I wasn’t going to write this week because I had my second calcium lavage on Friday. I have changed my mind, as I am feeling okay, not lifting heavy objects and there was a lot happening in the sports world. For once, I will be discussing only a few subjects.
I went to the Rutgers-Maryland contest at the RAC on Saturday afternoon. Before a nearly sellout crowd, RU laid an egg. A big one at that. RU actually led until about 8:20 was left in the first half. By that time, the Terps were in the midst of a dominant 28-4 run which gave them an overwhelming 40-19 halftime advantage. RU simply did not have the fire power to contend with the more athletic Maryland team. Rutgers would take one shot and not garner the rebound. Maryland hit their three point shots and when fouled, converted most of their free throw attempts. The 14 point final margin was not indicative of how badly outplayed the Scarlet Knights were.
Next up is number 14 Ohio State coming to Piscataway. I am expecting another blowout. After watching the game on Saturday and seeing how RU struggled with both Columbia and Maine, who are not even close to the level of the Big Ten competition, I actually believe that RU might not win a conference game this season.
There may be some young talent on the squad, but they do not seem to have the ability to score with regularity nor can they convert their free throws. So the obvious question is why is there such a disparity in talent between a team like Maryland and this Rutgers team?
Maryland started three players recruited in-state. Rutgers did not start any home grown talent. I refuse to believe that the level of high school basketball in New Jersey is below that of Maryland. Rutgers needs to get kids to stay in New Jersey. I recognize that some of our best players are one and done like Kyrie Irving and Karl Anthony-Towns.
However, there must be other players who can attend RU from New Jersey or the New York metro area who want to play in front of friends and family. They could provide the breakthrough that Head Coach Steve Pikiell needs—the same as his football colleague Chris Ash. Get a couple of studs to play for you and there is a program turnaround. If Greg Schiano (now out of a job as the Ohio State defensive coordinator) could do it for Rutgers football, as did Tom Young who long ago secured major talent on the 1976 team, which made the Final Four, this kind of success can be replicated on the Banks of the Old Raritan.
My problem is that I grow increasingly disheartened with the continued losing by the showcase RU teams. Only women’s basketball is showing signs of returning to prior form. Even the highly touted wrestling program is only making small strides, which, besides having two potential championship wrestlers, is not enough in a state where wrestling talent abounds.
I have two more RU games—Nebraska, which was ranked and owns a home win against Seton Hall and Iowa who is ranked in the Top 20. The prospects of my seeing a winner is almost non-existent.
Coupled with the Jets’ failure to win a Super Bowl in 50 years, the Knicks not faring much better since 1973, the Nets not having won an NBA title and the Rangers, Devils and Islanders collectively not winning much since the days of Mark Messier, Martin Brodeur and Bryan trotter respectively, the New York-New Jersey area has become a baseball town, for that is where the successes are. And with that, the Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2009 and the Mets haven’t won since 1986. At least the Mets made the World Series in 2015.
It is hard being a fan in this area. But Rutgers doesn’t even contend for a chance to make the NIT in basketball or a low level bowl game in football. There is no apparent relief on the horizon. Which is why, during the game on Saturday, I thought about Corey Sanders, who was the star last season and who made a fateful decision to leave school. Undrafted, he lasted in the G League less than a month before being waived on November 1. With him, RU could have been respectable this season. All I had left was to cheer the returning letter winners who were acknowledged on the court at halftime, or to watch the Dance Team, who is nationally-ranked. No wonder I was actually thinking about not obtaining a partial package next season for men’s basketball. It has come to that for me.
One more point worth discussing. Rutgers recruit Maori Davenport has been denied the ability to play her senior year of high school basketball by the Alabama High School Athletic Association and its Executive Director, Steve Savarese. The disqualification was based on an administrative error by USA Basketball which sent Maori a stipend of $897 for expenses incurred by her while playing under the auspices of USA Basketball. When informed of the error, Maori immediately returned the money. In comes Mr. Savarese, who is the sole power with any discretion within the AHSAA. He ruled Maori ineligible for taking money—akin to making her a professional and no longer an amateur. Despite all of the remedial efforts of Maori, USA Basketball and her high school in Troy, Alabama, Mr. Savarese stood fast in his decision. This is an outrage—a clerical error, not the fault of the child, and she is blamed for not knowing better, thereby losing her amateur status? Incredible. I refer you to ESPN college basketball analyst and practicing attorney Jay Bilas, who wrote an excellent article, well-researched and recounting his actual phone conversation with Mr. Savarese. His analysis is spot on. This is a travesty which hurts only the child.
The NFL Wild Card round was entertaining. Indianapolis soundly defeated the Texans in Houston. Their defense throttled Deshawn Watson. Andrew Luck looked like his old self, fully back from the injuries which sidelined him for two seasons. There is a reason why the Colts have been on a 9-1 tear. While they are an underdog to Kansas City and they are a dome team playing outdoors in cold temperatures in K.C., Luck and his crew behind Coach Frank Reich will be formidable.
