Plenty Of Madness

The madness has begun. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament began on Tuesday with the play in games. Now, by the end of play on Sunday, the Sweet 16 is left to play the games which will determine who ultimately wins the big prize.

When the seeding and brackets were disclosed last Sunday evening, there were a few surprise teams in the field of 68. St. John’s and Arizona State were 11 seeds who needed to play a preliminary game to see who advanced. Belmont, everybody’s darling out of the Ohio Valley Conference but runner-up to Ja Morant and his Murray State teammates, won their play -in game on Tuesday against Temple, but was eliminated on Thursday with a two point loss to Maryland.

There was some question as to why Ohio State was in the field. Ditto Oregon as a 12 seed, Minnesota as a 10 seed. The Golden Gophers emphatically showed that they were a justifiable pick by ousting Louisville in the first round. Ohio State disposed of Iowa State and Oregon sent Wisconsin home early.

Some pundits questioned why Michigan State was a number 2 seed after winning the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships. Personally, I had no problems with Duke, with Zion Williamson back in the fold as the overall top seed and with North Carolina, Virginia and Gonzaga, despite a surprise loss to St. Mary’s in the WCC final. Plus I thought the number 2 sees, MSU, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee were correctly placed.

My brackets took an early hit, as I had Belmont, Mississippi State and Old Dominion advancing to the Sweet 16. And Cincinnati advancing to the Elite Eight. The true upsets went to Liberty as they knocked off Mississippi State; Florida defeating Nevada; UC Irvine squashing Kansas State along with the Ohio State, Oregon and Minnesota wins.

Besides Belmont’s near miss, Yale, Colgate and Northern Kentucky played above expectations. Then there were the number one seeds who had all sorts of early trouble with their opponents. North Dakota State gave Duke fits for awhile and North Carolina trailed Iona at the half. Virginia gave everyone a scare—they were significantly behind Gardner-Webb before gaining their composure to win—bringing up memories of last year’s disaster in their first round versus UMBC.

I don’t look at #9 seeds defeating #8 seeds as an upset. I think that these teams could flip flop in their positions. All four # 9 seeds won this year. 

Among the darlings who made it to the second round were Wofford, Auburn, Iowa, Oregon, Florida, Minnesota and Buffalo, where Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State Sun Devils had the unfortunate task of playing a strong Buffalo squad. The players on Buffalo were Hurley’s recruits before he left for ASU and they demonstratively showed their old coach how good they are.

The turnaround for the winners was a date approximately 48 hours later, which will determine the Sweet Sixteen. Those games had some blowouts and some very close games with a few surprising outcomes. 

Duke, the overall top seed, squeaked by with a 1 point victory over a game and determined University of Central Florida squad. UCF was up by four in the last top minutes and had a couple of real chances to win the game in the waning seconds. Two other number 1 seeds, Gonzaga and North Carolina, advanced with less difficulty. The last number 1 seed, Virginia, pulled away from Oklahoma to move on.

Kentucky smothered Wofford’s Fletcher Mc Gee, the all-time NCAA leader in three point field goals, forcing him into a head-scratching 0-12 from beyond the arc. Michigan State upended fellow Big Ten rival Minnesota. LSU defeated Maryland on a spectacular basket with 1.3 seconds left. Michigan took care of business with its win over Florida. Florida State manhandled Ja Morant and Murray State in its win on Saturday. 

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes was very upset with his players when they had a 25 point lead over Iowa in the first half of their contest. For good reason, because Iowa staged an epic comeback to tie Tennessee and force overtime. The Vols righted themselves by scoring the first 7 points of OT to secure the win. Bruce Pearl showed the same kind of frothiness with his Auburn team in their triumph over Kansas. This must be an SEC coaching mindset.

Texas Tech handled Buffalo very easily to secure its berth in the next round where Michigan awaits. Purdue blew out Villanova, guaranteeing that there will be no repeat champion this season. 

Virginia Tech and Liberty, separated by 94 miles in the Commonwealth of Virginia, had to travel to San Jose, CA to meet; the Hokies outscored the Flames significantly in the latter stages to obtain the victory. Buzz Williams and his team will meet Duke once again, this time for a spot in the Elite Eight.

So what do we have regarding the Sweet Sixteen? All of the seeds #1-3 will continue to play, plus two #4 seeds. The ACC has five teams still alive. The SEC has four still alive. The Big Ten has three of its elite teams in the last 16. The only interloper is Oregon, a #12 seed, who defeated UC Irvine, a #13 seed.

