of an eye, Roberto became a decrepit old man. As a Met, he couldn’t run or hit, especially as a right-hander. He became a statue at second and his bat speed slowed to about four knots. Here are some numbers to support the case – As an Indian he was a 950 OPS guy and as a Met he became a 700 OPS guy. In 2003, he played for both the Mets and White Sox and he perhaps had the distinction of being the worst player in each respective league in a given season. Mike Lansing is the only other player to have this distinction (2000 Colorado and Boston). Roberto was a phenom, but he should have hung up his cleats a year ago. His resume still warrants a place in Cooperstown, but unfortunately, it is a bit tarnished by his late career swoon. Such a swoon has kept Jim Rice out of the Hall but the same fate does not await Roberto.
Pitchers in Chicago are dropping like flies. First Cub righthanders Mark Prior and Kerry Wood came down with arm problems and now south-sider Mark Buehrle will be sidelined for all of April with a broken bone in his left foot. The White Sox already had several question marks in their rotation, including the health of 73 year old El Duque and 67 year old Jose Contreras, and they can ill afford to lose the reliable Buehrle. Mark may not be an elite starter, but he can give you innings and keep a team in the game. With Buehrle on the sideline, it is possible we will see phenom Brandon McCarthy sooner rather than later. This kid dominated at three levels this past year and hasn't allowed an earned run with the big club this spring. Based on this performance, Manager Ozzie Guillen was quoted this week as saying "McCArthy is the best pitcher we have in camp right now." That may not be saying much given the comps, but it suggests to me that the White Sox may have an insurance policy for Buehrle. You fanstasy guys paying attention?
Last November, in the Southeastern Conference’s big game of the year, the Georgia Bulldogs went down to Auburn and got punked by Tommy Tuberville’s Tigers 24-6. Well, the Georgia Bulldogs got a “bit” of revenge this weekend when its women’s swim team broke Auburn’s three year stranglehold on the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship. The Tigers, led by sprinter Kara Lynn Joyce, won all five relays on its way to a 609-492 victory over Auburn. Arizona – sans Tuscon resident Amanda Beard – finished in third. Joyce won both sprints for Georgia and her contribution to four winning relays went a long ways toward securing the win for the Bulldogs. It will be interesting to see if Kara, an Olympic finalist from last summer, will be able to close the gap on Australia’s vaunted sprint corps when she competes this summer at the World Championships in Montreal. Joyce was helped along the way by Mary Descenza who won both butterfly races and was also a contributor to the Dogs success in the relays. It was a rather slow meet as no individual American records were broken or even threatened, but that can be partially explained by the fact that Natalie Coughlin holds most of America’s short course records and some of those are out of this world. This will not be the case when the men swim this weekend. My prediction is Florida Gator Ryan Lochte will take down a couple of records but Auburn will avenge its women and take home the team trophy. Afterwards, football coach Tommy Tuberville will declare that the men’s swim team, like his offensive backfield last year, is the best he has seen in fifty years.
Here is my point – eight of the top 16 seeded teams in this year’s tourney were upset this weekend. Of those eight, none were number one seeds. So the question that must be asked is whether this outcome departs or comports with historical precedent. That answer is closer then the latter then the former. If you look back at the last 20 tourneys, usually six to eight seeded teams lose during the opening weekend. Over the last two years, seven teams got knocked off, while the number was only 6 in 2002. But in 2000, the number was nine, just as it was in 1990 and 1986. So what does this say? Well, it says that upsets have been a part of this tourney for a long time. Upsets occurred before many players were leaving early and those same upsets are still happening today. And here is my point. Early entry has definitely leveled the playing field. Heck, I am not going to sit here and argue that Georgia Tech or Syracuse would have lost this weekend had they had Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony in their respective lineups. But based on historical data, it seems to me that the playing field was never as tilted as the media suggests. If it had been, we would have seen much fewer upsets throughout the 80s since the top teams would have ridden their superior talent into the regionals. But that didn't happen then just as it doens't happen now. Listen, I will concede that early entry has brought the top teams in the country back to the pack, but this has been going on for a long time. After all, does anyone really think North Carolina would have lost to Villanova in 1985 had Michael Jordan stayed in school? But early entry by itself does not explain why we see so many favored teams lose during the first weekend of the tourney each year. In many instances, they lose because they come out flat, are out-coached or simply choke. That is a fact and it has been one for some time.
