March 15 - Black Sunday

One of the first things I noticed the other day when the NCAA announced their basketball tournament pairings was the fact that both North Carolina and Duke would both be playing their opening round games just down Tobacco Road (I-40) in Charlotte. This would appear to be a pretty strange occurrence since highly ranked teams from the same conference are routinely split up – at least they were until the tourney organizers re-formatted the tourney a few years back. But this wasn’t always the case and these two teams were once involved in an incident that is often referred to in ACC lore as Black Sunday. The day in question happened back in 1979 and it was most likely the worst day in the storied history of Tobacco Road Basketball.

The setting was a doubleheader in the second round of the 1979 tourney in Raleigh. In the first game, number two seeded Duke squared off with a St. John’s team that was the last to be invited to that year’s tourney. They were number 40 in a field of 40. And they were up against a big-time Duke team that had played for the national championship the year before and had come back virtually intact. But on that Sunday, the Devils squandered a halftime lead and ended up on the losing end of an 80-78 upset. The silence could be heard all the way to Ashville in the West to Wilmington in the East. This debacle was a shocker but it paled in comparison to what followed. In the nightcap, the number-one seeded Heels went up against the Penn Quakers from the Ivy League – a team led by some guy named Phil Sellers. The Heels, meanwhile, were led by a high scoring pair of forwards named Mike O’Koren and Al Wood. O’Koren was an All-American who would go on to be a longtime NBA’er while Wood happened to be good enough to make the 1980 US Olympic Basketball team. But on that day in 1979, none of that mattered. North Carolina jumped out to a first half lead, but Penn rallied to take the lead with about ten minutes to go and UNC never got the lead back. After some tense late game free throws, the clock sounded, bands all over the state began playing taps, and Governor Jim Hunt declared that the Chapel Hill-Durham corridor was a disaster area.

Not only had these North Carolina powerhouses lost, but they did it in their own backyard to the heaviest of underdogs. In a basketball crazed state like North Carolina, the details of that dark day are still discussed by old-timers and columnists. The obvious question now is whether we will see a rerun this weekend? I sincerely doubt it. I just don’t see Duke and UNC both losing, although I cannot say I would be shocked if Iowa State found a way to beat Roy Williams. However, history does have a strange tendency to repeat itself and in this case, the circumstances are a bit similar. The only prediction I will make is I can guarantee CBS will flag this issue during this weekend’s broadcast. I suspect Billy Packer will snag this plum assignment and because he is an ACC historian, there is almost no chance that he can help himself from bringing up this tidbit. You can count on that.

What does the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Committee have against Mormons and the Great state of Utah? For the fifth time since 1993, The Committee has seen fit to put Utah in the same region as their nemesis from Lexington Kentucky. Someone like former Utah Coach Rick Majerus must have done something in the early 90s to anger the Committee because ever since, the Utes have been joined at the hip with Kentucky when the tourney brackets are released each year. Just look at the evidence. In 1993, the teams played in the second round with Utah losing by 21. In 1996, Utah, led by Keith Van Horn, got a rematch in the regional semis and lost by 31. The following year was round three when the two teams met in a regional final and Utah was able to hold Kentucky to a relatively modest 13 point victory. Twelve months later, the selection committee took it easy on Utah and separated the two schools. Utah, led by Andre Miler, took advantage of this opportunity and played itself all the way to the national championship game. And who was waiting there ready to face them? None other then the KU Wildcats who summarily dispatched the Utes for the third year in a row. After that game, the two schools were given a respite from one another until 2003 when they squared off in a second round game that Kentucky won by 21. So in the course of 11 years, Kentucky went 5-0 against the Utes and outscored them by 95 points.

That is pretty bleak stuff for the Utes. But if this history isn’t bad enough, look at where the two teams are bracketed this year. Yep, on the same side of the bracket down there in Austin. And that brings up the possibility that if Utah can somehow get by UTEP and Oklahoma, they will go up against Kentucky for the sixth time since 1993. What did Utah do to deserve this? Is it because the state caps the alcohol content of bourbon at 40 proof? Is it because Utah voters passed a referendum in 1993 that outlawed the expansion of fried chicken outlets throughout the state? Or perhaps the curse was born in 1995 when Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said he preferred Sandra Bullock to Kentucky’s own Ashley Judd. The thought of losing for a sixth time has got to really depress Utah fans. But take heart Utes – if you lose this year, I believe that you can rest assured that you won’t have to play Kentucky for another decade. That is because the 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and based on a fair interpretation of the word cruel, I believe five Supremes would agree that the constitution protects Utah fans from a seventh loss.

The Chicago Cubs have some major leagues problems sprouting and we haven’t even made it halfway through Spring Training. First, Kerry Wood developed some soreness in his right arm and it is now being reported that twenty-four year old Mark Prior is experiencing pain in his right elbow. The Cubs are trying to downplay the significance of each injury but there has to be some alarm in the Chicago front office. Prior missed two months last year with an elbow injury and this is clearly not a good sign even though “The Natural” says it feels like an entirely different injury. This guy is just too young to be coming down with all these injuries. And it’s a bit odd since he has a picture perfect delivery that experts think should minimize his risk of injury. Woods case is another story entirely. The Cubs fireballer seems to get hurt every year and this annual rite of spring has got to be fraying the nerves of Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry. It is still early and these injuries may recede, but this is clearly a red flag for the Cubs. Their season is wholly dependant of having both these right arms available and the loss of either for an extended period would be crippling. The Cardinals just went from 3-1 to 5-2 to win the division.