My brackets are broken, although my Final Four is intact. I cannot overcome a deficit, so my wife wins the head-to-head competition convincingly. The woman is astute and by watching Pardon The Interruption, she has used their information wisely. Unlike me, who had such great picks as Mississippi State, Kansas, Wisconsin, ODU, Belmont and Buffalo in the Sweet Sixteen and Cincinnati in the Elite Eight.

Baseball made it to the front pages notwithstanding the NCAA Tournament. Superstar Mike Trout from Millville, N.J., signed a 12 year $430 million pact to remain with the Angels. He relegated Bryce Harper’s recent contract to secondary status. Yankees fans immediately wondered what will the team pony up for Aaron Judge to get him to skip his arbitration years and remain the face of the team. Incredibly, last year Judge made $688,000.

Speaking of the Yankees, reliever Dellin Betances has joined Luis Severino on the sidelines with shoulder inflammation. Coupled with C.C. Sabathia joining the big club late in April, the team is stretched a bit thin right now. The signing of Gio Gonzalez, who pitched for Washington last season is a good and probably necessary move given the current circumstances.

MLB actually played two regular season games in Japan last week. Seattle swept the Oakland A’s, but that was not the most significant thing about the trip. It allowed Japanese superstar and sure Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki to come out of retirement at age 45, and play in these two games in his native country before returning to retirement—this time for good. While he only managed one hit, it was Nirvana for his adoring fans. 

I, along with the millions who adored his style, flair, temperament and talent, salute this baseball great on the conclusion of his storied career. I think of pure hitters I have seen—Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, George Brett—and he is right there with them. The story has been repeatedly told that in batting practice, Ichiro could reliably reach the seats if he chose to. Instead, he honed his craft and utilized his speed to be as dangerous a hitter as there has been. His defensive abilities and the gun he possessed in right field saved countless runs for the teams he played on. I will miss him on the field, but I know that he will have some kind of great Hall of Fame ceremony in 2025.

Mets fan and super pain Fan X is upset over the Mets heading to Syracuse after camp breaks in Florida on Monday. This echoes the complaints of Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who also is miffed that the team has not conceded contract extension talks with fellow pitcher Jacob deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner.

My response is that this move is bush—the Mets will travel on a three hour bus ride to face the Orioles, then fly to Syracuse to practice in the Carrier Dome, which is not a baseball facility, instead of playing a game on the field at their Triple A farm team. After the workout, the Mets will fly to D.C. for its opener against the Nationals. All of this is the result of the MLB schedule starting on a Thursday in late March. Perhaps the geniuses who run the Mets could have scheduled an interim stop at Citi Field? 

On Thursday I can only hope that when Baltimore comes to open the 2019 Yankees’ schedule we don’t revisit the 1996 snowstorm in which David Cone pitched when the Yankees opened their home schedule with the Kansas City Royals .

With the number of domes and warm weather venues in Florida and California, MLB repeatedly challenges the unpredictable early Spring temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest. I have railed about this before—the California teams should automatically be home as well as the Florida teams—that’s 7 games out of 15 right there. Add in the Astros, D-backs, Brewers, Braves, Rangers, Seattle and you can pick from KC, St.Louis, Cincinnati to complete the slate. There is no need for games in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Cleveland (where the ice is still on Lake Erie)  or even in Maryland or DC. C’mom MLB—this isn’t the NFL!!

Finally, we attended the F&M baseball game at Drew University on a 60 degree Sunday afternoon. A see saw game for a while, F&M rallied in the 7th inning to tie the score at 4. The Diplomats, behind three hit relief pitching over 6 2/3 innings, winning the game by scoring a run in the top of the 13th inning. The Diplomats’ catcher became the pitcher in the bottom of the 13th to secure the victory with his first save to the season. F&M is now 13-4 in non-conference play while the Drew Rangers fell to 7-7.

Baseball has begun. The Big Dance is in full swing for the men and the women. The NBA is in its last two plus weeks of play. The NHL is finishing its season with some tight races for the final spots in the playoffs. Exciting times indeed. 

I can understand why The Big Bang Theory always gets pre-empted at this time of the year. Next year CBS won’t have that problem; Sheldon Cooper and his friends will be history. 

In the meantime, I will be most content to watch history unfold in the legitimate sports world. Otherwise, I might get sidetracked by following the exploits of teams at Wake Forest, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC and their “players” who never played and the coaches who willingly accepted lots of payola from rich parents to take away spots from deserving students.

Now that is plenty of madness for me…