Seattle and Chicago suffered losses due to the kicking game. The Seahawks kicker, Sebastian Janikowski hurt his hamstring at the end of the first half and the Australian punter would have been unreliable as a field goal or extra point kicker. This forced Russell Wilson and his crew to seek alternate ways to attempt to win the game. Ultimately, the kicker’s inability to even make a reasonable attempt at an onside kick doomed Seattle.
Chicago had a crueler fate. They tried Philadelphia by 1 point with 56 ticks left on the clock. Mitchell Trubinsky led the Bears down field and positioned the team for a game-winning field goal. Eagles head man Doug Peterson called for a timeout just prior to Cody Parkey, a former Eagle, kicking the ball through the uprights. Having to do it all over, Parkey hit the left upright with his kick, then the ball fell onto the crossbar but did not go over it, falling to the ground and dashing the Bears' chances. On Monday we learned that an Eagles lineman, Treyvon Hester, slightly tipped the ball just enough to alter its course. The fact that it was blocked maybe helps Parkey’s disconsolate psyche; it did not change the result.
The LA Chargers-Baltimore Ravens game was a dud through most of the game. Until rookie Lamar Jackson awoke and rallied his team with just over 5 minutes to go. The Ravens had one last chance to make the comeback complete until Jackson had the ball stripped from his hands and recovered by the Chargers with 19 seconds left in the game.
Here are my predictions for the upcoming week—Dallas will not beat the Rams, nor will Philadelphia top the Saints, though the latter game is going to be much closer and who knows how much magic Eagles’ QB Nick Foles has left? In the AFC, KC should prevail over the Colts, even if the Colts are on fire. The Chargers win on the road, so I anticipate that they might upset Tom Brady and the Patriots in Foxborough; I am not overly impressed with this New England team.
With regards to the referees dominating the game, it wasn’t the massive flag-throwing effort we saw a week ago. The men in the striped shorts were highly visible via the use of replay which substantiated or correctly overturned calls made on the field. The most bizarre was the catch made by the Bears’ WR Anthony Miller that was ruled incomplete. Eagles DB Cre’von LeBlanc managed to get Miller to lose the ball. The official ruled the pass incomplete and the official blew his whistle and waived his arms accordingly, then picked up the ball.
The referee decided to look at the play on replay. The slow motion video showed Miller did indeed catch the ball, made a football move and then was stripped of the ball by LeBlanc.One would have thought that the play would have been overturned and the Bears would have maintained possession at the point Miller made the reception. Except that the rulebook states that the pass would be considered incomplete if the receiver did not get possession of the ball after the fumble. Chicago was left with a field goal instead of possibly going in for a touchdown. Imagine how that affected the result.
So what must transpire is the receiver and the defensive player must go after the ball whenever the official calls the pass incomplete. Replay can effectively decide that outcome instead of abiding by the rule in this kind of situation. Perhaps the Bears might have recovered the ball and they would have been in business. Like I said and the NBC team agreed, this was bizarre.
Then there was the college football game for the National Championship between Alabama and Clemson—like it always seems to be. They met for the fourth time, third for the National Championship. A beautiful piece on the rivalry and history of these two schools was done by Ryan Mc Gee, a senior writer @ ESPN. It is available on ESPN.com and is worth reading, even after the game has concluded.
In the first half, the pace was frantic. Clemson matched the intensity of Alabama, picked off two passes, the first interception having been returned for a score and the second one giving the Tigers fine field position on the way to another TD. Freshman Trevor Lawrence appeared to outplay the ballyhooed Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama, last year’s hero. While Tua did throw for two scores, he seemed to be almost normal—he was vulnerable to mistakes and didn’t read his coverage or anticipate and react to multiple looks the Clemson defense offered. The 31-16 halftime score represented the largest Crimson Tide deficit at the half under Nick Saban and the 31 points tied the most points a Saban-coached Alabama team has ever given up.
The second half did not prove to be any better for Alabama. A former Georgia high school phenom, Lawrence found 8 different targets in shredding the Alabama secondary. For a 19 year old, he showed exceptional poise. Remember this aerial duo—Lawrence and Justyn Ross. Both are freshmen and both are going to be playing on Sundays in a few years. Two special athletes.
The heightened effort of the Clemson defense smothered the Tide offense. There were a number of times that Alabama was in the red zone, only to come up empty due to heroic playmaking by the Tigers defense or bad decisions by Alabama, whether it be a fake field goal or poor execution on fourth down.
Call it a beatdown, smackdown or whatever term suffices for a rout. Clemson annihilated Alabama. Pure and simple. The bigger question about this score is how will Alabama react next season? Will they lose their swagger and not even win the SEC? Did Clemson do more psychological damage than merely run up a big score on the Crimson Tide?
The build up was greater than the result, at least in the eyes of the Crimson Tide fans. It exceeded expectations for the Tigers faithful. Clemson is your 2019 National Champions. No doubt about this one.
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