Another city that is holding its collective breathe over some budding pitching problems is New York. Fans in the Big Apple awoke this morning to two distressing news items involving major league pitchers. The first involves Met Steve Trachsel and his problems with an ailing back. Trachsel, an innings eater who was penciled in to be the Mets fifth starter, flew out to LA last night last night to get his back checked out by a specialist. Trachsel is hoping to avoid surgery, but at the very least, he is now scheduled to start the season on the disabled list. Missing a few weeks wouldn’t be too problematic, but if Trachsel needs surgery, there is no telling whether he will be available to pitch at all this year. That would be a pretty significant blow to a Mets team that thinks it can contend in the NL East if things come together. Losing Trachsel for an extended period of time was not part of the plan. Meanwhile, the news coming out of Yankee land is potentially more serious, although it may end up being nothing at all. It seems Yankee difference maker Mariano Rivera has developed bursitis in his elbow after not throwing much in the off-season. This may just be a spring training flare up, but what if it is the beginning of something more serious? Rivera is 35 and has had shoulder issues in the past, but this is his first experience with an elbow problem. If this is the first sign of a chronic condition, the Yankees just got socked with news that is far more lethal then the Luxury tax. Although Rivera came up small for the Yankees last October, he is still their most important player. If he starts laboring because on an elbow injury, Joe Torre is up a creek without a closer and the AL East just got a lot more interesting. This is because Torre has nowhere to turn - Tom Gordon proved in last year’s ALCS that he wants no part of the spotlight and Felix Rodriguez proved in 2002 that he is not a capable closer. The Yankees can still win without Rivera, but his absence would probably cost them six games this year. If you don’t believe me, just look at how many games the Giants and Indians blew last year.

I may be alone with this opinion, but I think Steve Lavin is a pretty good color commentator. Without a doubt, the greased up sexual predator is better on the microphone then he ever was on the sideline. I am sure he wants to get back into coaching someday, but if I were his agent, I would counsel him to stick with this new gig. He sometimes is guilty of uttering a cliché or dropping names solely for the sake of dropping names, but, in general, he does a good job dissecting a game and communicating his findings. Lavin’s only problem is he got stuck at ESPN and ended up drawing Muss as a partner. That is some handicap for a rookie and it definitely has served to limit his airtime, but I guess it could have been worse. After all, ESPN could have stuck him with the immortal Mike Patrick. If I am CBS, I would try bringing this promising kid over by trading Bill Raftery to ESPN for Lavin. And while were at it, I propose dumping Clark Kellogg on the Boys in Bristol as long as I don’t have to take Jay Bilas in return. I am sure Lavin would gladly waive his no-trade to get out of Bristol and move to CBS in New York. Coming from UCLA, he can’t like the female situation up there in Central Connecticut.

Here is a suggestion for the NFL – if you want to market football south of the border, don’t lead off with Arizona and San Francisco in Mexico City on October 2nd. The Arizona Republic is now reporting that this game will be the league’s first regular season foray outside the United States. But this leads me to question why the league thinks the Mexicans want to see this game any more then the Phoenicians? I sure wouldn’t be interested. I know we are talking about Mexico, but I am not sure tens of thousands muchachos are going to plunk down their hard earned pesos to watch these two dogs. I would rather go see a good old fashioned Mexican cock fight then see the Cards. Despite my pessimism, I think the Cards probably stand to have a bigger gate playing this game in Mexico then Tempe. That had to play a role in deciding which team was going to bite the bullet and lose a home game. I guess the other factor involved here is that nobody goes to Arizona games anyways so no one in Tempe is going to raise a big stink that the Cardinals will only have seven home games next year.

Comedian Bill Maher is fond of telling a joke that goes like this: “Something is terribly wrong when the only person who has been fired over terrorism is me.” Well, Colorado President Betsy Hoffman can now tell a similar joke that reads as follows: “Something is terribly wrong when the only person who has fired over a college football scandal is me.” Hoffman was fired as Colorado’s president last week after a rocky couple of years, but the big blemish on her resume comes courtesy of the Colorado football program, run by 2002 man-of-the-year Gary Barnett. While Hoffman ran the university, Barnett was operating an inmate-run asylum. In recent years, a few female trainers say they were sexually assaulted by players, a couple of women are suing the school for being groped at a recruiting party and a female kicker has charged that she was sexually harassed by her teammates. Do you notice a pattern here? Barnett responded to the kicker’s accusations by claiming she was a “distraction” who also “wasn’t a very good kicker.” I wonder if Barnett would have responded the same way if her replacement had missed a game winner against Colorado State and then been ass raped in the Colorado locker room.