The conventional wisdom is the game of the tourney so far was Saturday night's game between Wake and West Virginia. You will get no complaints from me. This was a super game that reminded me a bit of the second round game a couple years back when Arizona and Gonzaga exchanged blows and ended up in a multiple overtime slugfest. Saturday's contest took fifty minutes to settle and was only won after West Virginia’s Mike Gansey made a deal with the devil that allowed him to pour in 19 during the two overtimes. Read that again - 19 in ten minutes! Wake simply couldn’t find the guy and he made them pay time and time again. Wake gave almost as good as it got, but in the end, their patchwork defense let them down. I have been hammering away at Wake’s D all year but no pundit in the country would listen. In fact, I heard Andy Katz say on ESPN this morning say that he picked Wake to win it all because he thought Wake would be more committed to defense in the tourney. This is grounds for dismissal if you ask me. Andy, why would you expect a team that hasn’t played defense in TWO seasons to turn it on in the post-season? What were you watching out there all season? Wake’s defense was so bad on Saturday that I am not sure Tm Duncan could have made a difference. This team was a paper tiger all year and West Virginia found a way too cut it up into shreds. Before I move on, congratulations are in order for Mountaineer coach Jim Beilein. He took over a moribund program two years ago that no one wanted, including hometown boy Bob Huggins, and has turned it into a very solid club. And while Big East power brokers like Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun will be sitting at home next weekend, Beilein will in Albuquerque playing for a shot at the Final Four.
In other second round action, Oklahoma really let me down against Utah. I was expecting Oklahoma to suffocate the Utes but this didn’t happen and I blame coach Kelvin Sampson. The Sooners, one of my Final Four picks, made one huge tactical mistake and it ended up costing them the game. They decided early on that they were not going to let Utah center Andrew Bogut beat them. So what did they do? They doubled down on the big Aussie on almost every occasion. Bogut responded by hitting a number of open cutters who were free for layups. Oklahoma was hurt by the fact that their top interior defender, Kevin Bookout, was in early foul trouble, but I thought they should have taken their chances by playing Bogus straight up. Sampson never caught on and Bogut ended up with seven big assists to supplement his 11 boards. After beating the Sooners, the Utes were rewarded with another match-up against their nemesis from Kentucky. This will be the sixth team these two teams have squared off in the tourney since 1993. I hate Kentucky and have been selling them all year, but I think they will make it 6-0 against Utah later this week. Kentucky has little offense, but I think they have more then enough defense to shut down Bogut and his fellow Utes.
Well, it wasn’t black Sunday in Charlotte yesterday as both UNC and Duke found ways to move on. For UNC, it was no sweat at all. The Heels, as they have done all year, simply steamrolled an inferior team. Iowa State hung tough for about twelve minutes, but they had no answer for Marvin Williams or Sean May. Both of Carolina’s big guys were unstoppable and Marvin’s emergence could start paying big dividends for the Heels. There is no way he will supplant Jawad Williams in the starting lineup, but coach Roy Williams will have no choice but to play Marvin more and more if the freshman keeps playing well. North Carolina now moves on to Syracuse where it will face a decimated region. No team in America benefited more from this weekend’s upsets than the Heels who face the possibility of having to only take out Villanova and NC State on the way to St. Louis. That isn’t exactly a Herculian task, although Nova could be a test on Friday. As for Duke, they had a brief scare yesterday against Mississippi State but Daniel Ewing bailed them out on a day when J.J. Reddick looked like anything but the ACC player of the year. You have to give this Duke team credit. They don’t have a lot, but they play good defense and that can buy you a win come this time of year. It certainly did yesterday as the Devils allowed Mississippi to make fewer than one in three shots for the game. Duke now comes up against Michigan State which is a rematch of a game played in December. Duke won that game, but I feel this one will be a toss up. State has very athletic guards that may give Reddick some trouble and State has a physical center that can match-up against Sheldon Williams. I am not sure MSU wins this, but I like the Spartans and the 4.5 points.
