March 7 - Illinois Express Derailed

If you are a college basketball junkie, it doesn’t get a whole lot better then sitting back on your couch and watching CBS from 12-6 yesterday afternoon. During those 360 minutes, we saw a train derailed in Columbus, a long-overdue gator feeding in Gainsville, and an ESPN Instant Classic in Chapel Hill. And if that wasn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, there was also a shocker in the “Show Me” state and a bizarre nightcap in Raleigh that should have been stopped on account of a low blow. When all the smoke had cleared from this weekend, one theme emerged: parity has laid siege to college basketball and there are just no Nicolette Sheridans in the upcoming NCAA tourney. For those of you who are lost on that reference, the most desperate of all housewives was the Sure Thing in a 1985 cinematic masterpiece.

There is a ton to get to but I think we should start in Columbus where Ohio State pulled off one of the bigger upsets of the season by beating Illinois 65-64. The Illini were bidding to become the first team in 29 years to complete a season undefeated, but it all fell apart at the hands of a very determined Buckeye team. The Ohio State win means that Kent Benson, Scott May and the rest of the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers can breathe a sigh of relief since their team will remain the last to complete a season undefeated. Congratulations are in order for Ohio State coach Thad Matta who was faced with the decision of whether to go for a tie or the win on the final Buckeye possession. Having seen his team already claw back form a 12 point second half deficit, Matta decided he would win it or lose it with a stiff named Matt Sylvester. The gamble paid off as Sylvester, an unaccomplished seventh man who finished with a career high 25, swished a three with five seconds to go. For Illinois, the loss has little practical importance since they will still be a number one seed in the upcoming NCAA tourney. However, it does rob this club of an opportunity to join a very select fraternity whose doors have been closed since the Ford Administration. UNLV was extended an invite in 1991 to join the undefeated club, but the bid was pulled at the last minute when the Running Rebels couldn’t find a way to stop Bobby Hurley in the national semis. It will be a shame if Illinois ends up falling just short of membership simply because it couldn’t stop some guy named Matt Sylvester.

The aforementioned Scott May had two reasons to celebrate yesterday. First, as explained up top, he saw Illinois drop from the ranks of the unbeaten. Then, two hours later, he got to watch his son - Sean May - and the rest of North Carolina Tar Heels sneak by the Duke Blue Devils in a Tobacco Road thriller. May was simply tremendous yesterday, pouring in 26 while collecting 24 rebounds, 12 of which were on the offensive end of the court. Strangely, May’s performance was almost not enough to topple the Heels arch nemesis. Carolina, playing without Rashad McCants, actually trailed by nine with three minutes to go and at that point it looked like Duke was going to extend their reign of domination over UNC. But Duke had a couple of key turnovers down the stretch and Carolina capitalized by scoring the final 11 points of the game. This series has had its share of incredible finishes, but yesterday has to rank in the top 3. While May was terrific for UNC, the same cannot be said for Tar Heel point guard Ray Felton who had his second poor game against Duke this year. Felton was only charged with five turnovers, but I suspect the true number was closer to eight. For some reason, he just has trouble playing in big spots and this should concern Tar Heel fans. Duke, meanwhile, got almost nothing out of All-American J.J Redick. He had 17 in the games first 15 minutes, but those were his only points of the night. Duke has got to take some solace from the fact that they played Carolina to a one point game on the road while their best player was held scoreless for 25 minutes. For North Carolina, the big question going forward is when McCants will return to the lineup. He hasn’t played since February 19th because of an intestinal problem and his absence yesterday came after his dad told a local paper that Rashad was ready to go. It would be a shame if North Carolina’s bid for a championship was derailed because its second best player had the squirts. For god’s sake, throw a diaper on this kid and get him out on the court.

The strangest play of the weekend occurred yesterday in Raleigh where Wake Forest All-America Chris Paul did his best impression of Andrew Golota. With about ten minutes to go in the first half, Paul launched a pre-emptive attack on Julius Hodge by slugging the North Carolina State guard in the gonads. I haven’t seen an attack like that since 1990 when a friend of mine pulled a Pearly Harbor and hit a guy named Al Berry in the balls just as tempers were beginning to flare. Paul’s blow sent Hodge to the deck and then the locker room. After it was determined that Hodge still had the goods to be a father, he returned to help the Wolfpack hang tough with the highly-ranked Demon Deacons. The Pack actually led late, but Wake got a key three to tie the game with about 12 seconds to go. The Pack then screwed up by missing a game winner with too much time left on the clock. Paul ended up seizing on this opportunity by nailing a runner at the buzzer. It turns out that Paul ended up doing more damage to NC States tourney chances then he did to Hodge’s testicles. The Wolfpack now face the NCAA jury without much of an alibi. They finished the year 7-9 in the ACC and they lack any credible non-conference wins. That looks like a guilty verdict to the Sportsaholic and the sentence could be Herb Sendek’s termination.