On top of all this, a grand jury concluded recently that Colorado’s football program operated a slush fund that is used for somewhat improper recruiting activities like hiring strippers. Barnett has remained steadfast in his own defense by claiming that the program is generally clean and he cannot be held personally responsible for watching 80 kids at all times. There is a bit of truth to this, but lets be honest. Girls are being sexually assaulted all the way from Boulder to Denver and most are identifying their assailants by scanning the CU media guide. The program, under Barnett’s watch, has become something a bit short of laudatory and yet Barnett has taken no responsibility whatsoever. And it’s not as if Barnett’s spotty record on human rights has been offset by great coaching. His records at CU since taking over are 7-5, 3-8, 10-3, 9-5, 5-7 and 8-5. Last year, his team got punked by Oklahoma 42-3 and lost a 31-7 thriller at home to Texas. Barnett has led some Colorado fans to pine for the days when the only salacious news at CU involved QB Sal Aunesse sleeping with the coach Bill McCartney’s daughter. I find it absolutely incomprehensible that Barnett has kept his job throughout all this while Hoffman went down and others linked to the athletic program have quietly resigned. Barnett has two years remaining on his contract and you got to wonder if Colorado, at this point, is just waiting for this nightmare to end.

The FCC has made a ton of boneheaded moves over the past ten years, including a series of flubs on issues concerning the pricing of telecom services and indecency, but at least they got one right yesterday. In a 5-0 decision, the Commission ruled yesterday that ABC had not violated federal decency standards when it aired a mildly racy introduction to a Monday Night Football game last year. The farcical intro at issue had Nicolette “Sure Thing” Sheriden trying to seduce Terrell Owens in the locker room before a game. There was nothing lurid about the skit and all the public saw was Nicolette dropping her towel to show off a pretty poorly toned set of back of muscles. This skit was hardly news, but the next day, Mike Francesa (a St. John’s grad and catholic school lifer) started railing against it on his afternoon talk show in New York and all of a sudden it snowballed into some sort of scandal. And just when the clamor was dying down, some uptight jerks filed a volley of indecency complaints with the FCC. Well, those complaints were discharged yesterday and that is a win for the good guys. I know a lot of ten year old boys were irreparably scarred by the image on Nicolette’s back, but this contrived mess has to rank as the stupidest issue of 2004 in both sports and public policy. To think that somebody actually took the time to file a complaint boggles my mind. Pretty soon, the moralists are going to be asking that cheerleaders cover up, beer ads be toned down and players be forced to attend church on Sunday right before they maim each other. The funny thing about this is I suspect the ass clowns who filed complaints had more on their minds then Nicki’s back fat when they were typing up their pleadings. I honestly believe the fact that this skit involved a white woman and black man motivated some jerk-off to hit the indecency light. What a joke. It is time for HBO to win the rights to MNF so we can see some good skits and real ass. If you give me Ray Lewis, Jenna Jamison, ninety seconds of airtime and a good lighting guy, I will give America something to talk about on Tuesday mornings next year. I promise!

Congratulations to Chrissie Hynde and the surviving members of the Pretenders who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last night along with some band named U2. The Pretenders were one of my favorite bands in Junior High School and the first concert I ever attended was a Valentines Day show played in 1982 at Pauley Pavilion. Hynde was the quintessential rock chick of the early 1980’s and ended up fronting a band that had some edge when everything else in music was wallowing in crap. The Pretenders had three great early albums, but they reached the pinnacle in 1986 when Ron Howard selected to open Gung Ho with the band’s “Don’t Get Me Wrong.” Now that is making it. And while Hynde and the rest of the band are a bit long in the tooth, I had the privilege of seeing them a couple years ago in a small venue and they still sounded pretty damn good. And if you don't believe me, just ask John McEnroe because he was there as well. My top five Pretenders songs in reverse order are: 5) Tattooed Love Boys, 4) I’ll Stand By You, 3) Talk of the Town, 2) Stop Your Sobbing, and 1) Mystery Achievement.

I have no qualms about putting the Pretenders into the Hall of Fame, but I do have some questions about some other inductees, including one who got in last night. To me, the Pretenders are a sure thing. If the Pretenders were a baseball player, they would be Wade Boggs. They started out on fire with all those batting titles and continued to get hits even after they began slowing down. But I do have a problem with the Hall’s decision this year to induct Percy Sledge. This crooner had one big song: “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Throwing Sledge into the Hall is like inducting Brady Anderson for his 50 home run year or Kirk Gibson for his 1988 World Series Home Run. I also have problems with recent inductees Jackson Browne and ZZ Top. Are you kidding me? Jackson Browne? Wasn’t his biggest hit the triple he slapped off Daryl Hannah's forehead? I'll give Browne a point for getting a tune on the Fast Times soundtrack, but letting him in the Hall is a bit like baseball inducting the good, but unexceptional Chuck Finley. Neither were ever superstars and each had a high-profile run in with their chiquitas. The big difference here is Browne assaulted his girlfriend while Finley took a stiletto heel off his temple. Further, I don’t know what ZZ Top is doing in Cleveland. They had some nice videos and cool beards, but they weren’t Hall material. If all it took was a nice beard to make the Hall, Former Brave Glenn Hubbard would be in Cooperstown.