What is it with CBS and their obsession with former Duke and ACC basketball players? This weekend the fascination was on display as six of the eight color men doing tourney games played their ball in the jewel of the South. The six-pack includes Jay Bilas (Duke), Jim Spanarkel (Duke), Mike Gminski (Duke), Dan Bonner (Virginia) Len Elmore (Maryland) and Bill Packer (Wake Forest). Meanwhile, a seventh announcer, Bob Wenzel, was an assistant coach at Duke from 75-80, meaning that three people associated with 1978 NCAA finalists are in the CBS stable. That has to be some kind of broadcasting record. To make matters worse, the guy back at the studio - Seth Davis - is a Dukie. And just in case that isn’t enough Duke and ACC flavor, sideline chick Bonnie Bernstein is a Terp. With all this ACC talent amassed at CBS, you got to wonder what Terry Gannon (NC State) is doing over ABC or Brad Daughtery (UNC) is doing up in Bristol. If Big Brad plays his cards right, he could end up replacing the tiring Bill Raftery in a couple years, giving all eight CBS color men a link to the ACC. It is no wonder with all these ACC guys getting checks from CBS that the country believes there is a media bias towards the ACC. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many Dukies involved. What gives on that front? Is the head of CBS Sports a Duke grad as well? I don’t mind Gminski much, but what the hell is Spanarkel doing on the air? I guess he took the spot of Jon Sundvold (Missouri) at the request of the ACC Commissioner. Here is my request to CBS. If you are going to give us a boat load of ACC guys, let’s have some of the characters from the past. Why not track down Chris Washburn and get him on the air. Or how about Buzz Peterson? He just got fired at Tennessee and I am sure he could have used the work. C’mon, guys, enough with the Devils. Isn’t it enough that we have to see that Coach K American Express commercial every five minutes?
Other then Andy Katz ridiculous comment concerning Wake's defense, the most asinine comment of this morning comes from from Mr. Vitale. I couldn't believe this one. When speaking of NC State coach Herb Sendek, Vitale had the audacity to say all Herb does is win in March. Unless he is talking about Sendek's record in his club's early bird golf championship, I have no idea what Vitale is talking about. After winning two games in this year's tourney, Sendek is a 4-3 in March with exactly one trip to the regionals in four appearances. I will give Kudos to Sendek for pulling this team together after it started 3-7 in conference play, but lets not go overboard. This guy has done little of note in Raleigh and it seems he is constantly on the chopping block. With these two wins over the weekend, Sendek has earned himself another year at NC State, but he is always a 13-15 year away from the unemployment line. And had guard Julius Hodges not come back for his senior year, that probably would have happened this year. I am tired of people making excuses for Herb. Some try to suggest that NC State is a sister of the poor when compared to Duke and UNC and therefore Sendek is entitled to something tantamount to a welfare subsidy. I will concede that NC State is probably a notch below those two, but this is a program that has won big in the past. In case people forget, NC State has won two championships since 1974. That is the same amount as UNC and only one less than Duke. NCSU has all the ingredients necessary to compete - tradition, a new gym, and no academic requirements As such, there is absolutely no reason for the mediocrity that has occured on Herb's watch.
Barry Bonds has big problems and the odds he spends time in a federal courtroom, or perhaps prison, keep getting shorter and shorter. As I wrote last week, Bonds has got to be concerned that his former trainer – Greg Anderson – is about to cut a deal and become a government informant. Anderson is under suspicion for distributing steroids and he could hold the key if the government wants to prove that Bonds lied to the grand jury when he said he didn’t knowingly use steroids. Now, another person close to Bonds is contradicting number 25’s story. Kimberly Bell, Bonds former girlfriend, went before the grand jury on Thursday and testified that Bonds told her in 2000 that he was using steroids. How is that for a little pillow talk? I can just imagine the scene where Barry pushes Bell to the other side of the bed and says, “I’m sorry baby, maybe I can take care of you after I complete this cycle.” In addition to her testimony, Bell also supposedly pulled a Linda Tripp and has ninety minutes of phone conversations between the two on tape. I can’t wait for the Justice Department to leak those tapes. Bonds’ camp is making little of Bell’s story, arguing the chick is lying and is just providing this testimony as a way to promote her upcoming book. That may be true, but the mere fact that the U.S. Attorney hauled Bell in and gave her immunity is an indication that the government now has Bonds in its sights. The BALCO investigation is no longer geared towards nailing Victor Conte and Greg Anderson. Instead, it has become the United States versus Barry Bonds. This is about Barry lying under oath. It is about nailing a guy who obstructed justice in order to protect his reputation. Barry and his camp are downplaying the recent developments in this case, but their public displays of confidence are transparent to this scribe. My guess is the San Francisco Treat is beginning to finally understand that there is a big difference between lying to the public and lying to federal investigators. After all, he can lie to Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle all he wants and Ray cannot do a thing about it other then press forward with the story. On the other hand, the United States Attorney doesn’t have to sit by and take Barry’s crap. After hearing Bell was hauled in to testify, I am lowering the odds that Bonds will spend time in jail from 7/2 to 3/1.