The only other game I will mention from yesterday occurred down in Gainsville where the Florida Gators were able to serve visiting Kentucky with a “payback” sandwich. The Gators haven’t beaten UK since March of 2001 and as such, this game was poised to be decertified as a “rivalry.” But just as it looked like Florida would go down for the ninth time in a row, the Gators mounted a late run to upset the number three team in the country. It was the first time Gator seniors Matt Walsh, David Lee and Anthony Roberson have beaten Kentucky and the latter two celebrated the win by stripping at Half-court. It was not a pretty site.

It was a strange weekend in the Big-12, where both of this season’s heavyweights took standing eight counts in their regular season finales. First, Oklahoma State lost at home on Saturday night against Texas and then Kansas followed that up with a loss on the road to Missouri. These teams were each looking like number one seeds in the NCAA tourney a couple weeks ago, but both have limped to finish line. Oklahoma State’s problem has been its trouble defending the post. The Cowboys last an inside presence and this weakness has been exposed of late. Texas forward Brad Buckman had his way with the Cowboys on Saturday night much like Kansas Center Wayne Simien did a week ago. Unless Eddie Sutton can figure out a solution, his team is vulnerable against any team that has a credible inside threat. Kansas, meanwhile, has now lost four of six and things got worse at the start of Sunday’s loss when the Jayhawks lost guard Keith Langford to an ankle sprain. Langford was on crutches after the game and if the senior is lost, the Jayhawks are in big trouble. While these two teams have been faltering, Oklahoma has emerged as the best team in the conference. They ended up finishing 12-4 in the Big-12 after winning their final six games. They don’t have a lot of recognizable names, but Taj Grey and Kevin Bookout are real steady and this team can play tough defense. I like the Sooners as a long-shot final four pick.

That pretty much covers the weekend in college basketball but there are a few loose ends to tie. Stanford, which was blasted in this space on Friday, came up huge on Saturday and played their way into the tourney by upsetting Washington at Maples. While Stanford played itself into the tourney, Maryland played itself out. The Terps lost a crusher at Virginia Tech and if I were on the selection committee, I would vote thumbs down on Maryland’s candidacy. The Terps had their chances to lock away a berth, but they just haven’t gotten the job done. In the Big East, West Virginia may have complicated its future by losing to Seton Hall on Saturday, although I still think they are in better shape then Georgetown. Notre Dame is in a similar spot as West Virginia after losing to Pitt on Saturday. The Irish seem to have a leg up because of their reputation, but their future is no longer certain. A loss to Rutgers in the Big East tourney would probably tip the scales against Notre Dame.

While College Basketball owned the weekend, I am not going to overlook the fact that we had a heavyweight championship fight down in South Florida. I am talking about Phil and Tiger going mano y mano at the Doralian Cookie Monster. Golf fans have been longing for this matchup for years, and they weren’t disappointed yesterday. Joined in the final grouping, Tiger rallied early from a two stroke deficit to tie it by the time the pair walked off the tenth. From there on out it was a nail biter. Phil missed a great shot to take the lead at 16 and then Tiger made him pay by sinking a 20 footer on the next hole. Phil gave himself a chance to tie it up on 18, but his chip barely stayed out and Tiger walked off with the winner’s dough and a brand new Mustang. It was clear after the finish that these guys both wanted the win real bad. Tiger was all craps and giggles at the finish line while Mick took off without giving NBC a second of his time. I suspect that this will not be the last time these two square off, but hopefully the next chapter will be in a more meaningful tourney. Both of these guys have been involved in great Major battles, but unfortunately, they have not come against each other. Mickelson’s US Open battles came against Payne and Goose, while Tiger’s major confrontations came against Sergio and some guy named Bob May. Lets hope Ernie and the Goose get into the mix when the tour’s best come together next month at Augusta.