This Saturday, Roberto Alomar called it quits after his last gasp effort to hang on with the Devil Rays fell apart. My only question is what took so long? Alomar is unquestionably a Hall of Famer, but he has been absolutely putrid since 2001 and this announcement was at least a year overdue. I will start by saying Alomar is unquestionably the best second baseman who played during my lifetime. Sorry Joe Morgan. Sorry Rhino. Neither of you could hold a candle to Alomar. He was a ten time Gold Glover who could hit anywhere in the lineup. He finished his career as a .300 hitter, with 2700 hits and almost 500 steals. He never won an MVP like his aforementioned peers, but he did finish in the top-6 five times. Plus, he was a post-season wrecking ball and if you don’t believe me, just ask anyone on the 1992 A’s. Based on this resume, I have no problem saying Roberto was one of the ten best players of the 90s. That is hardly arguable, but my question for Alomar is what happened to your game after the 2001 season? I have heard of people falling off cliffs, but Roberto fell off something akin to the Kangshung Face on Mt Everest. That is a 5000 footer and Roberto stumbled off it the moment he got traded from Cleveland to the Mets. In the blink of an eye, Roberto became a decrepit old man. As a Met, he couldn’t run or hit, especially as a right-hander. He became a statue at second and his bat speed slowed to about four knots. Here are some numbers to support the case – As an Indian he was a 950 OPS guy and as a Met he became a 700 OPS guy. In 2003, he played for both the Mets and White Sox and he perhaps had the distinction of being the worst player in each respective league in a given season. Mike Lansing is the only other player to have this distinction (2000 Colorado and Boston). Roberto was a phenom, but he should have hung up his cleats a year ago. His resume still warrants a place in Cooperstown, but unfortunately, it is a bit tarnished by his late career swoon. Such a swoon has kept Jim Rice out of the Hall but the same fate does not await Roberto.
Pitchers in Chicago are dropping like flies. First Cub righthanders Mark Prior and Kerry Wood came down with arm problems and now south-sider Mark Buehrle will be sidelined for all of April with a broken bone in his left foot. The White Sox already had several question marks in their rotation, including the health of 73 year old El Duque and 67 year old Jose Contreras, and they can ill afford to lose the reliable Buehrle. Mark may not be an elite starter, but he can give you innings and keep a team in the game. With Buehrle on the sideline, it is possible we will see phenom Brandon McCarthy sooner rather than later. This kid dominated at three levels this past year and hasn't allowed an earned run with the big club this spring. Based on this performance, Manager Ozzie Guillen was quoted this week as saying "McCArthy is the best pitcher we have in camp right now." That may not be saying much given the comps, but it suggests to me that the White Sox may have an insurance policy for Buehrle. You fanstasy guys paying attention?
Last November, in the Southeastern Conference’s big game of the year, the Georgia Bulldogs went down to Auburn and got punked by Tommy Tuberville’s Tigers 24-6. Well, the Georgia Bulldogs got a “bit” of revenge this weekend when its women’s swim team broke Auburn’s three year stranglehold on the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship. The Tigers, led by sprinter Kara Lynn Joyce, won all five relays on its way to a 609-492 victory over Auburn. Arizona – sans Tuscon resident Amanda Beard – finished in third. Joyce won both sprints for Georgia and her contribution to four winning relays went a long ways toward securing the win for the Bulldogs. It will be interesting to see if Kara, an Olympic finalist from last summer, will be able to close the gap on Australia’s vaunted sprint corps when she competes this summer at the World Championships in Montreal. Joyce was helped along the way by Mary Descenza who won both butterfly races and was also a contributor to the Dogs success in the relays. It was a rather slow meet as no individual American records were broken or even threatened, but that can be partially explained by the fact that Natalie Coughlin holds most of America’s short course records and some of those are out of this world. This will not be the case when the men swim this weekend. My prediction is Florida Gator Ryan Lochte will take down a couple of records but Auburn will avenge its women and take home the team trophy. Afterwards, football coach Tommy Tuberville will declare that the men’s swim team, like his offensive backfield last year, is the best he has seen in fifty years.
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