One golf story that flew under the radar screen this weekend involved the Ford Motor Company. Ford recently took over sponsorship of the PGA tour stop in South Florida, and in hopes of boosting player interest in the tourney; Ford paid a bunch of top guys to attend a corporate outing last Tuesday. the idea being that once these players were in Souoth Florida, they would hang around to play in the tourney. This pretty much runs afoul of the Tour’s ban on paying appearance fees, but it worked. Last year, only one player in the world’s top 12 played Doral, while 11 showed up this year. If Ford put as much money and energy into its engineering program as it does its golf tourneys, perhaps it wouldn’t be losing so much market share to Nissan. But if Ford really wants to host a meaningful tourney, it should find a new course to host this tourney. The Blue Monster is a monster no more and its time for a new setting. It was target practice out there this week and my suggestion is to move the tourney up the coast to Seminole or that course in Fort Lauderdale where Caddyshack was filmed. I bet Danunzio is available to loop if anyone needs a local.

Skiing’s World Cup is going down to the final week as American Bode Miller was unable to put things away this weekend in Norway. Miller led the world cup by 31 points going into this weekend, but he could only come up with a fourth and fifth in a downhill and a Super G. A win in either would have gone a long way toward cementing a World Cup victory for Miller, but some minor mistake in both races prevented Miller from mounting the podium. He now leads by only 52 points going into the final four races of the year. 100 points are awarded for a win so Miler’s lead is certainly surmountable. He needs to perform well in a final Downhill and Super G since his closest competitor, Benjamin Raich, will surely close out the season with solid performances in the technical gate races. Things will not bode well for Bode if the cup comes down to he and Raich racing slalom in the final race of the year.

The United States has been making excuses for years that the only reason it doesn’t win the Davis Cup is because its top players refuse to play. There may be some truth to this claim, but it doesn’t explain what happened this weekend in Southern California. That is because for the first time in years, the U.S. had its dream team going. Both Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick were suiting up and most predicted that this dream team would have little trouble dispatching a feisty team from Croatia. Well, it didn’t happen. Agassi got buried on Friday, the U.S. doubles team went down Saturday, and Croatia picked up the win after Roddick lost a tough five setter on Sunday. It has not been a great year for the U.S. in international competitions. Our basketball team went down in Athens, our golfers got smoked in the Ryder Cup and now our tennis players go down to a country of four million. That is tantamount to the 81st airborne going into South Carolina and getting whipped by the magnolia state’s National Guard. It is flat out embarrassing. The only things America has won as a team in the past year was Women’s Soccer and Softball in Athens and Men’s Armored Warfare in Najaf. Based on this track record, the U.S. has no shot at reclaiming that stupid sailing trophy unless the Defense Department gets involved and lends some stealthy technology to the San Diego Yacht Club. And for those of you who dismiss all this stuff because it involves second-tier sports, the Sportsaholic thinks the Domincan Republic could take the U.S. is a true seven game WORLD SERIES.

John McGrath had a terrific piece in the Friday edition of the Tacoma News Tribune, which along with Oregon State’s Daily Beaver is the Northwest’s best small market paper. McGrath’s piece takes a backhanded dig at all these talk show hosts who pretend to know anything about these NFL free agents who have been changing teams over the past week. The Sportsaholic is in complete agreement with McGrath. I cringe every time I hear an analyst claim that somebody like the Dallas Cowboys made a great signing by picking up Anthony Henry or the Giants picked up a future star in Anthony Pierce. Very few people know who these guys are and even fewer are in a position to critique their abilities. You think any radio talk show hosts in Dallas or New York or even Cleveland spent much time watching game film of the Browns this past year and therefore can comment on Henry’s ball skills? Its one thing to report that a given team picked up someone who is highly regarded by league insiders, but to pawn this opinion off as your own is tantamount to stealing. This is part of the reason why the Sportsaholic finds the hot stove football season to be a bit of a tease. Sure, there is a ton of player movement, but it often involves players that people have either never heard of or know little about. I don’t have much trouble with analysts talking about teams they have watched all season long, but let us not pretend that these guys have spent the past two months locked in the film room pouring over tape of prospective free agents. While this rant is directed at many, those like ESPN’s Mike and Mike, WFAN’s Mike Francesca, Fox Sports Jay Glazer and the New York Daily News Gary Myers are amongst the worst offenders.

Staying in the same general subject area, the Sportsaholic wonders why so much media attention is focused on where third and fourth tier quarterbacks will end up playing next year. Is there anything more irrelevant than this topic? Other then those 64 Cardinals fans, who cares that Kurt Warner agreed to sign a one year deal with the Arizona? Can anyone in Cleveland get too excited that Trent Dilfer is now a Brown? And it’s bad enough that we are talking about these stiffs, but at least they are prospective starters. I have to admit that I break out into a rash when I hear talk turn to who is going to backup Joey Harrington in Detroit or Rex Grossman in Chicago. Does anyone really care or think it will make an ounce of difference to the affected team? It’s just not worth an ounce of discussion.